To apply these observations to the phenomena under consideration. The

first settlements of Virginia were made along the sea coast, bearing from

the south towards the north, a little eastwardly. These settlements formed

a zone, in which, though every point was not cleared of its forest, yet

a good proportion was cleared and cultivated. The cultivated earth, as

the sun advances above the horizon in the morning, acquires from it an

intense heat, which is retained and increased through the warm parts of

the day. The air, resting on it, becomes warm in proportion, and rises.

On one side is a country still covered with forest, on the other is the

ocean. The colder air from both of these then rushes towards the heated

zone to supply the place left vacant there by the ascent of the warm

air. The breeze from the west is light and feeble, because it traverses

a country covered with mountains and forests, which retard its current.

That from the east is strong, as passing over the ocean, wherein there is

no obstacle to its motion. It is probable, therefore, that this easterly

breeze forces itself far into or perhaps beyond the zone which produces

it. This zone is, by the increase of population, continually widening into

the interior country. The line of equilibrium between the easterly and

westerly breezes is, therefore, progressive.

Did no foreign causes intervene, the sea breeze would be a little

southwardly of the east, that direction being perpendicular to our

coast. But within the tropics, there are winds which blow continually

and strongly from the east. This current affects the course of the air,

even without the tropics. The same cause, too, which produces a strong

motion of the air from east to west, between the tropics, to wit, the

sun, exercises its influence without those limits, but more freely, in

proportion as the surface of the globe is there more obliquely presented

to its rays. This effect, though not great, is not to be neglected when

the sun is in, or near our summer solstice, which is the season of these

easterly breezes. The northern air, too, flowing towards the equatorial

parts, to supply the vacuum made there by the ascent of their heated

air, has only the small rotatory motion of the polar latitudes from

which it comes. Nor does it suddenly acquire the swifter rotation of

the parts into which it enters. This gives it the effect of a motion

opposed to that of the earth, that is to say, of an easterly one. And

all these causes together, are known to produce currents of air in the

Atlantic, varying from east to north-east, as far as the fortieth degree

of latitude. It is this current which presses our sea breeze out of its

natural south-easterly direction, to an easterly, and sometimes almost a

north-easterly one.

We are led naturally to ask, where the progress of our sea breezes will

ultimately be stopped? No confidence can be placed in any answer to

this question. If they should ever pass the mountainous country which

separates the waters of the ocean from those of the Mississippi, there

may be circumstances which might aid their further progress, as far as

the Mississippi. That mountainous country commences about two hundred

miles from the sea coast, and consists of successive ranges passing

from north-east to south-west, and rising the one above the other to the

Alleghany Ridge, which is the highest of all. From that, lower and lower

ridges succeed one another again, till having covered in the whole, a

breadth of two hundred miles from southeast to northwest, they subside

into a plain, fertile country, extending four hundred miles to the

Mississippi, and probably much further on the other side, towards the

heads of the western waters. When this country shall become cultivated,

it will, for the reasons before explained, draw to it winds from the east

and west. In this case, should the sea breezes pass the intermediate

mountains, they will rather be aided than opposed in their further

progress to the Mississippi. There are circumstances, however, which

render it possible that they may not be able to pass those intermediate

mountains. 1. These mountains constitute the highest lands within the

United States. The air on them must consequently be very cold and heavy,

and have a tendency to flow both to the east and west. 2. Ranging across

the current of the sea breezes, they are in themselves so many successive

barriers opposed to their progress. 3. The country they occupy is covered

with trees, which assist to weaken and spend the force of the breezes. 4.

It will remain so covered; a very small proportion of it being capable of

culture. 5. The temperature of the air, then, will never be softened by

culture.

Whether in the plain country between the Mississippi and Alleghany

mountains, easterly or westerly winds prevail at present, I am not

informed. I conjecture, however, that they must be westerly; and I think

with you, Sir, that if those mountains were to subside into plain country,

as their opposition to the westerly winds would then be removed, they

would repress more powerfully those from the east, and of course would

remove the line of equilibrium nearer to the sea coast for the present.

Having had occasion to mention the course of the tropical winds from east

to west, I will add some observations connected with them. They are known

to occasion a strong current in the ocean, in the same direction. This

current breaks on that wedge of land of which Saint Roque is the point;

the southern column of it _probably_ turning off and washing the coast

of Brazil. I say _probably_, because I have never heard of the fact, and

conjecture it from reason only. The northern column having its western

motion diverted towards the north, and reinforced by the currents of

the great rivers Orinoko, Amazons and Tocantin, has probably been the

agent which formed the Gulf of Mexico, cutting the American continent

nearly in two, in that part. It re-issues into the ocean at the northern

end of the Gulf, and passes by the name of the Gulf Stream, all along

the coast of the United States, to its northern extremity. There it

turns off eastwardly, having formed by its eddy at this turn the Banks

of Newfoundland. Through the whole of its course, from the Gulf to the

Banks, it retains a very sensible warmth. The Spaniards are, at this time,

desirous of trading to the Philippine islands, by the way of the Cape of

Good Hope; but opposed in it by the Dutch, under authority of the treaty

of Munster, they are examining the practicability of a common passage

through the Straights of Magellan or round Cape Horn. Were they to make

an opening through the Isthmus of Panama, a work much less difficult than

some even of the inferior canals of France, however small this opening

should be in the beginning, the tropical current, entering it with all

its force, would soon widen it sufficiently for its own passage, and thus

complete, in a short time, that work which otherwise will still employ it

for ages. Less country, too, would be destroyed by it in this way. These

consequences would follow: 1. Vessels from Europe or the western coast

of Africa, by entering the tropics, would have a steady wind and tide to

carry them through the Atlantic, through America and the Pacific ocean, to

every part of the Asiatic coast, and of the eastern coast of Africa; thus

performing with speed and safety the tour of the whole globe, to within

about twenty-four degrees of longitude, or one fifteenth part of its

circumference; the African continent, under the line, occupying about that

space. 2. The Gulf of Mexico, now the most dangerous navigation in the

world on account of its currents and movable sands, would become stagnant

and safe. 3. The Gulf Stream on the coast of the United States would

cease, and with that those derangements of course and reckoning, which now

impede and endanger the intercourse with those States. 4. The fogs on the

Banks of Newfoundland,[B] supposed to be the vapors of the Gulf Stream,

rendered turbid by cold air, would disappear. 5. Those Banks ceasing to

receive supplies of sand, weeds, and warm water, by the Gulf Stream, it

might become problematical what effect changes of pasture and temperature

would have on the fisheries. However, it is time to relieve you from this

long lecture. I wish its subject may have been sufficiently interesting,

to make amends for its details. These are submitted with entire deference

to your better judgment. I will only add to them, by assuring you of the

sentiments of perfect esteem and respect with which I have the honor to

be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

[B] This ingenious and probable conjecture, I found in a letter

from Dr. Franklin to yourself, published in the late volume of the

American Philosophical Transactions.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

PARIS, November 14, 1786.

SIR,--The house of Le Coulteux, which for some centuries has been the

wealthiest of this place, has it in contemplation to establish a great

company for the fur trade. They propose that partners interested one half

in the establishment, should be American citizens, born and residing in

the United States. Yet if I understood them rightly, they expect that

that half of the company which resides here, should make the greatest

part, or perhaps the whole of the advances, while those on our side the

water should superintend the details. They had, at first, thought of

Baltimore as the centre of their American transactions. I have pointed

out to them the advantages of Alexandria for this purpose. They have

concluded to take information as to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New

York, for a principal deposit, and having no correspondent at Alexandria,

have asked me to procure a state of the advantages of that place, as

also to get a recommendation of the best merchant there, to be adopted as

partner and head of the business there. Skill, punctuality and integrity

are the requisites in such a character. They will decide on their whole

information, as to the place for their principal factory. Being unwilling

that Alexandria should lose its pretensions, I have undertaken to procure

them information as to that place. If they undertake this trade at all, it

will be on so great a scale as to decide the current of the Indian trade

to the place they adopt. I have no acquaintance at Alexandria or in its

neighborhood; but, believing you would feel an interest in the matter,

from the same motives which I do, I venture to ask the favor of you to

recommend to me a proper merchant for their purpose, and to engage some

well-informed person to send me a representation of the advantages of

Alexandria, as the principal deposit of the fur trade.

The author of the political part of the Encyclopedie Methodique desired

me to examine his article, "Etats Unis." I did so. I found it a tissue

of errors; for, in truth, they know nothing about us here. Particularly,

however, the article "Cincinnati" was a mere philippic against that

institution; in which it appeared that there was an utter ignorance

of facts and motives. I gave him notes on it. He reformed it, as he

supposed, and sent it again to me to revise. In this reformed state,

Colonel Humphreys saw it. I found it necessary to write that article for

him. Before I gave it to him, I showed it to the Marquis de La Fayette,

who made a correction or two. I then sent it to the author. He used the

materials, mixing a great deal of his own with them. In a work, which

is sure of going down to the latest posterity, I thought it material to

set facts to rights as much as possible. The author was well disposed;

but could not entirely get the better of his original bias. I send you

the article as ultimately published. If you find any material errors in

it, and will be so good as to inform me of them, I shall probably have

opportunities of setting this author to rights. What has heretofore passed

between us on this institution, makes it my duty to mention to you, that

I have never heard a person in Europe, learned or unlearned, express his

thoughts on this institution, who did not consider it as dishonorable

and destructive to our governments; and that every writing which has come

out since my arrival here, in which it is mentioned, considers it, even

as now reformed, as the germ whose development is one day to destroy the

fabric we have reared. I did not apprehend this, while I had American

ideas only. But I confess that what I have seen in Europe has brought me

over to that opinion; and that though the day may be at some distance,

beyond the reach of our lives perhaps, yet it will certainly come,

when a single fibre left of this institution will produce an hereditary

aristocracy, which will change the form of our governments from the best

to the worst in the world. To know the mass of evil which flows from this

fatal source, a person must be in France; he must see the finest soil, the

finest climate, the most compact State, the most benevolent character of

people, and every earthly advantage combined, insufficient to prevent this

scourge from rendering existence a curse to twenty-four out of twenty-five

parts of the inhabitants of this country. With us, the branches of this

institution cover all the States. The southern ones, at this time, are

aristocratical in their dispositions; and, that that spirit should grow

and extend itself, is within the natural order of things. I do not flatter

myself with the immortality of our governments; but I shall think little

also of their longevity, unless this germ of destruction be taken out.

When the society themselves shall weigh the possibility of evil, against

the impossibility of any good to proceed from this institution, I cannot

help hoping they will eradicate it. I know they wish the permanence of our

governments, as much as any individuals composing them.

An interruption here, and the departure of the gentleman by whom I send

this, oblige me to conclude it, with assurances of the sincere respect and

esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient,

and most humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR CHAS.

PARIS, December 7, 1786.

SIR,--I should with great pleasure have perused your manuscript of the

history of the American Revolution, but that it comes to me in the moment

of my setting out on a journey into the south of France, where I am to

pass the winter. In the few moments of leisure which my preparations for

that journey admitted, I have read some detached parts, and find that

it would have been very interesting to me. In one of these (page 60), I

have taken the liberty of noting a circumstance which is not true, and to

which I believe M. d'Aubertueil first gave a place in history. In page

75, I observe it says that Congress removed to Hartford, but this is a

misinformation. They never sat there. In general, I would observe to you,

that where there is no other authority for a fact than the history of

D'Aubertueil, it will not be safe to hazard it. These authors have been

led into an infinitude of errors, probably by trusting to the English

papers, or to the European ones, copied from them. It is impossible to

resort to a more impure source. I am much pleased to find, that you concur

in the justice of the principles which produced our revolution, and have

only to wish that I could have been able to go through the whole work. I

have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.

TO M. DULER.

PARIS, December 8, 1786.

SIR,--The circumstance escaped me of my having had the honor of being

made known to you by Mr. Walker at Charlottesville. However, I should

not have been the less ready, had it been in my power, to have aided

you in procuring employment in some bureau here. But a stranger as I am,

unconnected and unacquainted, my solicitations on your behalf would be

as ineffectual as improper. I should have been happy to have been able to

render you this service, as I am sincerely concerned at the circumstance

which has placed you in need of it.

As to the paper money in your hands, the States have not yet been able to

take final arrangements for its redemption. But, as soon as they shall get

their finances into some order, they will surely pay for it what it was

worth in silver at the time you received it, with interest. The interest

on loan-office certificates is, I think, paid annually in all the States;

and, in some of them, they have begun to make payments of the principal.

These matters are managed for foreigners by the consul of their nation

in America, where they have not a private friend to attend for them. I

have the honor to be, Sir, with much respect, your most obedient humble

servant.

TO MESSRS. WILT, DELMESTRE AND CO.

PARIS, December 11, 1786.

GENTLEMEN,--Your favor of the 6th instant is duly come to hand, as had

done that also of the 8th of November. I was much obliged to you for your

observations and information on the late regulations. I have received and

am still receiving from other quarters, other hints for its improvement.

I cannot propose these to the minister as they arrive, because, besides

the perpetual fatigue to him, the business would not be so well done

in the end. As soon as all the defects of the new arrangement shall be

discovered by a little experience, as well as by their being submitted

to the gentlemen concerned in the commerce, I shall be able, by bringing

all the amendments necessary into a single proposition, to submit them at

once to the consideration of the minister. It will probably be yet some

months before this can be done. In the meantime, we must be contented to

submit a little longer to those remnants of burthen which still rest on

our commerce. In this view, I will still thank you for any new hints of

amendment which may occur to you in experience, assuring you they shall

be put to good use, when the occasion shall serve. I have the honor to be,

with much respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.

PARIS, December 16, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--After a very long silence, I am at length able to write to you.

An unlucky dislocation of my right wrist, has disabled me from using that

hand, three months. I now begin to use it a little, but with great pain;

so that this letter must be taken up at such intervals as the state of my

hand will permit, and will probably be the work of some days. Though the

joint seems to be well set, the swelling does not abate, nor the use of

it return. I am now, therefore, on the point of setting out to the south

of France, to try the use of some mineral waters there, by immersion. This

journey will be of two or three months.

I enclose you herein a copy of the letter from the minister of finance

to me, making several advantageous regulations for our commerce. The

obtaining this has occupied us a twelve month. I say us, because I find

the Marquis de La Fayette so useful an auxiliary, that acknowledgments for

his co-operation are always due. There remains still something to do for

the articles of rice, turpentine, and ship duties. What can be done for

tobacco, when the late regulation expires, is very uncertain. The commerce

between the United States and this country being put on a good footing,

we may afterwards proceed to try if anything can be done, to favor our

intercourse with her colonies. Admission into them for our fish and flour,

is very desirable; but, unfortunately, both those articles would raise a

competition against their own.

I find by the public papers, that your commercial convention failed in

point of representation. If it should produce a full meeting in May, and

a broader reformation, it will still be well. To make us one nation as to

foreign concerns, and keep us distinct in domestic ones, gives the outline

of the proper division of powers between the general and particular

governments. But, to enable the federal head to exercise the powers

given it to best advantage, it should be organized as the particular ones

are, into legislative, executive, and judiciary. The first and last are

already separated. The second should be. When last with Congress, I often

proposed to members to do this, by making of the committee of the States,

an executive committee during the recess of Congress, and, during its

sessions, to appoint a committee to receive and despatch all executive

business, so that Congress itself should meddle only with what should be

legislative. But I question if any Congress (much less all successively)

can have self-denial enough to go through with this distribution. The

distribution, then, should be imposed on them. I find Congress have

reversed their division of the western States, and proposed to make

them fewer and larger. This is reversing the natural order of things.

A tractable people may be governed in large bodies; but, in proportion

as they depart from this character, the extent of their government must

be less. We see into what small divisions the Indians are obliged to

reduce their societies. This measure, with the disposition to shut up

the Mississippi, gives me serious apprehensions of the severance of the

eastern and western parts of our confederacy. It might have been made the

interest of the western States to remain united with us, by managing their

interests honestly, and for their own good. But, the moment we sacrifice

their interests to our own, they will see it better to govern themselves.

The moment they resolve to do this, the point is settled. A forced

connection is neither our interest, nor within our power.

The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received with infinite

approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. I do not mean by

the governments, but by the individuals who compose them. It has been

translated into French and Italian, has been sent to most of the courts of

Europe, and has been the best evidence of the falsehood of those reports

which stated us to be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new Encyclopedie,

and is appearing in most of the publications respecting America. In fact,

it is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after

so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in vassalage by

kings, priests, and nobles; and it is honorable for us, to have produced

the first legislature who had the courage to declare, that the reason of

man may be trusted with the formation of his own opinions.

* * * * *

I thank you for your communications in Natural History. The several

instances of trees, &c., found far below the surface of the earth, as in

the case of Mr. Hay's well, seem to set the reason of man at defiance.

I am, dear Sir, with sincere esteem, your friend and servant.

TO CHARLES THOMPSON.

PARIS, December 17, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--A dislocation of my right wrist has for three months past,

disabled me from writing except with my left hand, which was too slow

and awkward to be employed often. I begin to have so much use of my

wrist, as to be able to write, but it is slowly, and in pain. I take the

first moment I can, however, to acknowledge the receipt of your letters

of April the 6th, July the 8th and 30th. In one of these, you say, you

have not been able to learn, whether, in the new mills in London, steam

is the immediate mover of the machinery, or raises water to move it? It

is the immediate mover. The power of this agent, though long known, is

but now beginning to be applied to the various purposes of which it is

susceptible. You observe that Whitehurst supposes it to have been the

agent, which bursting the earth, threw it up into mountains and valleys.

You ask me what I think of his book? I find in it many interesting facts

brought together, and many ingenious commentaries on them. But there are

great chasms in his facts, and consequently in his reasoning. These he

fills up by suppositions, which may be as reasonably denied as granted.

A sceptical reader therefore, like myself, is left in the lurch. I

acknowledge, however, he makes more use of fact, than any other writer

on a theory of the earth. But I give one answer to all these theorists.

That is as follows. They all suppose the earth a created existence. They

must suppose a creator then; and that he possessed power and wisdom to a

great degree. As he intended the earth for the habitation of animals and

vegetables, is it reasonable to suppose, he made two jobs of his creation,

that he first made a chaotic lump and set it into rotatory motion, and

then waited the millions of ages necessary to form itself? That when it

had done this, he stepped in a second time, to create the animals and

plants which were to inhabit it? As the hand of a creator is to be called

in, it may as well be called in at one stage of the process as another. We

may as well suppose he created the earth at once, nearly in the state in

which we see it, fit for the preservation of the beings he placed on it.

But it is said, we have a proof that he did not create it in its present

solid form, but in a state of fluidity; because its present shape of an

oblate spheroid is precisely that which a fluid mass revolving on its axis

would assume.

I suppose that the same equilibrium between gravity and centrifugal force,

which would determine a fluid mass into the form of an oblate spheroid,

would determine the wise creator of that mass, if he made it in a solid

state, to give it the same spheroidical form. A revolving fluid will

continue to change its shape, till it attains that in which its principles

of contrary motion are balanced. For if you suppose them not balanced,

it will change its form. Now, the same balanced form is necessary for the

preservation of a revolving solid. The creator, therefore, of a revolving

solid, would make it an oblate spheroid, that figure alone admitting a

perfect equilibrium. He would make it in that form, for another reason;

that is, to prevent a shifting of the axis of rotation. Had he created the

earth perfectly spherical its axis might have been perpetually shifting,

by the influence of the other bodies of the system; and by placing the

inhabitants of the earth successively under its poles, it might have

been depopulated; whereas, being spheroidical, it has but one axis on

which it can revolve in equilibrio. Suppose the axis of the earth to

shift forty-five degrees; then cut it into one hundred and eighty slices,

making every section in the plane of a circle of latitude, perpendicular

to the axis: every one of these slices, except the equatorial one, would

be unbalanced, as there would be more matter on one side of its axis

than on the other. There could be but one diameter drawn through such a

slice, which would divide it into two equal parts. On every other possible

diameter, the parts would hang unequal. This would produce an irregularity

in the diurnal rotation. We may, therefore, conclude it impossible for

the poles of the earth to shift, if it was made spheroidically; and that

it would be made spheroidical, though solid, to obtain this end. I use

this reasoning only on the supposition that the earth has had a beginning.

I am sure I shall read your conjectures on this subject with great

pleasure, though I bespeak, beforehand, a right to indulge my natural

incredulity and scepticism. The pain in which I write awakens me here from

my reverie, and obliges me to conclude with compliments to Mrs. Thompson,

and assurances to yourself of the esteem and affection with which I am

sincerely, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

P. S. Since writing the preceding, I have had a conversation on the

subject of the steam mills, with the famous Boulton, to whom those of

London belong, and who is here at this time. He compares the effect of

steam with that of horses, in the following manner: Six horses, aided with

the most advantageous combination of the mechanical powers hitherto tried,

will grind six bushels of flour in an hour; at the end of which time they

are all in a foam, and must rest. They can work thus, six hours in the

twenty-four, grinding thirty-six bushels of flour, which is six to each

horse, for the twenty-four hours. His steam mill in London consumes one

hundred and twenty bushels of coal in twenty-four hours, turns ten pair of

stones, which grind eight bushels of flour an hour each, which is nineteen

hundred and twenty bushels in the twenty-four hours. This makes a peck

and a half of coal perform exactly as much as a horse, in one day, can

perform.

TO COLONEL MONROE.

PARIS, December 18, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--Your letters of August the 19th and October the 12th, have come

duly to hand. My last to you was of the 11th of August. Soon after that

date I got my right wrist dislocated, which has, till now, deprived me

of the use of that hand; and even now, I can use it but slowly, and with

pain. The revisal of the Congressional intelligence contained in your

letters, makes me regret the loss of it on your departure. I feel, too,

the want of a person there, to whose discretion I can trust confidential

communications, and on whose friendship I can rely against the unjust

designs of malevolence. I have no reason to suppose I have enemies in

Congress; yet it is too possible to be without that fear. Some symptoms

make me suspect, that my proceedings to redress the abusive administration

of tobacco by the Farmers General have indisposed towards me a powerful

person in Philadelphia, who was profiting from that abuse. An expression

in the enclosed letter of M. de Calonnes, would seem to imply, that I

had asked the abolition of Mr. Morris's contract. I never did. On the

contrary, I always observed to them, that it would be unjust to annul that

contract. I was led to this, by principles both of justice and interest.

Of interest, because that contract would keep up the price of tobacco

here, to thirty-four, thirty-six, and thirty-eight livres, from which it

will fall when it shall no longer have that support. However, I have done

what was right, and I will not so far wound my privilege of doing that,

without regard to any man's interest, as to enter into any explanations

of this paragraph with him. Yet I esteem him highly, and suppose that

hitherto he had esteemed me. You will see by Calonnes' letter, that we

are doing what we can, to get the trade of the United States put on a

good footing. I am now about setting out on a journey to the south of

France, one object of which is to try the mineral waters there, for the

restoration of my hand; but another is, to visit all the seaports where we

have trade, and to hunt up all the inconveniences under which it labors,

in order to get them rectified. I shall visit, and carefully examine too,

the canal of Languedoc. On my return, which will be early in the spring,

I shall send you several livraisons of the Encyclopedie, and the plan of

your house. I wish to heaven, you may continue in the disposition to fix

it in Albemarle. Short will establish himself there, and perhaps Madison

may be tempted to do so. This will be society enough, and it will be the

great sweetener of our lives. Without society, and a society to our taste,

men are never contented. The one here supposed, we can regulate to our

minds, and we may extend our regulations to the sumptuary department,

so as to set a good example to a country which needs it, and to preserve

our own happiness clear of embarrassment. You wish not to engage in the

drudgery of the bar. You have two asylums from that. Either to accept a

seat in the Council, or in the judiciary department. The latter, however,

would require a little previous drudgery at the bar, to qualify you to

discharge your duty with satisfaction to yourself. Neither of these would

be inconsistent with a continued residence in Albemarle. It is but twelve

hours' drive in a sulky from Charlottesville to Richmond, keeping a fresh

horse always at the half-way, which would be a small annual expense. I

am in hopes that Mrs. M. will have in her domestic cares, occupation and

pleasure, sufficient to fill her time, and insure her against the _tedium

vitæ_: that she will find, that the distractions of a town, and the waste

of life under these, can bear no comparison with the tranquil happiness

of domestic life. If her own experience has not yet taught her this truth,

she has in its favor the testimony of one who has gone through the various

scenes of business, of bustle, of office, of rambling, and of quiet

retirement, and who can assure her, that the latter is the only point

upon which the mind can settle at rest. Though not clear of inquietudes,

because no earthly situation is so, they are fewer in number, and mixed

with more objects of contentment, than in any other mode of life. But

I must not philosophise too much with her, lest I give her too serious

apprehensions of a friendship I shall impose on her. I am with very great

esteem, dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY MR. ADAMS.

PARIS, December 20, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--Colonel Franks will have the honor of delivering you the treaty

with the Emperor of Morocco, and all its appendages. You will perceive,

by Mr. Barclay's letter, that it is not necessary that any body should

go back to Morocco to exchange ratifications. He says, however, that it

will be necessary that Fennish receive some testimony that we approve

the treaty; and as, by the acts of Congress, our signature is necessary

to give validity to it, I have had duplicates of ratifications prepared,

which I have signed, and now send you. If you approve and sign them, send

one back to me to be forwarded to Fennish, through Mr. Carmichael. Perhaps

a joint letter should be written to Fennish; if you think so, be so good

as to write and sign one and send it with the ratification, and I will

sign and forward it. The other ratification is to go to Congress. Colonel

Franks wishes to proceed with the papers to that body. He should do it,

I think, immediately, as Mr. Jay, in a letter to me of October 26th, says

that Congress have heard through the French Chargé des Affaires, that the

treaty was signed, and they wonder they have not heard it from us.

I enclose you a copy of a letter from Mr. Lambe, by which you will

perceive he does not propose to quit Alicant. I will forward the

resolution of Congress to Mr. Carmichael, which was enclosed in yours

of November 30th, to see if that will move him. As the turn of this

resolution admits a construction that Congress may think our original

appointment of him censurable, I have, as in justice I ought, in a letter

to Mr. Jay, taken on myself the blame of having proposed him to you, if

any blame were due. I have enclosed him a copy of my letter to you of

September 24, 1785. Mr. Barclay has proposed to go to Alicant to settle

Lambe's accounts, and asked to be strengthened with our authority. If

Lambe will obey the resolve of Congress, it will be better to let him go

and settle his account there. But if he will not go back, perhaps it might

not be amiss for Mr. Barclay to have instructions from us to require a

settlement, those instructions to be used in that case only. If you think

so, be so good as to write a joint letter and send it to me. But this,

if done at all, should be done immediately. How much money has Lambe

drawn? I have suggested to Mr. Jay the expediency of putting the Barbary

business into Carmichael's hands, or sending somebody from America, in

consideration of our separate residence and our distance from the scene of

negotiation.

I had seen, without alarm, accounts of the disturbances in the East. But

Mr. Jay's letter on the subject had really affected me. However, yours

sets me to rights. I can never fear that things will go far wrong where

common sense has fair play. I but just begin to use my pen a little with

my right hand, but with pain. Recommending myself, therefore, to the

friendship of Mrs. Adams, I must conclude here with assurances of the

sincere esteem of, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

P. S. Should a Mr. Maury, of Virginia, but now a merchant of Liverpool,

present himself to you, I recommend him to your notice, as my old

school-fellow, and a man of the most solid integrity.

TO MR. HOPKINSON.

PARIS, December 23, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--My last letter to you was dated August 14th. Yours of May 27th

and June 28th, were not then received, but have been since. I take the

liberty of putting under your cover another letter to Mrs. Champis, as

also an inquiry after a Dr. Griffiths. A letter to M. le Vieillard, from

the person he had consulted about the essence L'Orient, will convey to

you the result of my researches into that article. Your spring-block for

assisting a vessel in sailing cannot be tried here, because the Seine,

being not more than about forty toises wide, and running swiftly, there

is no such thing on it as a vessel with sails. I thank you for the volume

of the Philadelphia transactions, which came safely to hand, and is, in

my opinion, a very valuable volume, and contains many precious papers.

The paccan-nut is, as you conjecture, the Illinois nut. The former is the

vulgar name south of the Potomac, as also with the Indians and Spaniards,

and enters also into the Botanical name which is Juglano Paccan. I have

many volumes of the Encyclopedie for yourself and Dr. Franklin; but, as

a winter passage is bad for books, and before the spring the packets will

begin to sail from Havre to New York, I shall detain them till then. You

must not presume too strongly that your comb-footed bird is known to M.

de Buffon. He did not know our panther. I gave him the stripped skin of

one I bought in Philadelphia, and it presents him a new species, which

will appear in his next volumes. I have convinced him that our deer is

not a Chevreuil, and would you believe that many letters to different

acquaintances in Virginia, where this animal is so common, have never

enabled me to present him with a large pair of their horns, a blue and red

skin stuffed, to show him their colors, at different seasons. He has never

seen the horns of what we call the elk. This would decide whether it be an

elk or a deer. I am very much pleased with your project on the Harmonica,

and the prospect of your succeeding in the application of keys to it.

It will be the greatest present which has been made to the musical world

this century, not excepting the Piano-forte. If its tone approaches that

given by the finger as nearly only as the harpsichord does that of the

harp, it will be very valuable. I have lately examined a foot-bass newly

invented here, by the celebrated Krumfoltz. It is precisely a piano-forte,

about ten feet long, eighteen inches broad, and nine inches deep. It is

of one octave only, from fa to fa. The part where the keys are, projects

at the side in order to lengthen the levers of the keys. It is placed on

the floor, and the harpsichord or other piano-forte is set over it, the

foot acting in concert on that, while the fingers play on this. There

are three unison chords to every note, of strong brass wire, and the

lowest have wire wrapped on them as the lowest in the piano-forte. The

chords give a fine, clear, deep tone, almost like the pipe of an organ.

Have they connected you with our mint? My friend Monroe promised me he

would take care for you in that, or perhaps the establishment of that at

New York may have been incompatible with your residence in Philadelphia.

A person here has invented a method of coining the French ecu of six

livres, so as to strike both faces and the edge at one stroke, and makes

a coin as beautiful as a medal. No country has ever yet produced such a

coin. They are made cheaper too. As yet, he has only made a few to show

the perfection of his manner. I am endeavoring to procure one to send

to Congress as a model for their coinage. They will consider whether, on

establishing a new mint, it will be worth while to buy his machines, if

he will furnish them. A dislocation of my right wrist, which happened to

me about a month after the date of my last letter to you, has disabled

me from writing three months. I do it now in pain, and only in cases of

necessity, or of strong inclination, having as yet no other use of my

hand. I put under your cover a letter from my daughter to her friend. She

joins me in respects to your good mother, to Mrs. Hopkinson and yourself,

to whom I proffer assurances of the esteem with which I am, dear Sir, your

sincere friend and servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY DR. FRANKLIN.

PARIS, December 23, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--I have received your favor of October 8, but the volume of

transactions mentioned to come with it, did not; but I had received

one from Mr. Hopkinson. You also mention the diplomas it covered for

other persons, and some order of the society relative to myself, which I

supposed were omitted by accident, and will come by some other conveyance.

So far as relates to myself, whatever the order was, I beg leave to

express to you my sense of their favor, and wish to merit it. I have

several livraisons of the Encyclopædie for yourself and Mr. Hopkinson,

which shall be sent in the spring, when they will be less liable to

injury. Some books also which I received from Baron Blome must await that

conveyance. I receive some discouraging accounts of the temper of the

people in our new government, yet were I to judge only from the accounts

given in the public papers, I should not fear their passing over without

injury. I wish you may have given your opinion of them to some of your

friends here, as your experience and knowledge of men would give us

more confidence in your opinion. Russia and the Porte have patched up an

accommodation through the mediation of this court. The coolness between

Spain and Naples will remain, and will occasion the former to cease

intermeddling with the affairs of the latter. The Dutch affairs are still

to be settled. The new King of Prussia is more earnest in supporting the

cause of the slaveholder than his uncle was, and in general an affectation

begins to show itself of differing from his uncle. There is some fear of

his throwing himself into the Austrian scale in the European division

of power. Our treaty with Morocco is favorably concluded through the

influence of Spain. That with Algiers affords no expectation. We have

been rendered anxious here about your health, by hearing you have had a

severe attack of your gout. Remarkable deaths are the Dutchess of Chabot,

of the House of Rochefoucault, Beaujon, and Peyronet, the architect who

built the bridge of Neuilly, and was to have begun one the next spring

from the place Louis XV. to the Palais Bourbon. A dislocated wrist not yet

re-established, obliges me to conclude here with assurances of the perfect

esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's

most obedient, and most humble servant.

P. S. Will you permit my respects to your grandson, Mr. Franklin, to find

their place here?

TO MR. STILES.

PARIS, December 24, 1786.

SIR,--I feel myself very much honored by the degree which has been

conferred on me by the Senatus Academicus of Yale College, and I beg

leave, through you, Sir, to express to them how sensible I am of this

honor, and that it is to their and your indulgence, and not to any merit

of my own, that I am indebted for it.

The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet

known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people

have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If

the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of

a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a

precious purchase. "Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem."

Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set

things to rights.

The bickerings between Russia and the Porte are quieted for the moment.

The coolness between the Kings of Spain and Naples will remain, but

will have no other consequence than that of the former withdrawing from

interference with the affairs of the latter. The present King of Prussia

pushes the interest of the Stadtholder more zealously than his uncle did.

There have been fears that he might throw himself into the Austrian scale,

which would greatly derange the European balance. This country is firm in

support of the patriotic party in the United Netherlands.

We have made an advantageous treaty with Morocco, but with Algiers nothing

is done. From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their

tenaciousness of money, it will be more easy to raise ships and men to

fight these pirates into reason than money to bribe them. I wish that

something could be done in some form or another to open the Mediterranean

to us. You will have seen that France is endeavoring to relieve and

encourage our commerce with her.

The arts and sciences offering nothing new at this moment worth

communicating to you, I shall only add assurances of the respect and

esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient,

and most humble servant.

TO M. DUMAS.

PARIS, December 25, 1786.

SIR,--A dislocation of my right wrist has for upwards of three months

prevented my writing to you. I begin to use it a little for the pen; but

it is with great pain. To this cause alone I hope you will ascribe that

I have acknowledged at one time the receipt of so many of your letters.

Their dates are September 12, 26, October 6, 17, 19, 23, November 3, 17,

December 1, and there is one without date. They were communicated to the

Marquis de La Fayette according to your desire, and those to Mr. Jay have

been forwarded from time to time as private conveyances occurred, except

some of the last for which no such conveyance has occurred till now. A

gentleman is setting out for London, and from thence for New York.

We receive news from America of collections of the people in three or

four instances in the Eastern States, demanding delays in the proceedings

of the courts of justice. Those States, as you know, depended before

the war chiefly on their whale oil and fish. The former was consumed in

London, but, being now loaded with heavy duties, cannot go there. Much

of their fish went up the Mediterranean, now shut to us by the piratical

States. Their debts, therefore, press them, while the means of payment

have lessened. The mobs, however, separated without a single injury having

been offered to the person or property of any one, nor did they continue

twenty-four hours in any one place. This country has opened a market for

their whale oil, and we have made a good treaty of peace with Morocco. But

with Algiers we can do nothing. An American paper has published a letter,

as from me to the Count de Vergennes, on the subject of our productions of

tobacco and rice. It is surreptitious and falsified; and both the true and

untrue parts very improper for the public eye. How a newswriter of America

got at it, is astonishing, and with what views it had been altered. I will

be much obliged to you if you will endeavor to prevent its publication in

the Leyden Gazette.

The following question I take the liberty of proposing to you

confidentially. This country wants money in its treasury. Some individuals

have proposed to buy our debt of twenty-four millions at a considerable

discount. I have informed Congress of it, and suggested to them the

expediency of borrowing this sum in Holland, if possible, as well to

prevent loss to this country as to draw all their money transactions

to one point. But could they borrow the money in Holland? I would be

obliged to you for your opinion on this question, as it would decide me

in pressing this matter further on Congress, or letting it drop. It will

readily occur to you that the answer should come through the hands of your

ambassador here alone. The pain in which I write obliges me, after many

thanks for the interesting details of transactions in your country, to

assure you of the esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be,

Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. CARMICHAEL.

PARIS, December 26, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--A note from me of the 22d of September, apprised you it would

be some time before I should be able to answer your letters. I did not

then expect it would have been so long.

I enclose herein a resolution of Congress, recalling Mr. Lambe, which I

will beg the favor of you to have delivered him. I have written to Mr.

Adams on the subject of directing him to settle with Mr. Barclay, and

attend his answer. In the meantime, I am not without hopes Mr. Barclay has

done the business. I send also a note desiring Mr. Lambe to deliver you

his cypher; and a copy of a letter from the minister of finance here, to

me, announcing several regulations in favor of our commerce.

My Notes on Virginia, having been hastily written, need abundance of

corrections. Two or three of these are so material, that I am reprinting

a few leaves to substitute for the old. As soon as these shall be ready,

I will beg your acceptance of a copy. I shall be proud to be permitted to

send a copy, also, to the Count de Campomanes, as a tribute to his science

and his virtues. You will find in them that the Natural Bridge has found

an admirer in me also. I should be happy to make with you the tour of

the curiosities you will find therein mentioned. That kind of pleasure

surpasses much, in my estimation, whatever I find on this side the

Atlantic. I sometimes think of building a little hermitage at the Natural

Bridge (for it is my property) and of passing there a part of the year at

least.

I have received American papers to the 1st of November. Some tumultuous

meetings of the people have taken place in the eastern States; i.e. one

in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, and one in New Hampshire. Their

principal demand was, a respite in the judiciary proceedings. No injury

was done, however, in a single instance, to the person or property of any

one, nor did the tumult continue twenty-four hours in any one instance.

In Massachusetts, this was owing to the discretion which the malcontents

still preserved; in Connecticut and New Hampshire, the body of the people

rose in support of government, and obliged the malcontents to go to

their homes. In the last-mentioned State, they seized about forty, who

were in jail for trial. It is believed this incident will strengthen our

government. Those people are not entirely without excuse. Before the war,

these States depended on their whale oil and fish. The former was consumed

in England, and much of the latter in the Mediterranean. The heavy duties

on American whale oil, now required in England, exclude it from that

market; and the Algerines exclude them from bringing their fish into

the Mediterranean. France is opening her ports for their oil, but in the

meanwhile, their ancient debts are pressing them, and they have nothing to

pay with. The Massachusetts Assembly, too, in their zeal for paying their

public debt, had laid a tax too heavy to be paid in the circumstances of

their State. The Indians seem disposed, too, to make war on us. These

complicated causes, determined Congress to increase their forces to

two thousand men. The latter was the sole object avowed, yet the former

entered for something into the measure. However, I am satisfied the good

sense of the people is the strongest army our government can ever have,

and that it will not fail them. The commercial convention at Annapolis,

was not full enough to do business. They found, too, their appointments

too narrow, being confined to the article of commerce. They have proposed

a meeting in Philadelphia in May, and that it may be authorized to propose

amendments of whatever is defective in the federal constitution.

When I was in England, I formed a portable copying press, on the

principles of the large one they make here, for copying letters. I had a

model made there, and it has answered perfectly. A workman here has made

several from that model. The itinerent temper of your court will, I think,

render one of these useful to you. You must, therefore, do me the favor

to accept of one. I have it now in readiness, and shall send it by the

way of Bayonne, to the care of Mr. Alexander there, unless Don Miguel de

Lardizabal can carry it with him.

My hand admonishes me it is time to stop, and that I must defer writing to

Mr. Barclay till to-morrow.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest esteem and respect,

dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. VAUGHAN.

PARIS, December 29, 1786.

SIR,--When I had the honor of seeing you in London, you were so kind as

to permit me to trouble you sometimes with my letters, and particularly

on the subject of mathematical or philosophical instruments. Such a

correspondence will be too agreeable to me, and at the same time, too

useful, not to avail myself of your permission. It has been an opinion

pretty generally received among philosophers, that the atmosphere of

America is more humid than that of Europe. Monsieur de Buffon makes this

hypothesis one of the two pillars whereon he builds his system of the

degeneracy of animals in America. Having had occasion to controvert this

opinion of his, as to the degeneracy of animals there, I expressed a doubt

of the fact assumed, that our climates are more moist. I did not know of

any experiments which might authorize a denial of it. Speaking afterwards

on the subject with Dr. Franklin, he mentioned to me the observations

he had made on a case of magnets, made for him by Mr. Nairne in London.

Of these you will see a detail, in the second volume of the American

Philosophical Transactions, in a letter from Dr. Franklin to Mr. Nairne,

wherein he recommends to him to take up the principle therein explained,

and endeavor to make an hygrometer, which, taking slowly the temperature

of the atmosphere, shall give its mean degree of moisture, and enable us

thus to make with more certainty, a comparison between the humidities of

different climates. May I presume to trouble you with an inquiry of Mr.

Nairne, whether he has executed the Doctor's idea? and if he has, to get

him to make for me a couple of the instruments he may have contrived.

They should be made of the same piece, and under like circumstances, that

sending one to America, I may rely on its indications there, compared with

those of the one I shall retain here. Being in want of a set of magnets

also, I would be glad if he would at the same time send me a set, the case

of which should be made as Dr. Franklin describes his to have been, so

that I may repeat his experiment. Colonel Smith will do me the favor to

receive these things from Mr. Nairne, and to pay him for them.

I think Mr. Rittenhouse never published an invention of his in this way,

which was a very good one. It was of an hygrometer which, like the common

ones, was to give the actual moisture of the air. He has two slips of

mahogany about five inches long, three-fourths of an inch broad, and

one-tenth of an inch thick, the one having the grain running lengthwise,

and the other crosswise. These are glued together by their faces, so as

to form a piece five inches long, three-fourths of an inch broad, and

one third of an inch thick, which is stuck by its lower end into a little

plinth of wood, presenting their edge to the view. The fibres of the wood

you know are dilated, but not lengthened by moisture. The slip, therefore,

whose grain is lengthwise, becomes a standard, retaining always the same

precise length. That which has its grain crosswise, dilates with moisture,

and contracts for the want of it. If the right hand piece be the cross

grained one, when the air is very moist, it lengthens, and forces its

companion to form a kind of interior annulus of a circle on the left.

When the air is dry, it contracts, draws its companion to the right, and

becomes itself the interior annulus. In order to show this dilatation

and contraction, an index is fixed on the upper end of two of the slips;

a plate of metal or wood is fastened to the front of the plinth, so as

to cover the two slips from the eye. A slit, being nearly the portion of

a circle, is cut in this plate, so that the shank of the index may play

freely through its whole range. On the edge of the slit is a graduation.

The objection to this instrument is, that it is not fit for comparative

observations, because no two pieces of wood being of the same texture

exactly, no two will yield exactly alike to the same agent. However, it

is less objectionable on this account, than most of the substances used.

Mr. Rittenhouse had a thought of trying ivory; but I do not know whether

he executed it. All these substances not only vary from one another at the

same time, but from themselves at different times. All of them, however,

have some peculiar advantages, and I think this, on the whole, appeared

preferable to any other I had ever seen. Not knowing whether you had heard

of this instrument, and supposing it would amuse you, I have taken the

liberty of detailing it to you.

I beg you to be assured of the sentiments of perfect esteem and respect

with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most

humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, December 31, 1786.

SIR,--I had the honor of addressing you on the 12th of the last month;

since which, your favor of October the 12th has been received, enclosing

a copy of the resolution of Congress for recalling Mr. Lambe. My letter

by Mr. Randall informed you that we had put an end to his powers, and

required him to repair to Congress. I lately received a letter from him,

dated Alicant, October the 10th, of which I have the honor to enclose

you a copy; by which, you will perceive that the circumstance of ill

health, either true or false, is urged for his not obeying our call. I

shall immediately forward the order of Congress. I am not without fear,

that some misapplication of the public money may enter into the causes

of his declining to return. The moment that I saw a symptom of this in

his conduct, as it was a circumstance which did not admit the delay of

consulting Mr. Adams, I wrote to Mr. Carmichael, to stop any moneys which

he might have in the hands of his banker. I am still unable to judge

whether he is guilty of this or not, as by the arrangements with Mr.

Adams, who alone had done business with the bankers of the United States,

in Holland, Mr. Lambe's drafts were to be made on him, and I know not

what their amount has been. His drafts could not have been negotiated,

if made on us both, at places so distant. Perhaps it may be thought, that

the appointment of Mr. Lambe was censurable in the moment in which it was

made. It is a piece of justice, therefore, which I owe to Mr. Adams, to

declare that the proposition went first from me to him. I take the liberty

of enclosing you a copy of my letter to Mr. Adams, of September the

24th, 1785, in which that proposition was made. It expresses the motives

operating on my mind in that moment, as well as the cautions I thought it

necessary to take. To these must be added, the difficulty of finding an

American in Europe fit for the business, and willing to undertake it. I

knew afterwards, that Dr. Bancroft (who is named in the letter) could not,

on account of his own affairs, have accepted even a primary appointment. I

think it evident, that no appointment could have succeeded without a much

greater sum of money.

I am happy to find that Mr. Barclay's mission has been attended with

complete success. For this we are indebted, unquestionably, to the

influence and good offices of the court of Madrid. Colonel Franks, the

bearer of this, will have the honor to put into your hands the original of

the treaty, with other papers accompanying it. It will appear by these,

that Mr. Barclay has conducted himself with a degree of intelligence and

of good faith, which reflects the highest honor on him.

A copy of a letter from Captain O'Bryan to Mr. Carmichael, is also

herewith enclosed. The information it contains will throw farther light

on the affairs of Algiers. His observations on the difficulties which

arise from the distance of Mr. Adams and myself from that place, and

from one another, and the delays occasioned by this circumstance, are

certainly just. If Congress should propose to revive the negotiations,

they will judge whether it will not be more expedient to send a person to

Algiers, who can be trusted with full powers; and also whether a mission

to Constantinople may not be previously necessary. Before I quit this

subject, I must correct an error in the letter of Captain O'Bryan. Mr.

Lambe was not limited, as he says, to one hundred, but to two hundred

dollars apiece for our prisoners. This was the price which has been just

paid for a large number of French prisoners, and this was our guide.

I have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir,

your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO SAMUEL OSGOOD.

PARIS, January 5, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I am desired to forward to you the enclosed queries, and to ask

the favor of you to give such an answer to them, as may not give you too

much trouble. Those which stand foremost on the paper, can be addressed

only to your complaisance; but the last may possibly be interesting to

your department, and to the United States. I mean those which suggest the

possibility of borrowing money in Europe, the principal of which shall

be ultimately payable in land, and in the meantime a good interest. You

know best whether the suggestion can be turned to any profit, and whether

it will be worth while to introduce any proposition to Congress thereon.

Among the possible shapes into which a matter of this kind may be formed,

the following is one: Let us suppose the public lands to be worth a

dollar, hard money, the acre. If we should ask of a moneyed man a loan of

one hundred dollars, payable with one hundred acres of land at the end of

ten years, and in the meantime carrying an interest of five per cent.,

this would be more disadvantageous to the lender than a common loan,

payable ultimately in cash. But if we should say, we will deliver you

the one hundred acres of land immediately, which is in fact an immediate

payment of the principal, and will nevertheless pay your interest of five

per cent., for ten years, this offers a superior advantage, and might

tempt money holders. But what should we in fact receive, in this way,

for our lands? Thirty-seven dollars and one-fourth, being left in Europe,

on an interest of five per cent., would pay annually the interest of the

one hundred dollars for ten years. There would remain then only sixty-two

dollars and three-quarters, for the one hundred acres of land, that is to

say, about two thirds of its price. Congress can best determine, whether

any circumstance in our situation, should induce us to get rid of any of

our debts in that way. I beg you to understand, that I have named rates

of interest, term of payment, and price of land, merely to state the

case, and without the least knowledge that a loan could be obtained on

these terms. It remains to inform you from whom this suggestion comes.

The person from whom I receive it, is a Monsieur Claviere, connected

with the moneyed men of Amsterdam. He is, on behalf of a company there,

actually treating with the Comptroller General here, for the purchase of

our debt to this country, at a considerable discount. Whether he has an

idea of offering a loan to us, on terms such as I have above spoken of,

I know not; nor do I know that he is authorized to make the suggestion he

has made. If the thing should be deemed worthy the attention of Congress,

they can only consider it as a possibility, and take measures to avail

themselves of it, if the possibility turns out in their favor, and not to

be disappointed if it does not. Claviere's proposition not being formal

enough for me to make an official communication of it, you will make what

use of it you see best. I am, with very sincere esteem and attachment,

dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DE CALONNES.

PARIS, January 7, 1787.

SIR,--I had the honor, on the 2d of November last, to acknowledge the

receipt of your Excellency's letter of October the 22d, wherein you are

so good as to communicate to me the arrangements which the King had been

pleased to make for the encouragement of the commerce of the United States

of America with his subjects. I immediately made known the same to the

agents of the United States in the several seaports of this kingdom,

that they might give information thereof to the persons concerned in

that commerce. Unacquainted with the forms in which his Majesty usually

declares his will in cases of this kind, and the manner in which it

is communicated to the officers of the customs at the seaports, I am

unable to answer those agents who inform me that the officers of the

customs and farms do not as yet consider themselves bound to conform

to the new regulations. I take the liberty, therefore, of soliciting

your Excellency's interposition for the issuing such orders as may be

necessary for carrying into effect the gracious intentions of the King,

and of repeating the assurances of those sentiments of perfect respect and

esteem, with which I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient,

and most humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, January 9, 1787.

SIR,--My last of December the 31st, acknowledged the receipt of yours of

October the 12th, as the present does those of October the 3d, 9th, and

27th, together with the resolution of Congress of October the 16th, on the

claim of Shweighauser. I will proceed in this business on the return of

Mr. Barclay, who, being fully acquainted with all the circumstances, will

be enabled to give me that information, the want of which might lead me to

do wrong on the one side or the other.

Information of the signature of the treaty with Morocco has been long on

its passage to you. I will beg leave to recur to dates, that you may see

that no part of it has been derived from me. The first notice I had of

it, was in a letter from Mr. Barclay, dated Daralbeyda, August the 11th.

I received this on the 13th of September. No secure conveyance offered

till the 26th of the same month, being thirteen days after my receipt of

it. In my letter of that date, which went by the way of London, I had the

honor to enclose you a copy of Mr. Barclay's letter. The conveyance of the

treaty itself is suffering a delay here at present, which all my anxiety

cannot prevent. Colonel Franks' baggage, which came by water from Cadiz to

Rouen, has been long and hourly expected. The moment it arrives, he will

set out to London, to have duplicates of the treaty signed by Mr. Adams,

and from thence he will proceed to New York.

The Chevalier del Pinto, who treated with us on behalf of Portugal, being

resident at London, I have presumed that causes of the delay of that

treaty had been made known to Mr. Adams, and by him communicated to you. I

will write to him by Colonel Franks, in order that you may be answered on

that subject.

The publication of the enclosed extract from my letter of May the 27th,

1786, will, I fear, have very mischievous effects. It will tend to

draw on the Count de Vergennes the formidable phalanx of the Farms; to

prevent his committing himself to me in any conversation which he does

not mean for the public papers; to inspire the same diffidence into all

other ministers, with whom I might have to transact business; to defeat

the little hope, if any hope existed, of getting rid of the Farm on the

article of tobacco; and to damp that freedom of communication which the

resolution of Congress of May the 3d, 1784, was intended to re-establish.

Observing by the proceedings of Congress, that they are about to establish

a coinage, I think it my duty to inform them, that a Swiss, of the name of

Drost, established here, has invented a method of striking the two faces

and the edge of a coin, at one stroke. By this, and other simplifications

of the process of coinage, he is enabled to coin from twenty-five thousand

to thirty thousand pieces a day, with the assistance of only two persons,

the pieces of metal being first prepared. I send you by Colonel Franks

three coins of gold, silver and copper, which you will perceive to be

perfect medals; and I can assure you, from having seen him coin many,

that every piece is as perfect as these. There has certainly never yet

been seen any coin, in any country, comparable to this. The best workmen

in this way, acknowledge that his is like a new art. Coin should always

be made in the highest perfection possible, because it is a great guard

against the danger of false coinage. This man would be willing to furnish

his implements to Congress, and if they please, he will go over and

instruct a person to carry on the work: nor do I believe he would ask

anything unreasonable. It would be very desirable, that in the institution

of a new coinage, we could set out on so perfect a plan as this, and the

more so, as while the work is so exquisitely done, it is done cheaper.

I will certainly do the best I can for the reformation of the consular

convention, being persuaded that our States would be very unwilling to

conform their laws either to the convention, or to the scheme. But it

is too difficult and too delicate, to form sanguine hopes. However, that

there may be room to reduce the convention, as much as circumstances will

admit, will it not be expedient for Congress to give me powers, in which

there shall be no reference to the scheme? The powers sent me, oblige me

to produce that scheme, and certainly, the moment it is produced, they

will not abate a tittle from it. If they recollect the scheme, and insist

on it, we can but conclude it; but if they have forgotten it (which may

be), and are willing to reconsider the whole subject, perhaps we may get

rid of something the more of it. As the delay is not injurious to us,

because the convention, whenever and however made, is to put us in a worse

state than we are in now, I shall venture to defer saying a word on the

subject, till I can hear from you in answer to this. The full powers may

be sufficiently guarded, by private instructions to me, not to go beyond

the former scheme. This delay may be well enough ascribed (whenever I

shall have received new powers) to a journey I had before apprised the

minister that I should be obliged to take, to some mineral waters in the

south of France, to see if, by their aid, I may recover the use of my

right hand, of which a dislocation, about four months ago, threatens to

deprive me in a great measure. The surgeons have long insisted on this

measure. I shall return by Bourdeaux, Nantes and L'Orient, to get the

necessary information for finishing our commercial regulations here.

Permit me, however, to ask as immediately as possible, an answer, either

affirmative or negative, as Congress shall think best, and to ascribe the

delay on which I venture, to my desire to do what is for the best.

I send you a copy of the late marine regulations of this country. There

are things in it, which may become interesting to us. Particularly,

what relates to the establishment of a marine militia, and their

classification.

You will have seen in the public papers, that the King has called an

assembly of the Notables of this country. This has not been done for one

hundred and sixty years past. Of course, it calls up all the attention

of the people. The objects of this assembly are not named: several are

conjectured. The tolerating the Protestant religion; removing all the

internal Custom houses to the frontier; equalizing the gabelles on salt

through the kingdom; the sale of the King's domains, to raise money; or,

finally, the effecting this necessary end by some other means, are talked

of. But in truth, nothing is known about it. This government practises

secrecy so systematically, that it never publishes its purposes or its

proceedings, sooner or more extensively than necessary. I send you a

pamphlet, which, giving an account of the last Assemblée des Notables, may

give an idea of what the present will be.

A great desire prevails here of encouraging manufactures. The famous

Boulton and Watts, who are at the head of the plated manufactures

of Birmingham, the steam mills of London, copying presses and other

mechanical works, have been here. It is said also, that Wedgewood has

been here, who is famous for his steel manufactories, and an earthen

ware in the antique style; but as to this last person, I am not certain.

It cannot, I believe, be doubted, but that they came at the request

of government, and that they will be induced to establish similar

manufactures here.

The transferring hither those manufactures, which contribute so much to

draw our commerce to England, will have a great tendency to strengthen our

connections with this country, and loosen them with that.

The enfranchising the port of Honfleur at the mouth of the Seine, for

multiplying the connections with us, is at present an object. It meets

with opposition in the ministry; but I am in hopes it will prevail.

If natural causes operate, uninfluenced by accidental circumstances,

Bourdeaux and Honfleur, or Havre, must ultimately take the greatest part

of our commerce. The former by the Garonne and canal of Languedoc, opens

the southern provinces to us; the latter, the northern ones and Paris.

Honfleur will be peculiarly advantageous for our rice and whale oil,

of which the principal consumption is at Paris. Being free, they can be

re-exported when the market here shall happen to be overstocked.

The labors of the ensuing summer will close the eastern half of the harbor

of Cherbourg, which will contain and protect forty sail of the line. It

has from fifty to thirty-five feet of water next to the cones, shallowing

gradually to the shore. Between this and Dunkirk, the navigation of the

channel will be rendered much safer in the event of a war with England,

and invasions on that country become more practicable.

The gazettes of France and Leyden, to the present date, accompany this.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect, Sir,

your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

PARIS, January 11, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--Mr. Jay, in his last letter to me, observes they hear nothing

further of the treaty with Portugal. I have taken the liberty of telling

him that I will write to you on the subject, and that he may expect to

hear from you on it, by the present conveyance. The Chevalier del Pinto

being at London, I presume he has, or can inform you why it is delayed on

their part. I will thank you also for the information he shall give you.

There is here an order of priests called the Mathurins, the object of

whose institution is, the begging of alms for the redemption of captives.

About eighteen months ago, they redeemed three hundred, which cost them

about fifteen hundred livres a piece. They have agents residing in the

Barbary States, who are constantly employed in searching and contracting

for the captives of their nation, and they redeem at a lower price than

any other people can. It occurred to me, that their agency might be

engaged for our prisoners at Algiers. I have had interviews with them,

and the last night, a long one with the General of the order. They offer

their services with all the benignity and cordiality possible. The General

told me, he could not expect to redeem our prisoners as cheap as their

own, but that he would use all the means in his power to do it on the

best terms possible, which will be the better, as there shall be the less

suspicion that he acts for our public. I told him I would write to you

on the subject, and speak to him again. What do you think of employing

them, limiting them to a certain price, as three hundred dollars for

instance, or any other sum you think proper? He will write immediately to

his instruments there, and in two or three months we can know the event.

He will deliver them at Marseilles, Cadiz, or where we please, at our

expense. The money remaining of the fund destined to the Barbary business,

may, I suppose, be drawn on for this object. Write me your opinion,

if you please, on this subject, finally, fully and immediately, that,

if you approve the proposition, I may enter into arrangements with the

General, before my departure to the waters of Aix, which will be about the

beginning of February.

I have the honor to be, with very sincere esteem and respect, dear Sir,

your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO COLONEL FRANKS.

January 11, 1787.

My anxiety, my dear Sir, on the detention of the Morocco treaty is

inexpressible. However cogent and necessary the motives which detain you,

I should be deemed inexcusable were I to let such a safe opportunity as

that by Colonel Blackden pass without sending the papers on to London. Mr.

Jay complained that a treaty signed in June was not ratified in October.

What will they say when they shall observe that the same treaty does not

reach them till March, nine months? In the meantime, our whole commerce

is paying a heavy tax for insurance till its publication. Can you fix

a day as early as Monday or Tuesday for your departure, whether your

baggage arrives or not? or would you rather decline the going with the

papers? In the former case, if your baggage does not arrive before your

departure, any orders you may think proper to leave respecting it, shall

be punctually executed. I can send it to Mr. Simonson at Havre, so that it

may go to America in the February packet. I shall see you at the Marquis's

to-day, and we will speak about this matter.

TO MONSIEUR OTTO.

PARIS, January 14, 1787.

SIR,--I have been honored with your letter of October 15, and thank you

for the intelligence it contained. I am able to make you but an unequal

return for it, your friends here being so much more in condition to

communicate to you interesting intelligence. With respect to the affairs

of Holland, they do not promise arrangement. The interest which the King

of Prussia takes in the affairs of the Stadtholder, seem to threaten an

interruption of his cordiality with the country. The misunderstanding

between the Kings of Spain and Naples, and a projected visit of the latter

to Vienna, with the known influence of his Queen over him, are matter for

some jealousy.

As to domestic news, the Assembly des Notables occupies all conversation.

What will be the subjects of their deliberation is not yet declared.

The establishment of provincial assemblies, tolerating the Protestant

religion, removing the internal barriers to the frontiers, equalizing the

Gabelles, sale of the King's domains, and, in short, every other possible

reformation, are conjectured by different persons. I send you a pamphlet

on the last Assembly of Notables, from which ideas are formed as to what

this will be. Possibly you may receive the same from some of your friends.

I send you, also, what it is less likely you should get from them, because

it is next to impossible to get it at all--that is, a late memoire by

Linquet, which has produced his perpetual exile from this country.

To these I add a report written by M. Bailly, on the subject of the

Hotel-Dieu of Paris, which has met a very general approbation. These are

things for the day only. I recollect no work of any dignity which has been

lately published. We shall very soon receive another volume on Mineralogy

from M. de Buffon; and a third volume of the Cultivator Americaine is in

the press. So is a History of the American War, by a Monsieur Soulés, the

two first volumes of which, coming down to the capture of Burgoyne, I have

seen, and think better than any I have seen. Mazzei will print soon two or

three volumes 8vo, of Recherches Historiques and Politiques sur les Etats

Unis d'Amerique, which are sensible. We are flattered with the hopes that

the packet boats will hereafter sail monthly from Havre, the first being

to sail on the 10th of the next month. This is very desirable indeed, as

it will furnish more frequent opportunities of correspondence between the

two countries. If I can be made useful to you in any line whatever here,

it will make me very happy. Being with sincere esteem and respect, Sir,

your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR LE DUC D'HARCOURT, GOVERNEUR DU DAUPHIN.

PARIS, January 14, 1787.

SIR,--In the conversation with which you were pleased to honor me, a few

days ago, on the enfranchisement of the port of Honfleur, I took the

liberty of observing, that I was not instructed by my constituents to

make any proposition on that subject. That it would be agreeable to them,

however, I must suppose, because it will offer the following advantages:

1. It is a convenient entrepôt for furnishing us with the manufactures of

the northern parts of France, and particularly of Paris, and for receiving

and distributing the productions of our country in exchange.

2. Cowes, on the opposite side of the channel, has heretofore been the

deposit for a considerable part of our productions, landed in Great

Britain in the first instance, but intended for re-exportation. From

thence, our rice, particularly, has been distributed to France and other

parts of Europe. I am not certain whether our tobaccos were deposited

there, or carried to London to be sorted for the different markets.

To draw this business from Cowes, no place is so favorably situated as

Honfleur.

3. It would be a convenient deposit for our whale oil, of which, after the

supply of Paris, there will be a surplus for re-exportation.

4. Should our fur trade be recovered out of the hands of the English, it

will naturally come to Honfleur, as the port of Paris.

5. Salt is an important article in all our return cargoes; because, being

carried as ballast, its freight costs nothing. But, on account of some

regulations, with which I am not well acquainted, it cannot, at present,

be shipped to advantage from any port on the Seine.

6. Our vessels being built sharp, for swift sailing, suffer extremely in

most of the western ports of France, in which they are left on dry ground

at every ebb of the tide. But at Honfleur, I am told, they can ride in

bold water, on a good bottom and near the shore at all times.

These facts may, perhaps, throw some light on the question in which,

for the good of both countries, you are pleased to interest yourself.

I take the liberty, therefore, of barely mentioning them, and with the

more pleasure, as it furnishes me an occasion of assuring you of those

sentiments of respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, your

most obedient, humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR DE CREVE-COEUR.

PARIS, January 15, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I see by the Journal of this morning, that they are robbing

us of another of our inventions to give it to the English. The writer,

indeed, only admits them to have revived what he thinks was known to the

Greeks, that is, the making the circumference of a wheel of one single

piece. The farmers in New Jersey were the first who practised it, and

they practised it commonly. Dr. Franklin, in one of his trips to London,

mentioned this practice to the man now in London, who has the patent

for making those wheels. The idea struck him. The Doctor promised to go

to his shop, and assist him in trying to make the wheel of one piece.

The Jersey farmers do it by cutting a young sapling, and bending it,

while green and juicy, into a circle; and leaving it so until it becomes

perfectly seasoned. But in London there are no saplings. The difficulty

was, then, to give to old wood the pliancy of young. The Doctor and the

workman labored together some weeks, and succeeded; and the man obtained

a patent for it, which has made his fortune. I was in his shop in London,

he told me the whole story himself, and acknowledged, not only the origin

of the idea, but how much the assistance of Dr. Franklin had contributed

to perform the operation on dry wood. He spoke of him with love and

gratitude. I think I have had a similar account from Dr. Franklin, but

cannot be quite certain. I know, that being in Philadelphia when the

first set of patent wheels arrived from London, and were spoken of by the

gentleman (an Englishman) who brought them, as a wonderful discovery, the

idea of its being a new discovery was laughed at by the Philadelphians,

who, in their Sunday parties across the Delaware, had seen every farmer's

cart mounted on such wheels. The writer in the paper, supposes the English

workman got his idea from Homer. But it is more likely the Jersey farmer

got his idea from thence, because ours are the only farmers who can read

Homer; because, too, the Jersey practice is precisely that stated by

Homer: the English practice very different. Homer's words are (comparing a

young hero killed by Ajax to a poplar felled by a workman) literally thus:

"He fell on the ground, like a poplar, which has grown smooth, in the west

part of a great meadow; with its branches shooting from its summit. But

the chariot maker, with the sharp axe, has felled it, that he may bend a

wheel for a beautiful chariot. It lies drying on the banks of the river."

Observe the circumstances which coincide with the Jersey practice. 1. It

is a tree growing in a moist place, full of juices and easily bent. 2. It

is cut while green. 3. It is bent into the circumference of a wheel. 4.

It is left to dry in that form. You, who write French well and readily,

should write a line for the Journal, to reclaim the honor of our farmers.

Adieu. Yours affectionately.

TO COLONEL EDWARD CARRINGTON.

PARIS, January 16, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--Uncertain whether you might be at New York at the moment of

Colonel Franks' arrival, I have enclosed my private letters for Virginia

under cover to our delegation in general, which otherwise I would have

taken the liberty to enclose particularly to you, as best acquainted with

the situation of the persons to whom they are addressed. Should this find

you at New York, I will still ask your attention to them.

In my letter to Mr. Jay, I have mentioned the meeting of the Notables,

appointed for the 29th instant. It is now put off to the 7th or 8th of

next month. This event, which will hardly excite any attention in America,

is deemed here the most important one which has taken place in their civil

line during the present century. Some promise their country great things

from it, some nothing. Our friend de La Fayette was placed on the list

originally. Afterwards his name disappeared, but finally was reinstated.

This shows that his character here is not considered as an indifferent

one, and that it excites agitation. His education in our school has drawn

on him a very jealous eye from a court whose principles are the most

absolute despotism. But I hope he has nearly passed his crisis. The King,

who is a good man, is favorably disposed towards him, and he is supported

by powerful family connections and by the public good will. He is the

youngest man of the Notables except one whose office placed him on the

list.

The Count de Vergennes has within these ten days had a very severe attack

of what is deemed an unfixed gout. He has been well enough, however, to do

business to-day. But anxieties for him are not yet quieted. He is a great

and good minister, and an accident to him might endanger the peace of

Europe.

The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an

unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not. On the

contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to have given more

confidence in the firmness of our governments. The interposition of the

people themselves on the side of government has had a great effect on the

opinion here. I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people

will always be found to be the best army. They may be led astray for a

moment, but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors

of their governors; and even their errors will tend to keep these to the

true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely

would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to

prevent these irregular interpositions of the people, is to give them full

information of their affairs through the channel of the public papers,

and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the

people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people,

the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to

me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or

newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer

the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers,

and be capable of reading them. I am convinced that those societies (as

the Indians) which live without government, enjoy in their general mass

an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the

European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of

law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among

the latter, under pretence of governing, they have divided their nations

into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true

picture of Europe. Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep

alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim

them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public

affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors,

shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in

spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the

only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term

to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the

poor. The want of news has led me into disquisition instead of narration,

forgetting you have every day enough of that. I shall be happy to hear

from you sometimes, only observing that whatever passes through the post

is read, and that when you write what should be read by myself only, you

must be so good as to confide your letter to some passenger, or officer of

the packet. I will ask your permission to write to you sometimes, and to

assure you of the esteem and respect with which I have honor to be, dear

Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DU RIVAL.

PARIS, January 17, 1787.

SIR,--You were pleased, in behalf of a friend, to ask information of me

on the subject of the money of the United States of America, and I had

the honor of informing you, by letter of November 7, that no regulations

of their coin had then been made by Congress, as far as I knew. They

had, however, entered into resolutions on that subject, which have since

come to hand. A translation of these will be found in the Leyden Gazette

of some few weeks ago. But it will be necessary to make the following

corrections in the Gazette:

The Gazette dates the resolutions October 10; but they were of August 8.

It gives only 365.64 grains of pure silver to the dollar; it should be

375.64. It states the pound of silver, with its alloy, to be worth 9.99

dollars only, whereas it is fixed at 13.777 dollars; and the pound of

gold, with its alloy, being worth 209.77 dollars, gives the proportion

of silver to gold as 1 to 15.225. These corrections being made, the

resolutions as stated in the Leyden Gazette may be confided in.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and

most humble servant.

TO MESSRS. S. AND J. H. DELAP.

PARIS, January 17, 1787.

GENTLEMEN,--I am honored this day by the receipt of your letter of the

6th instant. Having nothing to do with the matters of account of the

United States in Europe, it is out of my power to say anything to you as

to the payment of the balance due to you. Yet I think it would be proper

for you to write to the "Commissioners of the Treasury," at New York, on

this subject. They are the persons who are to pay it; and as their Board

has been created since the debt was contracted, they may possibly need

information on the subject.

As to your loan office certificates, you would do well to commit them

to some correspondent in America. They will be settled by the table

of depreciation at their true worth in gold or silver at the time the

paper dollars were lent. On that true value the interest has been paid,

and continues to be paid to the creditors annually in America. That the

principal will also be paid, is as sure as any future fact can be. The

epoch is not fixed. It is expected that the State of New York will shortly

accede to the impost which has been proposed. When that shall be done,

that impost will suffice to pay the interest, and sink the principal in a

very few years. I have the honor to be, with much respect. Gentlemen, your

most obedient humble servant.

TO M. SOULÉS.

PARIS, January 19, 1787.

SIR,--I have the honor of enclosing to you the sheets on the subject of

Wyoming. I have had a long conversation with M. Creve-coeur on them. He

knows well that canton. He was in the neighborhood of the place when it

was destroyed, saw great numbers of the fugitives, aided them with his

wagons, and had the story from all their mouths. He committed notes to

writing at the moment, which are now in Normandy, at his father's. He

has written for them, and they will be here in five or six days, when he

promises to put them into my hands. He says there will be a great deal to

alter in your narration, and that it must assume a different face, more

favorable both to the British and Indians. His veracity may be relied on,

and I told him I was sure your object was truth; and, to render your work

estimable by that character, that I thought you would wait, and readily

make any changes upon evidence which should be satisfactory to you. The

moment I receive his notes I will communicate them to you, and have the

honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO M. HILLIARD D'AUBERTEUIL.

PARIS, January 27, 1787.

SIR,--I duly received the letter you did me the honor to write, and the

verses therein enclosed on the subject of M. de La Fayette. I have taken

measures to present the public with this acceptable present; but the

newspapers here are slow in complying with the applications addressed

to them. It is not for a stranger to decide on the merits of poetry in a

language foreign to him. Were I to presume to do it in this instance, I

should certainly assign to this composition a high degree of approbation.

I wish it were in my power to furnish you with any materials for the

history on which you are engaged, but I brought no papers of that kind

with me from America. In a letter you did me the honor of writing me

sometime ago, you seemed to suppose you might go to America in quest of

materials. Should you execute this idea, I should with great pleasure

give any assistance in my power to obtain access for you to the several

deposits of materials which are in that country. I have the honor to be,

with great respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO CHEVALIER DE SEGOND.

PARIS, January 27, 1787.

SIR,--I have duly received the letter with which you have been pleased

to honor me, complaining of the non-payment of interest on the sum due

to you from the United States. I feel with great sensibility the weight

of these complaints; but it is neither in my province, nor in my power,

to remedy them. I am noways authorized to interfere with the money

matters of the United States in Europe. These rest altogether between

the Commissioners of the Treasury of the United States at New York and

their bankers in Europe. Being informed, however, from Mr. Grand, that the

funds appropriated to the payment of the foreign officers were exhausted,

I took the liberty of representing strongly to the Commissioners the

motives which should urge them to furnish new supplies. They assured me,

in answer, that they would do it at the first moment it should be in their

power. I am perfectly persuaded they will; however, I shall immediately

forward to them the letter you have been pleased to address to me; and

will observe to you, that it is to them alone, or to Congress, to whom you

can make any future applications with effect.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and

most humble servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.[C]

PARIS, January 30, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--My last to you was of the 16th of December; since which, I have

received yours of November the 25th, and December the 4th, which afforded

me, as your letters always do, a treat on matters public, individual and

economical. I am impatient to learn your sentiments on the late troubles

in the eastern States. So far as I have yet seen, they do not appear to

threaten serious consequences. Those States have suffered by the stoppage

of the channels of their commerce, which have not yet found other issues.

This must render money scarce, and make the people uneasy. This uneasiness

has produced acts absolutely unjustifiable; but I hope they will provoke

no severities from their governments. A consciousness of those in power

that their administration of the public affairs has been honest, may,

perhaps, produce too great a degree of indignation; and those characters,

wherein fear predominates over hope, may apprehend too much from these

instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily, that nature

has formed man insusceptible of any other government than that of force,

a conclusion not founded in truth nor experience. Societies exist under

three forms, sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as

among our Indians. 2. Under governments, wherein the will of every one

has a just influence; as is the case in England, in a slight degree,

and in our States, in a great one. 3. Under governments of force; as is

the case in all other monarchies, and in most of the other republics.

To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must

be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not

clear in my mind, that the first condition is not the best. But I believe

it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second

state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that,

enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils,

too; the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But

weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing.

_Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem._ Even this evil

is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and

nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it, that

a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in

the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions,

indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people,

which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render

honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as

not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound

health of government.

If these transactions give me no uneasiness, I feel very differently at

another piece of intelligence, to wit, the possibility that the navigation

of the Mississippi may be abandoned to Spain. I never had any interest

westward of the Alleghany; and I never will have any. But I have had

great opportunities of knowing the character of the people who inhabit

that country; and I will venture to say, that the act which abandons the

navigation of the Mississippi is an act of separation between the eastern

and western country. It is a relinquishment of five parts out of eight,

of the territory of the United States; an abandonment of the fairest

subject for the payment of our public debts, and the chaining those debts

on our own necks, _in perpetuum_. I have the utmost confidence in the

honest intentions of those who concur in this measure; but I lament their

want of acquaintance with the character and physical advantages of the

people, who, right or wrong, will suppose their interests sacrificed on

this occasion, to the contrary interests of that part of the confederacy

in possession of present power. If they declare themselves a separate

people, we are incapable of a single effort to retain them. Our citizens

can never be induced, either as militia or as soldiers, to go there to cut

the throats of their own brothers and sons, or rather, to be themselves

the subjects, instead of the perpetrators of the parricide. Nor would

that country quit the cost of being retained against the will of its

inhabitants, could it be done. But it cannot be done. They are able

already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi out of the hands of

Spain, and to add New Orleans to their own territory. They will be joined

by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring on a war between them

and Spain; and that will produce the question with us, whether it will

not be worth our while to become parties with them in the war, in order to

re-unite them with us, and thus correct our error? And were I to permit my

forebodings to go one step further, I should predict that the inhabitants

of the United States would force their rulers to take the affirmative of

that question. I wish I may be mistaken in all these opinions.

We have, for some time, expected that the Chevalier de La Luzerne would

obtain a promotion in the diplomatic line, by being appointed to some

of the courts where this country keeps an ambassador. But none of the

vacancies taking place, which had been counted on, I think the present

disposition is, to require his return to his station in America. He told

me himself, lately, that he should return in the spring. I have never

pressed this matter on the court, though I knew it to be desirable and

desired on our part; because, if the compulsion on him to return had been

the work of Congress, he would have returned in such ill temper with them,

as to disappoint them in the good they expected from it. He would forever

have laid at their door his failure of promotion. I did not press it for

another reason, which is, that I have great reason to believe that the

character of the Count de Moutier, who would go, were the Chevalier to

be otherwise provided for, would give the most perfect satisfaction in

America.

As you have now returned into Congress, it will become of importance

that you should form a just estimate of certain public characters: on

which, therefore, I will give you such notes, as my knowledge of them

has furnished me with. You will compare them with the materials you are

otherwise possessed of, and decide on a view of the whole.

You know the opinion I formerly entertained of my friend, Mr. Adams. * * *

and the Governor were the first who shook that opinion. I afterwards saw

proofs which convicted him of a degree of vanity, and of a blindness to

it, of which no germ appeared in Congress. A seven months' intimacy with

him here, and as many weeks' in London, have given me opportunities of

studying him closely. He is vain, irritable, and a bad calculator of the

force and probable effect of the motives which govern men. This is all the

ill which can possibly be said of him. He is as disinterested as the being

who made him: he is profound in his views; and accurate in his judgment,

except where knowledge of the world is necessary to form a judgment. He

is so amiable, that I pronounce you will love him, if ever you become

acquainted with him. He would be, as he was, a great man in Congress.

Mr. Carmichael, is, I think, very little known in America. I never saw

him, and while I was in Congress I formed rather a disadvantageous idea

of him. His letters, received then, showed him vain, and more attentive to

ceremony and etiquette, than we suppose men of sense should be. I have now

a constant correspondence with him, and find him a little hypochondriac

and discontented. He possesses a very good understanding, though not of

the first order. I have had great opportunities of searching into his

character, and have availed myself of them. Many persons of different

nations, coming from Madrid to Paris, all speak of him as in high esteem,

and I think it certain that he has more of the Count de Florida Blanca's

friendship, than any diplomatic character at that court. As long as this

minister is in office, Carmichael can do more than any other person who

could be sent there.

You will see Franks, and doubtless he will be asking some appointment. I

wish there may be any one for which he is fit. He is light, indiscreet,

active, honest, affectionate. Though Bingham is not in diplomatic office,

yet as he wishes to be so, I will mention such circumstances of him, as

you might otherwise be deceived in. He will make you believe he was on the

most intimate footing with the first characters in Europe, and versed in

the secrets of every cabinet. Not a word of this is true. He had a rage

for being presented to great men, and had no * * * in the methods by which

he could effect it. * * * * *

The Marquis de La Fayette is a most valuable auxiliary to me. His zeal

is unbounded, and his weight with those in power, great. His education

having been merely military, commerce was an unknown field to him. But his

good sense enabling him to comprehend perfectly whatever is explained to

him, his agency has been very efficacious. He has a great deal of sound

genius, is well remarked by the King, and rising in popularity. He has

nothing against him, but the suspicion of republican principles. I think

he will one day be of the ministry. His foible is, a canine appetite for

popularity and fame; but he will get above this. _The Count de Vergennes_

is _ill_. The possibility of his _recovery_, renders it dangerous for us

to express a doubt of it; but he is in danger. He is a great minister in

European affairs, but has very imperfect ideas of our _institutions_, and

no confidence in them. His devotion to the principles of pure despotism,

renders him unaffectionate to our governments. But his fear of England

makes him value us as a make weight. He is cool, reserved in political

conversations, but free and familiar on other subjects, and a very

attentive, agreeable person to do business with. It is impossible to have

a clearer, better organized head; but age has chilled his heart.

Nothing should be spared, on our part, to attach this country to us.

It is the only one on which we can rely for support, under every event.

Its inhabitants love us more, I think, than they do any other nation on

earth. This is very much the effect of the good dispositions with which

the French officers returned. In a former letter, I mentioned to you the

dislocation of my wrist. I can make not the least use of it, except for

the single article of writing, though it is going on five months since the

accident happened. I have great anxieties, lest I should never recover

any considerable use of it. I shall, by the advice of my surgeons, set

out in a fortnight for the waters of Aix, in Provence. I chose these out

of several they proposed to me, because if they fail to be effectual, my

journey will not be useless altogether. It will give me an opportunity

of examining the canal of Languedoc, and of acquiring knowledge of

that species of navigation, which may be useful hereafter; but more

immediately, it will enable me to make the tour of the ports concerned

in commerce with us, to examine, on the spot, the defects of the late

regulations respecting our commerce, to learn the further improvements

which may be made in it, and on my return, to get this business finished.

I shall be absent between two and three months, unless anything happens

to recall me here sooner, which may always be effected in ten days, in

whatever part of my route I may be.

In speaking of characters, I omitted those of Reyneval and Hennin, the two

eyes of Count de Vergennes. The former is the most important character,

because possessing the most of the confidence of the Count. He is rather

cunning than wise, his views of things being neither great nor liberal.

He governs himself by principles which he has learned by rote, and is fit

only for the details of execution. His heart is susceptible of little

passions, but not of good ones. He is brother-in-law to M. Gerard,

from whom he received disadvantageous impressions of us, which cannot

be effaced. He has much duplicity. Hennin is a philosopher, sincere,

friendly, liberal, learned, beloved by everybody; the other by nobody. I

think it a great misfortune that the United States are in the department

of the former. As particulars of this kind may be useful to you, in your

present situation, I may hereafter continue the chapter. I know it will be

safely lodged in your discretion.

Feb. 5. Since writing thus far, Franks has returned from England. I

learn that Mr. Adams desires to be recalled, and that Smith should be

appointed chargé des affaires there. It is not for me to decide whether

any diplomatic character should be kept at a court, which keeps none with

us. You can judge of Smith's abilities by his letters. They are not of

the first order, but they are good. For his honesty, he is like our friend

Monroe; turn his soul wrong side outwards, and there is not a speck on it.

He has one foible, an excessive inflammability of temper, but he feels it

when it comes on, and has resolution enough to suppress it, and to remain

silent till it passes over.

I send you, by Colonel Franks, your pocket telescope, walking stick and

chemical box. The two former could not be combined together. The latter

could not be had in the form you referred to. Having a great desire

to have a portable copying machine, and being satisfied, from some

experiments, that the principle of the large machine might be applied in

a small one, I planned one when in England, and had it made. It answers

perfectly. I have since set a workman to making them here, and they are

in such demand that he has his hands full. Being assured that you will be

pleased to have one, when you shall have tried its convenience, I send you

one by Colonel Franks. The machine costs ninety-six livres, the appendages

twenty-four livres, and I send you paper and ink for twelve livres;

in all, one hundred and thirty-two livres. There is a printed paper of

directions; but you must expect to make many essays before you succeed

perfectly. A soft brush, like a shaving brush, is more convenient than

the sponge. You can get as much ink and paper as you please from London.

The paper costs a guinea a ream. I am, dear Sir, with sincere esteem and

affection, your most obedient humble servant.

[C] [The latter part of this letter is in cypher; but appended to

the copy preserved, are explanatory notes, which have enabled us

to publish it entire, except a few words, to which they afford no

key. These are either marked thus * * *, or the words which the

context seemed to require, inserted in italics.]

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, February 1, 1787.

SIR,--My last letters were of the 31st of December, and 9th of January;

since which last date, I have been honored with yours of December the 13th

and 14th. I shall pay immediate attention to your instructions relative

to the South Carolina frigate. I had the honor of informing you of an

improvement in the art of coining, made here by one Drost, and of sending

you, by Colonel Franks, a specimen of his execution in gold and silver. I

expected to have sent also a coin of copper. The enclosed note from Drost

will explain the reason why this was not sent. It will let you see also,

that he may be employed; as I suppose he is not so certain as he was of

being engaged here. Mr. Grand, who knows him, gives me reason to believe

he may be engaged reasonably. Congress will decide whether it be worth

their attention.