SIR,--When I wrote my letter of the 4th instant, I had no reason to doubt

that a packet would have sailed on the 10th, according to the established

order. The passengers had all, except one, gone down to Havre in this

expectation. However, none have sailed, and perhaps none will sail,

as I think the suppression of the packets is one of the economies in

contemplation. An American merchant, concerned in the commerce of the

whale oil, proposed to government to despatch his ships from Havre and

Boston at stated periods, and to take on board the French courier and

mail, and the proposition has been well enough received. I avail myself of

a merchant vessel going from Havre, to write the present.

In my letter of the 4th, I stated to you the symptoms which indicated

that government had some great stroke of authority in contemplation.

That night, they sent guards to seize Monsieur d'Epremenil and Monsieur

Goisland, two members of parliament, in their houses. They escaped,

and took sanctuary in the Palais (or parliament house). The parliament

assembled itself extraordinarily, summoned the Dukes and Peers specially,

and came to the resolution of the 5th, which they sent to Versailles by

deputies, determined not to leave the palace till they received an answer.

In the course of that night, a battalion of guards surrounded the house.

The two members were taken by the officers from among their fellows,

and sent off to prison, the one to Lyons, the other (d'Epremenil), the

most obnoxious, to an island in the Mediterranean. The parliament then

separated. On the 8th, a bed of justice was held at Versailles, wherein

were enregistered the six ordinances which had been passed in Council,

on the 1st of May, and which I now send you. They were in like manner

enregistered in beds of justice, on the same day, in nearly all the

parliaments of the kingdom. By these ordinances, 1. the criminal law is

reformed, by abolishing examination on the _sellette_, which, like our

holding up the hand at the bar, remained a stigma on the party, though

innocent; by substituting an oath, instead of torture, on the _question

prealable_, which is used after condemnation, to make the prisoner

discover his accomplices; (the torture abolished in 1789, was on the

_question preparatoire_, previous to judgment, in order to make the

prisoner accuse himself;) by allowing counsel to the prisoner for his

defence; obliging the judges to specify in their judgments the offence

for which he is condemned; and respiting execution a month, except in the

case of sedition. This reformation is unquestionably good, and within

the ordinary legislative powers of the crown. That it should remain to

be made at this day, proves that the monarch is the last person in his

kingdom, who yields to the progress of philanthropy and civilization.

2. The organization of the whole judiciary department is changed, by the

institution of subordinate jurisdictions, the taking from the parliaments

the cognizance of all causes of less value than twenty thousand livres,

reducing their numbers to about a fourth, and suppressing a number of

special courts. Even this would be a great improvement, if it did not

imply that the King is the only person in this nation who has any rights

or any power. 3. The right of registering the laws is taken from the

parliaments, and transferred to a Plenary court, created by the King.

This last is the measure most obnoxious to all persons. Though the members

are to be for life, yet a great proportion of them are from descriptions

of men always candidates for the royal favor in other lines. As yet, the

general consternation has not sufficiently passed over, to say whether

the matter will end here. I send you some papers, which indicate symptoms

of resistance. These are, the resolution of the Noblesse of Brittany, the

declaration of the Advocate General of Provence, which is said to express

the spirit of that province; and the _Arret_ of the Chatelet, which is the

hustings court of the city of Paris. Their refusal to act under the new

character assigned them, and the suspension of their principal functions,

are very embarrassing. The clamors this will excite, and the disorders

it may admit, will be loud, and near to the royal ear and person. The

parliamentary fragments permitted to remain, have already, some of

them, refused, and probably all will refuse, to act under that form.

The Assembly of the clergy, which happens to be sitting, have addressed

the King to call the States General immediately. Of the Dukes and Peers

(thirty-eight in number), nearly half are either minors or superannuated;

two-thirds of the acting part seem disposed to avoid taking a part; the

rest, about eight or nine, have refused, by letters to the King, to act

in the new courts. A proposition excited among the Dukes and Peers, to

assemble and address the King for a modification of the Plenary court,

seems to show that the government would be willing to compromise on that

head. It has been prevented by the Dukes and Peers in opposition, because

they suppose that no modification to be made by the government will give

to that body the form they desire, which is that of a representative of

the nation. They foresee that if the government is forced to this, they

will call them, as nearly as they can, in the ancient forms; in which

case, less good will be to be expected from them. But they hope they

may be got to concur in a declaration of rights, at least, so that the

nation may be acknowledged to have some fundamental rights, not alterable

by their ordinary legislature, and that this may form a ground work for

future improvements. These seem to be the views of the most enlightened

and disinterested characters of the opposition. But they may be frustrated

by the nation's making no cry at all, or by a hasty and premature appeal

to arms. There is neither head nor body in the nation to promise a

successful opposition to two hundred thousand regular troops. Some think

the army could not be depended on by the government; but the breaking

men to military discipline, is breaking their spirits to principles of

passive obedience. A firm, but quiet opposition will be the most likely

to succeed. Whatever turn this crisis takes, a revolution in their

constitution seems inevitable, unless foreign war supervene, to suspend

the present contest. And a foreign war they will avoid, if possible, from

an inability to get money. The loan of one hundred and twenty millions, of

the present year, is filled up by such subscriptions as may be relied on.

But that of eighty millions, proposed for the next year, cannot be filled

up in the actual situation of things.

The Austrians have been successful in an attack upon Schabatz, intended as

a preliminary to that of Belgrade. In that on Dubitza, another town in the

neighborhood of Belgrade, they have been repulsed, and, as is suspected,

with considerable loss. It is still supposed the Russian fleet will go

into the Mediterranean, though it will be much retarded by the refusal of

the English government, to permit its sailors to engage in the voyage.

Sweden and Denmark are arming from eight to twelve ships of the line

each. The English and Dutch treaties you will find in the Leyden gazettes

of May the 9th and 13th. That between England and Prussia is supposed to

be stationary. Monsieur de St. Priest, the ambassador from this court to

the Hague, has either gone, or is on the point of going. The Emperor of

Morocco has declared war against England. I enclose you his orders in our

favor on that occasion. England sends a squadron to the Mediterranean for

the protection of her commerce, and she is reinforcing her possessions

in the two Indies. France is expecting the arrival of an embassy from

Tippoo Saib, is sending some regiments to the West Indies, and a fleet of

evolution into the Atlantic. Seven ships of the line and several frigates

sailed from Cadiz on the 22d of April, destined to perform evolutions off

the western islands, as the Spaniards say, but really to their American

possessions, as is suspected. Thus the several powers are, by little and

little, taking the position of war, without an immediate intention of

waging it. But that the present ill humor will finally end in war, is

doubted by nobody.

In my letter of February the 5th, I had the honor of informing you of

the discontent produced by our _Arret_ of December the 29th, among the

merchants of this country, and of the deputations from the chambers of

commerce to the minister on that subject. The articles attacked were

the privileges on the sale of our ships, and the entrepôt for codfish.

The former I knew to be valuable; the latter I supposed not so; because

during the whole of the time we have had our free ports in this kingdom,

we have never used them for the smuggling of fish. I concluded, therefore,

the ports of entrepôt would not be used for that purpose. I saw that

the ministers would sacrifice something to quiet the merchants, and was

glad to save the valuable article relative to our ships, by abandoning

the useless one for our codfish. It was settled, therefore, in our

conferences, that an _Arret_ should be passed, abridging the former one

only as to the entrepôt of codfish. I was in Holland when the _Arret_ came

out; and did not get a copy of it till yesterday. Surprised to find that

fish oil was thereby also excluded from the entrepôt, I have been to-day

to make some inquiry into the cause; and from what I can learn, I conclude

it must have been a mere error in the clerk who formed the _Arret_, and

that it escaped attention on its passage. The entrepôt of whale oil was

not objected to by a single deputy at the conferences, and the excluding

it is contrary to the spirit of encouragement the ministers have shown a

disposition to give. I trust, therefore, I may get it altered on the first

occasion which occurs, and I believe one will soon occur. In the meantime

we do not store a single drop for re-exportation, as all which comes here

is needed for the consumption of this country: which will alone, according

to appearances, become so considerable as to require all we can produce.

By a letter of the 8th instant, from our bankers, I learn that they had

disposed of bonds enough to pay our June interest, and to replace the

temporary advances made by Mr. Grand, and from a fund placed here by the

State of Virginia. I have desired them, accordingly, to replace these

moneys, which had been lent for the moment only, and in confidence of

immediate repayment. They add that the payment of the June interest and

the news from America, will, as they trust, enable them to place the

remaining bonds of the last year's million. I suppose, indeed, that there

is no doubt of it, and that none would have been expressed, if those two

houses could draw better together than they do. In the meantime, I hope

the treasury board will send an order for so much as may be necessary for

executing the purposes of Congress, as to our captives at Algiers.

I send you herewith a Memoire of Monsieur Caseaux, whose name is familiar

on the journals of Congress. He prepared it to be delivered to the King,

but I believe he will think better, and not deliver it. The gazettes of

France and Leyden accompany this. I have the honor to be, Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.

P. S. _May 27, 1788._ I have kept my letter open to the moment of Mr.

Warville's departure, (he being the bearer of it,) that I might add any

new incidents that should occur. The refusal of the Chatelet and Grande

Chambre of Paris to act in the new character assigned them, continues.

Many of the _grandes bailliages_ accept, some conditionally, some fully.

This will facilitate greatly the measures of government, and may possibly

give them a favorable issue. The parliament of Thoulouse, considering the

edicts as nullities, went on with their business They have been exiled

in consequence. Monsieur de St. Priest left Paris for the Hague, on the

23d. I mention this fact, because it denotes the acquiescence of this

government in the late revolution there. A second division of a Spanish

fleet will put to sea soon. Its destination not declared. Sweden is arming

to a greater extent than was at first supposed. From twelve to sixteen

sail of the line are spoken of, on good grounds. Denmark, for her own

security, must arm in proportion to this.

TO JOHN BROWN.

PARIS, May 26, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--It was with great pleasure I saw your name on the roll of

Delegates, but I did not know you had actually come on to New York, till

Mr. Paradise informed me of it. Your removal from Carolina to Kentucky,

was not an indifferent event to me. I wish to see that country in the

hands of people well disposed, who know the value of the connection

between that and the maritime States, and who wish to cultivate it. I

consider their happiness as bound up together, and that every measure

should be taken, which may draw the bands of union tighter. It will be

an efficacious one to receive them into Congress, as I perceive they are

about to desire. If to this be added an honest and disinterested conduct

in Congress, as to everything relating to them, we may hope for a perfect

harmony. The navigation of the Mississippi was, perhaps, the strongest

trial to which the justice of the federal government could be put. If ever

they thought wrong about it, I trust they have got to rights. I should

think it proper for the western country to defer pushing their right to

that navigation to extremity, as long as they can do without it tolerably;

but that the moment it becomes absolutely necessary for them, it will

become the duty of the maritime States to push it to every extremity,

to which they would their own right of navigating the Chesapeake, the

Delaware, the Hudson, or any other water. A time of peace will not be the

surest for obtaining this object. Those, therefore, who have influence

in the new country, would act wisely to endeavor to keep things quiet

till the western parts of Europe shall be engaged in war. Notwithstanding

the aversion of the courts of London and Versailles to war, it is not

certain that some incident may not engage them in it. England, France,

Spain, Russia, Sweden and Denmark will all have fleets at sea, or ready

to put to sea immediately. Who can answer for the prudence of all their

officers? War is their interest. Even their courts are pacific from

impotence only, not from disposition. I wish to heaven that our new

government may see the importance of putting themselves immediately into

a respectable position. To make provision for the speedy payment of their

foreign debts, will be the first operation necessary. This will give

them credit. A concomitant one should be magazines and manufactures of

arms. This country is at present in a crisis of very uncertain issue.

I am in hopes it will be a favorable one to the rights and happiness of

the people; and that this will take place quietly. Small changes in the

late regulations will render them wholly good. The campaign opens between

the Turks and the two empires, with an aspect rather favorable to the

former. The Russians seem not yet thawed from the winter's torpitude.

They have no army yet in motion; and the Emperor has been worsted in

two-thirds of the small actions which they have had as yet. He is said

to be rather retiring. I do not think, however, that the success of the

Turks in the partisan affairs which have taken place, can authorize us to

presume that they will be superior also in great decisions. Their want

of discipline and skill in military manœuvres, is of little consequence

in small engagements, and of great in larger ones. Their grand army was

at Adrianople by the last accounts, and to get from thence to Belgrade,

will require a month. It will be that time at least, then, before we can

have any very interesting news from them. In the meantime the plague rages

at Constantinople to a terrible degree. I cannot think but that it would

be desirable to all commercial nations, to have that nation and all its

dependencies driven from the sea-coast into the interior parts of Asia and

Africa. What a field would thus be restored to commerce! The finest parts

of the old world are now dead, in a great degree, to commerce, to arts,

to science and to society. Greece, Syria, Egypt and the northern coast

of Africa, constituted the whole world almost, for the Romans, and to us

they are scarcely known, scarcely accessible at all. The present summer

will enable us to judge what turn this contest will take. I am greatly

anxious to hear that nine States accept our new constitution. We must be

contented to accept of its good, and to cure what is evil in it hereafter.

It seems necessary for our happiness at home; I am sure it is so for our

respectability abroad. I shall, at all times, be glad to hear from you,

from New York, from Kentucky, or whatever region of the earth you inhabit;

being with sentiments of very sincere esteem and attachment, dear Sir,

your friend and servant.

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

PARIS, May 27, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--Your favors of April the 14th and 29th, and May the 8th, have

lately come to hand. That of January the 29th, by M. de Molinedo, had been

left here during my absence on a journey to Amsterdam. That gentleman

had gone, as I presume, before my return, from my being unable to learn

anything of him.

* * * * *

With respect to the Isthmus of Panama, I am assured by Burgoine, (who

would not choose to be named, however,) that a survey was made, that a

canal appeared very practicable, and that the idea was suppressed for

political reasons altogether. He has seen and minutely examined the

report. This report is to me a vast desideratum, for reasons political

and philosophical. I cannot help suspecting the Spanish squadron to be

gone to South America, and that some disturbances have been excited there

by the British. The court of Madrid may suppose we would not see this

with an unwilling eye. This may be true as to the uninformed part of our

people; but those who look into futurity farther than the present moment

or age, and who combine well what is, with what is to be, must see that

our interests, well understood, and our wishes are, that Spain shall

(not forever, but) very long retain her possessions in that quarter;

and that her views and ours must, in a good degree, and for a long time,

concur. It is said in our gazettes, that the Spaniards have sunk one of

our boats on the Mississippi, and that our people retaliated on one of

theirs. But my letters not mentioning this fact, has made me hope it

is not true, in which hope your letter confirms me. There are now one

hundred thousand inhabitants in Kentucky. They have accepted the offer

of independence, on the terms proposed by Virginia, and they have decided

that their independent government shall begin on the first day of the next

year. In the meantime, they claim admittance into Congress. Georgia has

ceded her western territory to the United States, to take place with the

commencement of the new federal government. I do not know the boundaries.

There has been some dispute of etiquette with the new French minister,

which has disgusted him.

The following is a state of the progress and prospects of the new plan of

government. * * * * * *

The conduct of Massachusetts has been noble. She accepted the

constitution, but voted that it should stand as a perpetual instruction

to her Delegates, to endeavor to obtain such and such reformations; and

the minority, though very strong both in numbers and abilities, declared

_viritim_ and _seriatim_, that acknowledging the principle that the

majority must give the law, they would now support the new constitution

with their tongues, and with their blood, if necessary. I was much pleased

with many and essential parts of this instrument, from the beginning. But

I thought I saw in it many faults, great and small. What I have read and

reflected has brought me over from several of my objections of the first

moment, and to acquiesce under some others. Two only remain, of essential

consideration, to wit, the want of a bill of rights, and the expunging

the principle of necessary rotation in the offices of President and

Senator. At first, I wished that when nine States should have accepted the

constitution, so as to insure us what is good in it, the other four might

hold off till the want of the bill of rights, at least, might be supplied.

But I am now convinced that the plan of Massachusetts is the best, that

is, to accept, and to amend afterwards. If the States which were to decide

after her, should all do the same, it is impossible but they must obtain

the essential amendments. It will be more difficult, if we lose this

instrument, to recover what is good in it, than to correct what is bad,

after we shall have adopted it. It has, therefore, my hearty prayers, and

I wait with anxiety for news of the votes of Maryland, South Carolina,

and Virginia. There is no doubt that General Washington will accept the

presidentship; though he is silent on the subject. He would not be chosen

to the Virginia convention. A riot has taken place in New York, which I

will state to you from an eye witness. It has long been a practice with

the surgeons of that city, to steal from the grave bodies recently buried.

A citizen had lost his wife: he went the first or second evening after her

burial, to pay a visit to her grave. He found that it had been disturbed,

and suspected from what quarter. He found means to be admitted to the

anatomical lecture of that day, and on his entering the room, saw the body

of his wife, naked and under dissection. He raised the people immediately.

The body, in the meantime, was secreted. They entered into, and searched

the houses of the physicians whom they most suspected, but found nothing.

One of them, however, more guilty or more timid than the rest, took asylum

in the prison. The mob considered this an acknowledgment of guilt. They

attacked the prison. The Governor ordered militia to protect the culprit,

and suppress the mob. The militia, thinking the mob had just provocation,

refused to turn out. Hereupon the people of more reflection, thinking it

more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the

forms of law, than that he should escape, armed themselves, and went to

protect the physician. They were received by the mob with a volley of

stones, which wounded several of them. They hereupon fired on the mob, and

killed four. By this time, they received a reinforcement of other citizens

of the militia horse, the appearance of which, in the critical moment,

dispersed the mob. So ended this chapter of history, which I have detailed

to you, because it may be represented as a political riot, when politics

had nothing to do with it. Mr. Jay and Baron Steuben were both grievously

wounded in the head by stones. The former still kept his bed, and the

latter his room, when the packet sailed, which was the 24th of April.

I am, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

(Private.) PARIS, May 27, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--The change which is likely to take place in the form of our

government, seems to render it proper that during the existence of the

present government, an article should be mentioned which concerns me

personally. Uncertain, however, how far Congress may have decided to do

business when so near the close of their administration; less capable

than those on the spot of foreseeing the character of the new government;

and not fully confiding in my own judgment, where it is so liable to be

seduced by feeling, I take the liberty of asking your friendly counsel,

and that of my friend Mr. Madison, and of referring the matter to your

judgments and discretion.

Mr. Barclay, when in Europe, was authorized to settle all the European

accounts of the United States: he settled those of Dr. Franklin and

Mr. Adams, and it was intended between us, that he should settle mine.

But as what may be done at any time is often put off to the last, this

settlement had been made to give way to others, and that of Beaumarchais

being pressed on Mr. Barclay before his departure to Morocco, and having

long retarded his departure, it was agreed that my affair should await his

return from that mission; you know the circumstances which prevented his

return to Paris after that mission was finished. My account is therefore

unsettled, but I have no anxiety on any article of it, except one, that

is, the outfit. This consists of 1, clothes; 2, carriage and horses;

3, household furniture. When Congress made their first appointments of

ministers to be resident in Europe, I have understood (for I was not

then in Congress) that they allowed them all their expenses, and a fixed

sum over and above for their time. Among their expenses, was necessarily

understood their outfit. Afterwards, they thought proper to give them

fixed salaries of eleven thousand one hundred and eleven dollars and one

ninth, a year; and again, by a resolution of May the 6th and 8th, 1784,

the "_salaries_" of their ministers at foreign courts were reduced to

nine thousand dollars, to take place on the 1st of August ensuing. On the

7th of May, I was appointed, in addition to Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin,

for the negotiation of treaties of commerce; but this appointment being

temporary, for two years only, and not as of a resident minister, the

article of outfit did not come into question. I asked an advance of six

months' salary, that I might be in cash to meet the first expenses; which

was ordered. The year following, I was appointed to succeed Dr. Franklin

at this court. This was the first appointment of a minister resident,

since the original ones, under which all expenses were to be paid. So

much of the ancient regulation, as respected _annual expenses_ had been

altered to a sum certain; so much of it, as respected _first expenses_,

or _outfit_, remained unaltered; and I might therefore expect, that the

actual expenses for outfit were to be paid. When I prepared my account

for settlement with Mr. Barclay, I began a detail of the articles of

clothing, carriage, horses, and household furniture. I found that they

were numerous, minute, and incapable, from their nature, of being vouched;

and often entered in my memorandum book under a general head only, so

that I could not specify them. I found they would exceed a year's salary.

Supposing, therefore, that mine being the first case, Congress would make

a precedent of it, and prefer a sum fixed for the outfit as well as the

salary, I have charged it in my account at a year's salary; presuming

there can be no question that an outfit is a reasonable charge. It is the

usage here (and I suppose at all courts), that a minister resident, shall

establish his house in the first instant. If this is to be done out of

his salary, he will be a twelvemonth, at least, without a copper to live

on. It is the universal practice, therefore, of all nations, to allow the

outfit as a separate article from the salary. I have inquired here into

the usual amount of it. I find that, sometimes, the sovereign pays the

actual cost. This is particularly the case of the Sardinian ambassador now

coming here, who is to provide a service of plate, and every article of

furniture and other matters of first expense, to be paid for by his court.

In other instances, they give a service of plate, and a fixed sum for all

other articles, which fixed sum is in no case lower than a year's salary.

I desire no service of plate, having no ambition for splendor. My

furniture, carriage and apparel, are all plain, yet they have cost me

more than a year's salary. I suppose that in every country and in every

condition of life, a year's expense would be found a moderate measure for

the furniture of a man's house. It is not more certain to me, that the sun

will rise to-morrow, than that our government must allow the outfit, on

their future appointment of foreign ministers; and it would be hard on me,

so to stand between the discontinuance of a former rule, and institution

of a future one, as to have the benefit of neither. I know, I have so long

known the character of our federal head, in its present form, that I have

the most unlimited confidence in the justice of its decisions. I think I

am so far known to many of the present Congress, as that I may be cleared

of all views of making money out of any public employment, or desiring

anything beyond actual and decent expenses, proportioned to the station in

which they have been pleased to place me, and to the respect they would

wish to see attached to it. It would seem right, that they should decide

the claims of those who have acted under their administration, and their

pretermission of any article, might amount to a disallowance of it, in

the opinion of the new government. It would be painful to me, to meet that

government with a claim under this kind of cloud, and to pass it in review

before their several Houses of legislation, and boards of administration,

to whom I shall be unknown; and, being for money actually expended, it

would be too inconvenient to me to relinquish it in silence. I anxiously

ask it, therefore, to be decided on by Congress before they go out of

office, if it be not out of the line of proceeding they may have chalked

out for themselves. If it be against their inclination to determine it,

would it be agreeable to them to refer it to the new government, by some

resolution, which should show they have not meant to disallow it, by

passing it over? Not knowing the circumstances under which Congress may

exist and act at the moment you shall receive this, I am unable to judge

what should be done on this subject. It is therefore that I ask the aid of

your friendship and that of Mr. Madison, that you will do for me in this

regard, what you think it is right should be done, and what it would be

right for me to do, were I on the spot, or were I apprised of all existing

circumstances. Indeed, were you two to think my claim an improper one,

I would wish it to be suppressed, as I have so much confidence in your

judgment, that I should suspect my own in any case, where it varied from

yours, and more especially, in one where it is liable to be warped by

feeling. Give me leave, then, to ask your consultation with Mr. Madison

on this subject; and to assure you that whatever you are so good as to do

herein, will be perfectly approved, and considered as a great obligation

conferred on him, who has the honor to be, with sentiments of the most

perfect esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO COLONEL CARRINGTON.

PARIS, May 27, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--I have received with great pleasure your friendly letter

of April 24th. It has come to hand after I had written my letters for

the present conveyance, and just in time to add this to them. I learn

with great pleasure the progress of the new Constitution. Indeed I have

presumed it would gain on the public mind, as I confess it has on my own.

At first, though I saw that the great mass and groundwork was good, I

disliked many appendages. Reflection and discussion have cleared off most

of these. You have satisfied me as to the query I had put to you about

the right of direct taxation. My first wish was that nine States would

adopt it in order to ensure what was good in it, and that the others

might, by holding off, produce the necessary amendments. But the plan of

Massachusetts is far preferable, and will, I hope, be followed by those

who are yet to decide. There are two amendments only which I am anxious

for: 1. A bill of rights, which it is so much the interest of all to

have, that I conceive it must be yielded. The 1st amendment proposed by

Massachusetts will in some degree answer this end, but not so well. It

will do too much in some instances, and too little in others. It will

cripple the Federal Government in some cases where it ought to be free,

and not restrain in some others where restraint would be right. The 2d

amendment which appears to me essential is the restoring the principle of

necessary rotation, particularly to the Senate and Presidency: but most

of all to the last. Re-eligibility makes him an officer for life, and the

disasters inseparable from an elective monarchy, render it preferable

if we cannot tread back that step, that we should go forward and take

refuge in an hereditary one. Of the correction of this article, however,

I entertain no present hope, because I find it has scarcely excited an

objection in America. And if it does not take place erelong, it assuredly

never will. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and

government to gain ground. As yet our spirits are free. Our jealousy is

only put to sleep by the unlimited confidence we all repose in the person

to whom we all look as our president. After him inferior characters may

perhaps succeed, and awaken us to the danger which his merit has led

us into. For the present, however, the general adoption is to be prayed

for, and I wait with great anxiety for the news from Maryland and South

Carolina, which have decided before this, and with that Virginia, now

in session, may give the ninth vote of approbation. There could then be

no doubt of North Carolina, New York, and New Hampshire. But what do you

propose to do with Rhode Island? as long as there is hope we should give

her time. I cannot conceive but that she will come to rights in the long

run. Force, in whatever form, would be a dangerous precedent.

There are rumors that the Austrian army is obliged to retire a little;

that the Spanish squadron is gone to South America; that the English

have excited a rebellion there; and some others equally unauthenticated.

I do not mention them in my letter to Mr. Jay, because they are

unauthenticated. The bankruptcies in London have re-commenced with new

force. There is no saying where this fire will end, perhaps in the general

conflagration of all their paper. If not now, it must erelong. With only

twenty millions of coin, and three or four hundred millions of circulating

paper, public and private, nothing is necessary but a general panic,

produced either by failures, invasion, or any other cause, and the whole

visionary fabric vanishes into air, and shows that paper is poverty,

that it is only the ghost of money, and not money itself. One hundred

years ago, they had twenty odd millions of coin. Since that they have

brought in from Holland by borrowing forty millions more, yet they have

but twenty millions left, and they talk of being rich, and of having the

balance of trade in their favor. Paul Jones is invited into the Empress'

service, with the rank of rear Admiral, and to have a separate command.

I wish it corresponded with the views of Congress to give him that rank

from the taking of the Serapis. I look to this officer as our great future

dependence on the sea, where alone we should think of ever having a force.

He is young enough to see the day when we shall be more populous than the

whole British dominions, and able to fight them ship to ship. We should

procure him, then, every possible opportunity of acquiring experience.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem, dear

Sir, your friend and servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.[F]

PARIS, May 28, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--The enclosed letter for Mr. Jay, being of a private nature, I

have thought it better to put it under your cover, lest it might be opened

by some of his clerks, in the case of his absence. But I enclose a press

copy of it for yourself, as you will perceive the subject of it referred

to you, as well as to him. I ask your aid in it so far as you think right,

and to have done what you think right. If you will now be so good as to

cast your eye over the copy enclosed, what follows the present sentence,

will be some details, supplementary to that only, necessary for your

information, but not proper for me to state to Mr. Jay.

378,227,1247. though appointed a minister resident at the court of 514. he

never was 663. in that character. He was continually passing from 1042. to

514. and 514. to 1042. so that he had no occasion to establish a household

at either. Accordingly, he stayed principally in furnished lodgings. Of

all our ministers, he had the least occasion for an outfit, and I suppose,

spent almost nothing on that article. He was of a disposition, too, to

restrain himself within any limits of expense whatever, and it suited his

recluse turn, which is, to avoid society. Should he judge of what others

should do, by what he did, it would be an improper criterion. He was in

Europe as a _voyageur_ only, and it was while the salary was five hundred

guineas more than at present.

145.1267.1046.7. he came over when, instead of outfit and salary, all

expenses were paid. Of rigorous honesty, and careless of appearances, he

lived for a considerable time, as an economical private individual. After

he was fixed at 812.141. and the salary at a sum certain, he continued his

economical style, till out of the difference between his expenses and his

salary, he could purchase furniture for his house. This was the easier, as

the salary was at two thousand five hundred guineas then. He was obliged

too, to be passing between 1042. and 812.141. so as to avoid any regular

current of expenses. When he established himself, his pecuniary affairs

were under the direction of 964. 814.7.101.994. one of the most estimable

characters on earth, and the most attentive and honorable economists.

Neither had a wish to lay up a copper, but both wished to make both ends

meet. I suspected, however, from an expression dropped in conversation,

that they were not able to do this, and that a deficit in their accounts

appeared in their winding up. If this conjecture be true, it is a proof

that the salary, so far from admitting savings, is unequal to a very plain

style of life; for such was theirs. I presume Congress will be asked to

allow it, and it is evident to me, from what I saw while in 1093. that it

ought to be done, as they did not expend a shilling which should have been

avoided. Would it be more eligible to set the example of making good a

deficit, or to give him an outfit, which will cover it? The impossibility

of living on the sum allowed, respectably, was the true cause of his

insisting on his recall.

821.267.1292. He came over while all expenses were paid. He rented a house

with standing furniture, such as tables, chairs, presses, &c., and bought

all other necessaries. The latter were charged in his account, the former

was included in the article of house-rent, and paid during the whole time

of his stay here; and as the established rate of hire for furniture, is

from thirty to forty per cent. per annum, the standing furniture must have

been paid for three times over, during the eight years he stayed here. His

salary was two thousand five hundred guineas. When Congress reduced it to

less than two thousand, he refused to accede to it, asked his recall, and

insisted that whenever they chose to alter the conditions on which he came

out, if he did not approve of it, they ought to replace him in America on

the old conditions. He lived plainly, but as decently as his salary would

allow. He saved nothing, but avoided debt. He knew he could not do this on

the reduced salary, and therefore asked his recall with decision.

To 935.145. succeeded. He had established a certain style of living.

The same was expected from 1214. and there were five hundred guineas

a year less, to do it on. It has been aimed at, however, as far as was

practicable. This rendered it constantly necessary to step neither to

the right nor to the left, to incur any expense which could possibly be

avoided, and it called for an almost womanly attention to the details

of the household, equally perplexing, disgusting, and inconsistent with

business. You will be sensible, that in this situation, no savings could

be made for reimbursing the half year's salary, ordered to be advanced

under the former commission, and more than as much again, which was

unavoidably so applied without order, for the purchase of the outfit. The

reason of the thing, the usage of all nations, the usage of our own, by

paying all expenses of preceding ministers, which gave them the outfit, as

far as their circumstances appeared to them to render it necessary, have

made me take for granted all along, that it would not be refused to me;

nor should I have mentioned it now, but that the administration is passing

into other hands, and more complicated forms. It would be disagreeable to

me, to be presented to them in the first instance, as a suitor. Men come

into business at first, with visionary principles. It is practice alone,

which can correct and conform them to the actual current of affairs. In

the meantime, those to whom their errors were first applied, have been

their victims. The government may take up the project of appointing

foreign ministers without outfits, and they may ruin two or three

individuals, before they find that that article is just as indispensable

as the salary. They must then fall into the current of general usage,

which has become general, only because experience has established its

necessity. Upon the whole, be so good as to reflect on it, and to do,

not what your friendship to me, but your opinion of what is right shall

dictate. Accept, in all cases, assurances of the sincere esteem and

respect with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

[F] [It will be seen that a few words of this letter are in

cypher. It is published, however, as written, because enough of it

is literal to interest the reader, to whom also, a specimen of the

cypher used by the Author, may not be unacceptable.]

TO PETER CARR.

PARIS, May 28, 1788.

DEAR PETER,--The preceding letter[G] was written at its date, and I

supposed you in possession of it, when your letters of December the 10th,

1787, and March the 18th, 1788, told me otherwise. Still, I supposed it

on its way to you, when a few days ago, having occasion to look among

some papers in the drawer, where my letters are usually put away, till an

opportunity of sending them occurs, I found that this letter had slipped

among them, so that it had never been forwarded. I am sorry for it, on

account of the remarks relative to the Spanish language only. Apply to

that, with all the assiduity you can. That language and the English

covering nearly the whole face of America, they should be well known

to every inhabitant, who means to look beyond the limits of his farm.

I like well the distribution of your time, mentioned in your letter of

March the 18th; and the counsels of Mr. Wythe, so kindly extended to you,

leave it necessary for me to add nothing of that kind. Be assiduous in

learning, take much exercise for your health, and practice much virtue.

Health, learning and virtue, will insure your happiness; they will give

you a quiet conscience, private esteem and public honor. Beyond these, we

want nothing but physical necessaries, and they are easily obtained. My

daughters are well, and join me in love to yourself, your mother, brothers

and sisters. I am, with very sincere esteem, dear Peter, your affectionate

friend.

[G] [For the letter referred to, see ante, p. 237.]

TO THE COMTE DE BERNSTORFF.

PARIS, June 19, 1788.

I had the honor of addressing your Excellency, by Admiral Paul Jones, on

the 21st of January, on the subject of the prizes taken under his command

during the late war, and sent into Bergen. I communicated, at the same

time, a copy of the powers which the Congress of the United States of

America had been pleased to confide to me therein, having previously shown

the original to the Baron Blome, envoy extraordinary of his Majesty, the

King of Denmark, at this court; and I furnished, at the same time, to

Admiral Paul Jones, such authority as I was empowered to delegate, for

the arrangement of this affair. That officer has transmitted me a copy

of your Excellency's letter to him, of the 4th of April, wherein you

are pleased to observe, that the want of full powers on his part was an

invincible obstacle to the definitive discussion of this claim with him,

and to express your dispositions to institute a settlement at this place.

Always assured of the justice and honor of the court of Denmark, and

encouraged by the particular readiness of your Excellency to settle and

remove this difficulty from between the two nations, I take the liberty of

recalling your attention to it. The place of negotiation proposed by your

Excellency, meets no objection from us, and it removes, at the same time,

that which the want of full powers in Admiral Paul Jones, had produced

in your mind. These full powers, Congress have been pleased to honor me

with. The arrangement taken between the person to be charged with your

full powers, and myself, will be final and conclusive. You are pleased to

express a willingness to treat at the same time, on the subjects of amity

and commerce. The powers formerly communicated on our part, were given to

Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin and myself, for a limited term only. That term

has expired, and the other two gentlemen returned to America: so that

no person is commissioned at this moment, to renew those conferences.

I may safely, however, assure your Excellency, that the same friendly

dispositions still continue, and the same desire of facilitating and

encouraging a commerce between the two nations, which produced the former

appointment. But our nation is, at this time, proposing a change in the

organization of its government. For this change to be agreed to by all

the members of the Union, the new administration chosen and brought into

activity, their domestic matters arranged, which will require their first

attention, their foreign system afterwards decided on and carried into

full execution, will require very considerable length of time. To place

under the same delay, the private claims which I have the honor to present

to your Excellency, would be hard on the persons interested; because

these claims have no connection with the system of commercial connection,

which may be established between the two nations, nor with the particular

form of our administration. The justice due to them is complete, and the

present administration as competent to final settlement as any future one

will be, should a future change take place. These individuals have already

lingered nine years, in expectation of their hard and perilous earnings.

Time lessens their numbers continually, disperses their representatives,

weakens the evidence of their right, and renders more and more

impracticable, his majesty's dispositions to repair the private injury, to

which public circumstances constrained him. These considerations, the just

and honorable intentions of your Excellency, and the assurances you give

us in your letter, that no delay is wished on your part, give me strong

hopes that we may speedily obtain that final arrangement, which express

instructions render it my duty to urge. I have the honor, therefore,

of agreeing with your Excellency, that the settlement of this matter,

formerly begun at Paris, shall be continued there: and to ask that you

will be pleased to give powers and instructions for this purpose, to such

persons as you shall think proper, and in such full form as may prevent

those delays, to which the distance between Copenhagen and Paris might

otherwise expose us.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most profound respect, your

Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. THOMAS DIGGES.

PARIS, June 19, 1788.

SIR,--I have duly received your favor of May 12, as well as that of the

person who desires information on the state of cotton manufactures in

America, and for his interest and safety I beg leave to address to you the

answer to his queries.

In general, it is impossible that manufactures should succeed in America,

from the high price of labor. This is occasioned by the great demand

of labor for agriculture. A manufacturer going from Europe will turn to

labor of other kinds if he finds more to be got by it, and he finds some

employment so profitable, that he can soon lay up money enough to buy

fifty acres of land, to the culture of which he is irresistibly tempted

by the independence in which that places him, and the desire of having

a wife and family around him. If any manufactures can succeed there, it

will be that of cotton. I must observe for his information that this plant

grows nowhere in the United States northward of the Potomac, and not in

quantity till you get southward as far as York and James Rivers. I know

nothing of the manufacture which is said to be set up at Richmond. It must

have taken place since 1783, when I left Virginia. In that State (for

it is the only one I am enabled to speak of with certainty) there is no

manufacture of wire or of cotton cards; or if any, it is not worth notice.

No manufacture of stocking-weaving, consequently none for making the

machine; none of cotton clothing of any kind whatever for sale; though in

almost every family some is manufactured for the use of the family, which

is always good in quality, and often tolerably fine. In the same way they

make excellent stockings of cotton, weaving it in like manner, carried on

principally in the family way: among the poor, the wife weaves generally;

and the rich either have a weaver among their servants or employ their

poor neighbors. Cotton cost in Virginia from 12_d._ to 18_d._ sterling the

pound before the war, probably it is a little raised since. Richmond is as

good a place for a manufactory as any in that State, and perhaps the best

as to its resources for this business. Cotton clothing is very much the

taste of the country. A manufacturer, on his landing, should apply to the

well-informed farmers and gentlemen of the country. Their information will

be more disinterested than that of merchants, and they can better put

him into the way of disposing of his workmen in the cheapest manner till

he has time to look about him and decide how and where he will establish

himself. Such is the hospitality in that country, and their disposition

to assist strangers, that he may boldly go to any good house he sees,

and make the inquiry he needs. He will be sure to be kindly received,

honestly informed, and accommodated in an hospitable way, without any

other introduction than an information who he is and what are his views.

It is not the policy of the government in that country to give any aid

to works of any kind. They let things take their natural course without

help or impediment, which is generally the best policy. More particularly

as to myself, I must say that I have not the authority nor the means of

assisting any persons in their passage to that country. I have the honor

to be, with sentiments of perfect esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and

most humble servant.

TO MR. RUTLEDGE.

PARIS, January 19, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--Having omitted to ask you how I should address letters to you,

I am obliged to put the present under cover to Mr. Shippen, to the care

of his banker at Amsterdam. Enclosed you will receive a letter lately

come to my hands, as also such notes as I have been able to scribble very

hastily and undigested. I am ashamed of them; but I will pay willingly

that price, if they may, on a single occasion, be useful to you. I will at

some future moment find time to write the letters for Frankfort, Florence,

Milan, Nice and Marseilles, which those notes will point out, and lodge

them on your route, if you will be so good as to keep me always informed

how and where I must send letters to you. I would suggest an alteration

in the route I had proposed to you; that is, to descend the Danube from

Vienna, so as to go to Constantinople, and from thence to Naples and

up Italy. This must depend on your time, and the information you may be

able to get as to the safety with which you may pass through the Ottoman

territories. It is believed the Emperor is making overtures for peace.

Should this take place it would lessen the difficulties of such a tour.

In the meantime, this gleam of peace is counterbalanced by the warlike

preparations of Sweden and Denmark, known to be made under the suggestions

of the Court of London. In this country there is great internal ferment.

I am of opinion the new regulations will be maintained. Perhaps the

Cour pleniere may be amended in its composition, and the States General

called at an earlier period than was intended. We have no accounts yet of

the decision of Maryland, South Carolina, or Virginia on the subject of

the new Constitution. Yet it seems probable they will accept it in the

same manner Massachusetts has done; and I see nothing improbable in the

supposition that our new government may be in motion by the beginning of

November. I must press on you, my dear Sir, a very particular attention

to the climate and culture of the olive tree. This is the most interesting

plant in existence for South Carolina and Georgia. You will see in various

places that it gives being to whole villages in places where there is

not soil enough to subsist a family by the means of any other culture.

But consider it as the means of bettering the condition of your slaves in

South Carolina. See in the poorer parts of France and Italy what a number

of vegetables are rendered eatable by the aid of a little oil, which would

otherwise be useless. Remark very particularly the northern limits of this

tree, and whether it exists by the help of shelter from the mountains,

&c. I know this is the case in France. I wish to know where the northern

limit of this plant crosses the Apennines; where it crosses the Adriatic

and the Archipelago, and if possible what course it takes through Asia.

The fig, the dried raisin, the pistache, the date, the caper, are all very

interesting objects for your study. Should you not in your passage through

countries where they are cultivated inform yourself of their hardiness,

their culture, the manner of transporting, &c., you might hereafter much

repent it. Both then and now I hope you will excuse me for suggesting them

to your attention; not omitting the article of rice also, of which you

will see species different from your own. I beg you to make use of me on

all possible occasions and in all the ways in which I can serve you, not

omitting that of money, should any disappointment take place in your own

arrangements. Mr. Berard's money was paid to Bayoker & Co. as you desired.

I have the honor to be, with very great esteem, dear Sir, your most

obedient, and most humble servant.

TO T. LEE SHIPPEN, ESQ.

PARIS, June 19, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--I have been honored with your favor of May 20, and take the

first possible moment of acknowledging it, and of enclosing such notes

as my recollection has suggested to me might be of service to you on

your route. They have been scribbled so hastily and so informally that I

would not send them, did not a desire of accommodating yourself and Mr.

Rutledge get the better of my self-love. You will have seen in the Leyden

gazette the principal articles of intelligence received from America

since you left us, and which I have furnished to Mr. Dumas for that

paper. The account of the riot in New York was given me by Mr. Paradise,

who was there at the time, and who with his lady is now here. You may,

perhaps, meet them at Venice. Mr. Jay and Baron Steuben were wounded with

stones in that riot. General Washington writes me word he thinks Virginia

will accept of the new Constitution. It appears to me, in fact, from

all information, that its rejection would drive the States to despair

and bring on events which cannot be foreseen; and that its adoption

is become absolutely necessary. It will be easier to get the assent

of nine States to correct what is wrong in the way pointed out by the

Constitution itself, than to get thirteen to concur in a new convention

and another plan of confederation. I therefore sincerely pray that the

remaining States may accept it, as Massachusetts has done, with standing

instructions to their delegates to press for amendments till they are

obtained. They cannot fail of being obtained when the delegates of eight

States shall be under such perpetual instructions. The American newspapers

say that the Spaniards have sunk one of our boats on the Mississippi, and

we one of theirs, by way of reprisal. The silence of my letters on the

subject makes me hope it is not true. Be so good as to keep me constantly

furnished with your address. I will take the first moment I can to write

letters for you to Baron Leimer for Frankfort, Febroni at Florence,

the Count del Verme and Clerici at Milan, Sasserns at Nice, Cathalan at

Marseilles, which at this time it is impossible for me to do. I beg you

to make on all occasions all the use of me of which I am susceptible, and

in any way in which your occasions may require, and to be assured of the

sentiments of sincere esteem and attachment with which I have the honor to

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

TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

PARIS, June 20, 1788.

SIR,--Having had the honor of mentioning to your Excellency the wish

of Congress that certain changes should be made in the articles for

a consular convention, which had been sent to them, I have now that,

conformably to the desire you expressed, of giving a general idea of the

alterations to be proposed.

The fourth article gives to the consuls the immunities of the law of

nations. It has been understood, however, that the laws of France do not

admit of this; and that it might be desirable to expunge this article.

In this we are ready to concur, as in every other case where an article

might call for changes in the established laws, either inconvenient or

disagreeable.

After establishing in favor of consuls, the general immunities of the law

of nations, one consequence of which would have been, that they could not

have been called upon to give testimony in courts of justice, the fifth

article requires that after the observance of certain formalities, which

imply very high respect, they shall make a declaration; but _in their

own houses_ [chez eux] as may be pretended, if not justly inferred, from

the expressions in the article. But our laws require, indispensably, a

personal examination of witnesses in the presence of the parties, of their

counsel, the jury and judges, each of whom has a right to ask of them all

questions pertinent to the fact. The first and highest officers of our

government are obliged to appear personally to the order of a court to

give evidence. The court takes care that they are treated with respect. It

is proposed, therefore, to omit this article for these particular reasons,

as well as for the general one, that the fourth being expunged, this,

which was but an exception to that, falls of course.

The seventh, eighth, tenth and fourteenth articles extend their

pre-eminences far beyond those which the laws of nations would have

given. These articles require that the declarations made in the presence

of consuls, and certified by them, shall be received in evidence in

all courts whatever; and in some instances give to their certificates

a credibility which excludes all other testimony. The cases are rare

in which our laws admit written evidence of facts; and such evidence,

when admitted, must have been given in the presence of both parties,

and must contain the answers to all the pertinent questions which they

may have desired to ask of the witness; and to no evidence, of whatever

nature, written or oral, do our laws give so high credit, as to exclude

all counter-proof. These principles are of such ancient foundation in

our system of jurisprudence, and are so much valued and venerated by our

citizens, that perhaps it would be impossible to execute articles which

should contravene them, nor is it imagined that these stipulations can

be so interesting to this country, as to balance the inconvenience and

hazard of such an innovation with us. Perhaps it might be found, that the

laws of both countries require a modification of this article; as it is

inconceivable that the certificate of an American consul in France could

be permitted by one of its courts to establish a fact, the falsehood of

which should be notorious to the court itself.

The eighth article gives to the consuls of either nation a jurisdiction,

in certain cases, over foreigners of any other. On a dispute arising in

France, between an American and a Spaniard or an Englishman, it would not

be fair to abandon the Spaniard or Englishman to an American consul. On

the contrary, the territorial judge, as neutral, would seem to be the most

impartial. Probably, therefore, it will be thought convenient for both

parties to correct this stipulation.

A dispute arising between two subjects of France, the one being in France,

and the other in the United States, the regular tribunals of France would

seem entitled to a preference of jurisdiction. Yet the twelfth article

gives it to their consul in America; and to the consul of the United

States in France, in a like case between their citizens.

The power given by the tenth article, of arresting and sending back a

vessel, its captain, and crew, is a very great one indeed, and, in our

opinion, more safely lodged with the territorial judge. We would ourselves

trust the tribunals of France to decide when there is just cause for

so high-handed an act of authority over the persons and property of so

many of our citizens, to all of whom these tribunals will stand in a

neutral and impartial relation, rather than any single person whom we

may appoint as consul, who will seldom be learned in the laws, and often

susceptible of influence from private interest and personal pique. With

us, applications for the arrest of vessels, and of their masters, are

made to the admiralty courts. These are composed of the most learned and

virtuous characters of the several States, and the maritime law common

to all nations, is the rule of their proceedings. The exercise of foreign

jurisdiction, within the pale of their own laws, in a very high case, and

wherein those laws have made honorable provisions, would be a phenomenon

never yet seen in our country, and which would be seen with great jealousy

and uneasiness. On the contrary, to leave this power with the territorial

judge, will inspire confidence and friendship, and be really, at the same

time, more secure against abuse. The power of arresting deserted seamen

seems necessary for the purposes of navigation and commerce, and will

be more attentively and effectually exercised by the consul, than by the

territorial judge. To this part of the tenth article, therefore, as well

as to that which requires the territorial judge to assist the consul in

the exercise of this function, we can accede. But the extension of the

like power to passengers, seems not necessary for the purposes either of

navigation or commerce. It does not come, therefore, within the functions

of the consul, whose institution is for those two objects only, nor

within the powers of a commissioner, authorized to treat and conclude a

convention, solely for regulating the powers, privileges, and duties of

consuls. The arrest and detention of passengers, moreover, would often be

in contradiction to our bills of rights, which being fundamental, cannot

be obstructed in their operation by any law or convention whatever.

Consular institutions being entirely new with us, Congress think it wise

to make their first convention probationary, and not perpetual. They

propose, therefore, a clause for limiting its duration to a certain term

of years. If after the experience of a few years, it should be found to

answer the purposes intended by it, both parties will have sufficient

inducements to renew it, either in its present form, or with such

alterations and amendments as time, experience, and other circumstances

may indicate.

The convention, as expressed in the French language, will fully answer

our purposes in France, because it will there be understood. But it

will not equally answer the purposes of France in America, because it

will not there be understood. In very few of the courts wherein it may

be presented, will there be found a single judge or advocate capable

of translating it at all, much less of giving to all its terms, legal

and technical, their exact equivalent in the laws and language of that

country. Should any translation which Congress would undertake to publish,

for the use of our courts, be conceived on any occasion not to render

fully the idea of the French original, it might be imputed as an indirect

attempt to abridge or extend the terms of a contract, at the will of one

party only. At no place are there better helps than here, for establishing

an English text equivalent to the French, in all its phrases; no person

can be supposed to know what is meant by these phrases better than those

who form them; and no time more proper to ascertain their meaning in both

languages, than that at which they are formed. I have, therefore, the

honor to propose, that the convention shall be faithfully expressed in

English as well as in French, in two columns, side by side, that these

columns be declared each of them to be text, and to be equally original

and authentic in all courts of justice.

This, Sir, is a general sketch of the alterations which our laws and

our manner of thinking render necessary in this convention, before the

faith of our country is engaged for its execution. Some of its articles,

in their present form, could not be executed at all, and others would

produce embarrassments and ill humor, to which it would not be prudent

for our government to commit itself. Inexact execution on the one part,

would naturally beget dissatisfaction and complaints on the other, and

an instrument intended to strengthen our connection, might thus become

the means of loosening it. Fewer articles, better observed, will better

promote our common interests. As to ourselves, we do not find the

institution of consuls very necessary. Its history commences in times of

barbarism, and might well have ended with them. During these, they were

perhaps useful, and may still be so, in countries, not yet emerged from

that condition. But all civilized nations at this day, understand so well

the advantages of commerce, that they provide protection and encouragement

for merchant strangers and vessels coming among them. So extensive, too,

have commercial connections now become, that every mercantile house has

correspondents in almost every port. They address their vessels to these

correspondents, who are found to take better care of their interests, and

to obtain more effectually the protection of the laws of the country for

them, than the consul of their nation can. He is generally a foreigner,

unpossessed of the little details of knowledge of greatest use to them.

He makes national questions of all the difficulties which arise; the

correspondent prevents them. We carry on commerce with good success in

all parts of the world; yet we have not a consul in a single port, nor

a complaint for the want of one, except from the persons who wish to be

consuls themselves. Though these considerations may not be strong enough

to establish the absolute inutility of consuls, they may make us less

anxious to extend their privileges and jurisdictions, so as to render them

objects of jealousy and irritation in the places of their residence. That

this government thinks them useful, is sufficient reason for us to give

them all the functions and facilities which our circumstances will admit.

Instead, therefore, of declining every article which will be useless to

us, we accede to every one which will not be inconvenient. Had this nation

been alone concerned, our desire to gratify them, might have tempted us

to press still harder on the laws and opinions of our country. But your

Excellency knows, that we stand engaged in treaties with some nations,

which will give them occasion to claim whatever privileges we yield to

any other. This renders circumspection more necessary. Permit me to add

one other observation. The English allow to foreign consuls scarcely any

functions within their ports. This proceeds, in a great measure, from the

character of their laws, which eye with peculiar jealousy every exemption

from their control. Ours are the same in their general character, and

rendered still more unpliant, by our having thirteen parliaments to relax,

instead of one. Upon the whole, I hope your Excellency will see the causes

of the delay which this convention has met with, in the difficulties it

presents, and our desire to surmount them; and will be sensible that

the alterations proposed, are dictated to us by the necessity of our

circumstances, and by a caution, which cannot be disapproved, to commit

ourselves to no engagements which we foresee we might not be able to

fulfil.

These alterations, with some other smaller ones, which may be offered on

the sole principle of joint convenience, shall be the subject of more

particular explanation, whenever your Excellency shall honor me with a

conference thereon. I shall then also point out the verbal changes which

appear to me necessary, to accommodate the instrument to the views before

expressed. In the meantime, I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the

most perfect respect and esteem, your Excellency's most obedient, and most

humble servant.

TO ---- ----.

PARIS, June 28, 1788.

SIR,-- * * * * * * * * A treaty of alliance between England and Prussia

was signed on the 13th instant. Sweden is believed to have given out a

declaration of the reasons of her arming, which has very much the air

of a declaration of war against Russia. We have not yet seen it here. It

would not be unexpected to hear that she has commenced hostilities. She

is subsidized by England, and if she does begin a war, we must believe

it to be on the instigation of England, with a view to bring on a general

war. This power, with Denmark and Holland, ranging themselves on the side

of England, destroys the equilibrium of power at sea, which we had hoped

was established. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble

servant.

TO MONSIEUR DIRIEKS.

PARIS, July 2, 1788.

SIR,--As a private individual and citizen of America, I can with propriety

and truth deliver it to you as my firm belief, that the loan office

certificate you showed me, and all others of the same kind, will be paid,

principal and interest, as soon as the circumstances of the United States

will permit: that I do not consider this as a distant epoch, nor suppose

there is a public debt on earth less doubtful. This I speak as my private

opinion. But it does not belong to me to say that it will be paid in

two years, or that it will be paid at all, so as by the authority of my

affirmation to give it any new sanction or credit. The board of treasury

or Congress can alone do this. You will be sensible, therefore, Sir, of

the impropriety, and even the hazard, of my going out of the line of my

office so far as to undertake, or to aver, that these certificates will

be paid within one or two years. On every occasion where I can do it of

right, I shall be happy to render you every possible service, being with

sentiments of the most perfect esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble

servant.

TO T. L. SHIPPEN, ESQ.

PARIS, July 13, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--In a former letter to Mr. Rutledge, I suggested to him the idea

of extending his tour to Constantinople, and in one of to-day, I mention

it again. I do not know how far that extension may accord with your plan,

nor indeed how far it may be safe for either of you; for, though it has

been thought there has been a relaxation in the warlike dispositions

of the belligerent powers, yet we have no symptoms of a suspension of

hostilities. The Ottoman dominions are generally represented as unsafe

for travellers, even when in peace. They must be much more so during

war. This article, therefore, merits exact inquiry before that journey is

undertaken.

We have letters from America to June 11. Maryland has acceded to the

Constitution by a vote of 63 to 11, and South Carolina by 149 to 72. Mr.

Henry had disseminated propositions there for a Southern confederacy.

It is now thought that Virginia will not hesitate to accede. Governor

Randolph has come over to the Federalists. No doubt is entertained of New

Hampshire and North Carolina, and it is thought that even New York will

agree when she sees she will be left with Rhode Island alone. Two-thirds

of their Convention are decidedly anti-federal. The die is now thrown, and

it cannot be many days before we know what has finally turned up. Congress

has granted the prayer of Kentucky to be made independent, and a committee

was occupied in preparing an act for that purpose. Mr. Barlow, the

American poet, is arrived in Paris.

We expect daily to hear that the Swedes have commenced hostilities.

Whether this will draw in the other nations of Europe immediately,

cannot be foreseen; probably it will in the long run. I sincerely wish

this country may be able previously to arrange its internal affairs. To

spare the trouble of repetition, I am obliged to ask of yourself and Mr.

Rutledge, to consider the letter of each as a supplement to the other.

Under the possibility, however, of your going different routes, I enclose

duplicates of my letters of introduction. After acknowledging the receipt

of your favor of the 6th inst., from Spa, I shall only beg a continuance

of them, and that you will both keep me constantly informed how to convey

letters to you; and to assure you of those sentiments of sincere esteem

with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO DOCTOR GORDON.

PARIS, July 16, 1788.

SIR,--In your favor of the 8th instant, you mentioned that you had written

to me in February last. This letter never came to hand. That of April the

24th came here during my absence on a journey through Holland and Germany;

and my having been obliged to devote the first moments after my return,

to some very pressing matters, must be my apology for not having been able

to write to you till now. As soon as I knew that it would be agreeable to

you, to have such a disposal of your work for translation, as I had made

for Dr. Ramsay, I applied to the same bookseller with propositions on your

behalf. He told me, that he had lost so much by that work, that he could

hardly think of undertaking another, and at any rate, not without first

seeing and examining it. As he was the only bookseller I could induce to

give anything on the former occasion, I went to no other with my proposal,

meaning to ask you to send me immediately as much of the work as is

printed. This you can do by the Diligence, which comes three times a week

from London to Paris. Furnished with this, I will renew my proposition,

and do the best for you I can; though I fear that the ill success of the

translation of Dr. Ramsay's work, and of another work on the subject of

America, will permit less to be done for you than I had hoped. I think Dr.

Ramsay failed from the inelegance of the translation, and the translator's

having departed entirely from the Doctor's instructions. I will be obliged

to you, to set me down as a subscriber for half a dozen copies, and to ask

Mr. Trumbull (No. 2, North street, Rathbone Place) to pay you the whole

subscription price for me, which he will do on showing him this letter.

These copies can be sent by the Diligence. I have not yet received the

pictures Mr. Trumbull was to send me, nor consequently that of M. de La

Fayette. I will take care of it when it arrives. His title is simply, _le

Marquis de La Fayette_.

You ask, in your letter of April the 24th, details of my sufferings by

Colonel Tarleton. I did not suffer by him. On the contrary, he behaved

very genteelly with me. On his approach to Charlottesville, which is

within three miles of my house at Monticello, he despatched a troop of his

horse, under Captain McLeod, with the double object of taking me prisoner,

with the two Speakers of the Senate and Delegates, who then lodged with

me, and of remaining there in _vidette_, my house commanding a view of ten

or twelve miles round about. He gave strict orders to Captain McLeod to

suffer nothing to be injured. The troop failed in one of their objects,

as we had notice of their coming, so that the two Speakers had gone off

about two hours before their arrival at Monticello, and myself, with

my family, about five minutes. But Captain McLeod preserved everything

with sacred care, during about eighteen hours that he remained there.

Colonel Tarleton was just so long at Charlottesville, being hurried from

thence by the news of the rising of the militia, and by a sudden fall

of rain, which threatened to swell the river, and intercept his return.

In general, he did little injury to the inhabitants, on that short and

hasty excursion, which was of about sixty miles from their main army,

then in Spotsylvania, and ours in Orange. It was early in June, 1781. Lord

Cornwallis then proceeded to the Point of Fork, and encamped his army from

thence all along the main James River, to a seat of mine called Elk-hill,

opposite to Elk Island, and a little below the mouth of the Byrd Creek.

(You will see all these places exactly laid down in the map annexed to my

notes on Virginia, printed by Stockdale.) He remained in this position

ten days, his own head quarters being in my house, at that place. I had

time to remove most of the effects out of the house. He destroyed all my

growing crops of corn and tobacco; he burned all my barns, containing the

same articles of the last year, having first taken what corn he wanted;

he used, as was to be expected, all my stock of cattle, sheep and hogs,

for the sustenance of his army, and carried off all the horses capable of

service; of those too young for service he cut the throats; and he burned

all the fences on the plantation, so as to leave it an absolute waste. He

carried off also about thirty slaves. Had this been to give them freedom,

he would have done right; but it was to consign them to inevitable death

from the small pox and putrid fever, then raging in his camp. This I knew

afterwards to be the fate of twenty-seven of them. I never had news of

the remaining three, but presume they shared the same fate. When I say

that Lord Cornwallis did all this, I do not mean that he carried about

the torch in his own hands, but that it was all done under his eye; the

situation of the house in which he was, commanding a view of every part

of the plantation, so that he must have seen every fire. I relate these

things on my own knowledge, in a great degree, as I was on the ground soon

after he left it. He treated the rest of the neighborhood somewhat in the

same style, but not with that spirit of total extermination with which

he seemed to rage over my possessions. Wherever he went, the dwelling

houses were plundered of everything which could be carried off. Lord

Cornwallis' character in England, would forbid the belief that he shared

in the plunder; but that his table was served with the plate thus pillaged

from private houses, can be proved by many hundred eye-witnesses. From an

estimate I made at that time, on the best information I could collect, I

supposed the State of Virginia lost, under Lord Cornwallis' hands, that

year, about thirty thousand slaves; and that of these, about twenty-seven

thousand died of the small pox and camp fever, and the rest were partly

sent to the West Indies, and exchanged for rum, sugar, coffee and fruit,

and partly sent to New York, from whence they went, at the peace, either

to Nova Scotia or England. From this last place, I believe they have been

lately sent to Africa. History will never relate the horrors committed

by the British army in the _southern_ States of America. They raged

in Virginia six months only, from the middle of April to the middle

of October, 1781, when they were all taken prisoners; and I give you a

faithful specimen of their transactions for ten days of that time, and

on one spot only. _Ex pede Herculem._ I suppose their whole devastations

during those six months, amounted to about three millions sterling. The

copiousness of this subject has only left me space to assure you of the

sentiments of esteem and respect, with which I am, Sir, your most obedient

humble servant.

TO MR. IZARD.

PARIS, July 17, 1788.

DEAR SIR, * * * * * * * * *

I cannot but approve your idea of sending your eldest son, destined

for the law, to Williamsburg. The professor of Mathematics and Natural

Philosophy there, (Mr. Madison, cousin of him whom you know,) is a man

of great abilities, and their apparatus is a very fine one. Mr. Ballini,

professor of Modern Language, is also an excellent one. But the pride of

the Institution is Mr. Wythe, one of the Chancellors of the State, and

professor of law in the College. He is one of the greatest men of the age,

having held without competition the first place at the bar of our general

court for twenty-five years, and always distinguished by the most spotless

virtue. He gives lectures regularly, and holds moot courts and parliaments

wherein he presides, and the young men debate regularly in law and

legislation, learn the rules of parliamentary proceeding, and acquire the

habit of public speaking. Williamsburg is a remarkably healthy situation,

reasonably cheap, and affords very genteel society. I know no place _in

the world_, while the _present professors remain_, where I would so soon

place a son.

I have made the necessary inquiries relative to a school for your second

son. There are only two here for the line of engineering. I send the

prospectus of the best, which is so particular in its details as to enable

you to judge for yourself on every point. I will add some observations. I

have never thought a boy should undertake abstruse or difficult sciences,

such as Mathematics in general, till fifteen years of age at soonest.

Before that time they are best employed in learning the languages which

is merely a matter of memory. The languages are badly taught here.

If you propose he should learn the Latin, perhaps you will prefer the

having him taught it in America, and of course, to retain him there two

or three years more. At that age, he will be less liable to lose his

native language, and be more able to resist the attempts to change his

religion. Probably three or four years here would suffice for the theory

of engineering, which would leave him still time enough to see something

of the practice either by land or sea, as he should choose, and to return

home at a ripe age. Decide on all these points as you think best, and make

what use of me in it you please. Whenever you choose to send him, if I am

here, and you think proper to accept my services towards him, they shall

be bestowed with the same zeal as if he were my own son.

The war in Europe threatens to spread. Sweden, we suppose, has commenced

hostilities against Russia, though we do not yet certainly know it. I

have hoped this country would settle her internal disputes advantageously

and without bloodshed. As yet none has been spilt, though the British

newspapers give the idea of a general civil war. Hitherto, I had supposed

both the King and parliament would lose authority, and the nation gain

it, through the medium of its States General and provincial Assemblies,

but the arrest of the deputies of Bretagne two days ago, may kindle a

civil war. Its issue will depend on two questions. 1. Will other provinces

rise? 2. How will the army conduct itself? A stranger cannot predetermine

these questions. Happy for us that abuses have not yet become patrimonies,

and that every description of interest is in favor of national and

moderate government. That we are yet able to send our wise and good men

together to talk over our form of government, discuss its weaknesses and

establish its remedies with the same _sang-froid_ as they would a subject

of agriculture. The example we have given to the world is single, that

of changing our form of government under the authority of reason only,

without bloodshed.

I enclose herein a letter from Count Sarsfield to Mrs. Izard, to whom I

beg to present my respects. I am, with great sincerity, dear Sir, your

friend and servant.

TO JAMES MADISON, OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.

PARIS, July 19, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--My last letter to you was of the 13th of August last. As

you seem willing to accept of the crumbs of science on which we are

subsisting here, it is with pleasure I continue to hand them on to you,

in proportion as they are dealt out. Herschel's volcano in the moon

you have doubtless heard of, and placed among the other vagaries of a

head, which seems not organized for sound induction. The wildness of

the theories hitherto proposed by him, on his own discoveries, seems

to authorize us to consider his merit as that of a good optician only.

You know also, that Dr. Ingenhouse had discovered, as he supposed, from

experiment, that vegetation might be promoted by occasioning streams of

the electrical fluid to pass through a plant, and that other physicians

had received and confirmed this theory. He now, however, retracts it,

and finds by more decisive experiments, that the electrical fluid can

neither forward nor retard vegetation. Uncorrected still of the rage of

drawing general conclusions from partial and equivocal observations, he

hazards the opinion that _light_ promotes vegetation. I have heretofore

supposed from observation, that light effects the color of living bodies,

whether vegetable or animal; but that either the one or the other receives

_nutriment_ from that fluid, must be permitted to be doubted of, till

better confirmed by observation. It is always better to have no ideas,

than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong. In my

mind, theories are more easily demolished than rebuilt.

An Abbé here has shaken, if not destroyed, the theory of de Dominis,

Descartes and Newton, for explaining the phenomenon of the rainbow.

According to that theory, you know, a cone of rays issuing from the sun,

and falling on a cloud in the opposite part of the heavens, is reflected

back in the form of a smaller cone, the apex of which is the eye of the

observer; so that the eye of the observer must be in the axis of both

cones, and equally distant from every part of the bow. But he observes,

that he has repeatedly seen bows, the one end of which has been very near

to him, and the other at a very great distance. I have often seen the

same thing myself. I recollect well to have seen the end of a rainbow

between myself and a house, or between myself and a bank, not twenty yards

distant; and this repeatedly. But I never saw, what he says he has seen,

different rainbows at the same time intersecting each other. I never saw

coexistent bows, which were not concentric also. Again, according to the

theory, if the sun is in the horizon, the horizon intercepts the lower

half of the bow, if above the horizon, that intercepts more than the half,

in proportion. So that generally, the bow is less than a semi-circle, and

never more. He says he has seen it more than a semi-circle. I have often

seen the leg of the bow below my level. My situation at Monticello admits

this, because there is a mountain there in the opposite direction of the

afternoon's sun, the valley between which and Monticello, is five hundred

feet deep. I have seen a leg of a rainbow plunge down on the river running

through the valley. But I do not recollect to have remarked at any time,

that the bow was more than half a circle. It appears to me, that these

facts demolish the Newtonian hypothesis, but they do not support that

erected in its stead by the Abbé. He supposes a cloud between the sun

and the observer, and that through some opening in that cloud, the rays

pass, and form an iris on the opposite part of the heavens, just as a ray

passing through a hole in the shutter of a darkened room, and falling on a

prism there, forms the prismatic colors on the opposite wall. According to

this, we might see bows of more than the half circle, as often as of less.

A thousand other objections occur to this hypothesis, which need not be

suggested to you. The result is, that we are wiser than we were, by having

an error the less in our catalogue; but the blank occasioned by it, must

remain for some happier hypothesist to fill up.

The dispute about the conversion and re-conversion of water and air, is

still stoutly kept up. The contradictory experiments of chemists, leave

us at liberty to conclude what we please. My conclusion is, that art has

not yet invented sufficient aids, to enable such subtle bodies to make a

well-defined impression on organs as blunt as ours; that it is laudable

to encourage investigation, but to hold back conclusion. Speaking one

day with Monsieur de Buffon, on the present ardor of chemical inquiry,

he affected to consider chemistry but as cookery, and to place the toils

of the laboratory on a footing with those of the kitchen. I think it,

on the contrary, among the most useful of sciences, and big with future

discoveries for the utility and safety of the human race. It is yet,

indeed, a mere embryon. Its principles are contested; experiments seem

contradictory; their subjects are so minute as to escape our senses; and

their result too fallacious to satisfy the mind. It is probably an age too

soon, to propose the establishment of a system. The attempt, therefore,

of Lavoisier to reform the chemical nomenclature, is premature. One single

experiment may destroy the whole filiation of his terms, and his string of

sulphates, sulphites, and sulphures, may have served no other end, than to

have retarded the progress of the science, by a jargon, from the confusion

of which, time will be requisite to extricate us. Accordingly, it is not

likely to be admitted generally.

You are acquainted with the properties of the composition of nitre, salt

of tartar and sulphur, called pulvis fulminans. Of this, the explosion

is produced by heat alone. Monsieur Bertholet, by dissolving silver

in the nitrous acid, precipitating it with lime water, and drying the

precipitate on ammoniac, has discovered a powder which fulminates most

powerfully, on coming into contact with any substance however. Once made,

it cannot be touched. It cannot be put into a bottle, but must remain in

the capsule, where dried. The property of the spathic acid, to corrode

flinty substances, has been lately applied by a Mr. Puymaurin, to engrave

on glass, as artists engrave on copper, with aquafortis. M. de La Place

has discovered, that the secular acceleration and retardation of the

moon's motion, is occasioned by the action of the sun, in proportion as

his eccentricity changes, or, in other words, as the orbit of the earth

increases or diminishes. So that this irregularity is now perfectly

calculable.

Having seen announced in a gazette, that some person had found in a

library of Sicily, an Arabic translation of Livy, which was thought to

be complete, I got the chargé des affaires of Naples here, to write to

Naples to inquire into the fact. He obtained in answer, that an Arabic

translation was found, and that it would restore to us seventeen of the

books lost, to wit, from the sixtieth to the seventy-seventh, inclusive:

that it was in possession of an Abbé Vella, who, as soon as he shall have

finished a work he has on hand, will give us an Italian, and perhaps a

Latin translation of this Livy. There are persons, however, who doubt

the truth of this discovery, founding their doubts on some personal

circumstances relating to the person who says he has this translation.

I find, nevertheless, that the chargé des affaires believes in the

discovery, which makes me hope it may be true.

A countryman of ours, a Mr. Ledyard of Connecticut, set out from hence

some time ago for St. Petersburg, to go thence to Kamtschatka, thence

to cross over to the western coast of America, and penetrate through the

continent, to the other side of it. He had got within a few days' journey

of Kamtschatka, when he was arrested by order of the Empress of Russia,

sent back, and turned adrift in Poland. He went to London; engaged under

the auspices of a private society, formed there for pushing discoveries

into Africa; passed by this place, which he left a few days ago for

Marseilles, where he will embark for Alexandria and Grand Cairo; thence

explore the Nile to its source; cross the head of the Niger, and descend

that to its mouth. He promises me, if he escapes through his journey, he

will go to Kentucky, and endeavor to penetrate westwardly to the South

Sea.

The death of M. de Buffon you have heard long ago. I do not know whether

we shall have anything posthumous of his. As to political news, this

country is making its way to a good constitution. The only danger is, they

may press so fast as to produce an appeal to arms, which might have an

unfavorable issue for them. As yet, the appeal is not made. Perhaps the

war which seems to be spreading from nation to nation, may reach them;

this would ensure the calling of the States General, and this, as is

supposed, the establishment of a constitution.

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

dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO E. RUTLEDGE.

PARIS, July 18, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--Messrs. Berard were to have given me particular accounts of the

proceeds of the shipments of rice made to them. But they have failed. I

fear, from what they mention, that the price has been less advantageous

than usual; which is unlucky, as it falls on the first essay. If on the

whole, however, you get as much as you would have done by a sale on the

spot, it should encourage other adventures, because the price at Havre or

Rouen is commonly higher, and because I think you may, by trials, find out

the way to avail yourselves of the Paris retail price. The Carolina rice

sold at Paris, is separated into three kinds: 1, the whole grains; 2, the

broken grains; 3, the small stuff; and sell at ten, eight, and six livres

the French pound, retail. The whole grains, which constitute the first

quality, are picked out by hand. I would not recommend this operation to

be done with you, because labor is dearer there than here. But I mention

these prices, to show, that after making a reasonable deduction for

sorting, and leaving a reasonable profit to the retailer, there should

still remain a great wholesale price. I shall wish to know from you, how

much your cargo of rice shipped to Berard netts you, and how much it would

have netted in _hard money_, if you had sold it at home.

You promise, in your letter of October the 23d, 1787, to give me in your

next, at large, the conjectures of your philosopher on the descent of the

Creek Indians from the Carthaginians, supposed to have been separated from

Hanno's fleet, during his periplus. I shall be very glad to receive them,

and see nothing impossible in his conjecture. I am glad he means to appeal

to similarity of language, which I consider as the strongest kind of proof

it is possible to adduce. I have somewhere read, that the language of the

ancient Carthaginians is still spoken by their descendants, inhabiting

the mountainous interior parts of Barbary, to which they were obliged to

retire by the conquering Arabs. If so, a vocabulary of their tongue can

still be got, and if your friend will get one of the Creek languages,

the comparison will decide. He probably may have made progress in this

business; but if he wishes any enquiries to be made on this side the

Atlantic, I offer him my services cheerfully; my wish being like his, to

ascertain the history of the American aborigines.

I congratulate you on the accession of your State to the new federal

constitution. This is the last I have yet heard of, but I expect daily

to hear that my own has followed the good example, and suppose it to be

already established. Our government wanted bracing. Still, we must take

care not to run from one extreme to another; not to brace too high. I

own, I join those in opinion, who think a bill of rights necessary. I

apprehend too, that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in

the offices of President and Senator, will end in abuse. But my confidence

is, that there will, for a long time, be virtue and good sense enough

in our countrymen, to correct abuses. We can surely boast of having set

the world a beautiful example of a government reformed by reason alone,

without bloodshed. But the world is too far oppressed, to profit by

the example. On this side of the Atlantic, the blood of the people is

become an inheritance, and those who fatten on it, will not relinquish it

easily. The struggle in this country is, as yet, of doubtful issue. It

is, in fact, between the monarchy and the parliaments. The nation is no

otherwise concerned, but as both parties may be induced to let go some of

its abuses, to court the public favor. The danger is, that the people,

deceived by a false cry of liberty, may be led to take side with one

party, and thus give the other a pretext for crushing them still more. If

they can avoid the appeal to arms, the nation will be sure to gain much

by this controversy. But if that appeal is made, it will depend entirely

on the disposition of the army, whether it issue in liberty or despotism.

Those dispositions are not as yet known. In the meantime, there is great

probability that the war kindled in the east, will spread from nation to

nation, and in the long run, become general.

I am, with the most sincere esteem and attachment, my dear Sir, your

friend and servant.

TO MR. CUTTING.

PARIS, July 24, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--I am indebted to your favor of the 11th instant for many

details which I have not received otherwise. Not-withstanding a most

extensive and laborious correspondence which I keep up with my friends

on the other side the water, my information is slow, precarious and

imperfect. The New York papers, which I receive regularly, and one or two

correspondents in Congress, are my best sources. As you are desirous of

having, before your departure for South Carolina, a sketch of European

affairs, as they are seen from this position, I will give you the best I

can, taking no notice of the "_bruit de Paris_," which, like the English

newspapers, are but guesses, and made generally by persons who do not give

themselves the trouble of trying to guess right. I will confine myself

to facts, or well-founded probabilities, and among these must necessarily

repeat a great deal of what you know already. Perhaps all may be of that

description.

The war undertaken by the Turks, unadvisedly, as was conjectured, has

been attended with successes which are now hastening the public opinion to

the other extreme; but it should be considered that they have been small

successes only, in the partizan way. The probable event of the war can

only be calculated after a great general action, because it is in that

we shall see whether the European discipline has been overrated, and the

want of it in the Turks exaggerated. Russia certainly undertook the war

unwillingly, and the Emperor, it is thought, would now be glad to get out

of it, but the Turks, who demanded a restitution of the Crimea, before

they began the war, are not likely to recede from that demand, after the

successes they have obtained, nor can Russia yield to it without some

more decisive event than has yet taken place. A small affair on the Black

Sea, which is believed, though not on grounds absolutely authentic, is

calculated to revive her spirits. Twenty-seven gun boats, Russian, have

obliged fifty-seven, commanded by the Captain Pacha himself, to retire

after an obstinate action. The Russians were commanded by the Prince of

Nassau, with whom our Paul Jones acted as volunteer, and probably directed

the whole business. I suppose he must have been just arrived, and that his

command has not yet been made up. He is to be rear-admiral, and always to

have a separate command. What the English newspapers said of remonstrances

against his being received into the service, as far as I can learn from

those who would have known it, and would have told it to me, was false,

as is everything those papers say, ever did say, and ever will say. The

probability, and almost certainty, that Sweden will take a part in the

war, adds immensely to the embarrassments of Russia, and will almost

certainly prevent her fleet going to the Mediterranean. It is tolerably

certain that she has been excited to this by the Court of London, and

that she has received, through their negotiations, a large subsidy from

the Turks (about three millions of thalers), yet the meeting of the two

fleets, and their saluting, instead of fighting each other, induces a

suspicion that if he can hinder the Russian expedition by hectoring only,

he may not mean to do more. Should this power really engage in the war,

and should it at length spread to France and England, I shall view the

Swedish separation from France as the event which alone decides that

the late subversion of the European system will be ultimately serious to

France. This power, with the two empires, and Spain, was more than a match

for England, Prussia and Holland by land, and balanced them by sea. For on

this element France and Spain are equal to England, and Russia to Holland.

Sweden was always supposed on the side of France, and to balance Denmark,

on the side of England, by land and sea; but if she goes over decidedly

into the English scale, the balance at sea will be destroyed by the amount

of the whole force of these two powers, who can equip upwards of sixty

sail of the line. There is a report, credited by judicious persons, that

the Dutch patriots, before their suppression, foreseeing that event, sent

orders to the East Indies to deliver Trincomale to the French, and that it

has been done. My opinion is, either that this is not true, or that they

will re-deliver it, and disavow their officer who accepted it. If they

did not think Holland, and all its possessions, worth a war, they cannot

think a single one of those possessions worth it. M. de St. Priest has

leave to go to the waters. Probably he will then ask and have leave to

come to Paris, and await events. The English papers have said the works of

Cherbourg were destroyed irreparably. This is a mathematical demonstration

that they are not. The truth is, that the head of one cone has been very

much beaten off by the waters. But the happiness of that undertaking is,

that all its injuries improve it. What is beaten from the head widens the

base, and fixes the cone much more solidly. That work will be steadily

pursued, and, in all human probability, be finally successful. They

calculate on half a million of livres, say £20,000 sterling, for every

cone, and that there will be from seventy to eighty cones. Probably they

must make more cones, suppose one hundred, this will be two millions of

pounds sterling. Versailles has cost fifty millions of pounds sterling.

Ought we to doubt then that they will persevere to the end in a work small

and useful, in proportion as the other was great and foolish?

The internal affairs here do not yet clear up. Most of the late

innovations have been much for the better. Two only must be fundamentally

condemned; the abolishing, in so great a degree, of the parliaments,

and the substitution of so ill-composed a body as the _cour pleniere_.

If the King has power to do this, the government of this country is a

pure despotism. I think it a pure despotism in theory, but moderated in

practice by the respect which the public opinion commands. But the nation

repeats, after Montesquieu, that the different bodies of magistracy, of

priests and nobles, are barriers between the King and the people. It would

be easy to prove that these barriers can only appeal to public opinion,

and that neither these bodies, nor the people, can oppose any legal check

to the will of the monarch. But they are manifestly advancing fast to a

constitution. Great progress is already made. The provincial assemblies,

which will be a very perfect representative of the people, will secure

them a great deal against the power of the crown. The confession lately

made by the government, that it cannot impose a new tax, is a great

thing: the convocation of the States General, which cannot be avoided,

will produce a national assembly, meeting at certain epochs, possessing

at first probably only a negative on the laws, but which will grow into

the right of original legislation, and prescribing limits to the expenses

of the King. These are improvements which will assuredly take place, and

which will give an energy to this country they have never yet had. Much

may be hoped from the States General, because the King's dispositions are

solidly good; he is capable of great sacrifices; all he wants to induce

him to do a thing, is to be assured it will be for the good of the nation.

He will probably believe what the States General shall tell him, and will

do it. It is supposed they will reduce the parliament to a mere judiciary.

I am in hopes all this will be effected without convulsions. The English

papers have told the world, with their usual truth, that all here is civil

war and confusion. There have been some riots, but as yet not a single

life has been lost, according to the best evidence I have been able to

collect. One officer was wounded at Grenoble. The arrest of the twelve

deputies of Bretagne a fortnight ago, I apprehended would have produced

an insurrection; but it seems as if it would not. They have sent eighteen

deputies more, who will probably be heard. General Armand was one of the

twelve, and is now in the Bastille. The Marquis de La Fayette, for signing

the prayer which these deputies were to present, and which was signed

by all the other nobles of Bretagne resident in Paris (about sixty in

number), has been disgraced, in the old-fashioned language of the country;

that is to say, the command in the south of France this summer, which

they had given him, is taken away. They took all they could from such

others of the subscribers as held anything from the Court. This dishonors

them at Court, and in the eyes and conversation of their competitors for

preferment. But it will probably honor them in the eyes of the nation.

This is as full a detail as I am able to give you of the affairs of

Europe. I have nothing to add to them but my wishes for your health and

happiness, and assurances of the esteem with which I have the honor to be,

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

TO MR. BELLINI.

PARIS, July 25, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--Though I have written to you seldom, you are often the object

of my thoughts, and always of my affection. The truth is, that the

circumstances with which I am surrounded, offer little worth detailing to

you. You are too wise to feel an interest in the squabbles, in which the

pride, the dissipations, and the tyranny of kings, keep this hemisphere

constantly embroiled. Science indeed, finds some aliment here, and you

are one of her sons. But this I have pretty regularly communicated to Mr.

Madison, with whom, I am sure, you participate of it. It is with sincere

pleasure I congratulate you on the good fortune of our friend Mazzei, who

is appointed here, to correspond with the King of Poland. The particular

character given him is not well defined, but the salary is, which is more

important. It is eight thousand livres a year, which will enable him to

live comfortably, while his duties will find him that occupation, without

which he cannot exist. Whilst this appointment places him at his ease,

it affords him a hope of permanence also. It suspends, if not entirely

prevents, the visit he had intended to his native country, and the return

to his adoptive one, which the death of his wife had rendered possible.

This last event has given him three quarters of the globe elbow-room,

which he had ceded to her, on condition she would leave him quiet in

the fourth. Their partition of the next world will be more difficult,

if it be divided only into two parts, according to the protestant faith.

Having seen by a letter you wrote him, that you were in want of a pair of

spectacles, I undertook to procure you some, which I packed in a box of

books addressed to Mr. Wythe, and of which I beg your acceptance. This box

lay forgotten at Havre the whole of the last winter, but was at length

shipped, and I trust has come to hand. I packed with the spectacles,

three or four pair of glasses, adapted to the different periods of life,

distinguished from each other by numbers, and easily changed. You see

I am looking forward in hope of a long life for you; and that it may

be long enough to carry you through the whole succession of glasses, is

my sincere prayer. Present me respectfully to Mrs. Bellini, assure her

of my affectionate remembrance of her, and my wishes for her health and

happiness; and accept yourself, very sincere professions of the esteem

and attachment with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and

servant.

TO MR. CUTTING.

PARIS, July 28, 1788.

SIR,--When I had the honor of writing you on the 24th instant, the

transactions on the Black Sea were but vaguely known; I am now able to

give them to you on better foundation. The Captain Pacha was proceeding

with succors to Ocrakoff, as is said by some (for this fact does not come

on the same authority with the others), the authentic account placing the

two fleets in the neighborhood of each other at the mouth of the Liman,

without saying how they came there. The Captain Pacha, with fifty-seven

gun-boats, attacked the Russian vessels of the same kind, twenty-seven in

number, the right wing of which was commanded by Admiral Paul Jones, the

left by the Prince of Nassau. After an obstinate engagement of five hours,

during which the Captain Pacha flew incessantly wherever there was danger

or distress, he was obliged to retire, having lost three of his vessels,

and killed only eight men of the Russians. I take this account from the

report of the action by the Prince of Nassau, which the Russian minister

here showed me. It is said in other accounts, that all the balls of the

Turks passed overhead, which was the reason they did so little execution.

This was on the 10th of June, and was the forerunner of the great and

decisive action between the two main fleets, which took place on the 26th,

the Russian fleet, commanded by Admiral Paul Jones, the Turkish by Captain

Pacha, of which the result only, and not the details, are given us. This

was, that the vessels of the Turkish Admiral and Vice-Admiral, and four

others, were burnt, that is to say, six in all, two others were taken, and

between three and four thousand prisoners. The Captain Pacha's flag was

taken, and himself obliged to fly in a small vessel, his whole fleet being

dispersed. The Prince Potemkin immediately got under march for Ocrakoff,

to take advantage of the consternation into which that place was thrown.

These facts are written by Prince Potemkin, from his head-quarters, to

Prince Gallitzin, the Russian Ambassador at Vienna, who writes them to

their minister here, who showed me the letter. The number of prisoners

taken, renders it probable that the Captain Pacha was on his way to the

relief of Ocrakoff with transports, as a less authentic report said he

was. We are not told authentically what was the force on each side in the

main action of the 26th, but it is supposed to have been about fifteen

ships of the line on each side, besides their smaller vessels; but the

evidence of this is vague, and the less to be relied on, as we have known

that the Russians were much inferior in numbers to the Turks on that sea.

A war of a less bloody kind is begun between the Pope and the King of

Naples, who has refused this year to pay the annual tribute of the hackney

as an acknowledgment that he holds his kingdom as feudatory of the Pope.

The latter has declared him to stand deprived of his kingdom, but gives

him three months to consider of it. We shall see what will be made of

this farce. I have written this supplement to my other letter, in hopes it

may still find you at London. I am, with much esteem, dear Sir, your most

obedient humble servant.

TO M. LIMOZIN.

PARIS, July 30, 1788.

SIR,--I know nothing myself of the person who was the subject of your

letter of the 27th, except a mere slight personal acquaintance. But I

have been told that he has been very unsuccessful in commerce, and that

his affairs are very much deranged. I own I wish to see the beef-trade

with America taken up by solid hands, because it will give new life to

our Northern States. In general, they do not know how to cure it. But some

persons of Massachusetts have not very long ago brought over packers and

picklers from Ireland, and the beef cured and packed by them has been sent

to the East Indies and brought back again, and perfectly sound. We may

expect the art will spread. Is the Irish beef as good as that of Hamburg?

If I had supposed Irish beef could have been got at Havre, I would not

have sent to Hamburg for beef. I suppose that which came for me cannot be

introduced.

You have heard of the great naval victory obtained by the Russians under

command of Admiral Paul Jones, over the Turks commanded by the Captain

Pacha. We cannot see as yet, whether this will hasten peace. The Swedish

fleet having saluted instead of attacking the Russian, makes us suspect

these movements of the King of Sweden may be a mere piece of hectoring to

frighten Russia from the purpose of sending her fleet round, if he can

do it without actually entering into the war. He is paid by the Turks.

Nothing else new. I am, Sir, with great esteem, your most obedient, humble

servant.

TO JAMES MADISON.

PARIS, July 31, 1788.

DEAR SIR,--My last letters to you were of the 3d and the 25th of May.

Yours from Orange, of April the 22d, came to hand on the 10th instant.

My letter to Mr. Jay, containing all the public news that is well

authenticated, I will not repeat it here, but add some details in the

smaller way, which you may be glad to know. The disgrace of the Marquis

de la Fayette, which at any other period of their history would have had

the worst consequences for him, will, on the contrary, mark him favorably

to the nation, at present. During the present administration, he can

expect nothing; but perhaps it may serve him with their successors,

whenever a change shall take place. No change of the Principal will

probably take place before the meeting of the States General; though a

change is to be wished, for his operations do not answer the expectations

formed of him. These had been calculated on his brilliancy in society.

He is very feebly aided, too. Montmorin is weak, though a most worthy

character. He is indolent and inattentive, too, in the extreme. Luzerne is

considerably inferior in abilities to his brother, whom you know. He is

a good man, too, but so much out of his element, that he has the air of

one _huskanoyed_. The Garde des sceaux is considered as the Principal's

bull dog, braving danger like the animal. His talents do not pass

mediocrity. The Archbishop's brother, and the new minister Villedeuil, and

Lambert, have no will of their own. They cannot raise money for the peace

establishment the next year, without the States General; much less if

there be war; and their administration will probably end with the States

General.

Littlepage, who was here as a secret agent for the King of Poland,

rather overreached himself. He wanted more money. The King furnished it,

more than once. Still he wanted more, and thought to obtain a high bid

by saying he was called for in America, and asking leave to go there.

Contrary to his expectation, he received leave; but he went to Warsaw

instead of America, and from thence to join the[H] * * * * I do not know

these facts certainly, but recollect them, by putting several things

together. The King then sent an ancient secretary here, in whom he had

much confidence, to look out for a correspondent, a mere letter writer for

him. A happy hazard threw Mazzei in his way. He recommended him, and he

is appointed. He has no diplomatic character whatever, but is to receive

eight thousand livres a year, as an intelligencer. I hope this employment

may have some permanence. The danger is, that he will overact his part.

The Marquis de la Luzerne had been for many years married to his brother's

wife's sister, secretly. She was ugly and deformed, but sensible, amiable,

and rather rich. When he was ambassador to London, with ten thousand

guineas a year, the marriage was avowed, and he relinquished his cross

of Malta, from which he derived a handsome revenue for life, and which

was very open to advancement. Not long ago, she died. His real affection

for her, which was great and unfeigned, and perhaps the loss of his order

for so short-lived a satisfaction, has thrown him almost into a state of

despondency. He is now here.