The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9)
TekstWhen I came into this office, it was with a resolution to retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pretty early appeared to me that the proper moment would be the first of those epochs at which the Constitution seems to have contemplated a periodical change or renewal of the public servants. In this I was confirmed by your resolution respecting the same period; from which, however, I am happy in hoping you have departed. I look to that period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the land in view, and shall count the days and hours which still lie between me and it. In the meanwhile, my main object will be to wind up the business of my office, avoiding as much as possible all new enterprise. With the affairs of the Legislature, as I never did intermeddle, so I certainly shall not now begin. I am more desirous to predispose everything for the repose to which I am withdrawing, than expose it to be disturbed by newspaper contests. If these however cannot be avoided altogether, yet a regard for your quiet will be a sufficient motive for my deferring it till I become merely a private citizen, when the propriety or impropriety of what I may say or do, may fall on myself alone. I may then, too, avoid the charge of misapplying that time which now, belonging to those who employ me, should be wholly devoted to their service. If my own justification, or the interests of the republic shall require it, I reserve to myself the right of then appealing to my country, subscribing my name to whatever I write, and using with freedom and truth the facts and names necessary to place the cause in its just form before that tribunal. To a thorough disregard of the honors and emoluments of office, I join as great a value for the esteem of my countrymen, and conscious of having merited it by an integrity which cannot be reproached, and by an enthusiastic devotion to their rights and liberty, I will not suffer my retirement to be clouded by the slanders of a man whose history, from the moment at which history can stoop to notice him, is a tissue of machinations against the liberty of the country which has not only received and given him bread, but heaped its honors on his head. Still, however, I repeat the hope that it will not be necessary to make such an appeal. Though little known to the people of America, I believe, that as far as I am known, it is not as an enemy to the Republic, nor an intriguer against it, nor a waster of its revenue, nor prostitutor of it to the purposes of corruption, as the "American" represents me; and I confide that yourself are satisfied that as to dissensions in the newspapers, not a syllable of them has ever proceeded from me, and that no cabals or intrigues of mine have produced those in the Legislature, and I hope I may promise both to you and myself, that none will receive aliment from me during the short space I have to remain in office, which will find ample employment in closing the present business of the department.
Observing that letters written at Mount Vernon on the Monday, and arriving at Richmond on the Wednesday, reach me on Saturday, I have now the honor to mention that the 22d instant will be the last of our post days that I shall be here, and consequently that no letter from you after the 17th, will find me here. Soon after that I shall have the honor of receiving at Mount Vernon your orders for Philadelphia, and of there also delivering you the little matter which occurs to me as proper for the opening of Congress, exclusive of what has been recommended in former speeches, and not yet acted on. In the meantime and ever I am, with great and sincere affection and respect, dear Sir your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO ARCHIBALD STUART, ESQ
Monticello, September 9, 1792.
Dear Sir,—I wrote you a long letter from Philadelphia early in the summer, which would not have been worth recurring to, but that I therein asked the favor of you to sound Mr. Henry on the subject you had written to me on, to wit, the amendment of our Constitution, and to find whether he would not approve of the specific amendments therein mentioned, in which case the business would be easy. If you have had any conversation with him on the subject, I will thank you for the result. As I propose to return from my present office at the close of the ensuing session of Congress, and to fix myself once more at home, I begin to feel a more immediate interest in having the Constitution of our country fixed, and in such a form as will ensure a somewhat greater certainty to our laws, liberty and property, the first and last of which are now pretty much afloat, and the second not out of the reach of every enterprise. I set out for Philadelphia about the 20th, and would therefore be happy to hear from you before that. I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your constant friend and servant.
TO MR. CLAY
Monticello, September 11, 1792.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of August 8th, came duly to hand, and I should with pleasure have done what you therein desired, as I ever should what would serve or oblige you; but from a very early moment of my life I determined never to intermeddle with elections of the people, and have invariably adhered to this determination. In my own county, where there have been so many elections in which my inclinations were enlisted, I yet never interfered. I could the less do it in the present instance, your people so very distant from me, utterly unknown to me, and to whom I am also unknown; and above all, I a stranger, to presume to recommend one who is well known to them. The people could not but put this question to me, "who are you, pray?" In writing the letter to you on the former occasion, I went further than I had ever before done, but that was addressed to yourself to whom I had a right to write, and not to persons either unknown to me, or very capable of judging for themselves. I have so much reliance on your friendship and candor as not to doubt you will approve of my sentiments on this occasion, and be satisfied they flow from considerations respecting myself only, and not you to whom I am happy in every occasion of testifying my esteem. I hope to see you in Bedford about May next, and am with great attachment, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
TO EDWARD RANDOLPH, ESQ
Monticello, September 17, 1792.
My Dear Sir,—The last post brought me your favor of the 26th of August; but it brought me at the same time so much business to be answered by return of post, and which did not admit of delay, that I was obliged to postpone the acknowledgment of yours. I thank you sincerely for what respects myself. Though I see the pen of the Secretary of the Treasury plainly in the attack on me, yet, since he has not chosen to put his name to it, I am not free to notice it as his. I have preserved through life a resolution, set in a very early part of it, never to write in a public paper without subscribing my name, and to engage openly an adversary who does not let himself be seen, is staking all against nothing. The indecency too, of newspaper squabbling between two public ministers, besides my own sense of it, has drawn something like an injunction from another quarter. Every fact alleged under the signature of "an American" as to myself, is false, and can be proved so; and perhaps will be one day. But for the present, lying and scribbling must be free to those mean enough to deal in them, and in the dark. I should have been setting out to Philadelphia within a day or two; but the addition of a grandson and indisposition of my daughter, will probably detain me here a week longer. My best respects to Mrs. Randolph, and am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Monticello, September 18, 1792—2 o'clock, P.M.
Dear Sir,—Your express is this moment arrived with the Proclamation on the proceedings against the laws for raising a revenue on distilled spirits, and I return it herein enclosed with my signature. I think if, instead of the words "to render laws dictated by weighty reasons of public exigency and policy as acceptable as possible," it stood "to render the laws as acceptable as possible," it would be better. I see no other particular expressions which need alteration. I am sincerely sorry to learn that such proceedings have taken place; and I hope the Proclamation will lead the persons concerned into a regular line of application which may end either in an amendment of the law, if it needs it, or in their conviction that it is right. Your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO C. C. PINCKNEY, ESQ
Philadelphia, October 8, 1792.
Sir,—I found on my return here three days ago, your favor of April 6th, and am happy to learn from it that the Agricultural Society has adopted the plan of employing a person at Marseilles to raise and send olive trees to them annually. Their success in South Carolina cannot be doubted, and their value is great. Olive grounds in France rent higher by the acre than those of any other growth in the kingdom, which proves they yield the greatest nett produce. Marseilles is the proper place for your nurseryman to be fixed, because it is the neighborhood of the best olives; and Mr. Cathalan the properest person to whom we can commit the whole superintendence, because he is our consul, is concerned in our commerce, eager to extend it, is a good man, a wealthy one, and has offered his services repeatedly in this business. He was brought up in a counting-house in London, is connected there, and therefore I think that the most convenient place on which to enable him to draw for the expenditures. This may be either by an annual letter of credit to him on some house there for any sum not exceeding fifty guineas, or a standing letter of credit for that annual sum till your further orders. I would advise that he should never be suffered to be in advance for the society, that there may be no motive for his being cool in the business. If you think proper to write to Mr. Cathalan merely to open the correspondence with him, enclosing him a letter of credit, and referring him to me for the mode of conducting the enterprise, I will enclose it to him with proper instructions as to the mode. My reason for this caution is that from my knowledge of circumstances, and from what has already passed between him and me, I can fix him at once as to a moderate scale of expense which I know to be sufficient, and which he might transcend under the idea that this is a public enterprise, supported by powerful and wealthy gentlemen. A copy of my letter shall be sent to you, so that you may make any alterations in the plan which may be agreeable to your ideas of the business, in the course of your future correspondence with Mr. Cathalan; and I shall at all future times be ready to do anything further in my power to promote the object. I am happy that while I was in the olive country I enquired for and procured the best book on the subject of the olive tree, which I now deliver to Mr. Smith for the use of the society. I suspect that the excrescence on your olive trees, described in your letter, is what they call the leprosy, which prevails among these plants I believe in every country. I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MR. PINCKNEY
Philadelphia, October 12, 1792.
Dear Sir,—Your favor of August the 7th came to hand on the 6th instant, and gave me the first certain information of your safe arrival. Mr. Otto being about to sail for London, furnishes me with an opportunity of sending the newspapers for yourself and Mr. Barclay, and I avail myself of it chiefly for this purpose, as my late return from Virginia and the vacation of Congress furnishes little new and important for your information. With respect to the Indian war, the summer has been chiefly employed on our part in endeavoring to persuade them to peace, in an abstinence from all offensive operations, in order to give those endeavors a fairer chance, and in preparation for activity the ensuing season, if they fail. I believe we may say these endeavors have all failed, or probably will do so. The year has been rather a favorable one for our agriculture. The crops of small grain were generally good. Early frosts have a good deal shortened those of tobacco and Indian corn, yet not so as to endanger distress. From the south my information is less certain, but from that quarter you will be informed through other channels. I have a pleasure in noting this circumstance to you, because the difference between a plentiful and a scanty crop more than counterpoises the expenses of any campaign. Five or six plentiful years successively, as we have had, have most sensibly ameliorated the condition of our country, and uniform laws of commerce, introduced by our new government, have enabled us to draw the whole benefits of our agriculture.
I enclose you the copy of a letter from Messrs. Blow and Milhaddo, merchants of Virginia, complaining of the taking away of their sailors on the coast of Africa, by the commander of a British armed vessel. So many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite necessary that their government should explain themselves on the subject, and be led to disavow and punish such conduct. I leave to your discretion to endeavor to obtain this satisfaction by such friendly discussions as may be most likely to produce the desired effect, and secure to our commerce that protection against British violence which it has never experienced from any other nation. No law forbids the seamen of any country to engage in time of peace on board a foreign vessel; no law authorizes such seamen to break his contract, nor the armed vessels of his nation to interpose force for his rescue. I shall be happy to hear soon that Mr. B. has gone on the service on which he was ordered.
I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT
Philadelphia, October 14, 1792.
Gentlemen,—Since my letters of March the 18th and April the 24th (which have been retarded so unfortunately), another subject of conference and convention with Spain has occurred. You know that the frontiers of her provinces, as well as of our States, are inhabited by Indians holding justly the right of occupation, and leaving to Spain and to us only the claim of excluding other nations from among them, and of becoming ourselves the purchasers of such portions of land, from time to time, as they may choose to sell. We have thought, that the dictates of interest as well as humanity, enjoined mutual endeavors with those Indians to live in peace with both nations, and we have scrupulously observed that conduct. Our agent with the Indians bordering on the territories of Spain, has a standing instruction to use his best endeavors to prevent them from committing acts of hostility against the Spanish settlements. But whatever may have been the conduct or orders of the government of Spain, that of their officers in our neighborhood has been indisputably unfriendly and hostile to us. The papers enclosed will demonstrate this to you. That the Baron de Carondelet, their chief Governor at New Orleans, has excited the Indians to war on us, that he has furnished them with abundance of arms and ammunition, and promised them whatever more shall be necessary, I have from the mouth of him who had it from his own mouth. In short, that he is the sole source of a great and serious war now burst out upon us, and from Indians who, we know, were in peaceable dispositions towards us till prevailed on by him to commence the war, there remains scarcely room to doubt. It has become necessary that we understand the real policy of Spain in this point. You will therefore be pleased to extract from the enclosed papers such facts as you think proper to be communicated to that court, and enter into friendly but serious expostulations on the conduct of their officers; for we have equal evidence against the commandants of other posts in West Florida, though they being subordinate to Carondelet, we name him as the source. If they disavow his conduct, we must naturally look to their treatment of him as the sole evidence of their sincerity. But we must look further. It is a general rule, that no nation has a right to keep an agent within the limits of another, without the consent of that other, and we are satisfied it would be best for both Spain and us, to abstain from having agents or other persons in our employ or pay among the savages inhabiting our respective territories, whether as subjects or independent. You are, therefore, desired to propose and press a stipulation to that effect. Should they absolutely decline it, it may be proper to let them perceive that as the right of keeping agents exists on both sides or on neither, it will rest with us to reciprocate their own measures. We confidently hope that these proceedings are unauthorized by the government of Spain, and in this hope, we continue in the dispositions formerly expressed to you, of living on terms of the best friendship and harmony with that country, of making their interests in our neighborhood our own, and of giving them every proof of this, except the abandonment of those essential rights which you are instructed to insist on.
I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO G. MORRIS, ESQ
Philadelphia, October 15, 1792.
Sir,—I have duly received your favor of July 10, No. 4, but no other number preceding or subsequent. I fear, therefore, that some miscarriage has taken place. The present goes to Bordeaux, under cover to Mr. Fenwick, who, I hope, will be able to give it a safe conveyance to you. I observe that you say in your letter, that "the marine department is to treat with you for supplies to St. Domingo." I presume you mean "supplies of money," and not that our government is to furnish supplies of provisions, specifically, or employ others to do it; this being a business into which they could not enter. The payment of money here, to be employed by their own agents in purchasing the produce of our soil, is a desirable thing. We are informed by the public papers, that the late constitution of France, formally notified to us, is suspended, and a new convention called. During the time of this suspension, and while no legitimate government exists, we apprehend we cannot continue the payments of our debt to France, because there is no person authorized to receive it and to give us an unobjectionable acquittal. You are, therefore, desired to consider the payment as suspended, until further orders. Should circumstances oblige you to mention this (which it is better to avoid if you can), do it with such solid reasons as will occur to yourself, and accompany it with the most friendly declarations that the suspension does not proceed from any wish in us to delay the payment, the contrary being our wish, nor from any desire to embarrass or oppose the settlement of their government in that way in which their nation shall desire it; but from our anxiety to pay this debt justly and honorably, and to the persons really authorized by the nation (to whom we owe it) to receive it for their use. Nor shall this suspension be continued one moment after we can see our way clear out of the difficulty into which their situation has thrown us. That they may speedily obtain liberty, peace, and tranquillity, is our sincere prayer.
The present summer is employed by us in endeavors to persuade the Indians to peace, and to prepare for the ensuing campaign, if our endeavors for peace should fail. That they will fail, we have reason to expect, and consequently that the expenses of our armament are to continue for some time. Another plentiful year added to the several others which we have successively had, is some consolation under these expenses. Very early frosts, indeed, have somewhat shortened the productions of the autumn.
I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.