THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT
 
 '%^
 
 A SKETCH 
 
 ANNE ROBERT JACQ^UES 
 TURCOT 
 
 WirH A rRANSLATION OF HIS LETrER 70 
 DOCTOR PRICE 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 Geo. H. Ellis, Printer, 272 Congress Street 
 
 1899
 
 DC 
 
 
 f.G 
 
 IN MEMORY 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM GARDINER HAMMOND 
 
 OF ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 The Most Learned Civilian in the United States. 
 
 TO HIM I OWE MY APPRECIATION OF THE VALUE OF THE 
 
 ROMAN LA\V, AND MY RESPECT FOR THE HIGHER 
 
 BRANCHES OF JURISPRUDENCE 
 
 AND LEGISLATION. 
 
 J. M. B. 
 
 Jan. io, 1899. 
 
 93ie9P4
 
 SKETCH. 
 
 Washington and his associates warned their coun- 
 trymen against entangling alliances with the European 
 powers. 
 
 M. Turgot, Minister of State under Louis XVI., our 
 great friend in France, in his letter of the 22d of 
 March, 1778, to Dr. Price, our best friend in London, 
 in relation to the new republic writes, " In order that 
 all these good results, which he foresaw were possible 
 in America, may be brought about, it will be necessary 
 for America to keep itself from imitating or becoming 
 an image of Europe." 
 
 Again, he goes on to say : " We see her [America] 
 irrevocably independent. Will she be happy in her 
 freedom ? This new nation is situated so advanta- 
 geously to give the world the example of a constitution 
 where the individual enjoys all his rights, freely uses 
 all his faculties, and is only to be governed by nature, 
 right, and justice. But will the people know how to
 
 form such a constitution ? Will they know how to 
 ground it on eternal foundations ? America is the 
 hope of the human race. It may become its model. 
 It could prove to the world by deeds that men can be 
 free and peaceful, and are able to dispense with fetters 
 of all kinds, which the tyrants and impostors have 
 pretended to impose upon them under the pretext of 
 the public good." 
 
 In regard to the moral sciences, particularly with 
 the noblest of them all, the highest statesmanship, it 
 is otherwise. Here we might profit by the experience 
 of Europe. 
 
 It requires but a very superficial acquaintance with 
 juridical history to know that a broad and all-compre- 
 hensive knowledge of the Roman law, of the historical 
 school of which perhaps Montesquieu was the founder, 
 of the Physiocrates in France, of Immanuel Kant, 
 of Thomas Hobbes, of Jeremy Bentham and his great 
 followers, is necessary for that end. Now, as far as I 
 can find out, these are known only partially in our law 
 schools. This is the more surprising, inasmuch as the 
 Americans have an especial talent for law, producing 
 the best of legists. In historical sense they seem to
 
 be deficient. If the philosophy of evolution is correct, 
 this sense is as necessary here as it is in geology or in 
 any other science. 
 
 It has been my good fortune during the last few 
 years to become somewhat acquainted with many of 
 the works of the above-mentioned great writers, among 
 them with M. Turgot, perhaps the noblest of them all. 
 A sense of gratitude and admiration leads me to print 
 this humble study of him. To it I have annexed an 
 admirable translation of M. Turgot's celebrated letter 
 lO Dr. Price, made for me by my friend, Helen Billings 
 Morris. Many of the dangers anticipated by M. Tur- 
 got have been obviated by the great freedom and 
 strong political sense of our people. But it would have 
 been well, had we heeded his counsels ; namely, against 
 the monarchical militarism of Europe (America, he 
 said, is destined to become great, not by war, but by 
 culture), against great taxes, the tendency to borrow, 
 an excessive commercial spirit. lie called upon us to 
 exhibit an example of political, religious, commercial, 
 and industrial liberty. He himself gave an example 
 of ability, courage, and purity in office. 
 
 These were his contributions to the political moral
 
 currency in all forms of government and to all times. 
 These counsels and acts are as pertinent now as they 
 were with Moses in the wilderness, Christ in Jerusalem 
 Marcus Aurelius in Rome, Washington and Lincoln in 
 America. They should not be forgotten. We should 
 teach them to our young people, and, better still, act 
 them out in market-places. 
 
 J. M. B. 
 Jan. io, 1899. 
 
 The photographic portrait is taken from a i2mo 
 edition of Condorcet's " Vie de Monsieur Turgot," pub- 
 lished at Berne, chez Kirchberger & Hatton, Libraires, 
 MDCCLXXXVII."
 
 ANNE ROBERT JACQUES TURCOT, 
 
 OF FRANCE, 
 Sometimes called ^^The Godlike.''^ 
 
 Born May io, 1727. Died March 18, 1781. 
 
 By nature and character, great. Fired with an un- 
 compromising love of truth. 
 
 On the title-page of Condorcet's "Vie de Turgot " 
 we have these lines from Lucan : — 
 
 «' Secta fuit servare modum, finemque tenere, 
 Naturamque sequi, patriaeque impcndere vitam ; 
 Non sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo." 
 
 L7ican. 
 
 These have been admirably translated by Dr. Will- 
 iam Everett : —
 
 io 
 
 " This way, this creed unmoved stern Cato drew : 
 To keep the mean, and hold the end in view ; 
 Nature his guide, his life his country's own ; 
 Born for mankind, and not for self alone." 
 
 They were originally written for Cato of Utica, but 
 they apply more fitly to Turgot. 
 
 His family was originally from Scotland, settled in 
 Normandy during the Crusades. The portraits we 
 have of him show this, a mixture of Scotch good sense 
 and French refinement. His grandfather and his 
 father were long in civil life. 
 
 His mother was a Martineau. He was the third son. 
 
 His early education was unfortunate. His mother 
 did not understand him, disliked his fondness for 
 books. She desired to see him with refined manners, 
 upbraided him for his gaucherie. He became shy and 
 nervously sensitive. 
 
 It is thought that this rather unnatural boy life 
 affected his whole subsequent career. 
 
 At his schools he made a decided advance. First 
 at the College Louis le Grand, then at the College au 
 Plessis. Here he formed a deep friendship with Abbe 
 Sigorgne, and learned from him to substitute for the
 
 fanciful theories of Descartes the demonstrable physics 
 of Newton. Being intended for the Church, he was 
 sent to St. Sulpice and afterward to the Sorbonne. 
 In these schools he soon showed those qualities for 
 which he was distinguished in after life, — an enthusias- 
 tic love of literature, prodigious memory, penetrating 
 intellect, sound judgment, a readiness to share his 
 superior means with the poorer pupils. 
 
 Pure, simple, modest, frank, gay. 
 
 At the Sorbonne he composed and delivered pub- 
 licly two theses in Latin, 1750: the first, "On the 
 Advantages which the Christian Religion has conferred 
 on the Human Race": the second, "On the Succes- 
 sive Advances of the Human Mind." This latter was 
 one of the earliest enunciations of the doctrine of the 
 perfectibility of the human race. 
 
 His belief in this became part of his being, gave an 
 impulse to his culture, and inspired his whole public 
 life. 
 
 He availed himself of the excellent library of the 
 Sorbonne to translate into French from other lan- 
 guages, say from Greek, Latin, German, Italian, and 
 English.
 
 12 
 
 In 1749 his first paper on political economy, "Paper 
 Money," exposing the fallacies of John Law. 
 
 At twenty-three years of age he renounced his in- 
 tention of a clerical career. His comrades endeavored 
 to persuade him, but in vain. He told them, "It is 
 impossible for me to wear a mask." His father con- 
 sented : but he died in 175 1, and that put an end to 
 his life at the Sorbonne. 
 
 He now applied himself to the study of law, without 
 neglecting his literary, mathematical, and scientific 
 studies. 
 
 In 1753 he wrote a remarkable paper on "Toleration, 
 and against the Interference of the Temporal Powers 
 in Theological Disputes." He now frequented the 
 salons and enjoyed the society of D'Alembert, Mon- 
 tesquieu, Helvetius, Morellet, Marmontel, Galiani, Ray- 
 nal, and other distinguished men and women. Among 
 the latter was Madame Graffigny, to whom he addressed 
 a letter on "The Education of the Young," which 
 acquired notoriety subsequently through Rousseau. 
 And now, as always, amid all these attractions, male 
 and female, he would not surrender himself to any 
 coterie. He disliked the spirit of party or sect. "It
 
 13 
 
 is this spirit," he has said a hundred times, '• that 
 makes enemies to useful truths. As soon as savans, 
 in their pride, give themselves to form a body, to say 
 * we,' to believe themselves able to impose laws 
 upon public opinion, thoughtful public opinion revolts 
 against them ; for it wishes to receive laws from truth 
 only, and not from any authority." 
 
 In 1753 he was appointed Maitre des Requites, the 
 exact function of which does not appear. He held the 
 position nine years. 
 
 About this time he entered into relations with the 
 Physiocrates Quesnay, Gournay, and others. He was 
 attracted to them by similarity of views on social and 
 economical subjects. He was undoubtedly the most 
 brilliant of the group of these illustrious men, but even 
 then he maintained his complete independence of 
 judgment. No one ever illustrated more fully that 
 line of Henley's, — 
 
 " I am the captain of my soul." 
 
 In May, 1753, he accepted a seat in the new Royal 
 Chamber which was created in place of the Parliament, 
 then exiled. Here he made himself conspicuous by
 
 opposing the political influence of the Parliament, etc. 
 During this period he contributed to the discussion of 
 public questions; namely, on "Toleration," "Le Con- 
 ciliateur," a translation of Dr. Josiah Tucker's work 
 on the " Naturalization of Foreign Protestants," five 
 articles to the Encyclopaedia. 
 
 In 1755-56 he accompanied Gournay, one of the 
 founders of the Physiocrates, in his tour of inspection ; 
 and he subsequently travelled alone in Eastern France 
 and Switzerland. Here he met Voltaire, and formed 
 a friendship which lasted through his life. 
 
 In 1 76 1 (thirty-four years of age) he was appointed 
 Superintendent of Limoges. 
 
 " The people here were sunk in poverty and barbar- 
 ism, with poor roads, poor soil, oppressed by the militia 
 system, by the corvee a system of enforced labor on 
 the roads without pay." These depressing circum- 
 stances were no obstacles to Turgot : on the contrary, 
 they seemed to be attractions. " He wished to do 
 something before he died (and he knew that his life 
 would be short) to relieve the misery of France and 
 to help the world's general advancement." Here, he 
 thought was a chance.
 
 IS 
 
 He held this office thirteen years. 
 
 One of his first objects was to acquire a clear knowl- 
 edge of facts. For this purpose he addressed a circular 
 to his sub-delegates, specifying j^oints on which hp 
 desired information. He endeavored to inspire these 
 sub-delegates with his own enthusiasm, thoroughness, 
 and respect for the poor. Rising above the common 
 prejudices of the philosophers, he sought the co-opera- 
 tion of the cures, and found them to be earnest and 
 active assistants. 
 
 One of the most arbitrary and cruel taxes collected •. 
 from the agriculturists was the taillc. It is estimated 
 that the amount of this and all the other taxes was 
 four-fifths of the revenue of a peasant proprietor's in- 
 come. From this tax the superiors in rank and wealth 
 were exempt. 
 
 "Turgot condemned this tax, but he was obliged to 
 administer the law with as much fairness and with as 
 little injustice as possible." About four months after 
 his appointment he obtained a declaration from the 
 king for a more regular assessment of the taillc. 
 
 An opportunity for removal to a better paid and 
 easier province was declined.
 
 i6 
 
 He continued year after year to petition the general 
 government for relief in vain, but he was not dis- 
 heartened. 
 
 Another infamous tax was the corvee. " By this the 
 peasants were obliged to work on the roads without 
 pay." Here, too, the privileged classes were exempt. 
 
 His manner of dealing with the corvee was a simple 
 one, the beginning of a revolution. He put com- 
 petent workmen on the roads, paid them, superintended 
 them himself, and defrayed the expense by a moderate 
 tax on the rate-payers. The roads of Limousin became 
 roads indeed. He also succeeded in abolishing the 
 military corvee. 
 
 His next great reform was for "freedom of the 
 corn trade." This probably was the precursor of the 
 great movement in Great Britain seventy-four years 
 after, and of " free trade " everywhere in time to 
 come. Here he had against him the conservatives 
 and the selfishness of the agriculturists in his own 
 province. 
 
 In 1770 and 1771 a famine devastated Limousin. 
 "To mitigate this, his whole energy was called forth. 
 Various measures were' adopted, but the greatest
 
 17 
 
 caution exercised to prevent mendicity. He had the 
 greatest sympathy for the pauvres hoiiteiix (the respect- 
 able poor). He desired a special fund for them, to be 
 distributed by the cures, or by those who would keep 
 their own counsel." " When he had exhausted the 
 public funds available for relief, he incurred a personal 
 debt of 20,000 livres for that purpose." 
 
 The difficulty ceased latter part of 1771. Other re- 
 forms carried out by him in Limousin were the im- 
 provement in the militia drawing, the billeting of the 
 soldiers upon the people, agricultural methods (he 
 introduced the cultivation of the potato), veterinary 
 science, medical assistance for the poor, especially in 
 midwifery. On one of his official visits to Paris he 
 met Adam Smith, with whom he made an intimate and 
 long friendship. There can be no doubt that Mr, 
 Smith's intercourse with Turgot and other members of 
 the Physiocratic circle had a great influence on "The 
 Wealth of Nations." 
 
 During his residence in Limoges he wrote and pub- 
 lished many works on economic subjects. In all of 
 these he showed his strong good sense, and, above all, 
 his reliance on truth and freedom. Unhappily, his sug-
 
 gestions were in advance of his time, and, I fear, of our 
 time. Yet the time will come when his principles will 
 be the common practice of the street, and when men 
 will erect statues to him. 
 
 Mr. W. Walker Stephens, in his admirable " Life 
 and Writings of Turgot," in English, writes : " In 
 Turgot's letter, written one hundred and twenty years 
 ago, the reader will observe that its arguments and 
 illustrations are as literally as true now against the 
 miserable protectionist fallacies circulated by the Re- 
 publican party in the United States as originally they 
 were against the narrow views of M. Terray." M. 
 Terray was the restrictionist against whom M. Turgot 
 wrote his letters. 
 
 In 1774 Louis XV. died. The new king, Louis XVI., 
 and the new Prime Minister, Count de Masuze, invited 
 Turgot to a seat in the cabinet. This ended his ser- 
 vice at Limoges. He had given to them the best part 
 of his life. It had been a daily fight, not unsuccessful. 
 He left the province better than he found it. The 
 people loved him because they believed in his integrity 
 and ability, and he believed in them. He appealed to 
 their reason and moral sense, came down to them.
 
 19 
 
 explaining carefully the grounds on which his orders 
 were based. He never treated them as children. 
 
 The best writers on government — Hobbes, Mon- 
 tesquieu, M. de la Riviere, the Physiocrates, Kant, 
 Bentham, Austin, John S. Mill, Dumont, Hildreth — 
 insist upon it that the so-called common people desire 
 and are capable of understanding the elements of 
 economic and political truths, provided they are taught 
 by well-trained, educated, able, thoroughly disinterested 
 leaders. Good government, they maintain, is possible 
 only where you have these two conditions ; namely, the 
 mass of the people instructed in the elements of social, 
 economic, and political life, and a body oi gc7is Iiimineux, 
 — "light-diffusing," unselfish, courageous men, believ- 
 ing in and loving to instruct the people. 
 
 M. Turgot believed in these conditions, and en- 
 deavored to realize them in Limousin ; but the condi- 
 tions then existing made it impossible. 
 
 The general government was indifferent to his 
 earnest requests. The "local nobility, whose privi- 
 leges he had curtailed, were hostile to him. But the 
 peasantry understood and adored him. His departure 
 was announced by the cures, who celebrated mass on
 
 26 
 
 his account. The countrymen suspended their work 
 in order to be present, and cried, ' It is wisely done by 
 the king to have taken M. Turgot, but it is very sad 
 for us that we have lost him.' " 
 
 Turgot's motives in leaving Limoges for a higher 
 position were that he thought that he would now have 
 the opportunity of initiating laws of administration for 
 all France, and not for a province alone. 
 
 His first appointment was as Minister of Marines 
 (July 20, 1774). He remained here only two months, 
 when he was appointed Comptroller-general of Fi- 
 nance (Aug. 24, 1774). He succeeded Terray, a great 
 rascal, who left affairs in great confusion, which gave 
 Turgot the greatest anxiety. He sought an interview 
 with the king, and frankly laid before him his fears and 
 his hopes. Louis XVI. was deeply impressed by his 
 minister, and assured him of his support. He then 
 addressed a letter to the king, which became one of the 
 documents of French history. 
 
 No Bankruptcy. 
 
 No Increase of Taxes. 
 
 No Loans.
 
 21 
 
 He warned him against the great demands made 
 upon his kind-heartedness. "You must reduce ex- 
 penditures below revenue, to create a surplus to be 
 applied to the redemption of old debts." 
 
 "He reminds him from whence the income came; 
 namely, from the people already overtaxed." 
 
 Economy and wisdom were to be his only resources. 
 
 Maurepas proposed to recall the Parliaments. 
 
 To this Turgot was opposed. He pressed his ob- 
 jections on the king, who again said : " Fear nothing. 
 I will sustain you." In September, 1774, he had the 
 satisfaction of issuing a decree establishing free com- 
 merce in corn. 
 
 It was the custom at court for the Farmers-genertil 
 to make presents to influential persons on the occasion 
 of obtaining contracts,— in plain terms, bribes. One 
 was offered to M. Turgot, which he at once declined. 
 Moreover, he explained this dangerous custom to the 
 king, and induced him to rebuke it. The reforms in- 
 stituted by him were the octroi duty, the disabilities of 
 foreigners, and certain evil practices in the meat 
 market. 
 
 Early in 1775 he was stricken by a severe attack of
 
 21 
 
 the gout, which detained him four months in his cham- 
 ber. This, however, did not prevent him from a heavy 
 correspondence in relation to the cattle plague (epizo- 
 otic) and the taille, in which he obtained some mitiga- 
 tions. The corn riots, commencing at Dijon, spread 
 throughout the country. The king was alarmed, 
 yielded a little to the rioters, but soon saw his mistake, 
 and summoned Turgot to his relief. The latter re- 
 mained firm, adopted the most vigorous measures, and 
 was at last entirely successful. 
 
 Louis XVI. was consecrated at Rheims June 15, 
 1775. It was customary for the king on that occasion 
 to swear " to exterminate all heretics." Turgot was 
 opposed to this, and addressed a memorial to him " Sur 
 la Tolerance." The clergy endeavored to overcome 
 the young monarch. Turgot tells him that " the 
 Church is not a temporal power. The prince who 
 orders his subject to profess a religion he does not be- 
 lieve in commands a crime." Here again we have 
 courage, a constant and perpetual desire for truth and 
 freedom. 
 
 In July, 1775,. largely through Turgot's influence, 
 Malesherbes was induced to take a seat in the cabinet.
 
 23 
 
 He was another noble, pure-minded patriot. Unfortu- 
 nately, he lacked the indomitable firmness of Turgot 
 for economy. He now devotes himself to his chief 
 duty as a finance minister, the Budget. It would be 
 useless to attempt any description of this service. 
 Suffice it to say that he showed here the same cour- 
 age, clear-mindedness, and purity which always distin- 
 guished him. 
 
 Besides this he founded new chairs of science, law, 
 literature, medicine, hydro-dynamics, the metrical sys- 
 tem. By an order of March 24, 1776, he founded the 
 Caisse (V Escoviptc (Discount Bank). 
 
 In 1775 (assisted by his friend and secretary, Dupont 
 de Nemours) he laid out a system of local government, 
 which, however, was not realized, owing to his loss of 
 office ; and the same may be said for his system of na- 
 tional education. The nobles and the clergy, the two 
 great classes in France, were his enemies. They could 
 not forget or forgive his destruction of their privileges 
 and his demand for toleration ; and he had no support 
 from public opinion or a constitution, and very little 
 from the king. The queen disliked him. 
 
 " He had the audacity to desire that Christian princi- 
 ples should govern public as well as private life."
 
 r 
 
 24 
 
 / In January, 1776, he addressed to the king his "six 
 / projects of edicts " against many abuses, particularly 
 \ the cruel corvee and jurandes. As these taxes favored 
 the privileged classes, there was a great opposition to 
 them. Turgot stood almost alone. The king appar- 
 ently took side with his minister ; and the edict was 
 signed for all six, January and February, 1776. 
 
 " It was necessary that the six edicts should be 
 registered by the Parliament in order to acquire legal 
 force. Here there was a bitter opposition. The king 
 remained firm, and all of the edicts were registered 
 by an unwilling Parliament." "Turgot had gained a 
 victory, but by it he lost his ministry." 
 
 All of his enemies united against him. " Intrigue 
 followed upon intrigue." The weak king, once so pro- 
 fuse in expressions of confidence, deserted him ; and so 
 did his friend Malesherbes. He addressed several 
 bold letters to the king, warning him of the dangers 
 he was running from selfish advisers. But in vain. 
 He was dismissed May 12, 1776. "The reformers 
 were in despair. 
 
 " His enemies now had their own way. Dupont, his 
 
 I 
 
 \ private secretary, was exiled, the corv^es were re-estab-
 
 ^5 
 
 lished, so the juraiides, the freedom of the corn trade 
 was suppressed. " 
 
 It cannot perhaps be said that the horrors of the 
 Revolution would have been avoided, had M, Turgot's 
 advice been taken ; but there is little doubt that they 
 would have been lessened. 
 
 " Turgot's dismissal closed forever his public life." 
 He had apparently failed. This was inevitable. He 
 found an ignorant and barbarous people, a selfish, preju- 
 diced nobility, a sensual and weak king. He was 
 superior to his times. Had he lived now, he would 
 have been nearer to his age. Yet even now we are 
 scarcely fully up to him. Still, it will come. 
 
 He carried into retirement a serene and cheerful 
 mind. Though still suffering severely from malady, he 
 gave himself up to science, literature, and the relief of 
 the unfortunate. There is no reason to believe that he 
 ever complained of the deceit and neglect which he had 
 received at court. 
 
 Geometry, optics, astronomy, literature, and the 
 classics. One of his last employments was to translate 
 Horace's ode " Aequam memento." We have seen him 
 cherishing his youth by the classics : we now find him
 
 26 
 
 delighting his old age by the same means. To his 
 happy days they had been an ornament : to these seem- 
 ingly adverse days they were a refuge and solace. 
 
 In other words, he illustrated the words of Cicero : 
 " Nam haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem 
 oblectant ; adversis rebus solatium et perfugium prae- 
 bent, secundis ornamentum." 
 
 He was, it is claimed by some, the author of 
 the epigrammatic inscription on Franklin's portrait, — 
 " Eripuit caelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis " ; by 
 others that it originated with Manillus, a Latin poet, 
 and was paraphrased by Turgot. In his retirement he 
 enjoyed the society and correspondence of Lavoisier, 
 D'Alembert, Condorcet, Boilieu, Reed, Franklin, and 
 Dr. Price, the strong friend of America, Adam Smith, 
 and others. He attended the meetings of the Acad- 
 emy of Inscriptions, of which he was Vice-Director in 
 1777. 
 
 He lived long enough to see the rise of the Ameri- 
 can republic. In common with Rousseau, Kant, Dr. 
 Richard Price of London, and other philosophers, he 
 entertained high hopes about it. They fancied they 
 saw at last a nation founded on the highest Christian, 
 
 I
 
 social, and economic principles. He wrote criticisms t 
 on the proposed constitution, which were answered by/ 
 John Adams in three volumes. 
 
 In bis celebrated letter to Dr. Richard Price, March 
 22, 1778, he writes: "She [America] is independent 
 beyond recovery. Will she be free and happy ? Will 
 she give to the world an example of a constitution 
 under which man may enjoy his rights, freely exercise 
 all his faculties, and be governed only by nature, 
 reason, and justice.? " " They [Americans] are the hope 
 of the world. They may become a model to it. They 
 may prove by fact that men may be free, and yet 
 tranquil, and rescue themselves from the bonds in 
 which tyrants have placed them. They may exhibit 
 an example of political, religious, and commercial 
 liberty, and of industry. The asylum they open to ' 
 the oppressed of all nations should console the earth." 
 " He thought that the example of America would 
 benefit the world by compelling princes to be just." 
 " He foresaw our vanity and prejudices, and cautioned 
 us against the bad practices of Europe," — America be- 
 coming an image of Europe, — "a mass of divided 
 powers contending for territory and commerce, and
 
 28 
 
 continually cementing the slavery of the people by their 
 own blood." He foresaw the danger from slavery in 
 the Southern States (" slavery incompatible with a good 
 political constitution "). 
 
 "The glory of arms is nothing to those who enjoy 
 the happiness of living in peace. The glory of arts 
 and sciences belongs to every man who can acquire it. 
 The field of discovery is boundless, and all profit by 
 the discoveries of all." "I believe the Americans are 
 bound to become great, not by war, but by culture." 
 
 " He feared for us the influence of the commercial 
 spirit \_resp}it inercantile\ the prejudice of the aristo- 
 cratic English against our republican constitution, 
 taxation, prohibitive laws, exclusive commerce." Had 
 we heeded these cautions, we should be the " model 
 republic " to-day. 
 
 It was that V esprit mercantile which led us to per- 
 mit the introduction of slavery into our Constitution, to 
 the disgraceful Mexican War, to our own Civil War, 
 and, above all, to this silly, wicked war with Spain, 
 struggling, as we once did, to preserve her union ; 
 again, to this excessive so-called protective tariff, lead- 
 ing logically to anarchy, and to rejoicing in the com- 
 mercial and industrial misfortunes of other peoples. 
 
 I
 
 29 
 
 He met his approaching death with the utmost 
 serenity, because of his belief in God, goodness, truth, 
 and immortality. 
 
 He died in Paris, March 1% 1781, fifty-four years 
 of age.
 
 SOME OF THE IDEAS, PRINCIPLES, OR 
 LESSONS TAUGHT BY TURCOT, 
 
 In the first place, we have a man of entire truth, 
 purity, simplicity, moderation, courage, and cheerful- 
 ness. "He believed truth to be the most powerful of 
 our moral perceptions." He never recommended a 
 measure because it was expedient or favorable to his 
 party, but because he believed it to be true and for the 
 benefit of all France. In the preambles of his edicts 
 he endeavored always to make this appear. 
 
 Amid the impurity of the court he kept his own 
 purity. " Still amid noise, spotless amid sin." 
 
 Moderation in reform. A fanatical love of liberty 
 and patriotism were not virtues in his eyes. 
 
 Bold before the king, a people in riot, and official 
 corruption. 
 
 He exhibited that rarest of all virtues, the posses- 
 sion of contrasted qualities in one person, — justice and 
 humanity, firmness and sensibility, exact reason and
 
 31 
 
 subtle action. The key-note to his aims and theory 
 was not pity or benevolence, but justice ; and yet no 
 one felt more or did more for his suffering fellow- 
 countrymen than he. " He rated practical work very 
 low compared with the achievements of the student and 
 thinker." " It is the dreamer who rules the world : 
 practical men only think they do." "The happy com- 
 bination is when the two are found in one person, as 
 they were in Turgot." " The light that a man of letters 
 is able to diffuse must sooner or later destroy all the 
 artificial evils of the human race, and place it in a posi- 
 tion to enjoy all the good that nature offers." He was 
 an optimist and a Platonist. 
 
 He believed in the "plain people," that they are 
 capable of and desirous of instruction and morality. 
 " You cannot serve the people by lying to them," or 
 distrusting or playing with them. 
 
 The Physiocrates, of whom he was the most brilliant 
 member, were the first to introduce common sense and 
 scientific methods into the treatment of social, econom- 
 ical, and political questions. The errors inseparable 
 from the first steps — a degraded people, a corrupt and 
 selfish nobility and kings — prevented them from realiz-
 
 32 
 
 ing them in their own day. But through Adam Smith, 
 Bentham, Thomas Place, the two Mills, Sir Robert 
 Peel, Cobden, Gladstone, and others, the work has 
 gone on, and will go on to the perfect day, 
 
 He considered unjust laws the chief cause of im- 
 morality. He desired the people to enjoy 
 
 1. Free Trade ; 
 
 2. Unrestriction ; 
 
 3. One simple land tax ; 
 
 4. Simple civil laws ; 
 
 5. Humane and just criminal laws. 
 
 A government based on such principles would be a 
 republic. But Turgot used to say, " I have never seen 
 A TRULY REPUBLICAN constitution." This was simply 
 because there had never been one, and, alas ! is not now. 
 
 "Almost every social and economical improvement 
 in Europe and America, for the last hundred years or 
 more, had its germ in the teaching of men who be- 
 longed to that early economists' ' School of France.' " — 
 Stephens's Turgot, p. 65. 
 
 "Turgot's letter of Feb. 15, 1765, on the doctrine of 
 Free Trade, is a model of argument on that subject 
 now as well as then."
 
 33 
 
 " To see life made easier and nobler for the people 
 was ever the yearning of his heart. Through his public 
 career, from first to last, and after his seeming disgrace 
 as well, we have seen how true he was to the aspiration 
 of his youth." — Stephens's Ttirgot. 
 
 To show this, Mr. Stephens quotes from letters 
 written at the Sorbonne in his youth, and from his last 
 written State paper. The labors, the disappointments 
 of life, had not dimmed the dreams of his youth.
 
 SOME OF THE OPINIONS OR ESTIMATES 
 
 OF HIM BY CONTEMPORARIES AND 
 
 OTHERS. 
 
 CoNDORCET, his great biographer, in his "Vie de 
 Turgot," which should be familiar to every one in the 
 public service, writes : " His official career is forever 
 memorable in the history of social politics. Never had 
 a public man given himself to the service of the com- 
 munity with more earnest and unselfish devotion. 
 Altogether one of the most massive and imposing 
 figures of the eighteenth century. A character of 
 austere grandeur and single-mindedness, absolutely un- 
 selfish./ He lived only for France, truth, and duty." 
 
 Malebranche said of him, " He had the head of 
 Bacon, and the heart of L'Hopital." 
 
 Voltaire, on hearing of the dismissal of Turgot, 
 writes, " I am overwhelmed by despair, I am really 
 dead since Turgot is deprived of power." He ad- 
 dressed to him the fine " Epitre a un Homme."
 
 35 
 
 The Archbishop of Aix said, " I feel it an honor to 
 have been born in the century with Turgot," 
 
 Dr. Richard Price, D.D., LL.D., of London, the 
 steadfast friend of America during our Revolution, 
 a correspondent of Turgot, writes of him : " A new 
 reign produced a new minister of finance in France, 
 whose name will be respected by posterity for a set 
 of measures as new to the political world as any late 
 discoveries in the system of nature have been to 
 the philosophical world. These measures are distin- 
 guished by their tendency to lay a solid foundation for 
 endless peace, industry, and a general enjoyment of 
 the gifts of nature, arts, and commerce." — Observa- 
 tions, by Richard Price, D.D., LL.D., p. 107. 
 
 John Stuart Mill writes of him in his Autobiography, 
 page 113: "Long before I had enlarged the basis of 
 my intellectual creed, I had obtained poetic culture by 
 means of reverential admiration for the lives and char- 
 acters of heroic persons, especially of the heroes of 
 philosophy ; above all, by Condorcet's ' Life of Tur- 
 got,' one of the wisest and noblest of lives by one of 
 the wisest and noblest of men. His heroic virtue 
 deeply affected me ; and I recurred to it, as others do
 
 36 
 
 to a favorite poet, when needing to be carried up into 
 the more elevated regions of thought and feeling. 
 This book cured me of my sectarian follies. The 
 passage commencing, ' II regardait toute secte comme 
 nuisible,' and explaining why Turgot always kept him- 
 self perfectly distinct from the Encyclopaedists, sank 
 deeply into my mind. I left off designating myself and 
 others as Utilitarians ; and by the pronoun 'we,' or any 
 other collective designation, I ceased to afficJicr secta- 
 rianism." — J. S. MilTs AiitobiograpJiy, p. 113. 
 
 John Morley writes, " His [Turgot's] sublime intellect- 
 ual probity never suffered itself to be tempted." 
 
 A. V. Dicey, in New York Nation, vol. xxi., p. 
 321 : "Voltaire, the prophet, Turgot, the saint of phi- 
 losophers." 
 
 The French economist, Jean Baptiste L^on Say, 
 who came soon after M. Turgot, writes : " I speak of 
 Turgot not as a defeated man, but as a victor, because, 
 if he failed in the eighteenth century, he has in fact 
 dominated the century following. He founded the 
 Political Economy of the nineteenth century ; and, by 
 the freedom of industry which he bequeathed to us, he 
 has impressed on the nineteenth century the mark 
 which will best characterize it in history."
 
 37 
 
 Again : "There are hardly any works which can yield 
 to the journalist and to the statesman an ampler har- 
 vest of facts and of instruction than may be found in 
 the writings of Turgot." — Traits d' Economie Politique, 
 ii. 555, quoted by Stephens in his " Life of Tnrgot." 
 Extracts from Carlyle's " French Revolution " : — 
 "There is a young, still docile, well-intentioned 
 King; a young beautiful and bountiful, well-intentioned 
 Queen ; and with them all France, as it were, become 
 young. Instead of a profligate, bankrupt Abb£^ Terray, 
 we have now, for Controller-General, a virtuous, philo- 
 sophic Turgot, with a whole Reformed France in his 
 head. By whom whatsoever is wrong, in France or 
 otherwise, will be righted — as far as possible. Is it 
 not as if Wisdom herself were henceforth to have seat 
 and voice in the Council of Kings .■* Turgot has taken 
 office with the noblest plainness of speech to that ef- 
 fect ; been listened to with the noblest royal trustful- 
 ness. It is true, as King Louis objects, 'They say he 
 never goes to Mass'; but liberal France likes him 
 little worse for that ; liberal France answers, ' The 
 Abbe Terray always went.' Philosophism sees, for the 
 first time, a Philosophe (or even a Philosopher) in
 
 38 
 
 office ; she in all things will applausively second him ; 
 neither will light old Maurepas obstruct, if he can 
 easily help it." 
 
 "Turgot is altering the Corn-trade, abrogating the 
 absurdest Corn-laws." 
 
 " Turgot has faculties ; honesty, insight, heroic voli- 
 tion ; but the Fortunatus' Purse he has not. Sanguine 
 Controller-General ! " 
 
 "... On the very threshold of the business, he pro- 
 poses that the Clergy, the Noblesse, the very Parle- 
 ments be subjected to taxes like the People! One 
 shriek of indignation and astonishment reverberates 
 through all the Chateau galleries ; M. de Maurepas has 
 to gyrate : the poor King, who had written a few weeks 
 ago, ' II n'y a que vous et moi qui aimions le peuple ' 
 (There is none but you and I that has the people's in- 
 terest at heart), must write now a dismissal ; and let 
 the French Revolution accomplish itself, pacifically or 
 not, as it can." 
 
 " As for the man's opinion, it is not listened to ; 
 wherefore he will soon withdraw, a second time ; back 
 to his books and his trees. In such King's Council 
 what can a good man profit ? Turgot tries it not a sec-
 
 39 
 
 ond time : Turgot has quitted France and this Earth, 
 some years ago ; and now cares for none of these 
 things." 
 
 In 1876 the Society d'Economie Politique of France 
 caused a medal to be struck in joint honor of Turgot 
 and Adam Smith. There can be no doubt that the 
 great Frenchman influenced the great Englishman. 
 
 It has been said of France that, though the bulk of 
 the people is so near the animal, no race has produced 
 so many men of genius. Here, certainly, was one in 
 the field of politics, legislation, administration, and 
 economics. 
 
 Quisnam igitur liber? Sapiens sibi qui impcriosus, 
 Quern neque pauperies, neque mors neque vincula tcrrcnt, 
 Responsare cupidinibus, contemncrc honores 
 Fortis, et in se ipso totus, teres atque rotundus 
 Externi ne quid valeat per leve morari, 
 In quern manca ruit semper Fortuna. 
 
 Horace, Satires, ii., 7, 83. 
 
 " Who, then, is free .■• the wise man iv/io has dominion 
 over Jiiviscif ; whom neither poverty, nor death, nor 
 chains affright ; brave in the checking of his appetites
 
 40 
 
 and in contemning honors ; and, perfect in himself, 
 polished and round as a globe, so that nothing from 
 without can retard, in consequence of its smoothness ; 
 against whom misfortune ever advances ineffectually." 
 Smart's Translation. 
 
 I have found it very difficult to learn the date of the 
 death and the place of interment of M. Turgot. 
 Lately, however, through the great patience and in- 
 dustry of M. Eraile Terquem, the well-known book- 
 seller of Paris, I am informed that " M. Turgot died at 
 his hotel. Rue de Bourbon, and was buried in the 
 church of the Incurables" (journal of Paris, 22d of 
 March, 1781, Interments).
 
 AUTHORITIES. 
 
 I have quoted freely from them without acknowledgment. 
 
 " La Vie de Turgot," contained in Condorcct's works. 
 
 The Life and Writings of Turgot, by W. Walker Stephens. 
 London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1895. 
 
 An article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, by J. H. Ingraham. 
 
 An article in Larusse's Dictionnaire Universelle. 
 
 Critical Essays, by John Morley. 
 
 Saturday Review, vol. xvi., 1832. 
 
 Dial, Chicago, vol. xix., p. 138. 
 
 "Turgot," by A. V. Dicey, New York Nation, vol. xxi., p. 312. 
 
 Notes made by F. Tillemont Thomason, of Boston. 
 
 Autobiography, by John Stuart Mill. 
 
 Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, 
 by Richard Price, D.D., LL.D. London: T. Cadctt. 1785. 
 With a letter from M. Turgot. 
 
 Horace, Smart's Translation. 
 
 There is an admirable collection of works on M. Turgot in llie 
 Athenx'um and Public Library. 
 
 I was very much aided in this study by the very intelligent and 
 accommodating female assistants of these two institutions.
 
 TURCOT. 
 
 {Lines on the anniversary of his death, 20 March, 1781.) 
 
 Turcot ! — a name to conjure with ; 
 A name for coming ages to admire: 
 
 A soul quite godlike ! — marrow-pith 
 Of honesty and intellectual fire. 
 
 One hundred years and two decades 
 Since thy decease have served but to inspire 
 
 A silly world — where memory soon fades — 
 With nobler vistas of thy great desire. 
 
 Since the past century the world 
 Has suffered turmoils thou didst seek avert ; 
 
 Those of thy day thy wisdom hurled 
 Into the roadway, trod it in the dirt. 
 
 Thou then aside in sorrow turned ; 
 Meekness and pity made thee greater still : 
 
 'Midst torture men thy lesson learned, 
 Which had been painless, had they heard thy will.
 
 43 
 
 'Tis ever thus, good men betrayed, 
 Distrusted, hated, spat upon, and curst ; 
 
 While rogues in tinsel-gilt arrayed 
 Barter a State to assuage their greedy thirst. 
 
 But truth once uttered must prevail. 
 However long the biding-time may wage : 
 
 Men yet unborn shall gladly hail 
 Thy precepts, Turcot, in the coming age ! 
 
 F. Tillemont-Thomason. 
 March i8, 1898.
 
 c 
 
 LETTER OF M. TURCOT, MINISTER OF 
 
 STATE IN FRANCE, TO DR. PRICE, 
 
 OF LONDON. 
 
 Mr. Franklin has given me, sir, as coming from 
 you, the new edition of your "Observations upon Civil 
 Liberty," etc. I owe you a double debt of gratitude : 
 first, for the book itself, the value of which I have long 
 known, and which I read with eagerness when it first 
 appeared, notwithstanding the manifold occupations 
 which overwhelmed me ; second, for the courtesy with 
 which you retracted your accusation of my /ack of 
 policy,^ blame which you mingled with the praise you 
 
 »This refers to certain details couceming tlie administration of M. Turgot, which are 
 found in the second treatise upon " Civil Liberty and the American War," by Dr. Price 
 (page 150, etc.). In the first edition of this treatise, Mr. Price had mentioned, as one of 
 the causes of M. Turgot's dismissal, his lack of tact. The latter, in a most valuable 
 letter, informed the virtuous Englishman of the real reasons which had led to the removal 
 from his official position. .Sucli was the origin of a correspondence lasting until the death 
 of Turgot, and to which belongs the letter the reader has before him. How the upright 
 men, the enlightened minds in all countries of the globe, mourn the friend of humanity, 
 the philosopher, the man great by his vast understanding, very great by his genius, still 
 greater by his virtues; the man who had approached kings, lived in courts, negotiated with
 
 45 
 
 otherwise bestowed upon me in your additional obser- 
 vations. I might have merited this reproach if you 
 had no other unskilfulness in mind than that of not 
 being able to unravel the intrigues which were woven 
 around me by persons much more skilled in this art 
 than myself, — an accomplishment I will never have and 
 which I never wish to have. But it seemed to me that 
 you accused me of having so little tact as to shock 
 rudely the public opinion of my nation ; and in this 
 respect I believe that you neither rendered justice to 
 me nor to the nation, — a people where there are many 
 more brilliant lights than is commonly supposed in your 
 country, and where it is perhaps easier to convert the 
 public mind to reasonable ideas than is the case with 
 you. These assertions I judge to be true by the infatu- 
 ation of your nation for this absurd project of subjugat- 
 ing America, which lasted until the disaster of Burgoyne 
 
 all sorts and condiuons of men, and had, nevertheless, kept such principles, such senti- 
 ments, and such opinions, and yet who was not permitted to restore a kingdom whose 
 faults or wisdom were of equal importance to humanity! I know among those who have 
 governed the world only one — Marcus Aurelius — worthy of having left a like spiritual 
 work. Marcus Aurelius made the happiness of the world, by whom he was and is adored ; 
 and Turgot was not permitted to remain Minister of France for two years. And in the 
 present generation, the generation honored by his works, by his noble deeds, may be 
 counted a very large number of his detractors and of his enemies.
 
 46 
 
 commenced to open the eyes of the English people. I 
 judge it to be true by the ideas of monopoly and exclu- 
 sion which predominate in the minds of all your politi- 
 cal writers on commerce (I except Mr. Adam Smith 
 and Dean Tucker), — a system which is the real reason 
 for the separation from your colonies. And I also 
 infer it from all your polemical writings on the questions 
 which have agitated you for twenty years ; yet, in all 
 these productions, before your work on the subject 
 appeared, I cannot remember ever having read one 
 where the main point at issue was apprehended. I 
 cannot conceive how a nation, which has cultivated 
 with so much success all branches of natural sciences, 
 has been able to remain so far below its natural capa- 
 bilities in the most interesting of all sciences, that of 
 the public welfare, — a science in which the liberty of 
 the press, freedom only found in England, should have 
 given that nation a marvellous advantage over all 
 others of Europe. Is it national pride which has 
 hindered you from profiting from this advantage ? Is 
 it because you were slightly better off than the others 
 that you have turned all your speculations toward per- 
 suading yourself that you were lacking in nothing } Is
 
 47 
 
 it the spirit of factions, the desire to gain the support 
 of popular opinion, which has retarded your progress 
 in making your politics treat as useless metaphysical * 
 doctrines all thought toward establishing fixed prin- 
 ciples concerning the rights and real interests of indi- 
 viduals and of nations ? How is it that you should be 
 almost the first among your writers to conceive just 
 ideas of liberty, and to show the falseness of that 
 hackneyed notion sustained by nearly all of the most 
 republican writers, — i.e., that liberty consists in being 
 subject only to the law, as if a man oppressed by an 
 unjust law could call himself free ? This could not 
 even be true if one were to suppose that all the laws 
 are the production of the assembled nation ; for, in the 
 end, the individual also has rights which the nation 
 can only take from him by violence and by an illegal 
 use of power. Although you have recognized this 
 truth, and reasoned it out to yourself, perhaps it merits 
 still broader attention from you, considering the slight 
 interest which has been shown in this question by the 
 most zealous partisans of liberty. 
 
 It is indeed a strange thing that in England it was 
 
 *See Mr. Burke's letter to tlie sheriff of Bristol.
 
 48 
 
 not a trivial truth to say that one nation may never 
 have the right to govern another, and that such a gov- 
 ernment cannot have other foundation than force, 
 which is also the foundation of robbery and tyranny ; 
 that the tyranny of nations is the most cruel and intol- 
 erable of all known tyrannies, — that which leaves the 
 least recourse on the part of the oppressed. For, in the 
 end, a despot is always checked in his own interests, he 
 may feel the curb of his own remorse or the reproach 
 of public opinion ; but a multitude does not calculate, 
 never experiences any remorse and claims the most 
 glory when it merits the most shame. 
 
 The events which for several months have been pre- 
 cipitating themselves with an ever-increasing rapidity 
 are, for the English people, a terrible commentary on 
 your book. The denouement has been reached, so far 
 as America is concerned. We see her irrevocably in- 
 dependent. Will she be happy in her f'-eedom ? This 
 new nation is situated so advantageously to give the 
 world the example of a constitution where the indi- 
 vidual enjoys all his rights, freely uses all his faculties, 
 and is only to be governed by nature, right, and jus- 
 tice ; but will the people know, how to form such a
 
 49 
 
 •constitution ? Will they know how to ground it upon 
 eternal foundations, how to foresee all causes of divi- 
 sion and of corruption which may gradually undermine 
 and destroy it ? 
 
 I confess I am not satisfied with the constitutions 
 which, up to this time, have been drawn up by the dif- 
 ferent American States. You rightly reproach that of 
 Pennsylvania for exacting the religious oath in order 
 that a citizen may become a member of the Represen- 
 tatives. The others are worse. There is one, I be- 
 lieve that of the Jerseys, which exacts that one should 
 believe in the divinity of Christ.* In a great number 
 of these constitutions I see a useless imitation of Eng- 
 lish customs. Instead of uniting all authority in one 
 source alone, — the nation, — different bodies have been 
 established : a House of Representatives, a Council or 
 Senate, a Governor, because England has a House of 
 Commons, a House of Lords, and a King. They have • 
 tried to balance these different powers, as if this equi- 
 librium of forces, which has always been thought neces- 
 
 * It is the constitution of Delaware that imposes the necessity of this oath. That of 
 New Jersey, more impartial, prohibits all preference of one sect to another, and accords 
 equal rights and privileges to all Protestants. (Hereafter, in regard to this subject, see 
 the work of Dr. Price, to which I have taken the liberty of annexing some notes.)
 
 so 
 
 sary to outweigh the preponderance of royalty, could 
 be of any service in republics founded upon the equality 
 of all citizens, and as if the forces, which by themselves 
 established different bodies, were not in reality the true 
 causes of divisions. In striving to prevent imaginary 
 dangers, actual ones have been created. They wish to 
 have nothing to fear from the clergy : they unite it 
 under the barrier of a general proscription. In exclud- 
 ing it from the right of eligibility, a separate body has 
 been made of it, — an element foreign to the State. 
 Why should a citizen having the same interests as 
 others in regard to common protection of liberty and of 
 his property be excluded from offering to the public 
 good his knowledge and his virtue simply because he 
 belongs to a profession which in itself requires enlight- 
 enment and virtuous living > The Church is only dan- 
 gerous when it exists as a body separate from the 
 State, when it believes itself entitled to rights and 
 interests as an organization, when a religion pretends 
 to be recognized as one established by the law, as if 
 men could have any right or interest in regulating 
 each other's consciences, as if the individual could 
 sacrifice for social advantage the opinion upon which
 
 SI 
 
 he believes his eternal salvation depends, as if saving 
 or damning of souls were done by wholesale. Where 
 true tolerance is established, where the government 
 recognizes its absolute powerlessness over the con- 
 sciences of individuals, the ecclesiast, when he is ad- 
 mitted to the national assemblies, is only a citizen. 
 He becomes an ecclesiast only when he is debarred 
 from them. 
 
 I fail to see that enough attention has been given 
 to reducing to a minimum the various kinds of legis- 
 lation intrusted to the government of each State, and 
 likewise there has been little attempt made to separate 
 cases for general administration from those pertaining 
 to more local and particular legislation. Nor has 
 enough thought been given to establishing local sub- 
 sisting councils, which, fulfilling nearly all the detailed 
 functions of the government, would obviate the neces- 
 sity of the general conventions giving any attention to 
 these matters ; and thus from the members of the 
 latter might be removed all means, and perhaps all 
 desire, for abusing an authority which could only be 
 applied to general subjects, and which must therefore 
 be foreign to all the smaller passions which agitate 
 mankind.
 
 52 
 
 I fail to see that any attention has been paid to 
 the great and only distinctions between classes of men 
 which can be founded upon nature, the one of land- 
 owners, and the other of non-proprietors. Their in- 
 terests seera to have been neglected, and consequently, 
 also, their differing rights relative to legislation, the 
 administration of justice and law, contributions to pub- 
 lic expenditures, and the use of the same. 
 
 No fixed principle established as to taxation. 
 
 It is presupposed that each province can levy its 
 own taxes according to its fancy, can establish per- 
 sonal taxes, taxes upon its consumptions and importa- 
 tions ; that is to say, it is able to create interests for 
 itself contrary to those of other provinces. 
 
 Everywhere is inferred the right to regulate com- 
 merce. Even the executive bodies or the governors 
 are authorized to prohibit the exportation of certain 
 commodities in special emergencies, so far are they 
 from comprehending that the law of entire freedom for 
 all commerce is a corollary of the proprietary rights, 
 to such an extent are they still plunged in the mist of 
 European illusions. 
 
 In the general union of the provinces among them-
 
 53 
 
 selves I fail to see complete coalition, — one fusion of 
 all these parts which constitute the single and homo- 
 geneous body, the Union. It is only an aggregation 
 of parts, with not enough unity, which are contin- 
 ually in danger of separating, more on account of the 
 diversity of their laws, customs, and opinions than the 
 inequality of their present comparative strength, and 
 still more by the inequality of their subsequent prog- 
 ress. It is only a repetition of the Dutch Republic ; 
 and yet the latter did not have to fear, as has the 
 new American Republic, the probable growth of some 
 of its provinces. The whole edifice is at present 
 grounded upon the false foundation of political 
 thoughts, time-worn and common, upon the presump- 
 tion that nations, provinces, (can have interests) as 
 separate bodies, other than those possessed by all indi- 
 viduals ; i.e., the right of freedom and of defending 
 their property against law-breakers and invaders. The 
 nation at present is founded upon ancient prejudices : 
 the pretended interest to carry on more commerce 
 than others, not to buy foreign merchandise, but to 
 force the countries to consume their own productions 
 and the products of their manufactures ; the pretended
 
 54 
 
 advantage in always extending its territory, in acquir- 
 ing such and such province, such and such island, such 
 and such village ; the desire to inspire fear in other 
 nations ; the wish to surpass them by military glory 
 and by the splendor of arts and sciences. 
 
 Some of these presumptions have fomented in 
 Europe, because the old rivalry between nations, and 
 also the ambition of the crowned heads, have obliged 
 all the States to maintain a standing army in order to 
 defend themselves against their armed neighbors, and 
 have caused them to consider military force as the 
 principal part of the government. America has the 
 good fortune, for a long time to come, not to have any 
 exterior enemy to fear, unless she should succumb to 
 interior division. Therefore, she is able to, and should, 
 appreciate at their real value these feigned interests, 
 these causes of discord, which alone are to be feared 
 for her liberty. With the sacred principle of commer- 
 cial freedom considered as a continuation of proprietary 
 rights, all the fallacies in regard to laws or commerce 
 disappear. The concern to extend more or less their 
 jurisdiction vanishes before the principle that territory 
 does not belong to the nations, but to the individuals
 
 55 
 
 who have proprietary rights over the lands ; and the 
 question of deciding to which province or State such a 
 district, such a village, should adhere, ought not to be 
 decided by the interests of this same province or State, 
 but by those of the inhabitants of the district or village. 
 It is for them to assemble to transact their affairs in 
 the place most conveniently reached by them ; and it is 
 the decision just how great this distance may be from 
 a man's home, to permit of his fulfilling his important 
 duties in the general councils without injuring the 
 discharge of his home cares, which determines a 
 national and rational limitation to the territory in- 
 cluded in one jurisdiction or one State, and establishes 
 a unity of size and force * which removes all danger of 
 inequality and all pretension of superiority. 
 
 The advantage gained from being feared avails little 
 when one is demanding nothing of others, and when 
 one is in a position not liable to be attacked by large 
 forces with any hope of success. 
 
 The glory of war does not equal the happiness of 
 living in peace. The glory of the arts and sciences 
 
 *The inequality in size and strength of tlie various States seems to me the most un- 
 ayorable circumstance which the situation of the Americans offer. (See the notes ap- 
 pended to the work of Mr. Price.)
 
 S6 
 
 belongs to whomsoever wishes to avail himself of them. 
 There are harvests in these fields for every one. The 
 range of discoveries is inexhaustible, and the whole 
 world profits by the discoveries of each individual. I 
 imagine that the American people are far from realiz- 
 ing all these truths, and they must acknowledge them 
 in order to secure the welfare of posterity. I do not 
 blame their leaders. It was necessary to provide for 
 the needs of the moment, in the face of an enemy 
 powerful and to be feared ; and the only expedient was 
 such a union as has been formed. There was no time 
 to think then of correcting the faults of the constitu- 
 tions of the various States ; but great care should be 
 taken not to perpetuate these mistakes, and means 
 should be sought to unite the different opinions and 
 interests, and to bring them to some uniform principles 
 in all the provinces. 
 
 And in this respect there are great obstacles to 
 conquer. In Canada,* the constitution of the Roman 
 
 * It appears that M. Turgot regarded as inevitable the union of Canada with the 
 American Republic. Canada still belongs to England, but it is not the philosopher who 
 was mistaken. If politics could have done in the beginning what they will infallibly be 
 forced to do later, England jvould no longer try on Canada the ruinous experiments in 
 which she is now engaged, and the true friends of English prosperity would rejoice.
 
 57 
 
 Catholic Church and the existence of a class of nobil- 
 ity ; in New England, the spirit of rigid Puritanism 
 which still exists, and which, it is said, is slightly intol- 
 erant ; in Pennsylvania, a large number of citizens 
 establishing, as a religious principle, that the posses- 
 sion of fire-arms is unlawful, and consequently refusing 
 to take any part in establishing, as the foundation of 
 the State, military force, the union of the attributes of 
 a good citizen with those of a soldier and militia-man, — 
 an attitude which necessarily forces the military profes- 
 sion to be a mercenary one; in the Southern colonies, 
 too great an inequahty in the division of wealth. And 
 especially unfortunate is the great number of black 
 slaves, whose bondage is incompatible with a good 
 political constitution, and yet restoring them their 
 liberty would cause an embarrassing situation, forming, 
 as it would, two nations in the same State. 
 
 In all these difficulties are to be seen the prejudices, 
 the attachment to established forms, the custom of cer- 
 tain systems of taxation and the reluctance to estab- 
 lish those which should replace them, the pride of some 
 colonies which believe themselves more powerful than 
 others, and an unfortunate commencement of false
 
 5^ 
 
 national pride. I believe these Americans destined to 
 become greater, not by war, but by culture. If, in the 
 extension of civilizing forces, they were to ignore the 
 immense wastes which reach as far as the Western 
 Sea,* there soon would be established there a miscella- 
 neous horde of outlaws and worthless rabble escaped 
 from the severity of the law, savages and tribes of 
 brigands who would ravage America as the northern 
 barbarians ravaged the Roman Empire. From this 
 fact arises another danger, — the necessity of having 
 military forces stationed on the frontiers and being in 
 a constant state of war. The colonies bordering the 
 frontiers would consequently be more accustomed to 
 military action than others, and this difference in mili- 
 tary forces would form a terrible incentive and stim- 
 ulus to dangerous ambitions. The remedy for all this 
 would be to maintain the standing army, to which every 
 province should contribute according to its population. 
 But the Americans, who still have all the fears prop- 
 
 * By the Western Sea must be understood the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, 
 not a great interior sea sucli as M . Turgot seems to have believed in, according to the 
 doctrines of Messrs. d'Isle, Bruache, and other French geographers, who, from reports 
 made by the savages, imagined the existence of this Western Sea. The English were the 
 ones who taught us that such a body of water did not qxist.
 
 59 
 
 erly belonging to the English, dread a permanent army 
 more than any other thing. They are wrong. Nothing 
 is easier than to bind the constitution of a standing 
 army with that of the militia in such a manner that 
 thereby the militia becomes better and liberty is placed 
 on a firmer basis than before. But it is difficult to 
 calm their fears on this point. 
 
 Here are many difficulties, and perhaps the secret 
 interests of powerful individuals will unite with the 
 prejudices of the masses to stop the efforts of the 
 truly wise and conscientious citizens. 
 
 It is impossible not to formulate the wish that this 
 people may attain the greatest prosperity of which 
 it is capable. It is the hope of the human race : it 
 may become its model. It should prove to the world 
 by deeds that men can be free and peaceful, and are 
 able to dispense with fetters of all kinds which the 
 tyrants and various impostors have pretended to im- 
 pose upon them under the pretext of public good. It 
 should give the example of political liberty, religious 
 liberty, and commercial and industrial liberty. The 
 refuge which the American people offer to the op- 
 pressed of all nations should be a source of comfort
 
 6o 
 
 to the world. The facility of profiting by this, to 
 escape the consequences of bad legislation, will force 
 the government to be just and to become more and 
 more enlightened. The remainder of the world will 
 open its eyes little by little upon the nothingness of 
 the delusions which have always been practised on poli- 
 tics. But, in order that all these good results may be 
 brought about, it will be necessary for America to keep 
 itself from becoming an image of our Europe, — a fact 
 often reiterated by your ministerial writers. It must 
 take care not to become a collection of divided powers 
 disputing for territory among themselves, and for the 
 commercial profits continually cementing the bondage 
 of the people with their own blood. 
 
 All enlightened men, all friends of humanity, should 
 unite their knowledge at this time, and concur with the 
 thoughtful Americans in the great work of their legis- 
 lation. Such a mission would be worthy of you, sir. 
 I wish I were able to kindle your zeal. If in this 
 letter I have yielded to the temptation of pouring out 
 my own ideas, this desire has been my only motive, 
 and will exonerate me, I hope, from the ennui I may 
 have caused you. I wish that the blood which has
 
 been shed and that which will be in this conflict may 
 not be fruitless toward procuring the welfare of the 
 human race. 
 
 Our two nations are about to injure each other 
 greatly, without either one or the other drawing any 
 real profit by it. Probably the only result will be the 
 increase of debts and expenses, perhaps the bank- 
 ruptcy of the State and the ruin of a great number of 
 citizens. 
 
 England seems to me to be nearer this crisis than 
 France. If instead of this war you could have com- 
 plied gracefully from the first, if politics could have 
 done in the beginning what they will infallibly be 
 forced to do later, if the national opinion could have 
 permitted your government to ward off the events 
 (taking it for granted that it would have been willing 
 to prevent them), if it could have consented at first to 
 the independence of America without a war, by such 
 a change of events I firmly believe your nation would 
 have lost nothing. As it is, England will lose to-day 
 what she has expended in these colonies and what she 
 will still further expend ; she will for some time ex- 
 perience a great decrease in her commerce, many
 
 serious internal commotions, if the nation should be 
 forced to bankruptcy ; and in any case there is sure 
 to be a great diminution in her political influence 
 abroad. But this last matter is of very little impor- 
 tance for the real welfare of a people ; and I am not 
 at all of the opinion expressed by Abb6 Raynal, quoted 
 in your epigraph,* I do not believe that this will 
 lead you to become a despicable nation, or force you 
 into bondage. 
 
 On the contrary, perhaps your misfortunes will have 
 the effect of a necessary amputation. Perhaps they 
 were the only method of saving you from the gangrene 
 of luxury and corruption. If, in your agitation, you 
 could revise your constitution in making the elections 
 annual, dividing the right of representation in a more 
 equal manner, and more in proportion to the interests 
 of those represented, you would perhaps gain by this 
 revolution as much as has America ; for your liberty 
 
 * " Nevertheless, if the enjoyment of luxury should succeed in entirely perverting the 
 national morals, if England lost her colonies by dint of extending or repressing them, 
 she herself would sooner or later be brought under subjection. This nation would then 
 resemble so many others, which it now despises, and Europe would not be able to point 
 out to the universe one nation in which it would dare take any pride." — Philosophical 
 and Political History q/ the Commerce of the Two Indias, Book XIX., vol. vi. p. 
 89. Geneva, 1780.
 
 63 
 
 would remain to you, and with it and by it you would 
 soon repair your other losses. 
 
 Sir, you will be able to judge of the respect which 
 you have inspired in me by the candor with which I 
 have spoken on these delicate points, and also of the 
 satisfaction I experience in realizing that there is some 
 resemblance in our ways of thinking. 
 
 I count upon this communication being absolutely 
 confidential. And I even ask you not to answer in 
 detail by the post, as your reply would invariably be 
 opened ; and I should be found guilty of being too 
 great a friend of liberty for a minister, even for one 
 who has been disgraced. 
 
 I have the honor, etc., 
 
 (Signed) TURCOT. 
 
 March 22, 1778. 
 
 {Translated by Helen Billings Morris^
 
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