JBF1FERS0H. 
 
THE -LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON; 
 
 THIRD 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES; 
 WITH PARTS OF 
 
 HIS CORRESPONDENCE NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED, 
 
 AND 
 
 NOTICES OF HIS OPINIONS 
 
 QUESTIONS OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, NATIONAL POLICY, 
 AND CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE TUCKER, 
 
 TROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN THK UXIVEKStTY OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Itaqua nulla alia in civitate, nisi in qua populi potcstas summa cst, ullum 
 
 domicilium libertas habet : qua quidem certe nihil potcst esse dulcius ; et quac siaequa 
 nou est, ne libertas quidem est. Cic. DE REPUBLICA. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHARLES KNIGHT AND CO., LUDGATE-STREET. 
 
 MDCCQXXXVII. 
 
 Of THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, 
 Stamford Street. 
 
TO 
 
 JAMES MADISON, 
 
 FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 Your long intimacy with Mr. Jefferson, your ac 
 cordance with him in the principles of civil government, 
 your cordial co-operation in carrying those principles into 
 effect, and lastly, the kindness with which you have an 
 swered my inquiries and guided my researches, make it 
 peculiarly proper that I should address to you the following 
 pages. In submitting to you the biography of that friend 
 of many years, I indulge the hope that I have not been 
 unsuccessful in presenting his character, moral and intel 
 lectual, fairly to the world, and have contributed something 
 to the vindication of those liberal principles for which you 
 and he so steadfastly, so ably, and so successfully contended. 
 Nothing could be more gratifying to me than to obtain the 
 approbation of one whose means of testing the truth of 
 what is there recorded exceed those of any individual now 
 living; whose judgment is known to be as unbiassed as it 
 is discriminating ; and whose integrity is of such diamond- 
 
 a2 
 
 9258 
 
iv DEDICATION. 
 
 like solidity and brightness, that the breath of even party 
 calumny could leave on it no lasting tarnish. 
 
 Having been one of the chief instruments in giving to 
 your country a constitution fitted to make it great and pros 
 perous as well as free, it was afterwards your happy destiny 
 to witness the glorious result of your patriotic labours ; to 
 receive the highest honours a grateful people could bestow ; 
 and to enjoy, by anticipation, the fame which rewards a 
 career of splendid usefulness. That the evening of a life, 
 which has been thus brilliant and fortunate, may continue 
 serene and tranquil to the last, is, in all sincerity, the 
 prayer of, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your most respectful, 
 and most obliged, 
 obedient servant, 
 
 GEORGE TUCKER. 
 University of Virginia, 
 February 1, 1836. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 WHEN the following sheets were nearly printed, the author felt it 
 his duty to send Mr. Madison, pursuant to an intention long before 
 declared to him, a copy of the preceding dedication ; and to spare 
 him the trouble of an answer, he was told that the paper, if not 
 objected to, would be printed in that form. He, however, decided on 
 answering it, and merely postponed it from time to time by the per 
 suasion of those around him : but on Monday the 27th of June, he 
 was peremptory on the subject, saying there was no time to lose, and 
 then dictated with great care, but not without much effort, to Mr. 
 Payne, his amanuensis, the subjoined letter, which, after he had with 
 difficulty signed, he insisted also on franking. This last act of his 
 pen was about thirteen hours before his decease. Under circum 
 stances so peculiar and interesting, it was deemed proper to publish 
 the dedication in the form submitted to him, together with the sane* 
 tion he had thought proper to give to its contents. 
 
 Montpellier, June 27, 1836. 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I have received your letter of June 17th, with the paper inclosed 
 in it. 
 
 Apart from the value put on such a mark of respect from you, in 
 a dedication of your "Life of Mr. Jefferson" to me, I could only be 
 governed in accepting it, by my confidence in your capacity to do 
 justice to a character so interesting to this country, and to the world; -j 
 and I may be permitted to add, with whose principles of liberty and_j 
 political career mine have been so extensively congenial. 
 
 It could not escape me that a feeling of personal friendship has 
 mingled itself greatly with the credit you allow to my public services. 
 I am at the same time justified by my consciousness in saying, that 
 an ardent zeal was always felt to make up for deficiencies in them, by 
 a sincere and steadfast co-operation in promoting such a reconstruc 
 tion of our political system as would provide for the permanent liberty 
 and happiness of the United States ; and that of the many good 
 fruits it has produced, which have well rewarded the efforts and 
 anxieties that led to it, no one has been a more rejoicing witness 
 than myself. 
 
 "With cordial salutations on the near approach to the end of your 
 undertaking, 
 
 JAMES MADISON. 
 
 PROFESSOR TUCKER. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IT was the fate of Thomas Jefferson to be at once more 
 loved and praised by his friends, and more hated and 
 reviled by his adversaries, than any of his compatriots. 
 Time has produced less abatement of these feelings towards 
 him than is usual ; and, contrary to the maxim which invokes 
 charity for the dead, the maledictions of his enemies have of 
 late years been more frequent and loud than the commenda 
 tions of his friends. 
 
 The author was therefore aware that in undertaking to 
 write the life of one, who was the object of such lively and 
 opposite sentiments, he engaged in a hazardous task. He 
 knew that with one portion of the public, any praise would 
 be distasteful ; and that with another portion, nothing less 
 than one unvarying strain of eulogy would prove satisfac 
 tory. But, in spite of these discouraging circumstances, he 
 was induced to venture on the work by the following con 
 siderations. He thought that, of all our public men, the 
 greatest injustice had been done to Mr. Jefferson ; that the 
 prejudice felt towards him would be naturally extended to 
 his opinions ; and that in the vehemence, perseverance and 
 ability with which he had been assailed, injury was likely to 
 
yiii PREFACE. 
 
 be done to the cause of political truth and sound principles 
 of government. He believed, that the characters of the 
 two great parties, which had divided this country for the 
 first thirty years after the present constitution was adopted, 
 had not been fairly exhibited to the world, and that the 
 biography of Mr. Jefferson, the acknowledged head of the 
 republican party, presented a fit occasion for vindicating 
 that party, in the purity of their motives, the justness of 
 their views, and the wisdom of their policy, from some of 
 the criminations to which they have been subjected. He 
 flattered himself, moreover, that both parties, on a cool 
 retrospect of their early conflicts, as exhibited in an honest 
 and dispassionate narrative, might be taught some useful 
 lessons ; that at least the more reflecting and unprejudiced 
 portion might learn to feel less intolerance towards their 
 opponents, as well as less confidence in their own exclusive 
 integrity and wisdom ; and acquire more skill in detecting 
 self-interest or ambition when they assume the mask of 
 patriotism. 
 
 The author found a further motive in the publication, 
 which has been made since Mr. Jefferson s death, of some 
 of his papers and correspondence. From the want of cau 
 tion in making that publication, owing, it is presumed, to 
 a mistaken opinion of the claims of the public, the ill-will 
 which had been felt against Mr. Jefferson, as the leader of 
 his party, received a fresh impetus, and was in some mea 
 sure imparted to a new generation. In the warmth of 
 their resentment, his unreserved communications to con- 
 
PREFACE. ] X 
 
 fidential friends have been regarded as if they had been 
 deliberately written by him for the press ; and the ebulli 
 tions of feeling, uttered when the fever of party excitement 
 was at its height, and when he was goaded by every species 
 of provocation, have been considered as the settled con 
 victions of his mind. 
 
 \ 
 
 His sentiments on these occasions have been compared 
 with those of his cooler moments, to charge him with in 
 consistency; and contradictions made by his enemies or 
 avowed partisans, or on vague recollections, have been 
 taken as undeniable truths, to prove him guilty of wilful 
 misrepresentation. To excuse a course so obviously unfair, 
 it has been said, that by leaving his papers for publication 
 he has shown, that he still retained the same sentiments; 
 and it has even been asserted, that the letters actually pub 
 lished were especially selected by him. But the imputation 
 is altogether unfounded. Mr. Jefferson left his papers of 
 every description to his grandson and executor, Thomas 
 Jefferson Eandolph, subject to his entire control. 
 
 The anecdotes collected under the title Ana were, indeed, 
 arranged by him, and intended no doubt to be one day pub 
 lished, in defence of himself and his party, at the discretion 
 of his executor. But, for the selection of the letters for 
 publication from the mass of his voluminous correspondence, 
 Mr. Randolph and the friends he consulted are alone re 
 sponsible. Mr. Jefferson gave no directions concerning it, 
 and no one can suppose, that the letters which he desired to 
 be destroyed as soon as read, or which he wrote in cipher, 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 or was afraid to entrust to the post-office, he could have 
 wished published as soon as he was in his grave. We must, 
 therefore, infer, that in leaving these papers to his lineal 
 representative, he wished them to be carefully preserved as 
 memorials of his thoughts and feelings, and of the times in 
 which he lived, but not to be used in a manner which might 
 provoke attacks on his memory ; and that some of them, if 
 published at all, should never see the light, until all party 
 and personal resentments were forgotten. 
 
 It remains, that the public be informed of the author s 
 means of giving an authentic narrative. He has, in the 
 first place, received every assistance which could be furnished 
 by Mr. Jefferson s friend and fellow-labourer, Mr. Madison. 
 In all matters of doubt, the author has received his clear 
 and able elucidations. Many of the most interesting facts 
 were derived directly from him, and nearly the whole of the 
 first volume was submitted to his inspection, and received 
 the benefit of his correction as to matters of fact. To Mr. 
 Randolph, the author is under the highest obligations for 
 access to aU the letters written by his grandfather; and to 
 Nicholas P. Trist, Esq., for the selection of such letters and 
 papers, never before published, as were thought to throw 
 light on Mr. Jefferson s character. From the late Mrs. 
 Randolph, whose candour and good sense were equalled only 
 by her gentle virtues, he received, in answer to the queries 
 he propounded, minute information of his private and do- 
 stic life, both when in France and in this country. From 
 John Page, Esq., he has received the letters that give a his- 
 
PREFACE. Xi 
 
 tory of Mr. Jefferson s college life, of which there is probably 
 no other memorial extant. From Mrs. Marx, the venerable 
 mother of the late Meriwether Lewis, whose recollections 
 are yet undimmed by age, he has also received information 
 of Mr. Jefferson s early years. For communications of less 
 amount or importance, he is indebted to a greater number 
 of persons than can be here particularly mentioned. For the 
 middle and latter portions of his life the author found ample 
 materials in the public records of the country, and in his 
 own personal knowledge of Mr. Jefferson, which had con 
 tinued through a period of twenty-seven years ; during the 
 last fifteen months of which their intercourse was frequent 
 and familiar. 
 
 The author has, in the execution of his task, studiously 
 aimed at accuracy, and he trusts he has essentially attained 
 it. He has also aimed at impartiality ; but, for the reasons 
 already stated, he fears that this merit will be denied to him 
 by but too many of those whose favour he would gladly 
 have obtained. With a yet larger class, however, and 
 especially those who have lately come, or are yet coming on 
 the stage, he hopes to be more successful. To them he 
 takes the liberty of suggesting, that from his close con 
 nexion and frequent intercourse with individuals of both 
 parties, he has had the best opportunity to see the merits 
 and the faults of which all sects, at once numerous and 
 zealous, always have their full share ; that he trusts they 
 will find he has profited by his position, and has shown 
 neither undue deference to one party, nor illiberally to the 
 
Xii PREFACE. 
 
 other; that he has neither withheld censure from those with 
 whom he was politically associated, nor been niggardly in 
 his praise of their opponents ; and lastly, that in his review 
 of Mr. Jefferson s opinions no unimportant part of his life 
 while he has considered them in the spirit of liberal 
 criticism, and praised where he ought, he has not hesitated 
 to arraign at the bar of reason such as appeared to him 
 erroneous. 
 
 The work has been far longer in preparation than the 
 author expected ; but the difficulty first of procuring the 
 materials, which are often to be found only in the produc 
 tions of the ephemeral press, and then the labour of win 
 nowing what was useful and pertinent from the heteroge 
 neous mass, is inconceivable to one who has never tried it. 
 The delay has been greatly increased in consequence of the 
 author s having been obliged to revise most of the sheets 
 at the distance of near three hundred miles from the press ; 
 and as, from the same circumstance, his additions and cor 
 rections could not be revised, the verbal errors, he regrets to 
 find, are far more numerous than he expected, and require 
 the utmost forgiveness of the indulgent reader. 
 
 University of Virginia, 
 Dec. 23, 1836. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The life of Thomas Jefferson peculiarly instructive illustrated by the 
 history of his native state. First settlement of Virginia. Diffi 
 culties of the first settlers. Introduction of slaves, and the cultiva 
 tion of tobacco their influence on the character and condition of 
 the inhabitants. Towns small and few. Habits and manners of 
 the people. Religion. Government. Aristocracy. Jealous of 
 their civil rights. Collisions with the crown. Subsequent harmony 
 until the stamp act 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Birth and parentage of Thomas Jefferson. His Education. Sent to 
 College. Dr. Small. His amusements. Description of his person . 
 His familiar letters to John Page. Governor Fauquier. Studies 
 law under George Wythe. Visits Annapolis and Philadelphia. 
 His character as a lawyer. Patrick Henry. The stamp act. Is 
 elected to the General Assembly. It denies the right of Great 
 Britain to tax the colonies. The members meet at the Raleigh 
 Tavern. Progress of discontents .... . . .20 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 17721775. 
 
 His Marriage. Committees of Correspondence. Boston Port Bill. 
 Members of Assembly enter into articles of Association. Propose 
 a General Congress. First Convention in Virginia. His vindica 
 tion of the rights of America. Proceedings of the Convention 
 choose Deputies to a General Congress. Character of that Body. 
 The Convention of Virginia assembled at Richmond. Its Proceed 
 ings. Mr. Jefferson chosen a Deputy to Congress. The Powder 
 withdrawn from the Public Magazine by Lord Dunmore. The 
 popular irritation it excited, General Assembly convened. Mr. 
 
x i v CONTENTS. 
 
 Jefferson prepares a reply to Lord North s propositions. Collision 
 between the Governor and House of Burgesses. Conduct of Lord 
 Dunmore 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 17751779. 
 
 Declaration by Congress of the causes of taking up arms. The mani 
 festos of Congress. Mr. Jefferson s share in those papers. Is re- 
 elected to Congress. His previous views on Independence. Pro 
 gress of Public Sentiment Proceedings or tne Virginia Conven- 
 tion. Declaration of Independence moved in Congress. Mr. 
 Jefferson prepares the draught. When adopted and signed. Its 
 character. He retires from Congress. Elected to the General 
 Assembly of Virginia. Abolition of entails Primogeniture. Their 
 effects considered. Church establishment in Virginia. Its gradual 
 abolition. Entire freedom of religion. Its consequences . 79 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 17771779. 
 
 Mr.^Jefferson proposes a general revision of the laws. Appointed one 
 fftttr Committee! kis objections to JJodihcatiflli.^BBrtibu- 
 tion^bTlhe labour. Chaxafclgiuf Ihe lCevisal. Edmuncl Pendleton. 
 CrTminal law," Tames Madisori: "Tim fight of Expatriation de 
 clared. System__f_^duj^tion. Jefferson s opiniojis^oji Slavery. 
 Arguments for anfl against the practicability of Emancipation. His 
 hospitable and hiimarm jjAtentinna tn fV. n-nrrH ^ p n -c. rn - rn q uar . 
 tered in Albemarle. Prevents~tEeTFremOVal irora the"CoTinty. 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 17791781. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson elected Governor of Virginia. Difficulties of his situation 
 George Rogers Clarke. Retaliation on Governor Hamilton and 
 others. Its effects. Claims of Virginia to the Western Territory 
 Resisted by other States. Her cession of the Territory. Difficulty 
 )f providing military supplies and of transporting them. Arnold s 
 edatory incursion. Its success explained. Abortive attempts 
 to capture Arnold. Invasion under Philips and Arnold Their 
 
 ; rre T?T between the G ~ - ; -S 
 
 r g n the Legislature - * Bourns to Charlottes- 
 Cornwall* mvades Virginia. The Governor declines a 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 re-election. His motives. Tarlton detached to Charlottesville. 
 Mr. Jefferson and the members of Assembly narrowly escape cap 
 ture . 134 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 17811784. 
 
 Public discontents in Virginia. Clamours against governor Jefferson. 
 He is threatened with impeachment. The charges against him 
 canvassed. His vindication. Writes the notes on Virginia. Cha 
 racter of that work. Is elected to the Legislature. Invites an in 
 vestigation into his conduct. The Legislature unanimously vote him 
 their thanks. Is appointed an Envoy to negotiate peace. Declines. 
 The death of Mrs. Jefferson. His appointment renewed and ac 
 cepted. His embarkation prevented by the news of peace. Is 
 elected to Congress. Recommends a common money of account 
 adopted by Congress. Plan of a standing Executive Committee- 
 its failure. General Washington resigns his command. Abuses of 
 debate in deliberative bodies. Debate on the ratification of the Treaty 
 of Peace its final ratification. The committees of which he was 
 a member. His report on the foreign relations of the United States. 
 The Cincinnati Association it becomes an object of jealousy. 
 General Washington consults Mr. Jefferson on this subject. His 
 views. Its dissolution . ..... . . .161 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 17841786. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson appointed Minister to France. Embarks at Boston. Meet 
 ing with Dr. Franklin in Paris. !3tate of Society there. They 
 endeavour to make commercial treaties. Their partial success and 
 its causes. Publishes his notes on Virginia. Theory of the dege 
 neracy of animals in America. Statue of Washington. Remains 
 sole minister. Negotiations against the tobacco monopoly. Asserts 
 the doctrine of free trade. His qualifications of it. His opinion of 
 a navy. Sends a model for the capitol at Richmond. The Bar- 
 bary powers. Proposes a plan of resistance by combined forces. 
 Causes of its failure. His multifarious correspondence. Negotia 
 tions with the Barbary states. Conference with the French min 
 ister on American commerce. Oglethorpe s heirs. Case of Lister 
 Asquith. Taste for country life . . , . . .189 
 
XV i CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 17861787. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson joins Mr. Adams in London. Their cold reception. Policy 
 of the British government towards America. Treaty with Portugal 
 not ratified. Unsuccessful negotiation with the Tripoline minister. 
 Mr. Jefferson s description of England. His contributions to the 
 Encyclopedic Methodique. The progress of population in the United 
 States. Inland Navigation. Elk horns. Live oak. Fossil shells. 
 Debts of Virginians. New federal government for the United 
 States proposed. Houdon s statue of Washington. Proposes a 
 donation to La Fayette. British debts in Virginia. Objects to the 
 proposed extent of some new States. His opinion of the powers of 
 Congress. Act of religious freedom. Popular instruction. Har 
 bour of Cherbourg. Philosophical dialogue. Easterly winds. Con 
 nexion between the Atlantic and Pacific. The Cincinnati. His 
 schemes of future happiness. Assists Ledyard, the traveller his 
 enterprises. Complains that his despatches had been published. 
 Carriage wheels . . . . , . . . ,217 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1787. 
 
 Political troubles of France. Meeting of the Notables. Shay s Insur 
 rection in Massachusetts. Newspapers. Thoughts on Government. 
 Navigation of the Mississippi. Visits the South of France. His 
 style of travelling. Nismes. Secret overtures from a Brazilian 
 and a Mexican. His vie\vs of the new Constitution of the United 
 States. Debt due to French officers. Is joined by his younger 
 daughter. Note to the French minister. Cultivation of the vine 
 and olive compared. His opinions on the power of coercion on the 
 States-Moral philosophy Religion Travelling. Advice in a law 
 question. Statuary costume. Increasing discontents in France. 
 Effects of European wars on the United States. Progress of the 
 French Revolution. Letter to Mr. Wythe. Imports the bones of 
 a Moose. Imputed project of the English ministry . .250 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1787 17S9. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s views of the Federal Constitution. His two principal ob- 
 jections. Visits Hollar.d. National credit in Amsterdam. Pri . 
 soners ,n Algiers, Plan of liberating them, Expenses of American 
 
CONTENTS. XVU 
 
 ministers. Consular convention. Gordon s History of the Ameri 
 can Revolution. Some opinions in physical science faith in its 
 improvements. Silas Deane s letter book. Claims of French officers. 
 Memoir on the admission of American fish oil into France. Asks 
 leave to return home. Views of the future policy of the United ^* 
 States. Progress of the French Revolution. Meeting of the 
 states-general. Scarcity of bread in Paris. Complaints of French 
 officers against the United States 280 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 17891790. 
 
 Further opinions on the Federal Constitution: Mr. Madison s and Mr. 
 Jefferson s respective views on Declarations of Rights. Discoveries 
 and improvements in Science. Progress of the French Revolution. 
 Mr. Jefferson submits a Bill of Rights to La Fayette. Visits Ver 
 sailles almost daily. Connexion of Lake Erie with the Ohio. 
 Views of the French Revolution. Titular distinctions in the United 
 States. The doctrine that one generation cannot bind another. " 
 Mr. Madison s views on this subject. Further objections to the 
 doctrine. State of parties in Paris. His mode of passing his time 
 there. Leaves France. Stops at the Isle of Wight. Arrival at 
 Norfolk. His papers narrowly escape conflagration. Return to 
 Monticello. Reception by his slaves. Appointed Secretary of 
 State. Marriage of his eldest daughter. Sets out for New York. 
 Interview with Dr. Franklin . . . . . . 305 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 1790. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson arrives at New York. Sketch of parties after the Revo 
 lution. Sense of the. necessity of union. Local jealousies. Fede 
 ralists and anti federalists. Partiality for the British Constitution. 
 Illusions of rank. Mr. Jefferson s sentiments. Proceedings of the 
 first Congress. Impost. Permanent seat of Government. Mr. 
 Hamilton s report on public credit. Discrimination in favour of the 
 original public creditors proposed by Mr. Madison. Arguments for 
 and against it. Public opinion on the question. Assumption of 
 state debts. Mr. Jefferson s impressions of the arguments urged 
 for and against the assumption. The proposition rejected. Mr. 
 Jefferson joins in affecting a compromise. Merits of the question. 
 
 Local division of the parties * , 340 
 
 VOL. I. b 
 
xv iii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 17901791. 
 
 Mr. Jeflerson s party attachments. Injurious effects of the assumption. 
 Leading measures of Congress. Discriminating duties. Commer 
 cial retaliation proposed. Closed doors of the Senate. Naviga 
 tion of the Mississippi. Diplomatic intercourse with England. Mr. 
 Jefferson s reports on a copper coinage on weights and measures 
 the fisheries. Excise. Mr. Hamilton s report on public credit. He 
 proposes a national bank. Arguments for and against its constitu 
 tionality. Letter to the National Assembly in memory of Frank 
 lin. Navigation of the Mississippi. Tonnage duty. Political sen 
 timents of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Practice of 
 recording conversations considered. Public prosperity. Public 
 credit. Spirit of speculation its causes and effects. Discrimi 
 nating duties in France. French West Indies. Indian territorial 
 rights. The surrender of fugitives from justice. Deputies from 
 St. Domingo . . ...... 372 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 17911792. 
 
 Third session of the first Congress. The commerce of the United 
 States with France and England compared. St. Glair s defeat. 
 Apportionment Bill. Mr. Jefferson advises the President to nega 
 tive it. Conversation with the President on his proposed retire 
 ment. Causes of the public discontents/ TThe power to promote the 
 general welfare. Collision between Jefferson and Hamilton. Offi 
 cial correspondence with Mr. Hammond, the British minister- 
 Pagan s case tampering with the Creek Indians complaints of 
 each government. Mr. Jefferson s answer to Mr. Hammond s 
 charges. The Post-office. Surrendering of foreign fugitives. Re 
 lative powers of the legislative and executive branches. Negotia 
 tion with Algiers. Paul Jones . . . - 403 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 17921793. 
 Mr. Jefferson addresses a long letter to the President. His views of the 
 
 of parties. His various arguments why the President should 
 serve a second term. Conversation between them on the subject of 
 this letter. Their respective opinions on the Assumption, Bank, 
 and Excise. Further conversation the supposed predilections for 
 Monarchy-influence of the Treasury Department. Commis- 
 
CONTENTS. Xx 
 
 sioners from Spain. Discussion in the Cabinet. Disagreement as 
 to Foreign Connexions. Relations with France. Party Dissensions. 
 References to the Secretary of the Treasury his plan of reducing 
 the Public Debt proposes to pay the debt to the Bank in advance. 
 Further Assumption of State Debts. Mr. Giles s Resolutions 
 against the Secretary of the Treasury. Proceedings thereon. Views 
 of the two Parties. Conversation with the President on his Levees. 
 Right of the United States to cede Territory, discussed in the 
 Cabinet , ^ . * . . t ^ . . .427 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 1793. 
 
 Questions arising on the War between France and England. Views of 
 the Cabinet. Mr. Jefferson s argument that the United States were 
 not absolved from their treaties with France by its Revolution it 
 prevails with the President. His letters to Mr. Madison and Mr. 
 Monroe on the Neutrality of the United States. Arrival of Citizen 
 Genet, the French Minister his reception. Rights of France under 
 the Treaty of Commerce. Mr. Jefferson s correspondence with the 
 French Minister. Genet s intemperate and offensive course his 
 recall the popular feeling in his favour . . .461 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 1793. 
 
 State of parties as to the French Revolution. The Proclamation of 
 Neutrality how viewed by the two parties by Mr. Hamilton and 
 Mr. Madison. Mr. Jefferson s letters .to Mr. Madison and Mr. 
 Monroe. Cabinet consultations concerning Genet. The order of 
 the British government relative to neutrals the correspondence 
 relative to it Impressment of American seamen. French decrees 
 relative to neutrals. Discussions in the Cabinet Proclamation of 
 neutrality Fortifications Military Academy. Communications to 
 Congress on the foreign relations of the United States. Mr. Jeffer 
 son s report on commercial restrictions. His resignation and return 
 to Monticello ............ 493 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 1794. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s motives for retiring from public life. His continued con 
 nexion with the Republican Party. Description of Monticello. 
 Mr. Madison s Commercial Restrictions arguments for and against 
 them in Congress. State of parties on this Question. A naval 
 force provided. British Order in Council of the 5th of November. 
 
xx CONTENTS. 
 
 The Measures in Congress to which it gave rise. The Chief Jus 
 tice sent as Minister to England. Each party accuses the other of 
 foreign attachments. Arrangement of each under different classes 
 
 ^24 
 of citizens * 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 17941795. 
 
 Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Mr. Jefferson refuses a seat in the Cabi 
 net. Democratic Societies. The President s Speech Mr. Jeffer 
 son s strictures on it._.1Clie fitness of large States for Republican 
 Government considered. Gouverneur Morris recalled his charac 
 ter. James Monroe. Discontent of Kentucky. Direct and Indi 
 rect Taxes. Alexander Hamilton resigns his character. Mr. 
 Jefferson refuses to become a Candidate for the Presidency. Treaty 
 with Great Britain ratified by the Senate made public by one of 
 the Senators violent opposition to it. Mr. Jefferson s views of it 
 its provisions its want of reciprocity detailed and explained 546 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 1796. 
 
 The British Treaty ratified by the President and Senate. Proceedings 
 in Congress. The right of Congress to refuse appropriations for 
 executing a treaty discussed. Considerations on this subject drawn 
 from the character of the Federal Government. Letter to Mr. Giles. 
 The duty to take sides between conflicting parties considered. 
 /Construction of the Constitution as to the power in Congress to 
 establish Post Roads. Letter to Mazzei. Mr. Jefferson s defence 
 of that letter the objections to it considered. General Washing 
 ton s Farewell Address. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson rival can 
 didates for the Presidency. Mr. Jefferson chosen Vice-President 
 the considerations which reconciled him to that result. . 571 
 
 Appendix .- . ; .- . 602 
 
 %* It is necessary to state, that the edition now offered to the English 
 public has been printing for some time here with the concurrence of the 
 Author, Mr. Tucker, and has been superintended in its progress through 
 the press by a friend of that gentleman. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The life of Thomas Jefferson peculiarly instructive illustrated by the 
 history of his native state. First settlement of Virginia. Diffi 
 culties of the first settlers. Introduction of slaves, and the culti 
 vation of tobacco their influence on the character and condition of 
 the inhabitants. Towns small and few. Habits and manners of 
 the people. Religion. Government. Aristocracy. Jealous of 
 their civil rights. Collisions with the crown. Subsequent har 
 mony until the stamp act. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY can present no occasion of more interest and in- 
 truction to Americans than the life of Thomas Jefferson, whe 
 ther we regard the high place he held in the affections of his 
 countrymen, the influence lie exercised in their public coun 
 cils and over their political sentiments, or the means by which 
 he attained this extraordinary elevation. It never could be 
 more truly said of any man, that he was the artificer of his 
 own fortune. We behold in him the rare example of one 
 who, possessing no peculiar claims to distinction from wealth, 
 family, or station, and without having either gained a battle, 
 made a speech, or founded a sect, raised himself from the 
 ranks of private life to the highest civil honours of his coun 
 try, after he had contributed by his counsels to give that 
 country independence ; and whose opinions, both when he 
 was living and since his death, have acquired a weight and 
 currency with his countrymen, on all questions of govern- 
 VOL. I. B 
 
2 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 mcnt and civil policy, which those of no other individual 
 have ever attained. 
 
 Although the principal events of Mr. Jefferson s life are 
 already familiar to his countrymen, yet they cannot but be 
 gratified to see those events placed in immediate connexion 
 with their less obvious causes and effects, and receive illus 
 trations from his modes of thinking and personal traits of 
 character. Nor ought we to disregard the claims of pos 
 terity. The numerous millions of the Anglo-Saxon race, 
 who will hereafter inhabit this continent, will assuredly, 
 whether they continue united in one mighty confederacy, or, 
 by a less happy destiny, be broken up into distinct sove 
 reignties, look back on the separation of the thirteen pro 
 vinces from Great Britain, which first gave them a place 
 among nations, as the most important era in their common 
 history. They will naturally regard with veneration and 
 interest all which relates to that great drama, and more es 
 pecially the fortunes and characters of its principal actors. 
 It seems, then, to be a duty of the present generation to 
 profit by their position, and to transmit to their descendants 
 those details to which they will so anxiously turn, whether 
 their purpose be to gratify a liberal curiosity, or to indulge 
 in sentiments of patriotic pride. 
 
 But the life of Mr. Jefferson is so intimately connected 
 with the history of his country, that a brief notice of the 
 polity and institutions of Virginia, while a colony, as well as 
 of the manners and pursuits of its inhabitants, will not only 
 shed light on his character, but also make us better ac 
 quainted with the sources and tendencies of some of his prin 
 cipal acts. 
 
 Virginia, the first colony which the English planted in 
 North America, had been settled at the period of Mr. Jeffer 
 son s birth, in 1743, just one hundred and thirty-six years. 
 The charters granted by the English sovereigns to its first 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3 
 
 settlers extended the limits of the colony to the west as far 
 as the Pacific Ocean. But as the region thus liberally 
 bestowed was then actually occupied by numerous savage 
 tribes, the royal bounty only conferred the exclusive right of 
 obtaining it, by purchase or conquest, from its original pro 
 prietors. These people, on whom Europeans gratuitously 
 bestowed the name of Indians, soon saw ir^ the foreign in 
 truders the direst enemy of their race, and determined to 
 resist their further progress. They greatly annoyed the first 
 colonists, and in 1623, in an interval of peace, had nearly 
 exterminated them by a general massacre. 
 
 But neither their cunning nor valour could long withstand 
 the arts and arms of civilization. The tribes nearest to the 
 English settlements were successively either exterminated or 
 compelled to retire farther west; and when, by the gradual 
 increase of the whites, and the consequent extension of their 
 settlements, the two races again came into contact, the red 
 man, unmindful of the past, again fiercely attempted to arrest 
 the further advances of the invader, and again was over 
 powered. In this way, the lands of North America, with 
 few exceptions, were gradually won by the valour of the 
 settlers themselves ; and often won, too, by an exhibition of 
 enterprise and bravery, and at an expense of life and endur 
 ance of privation, of which the annals of civilized society 
 afford few parallels. The brunt of these border conflicts 
 was borne by a small number of adventurers on the frontier, 
 who have been properly called the pioneers of civilization ; 
 and who thus voluntarily made themselves the advanced 
 guard of the colonists, from their passion for hunting, to 
 gether with the spirit of adventure, which preferred the ex 
 citing hazards of even Indian hostility to the tame and quiet 
 occupations of civilized life. 
 
 As the country was gradually wrested from the Indians, 
 it was laid off into counties, and since the country near the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 TE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 coast had been first settled, that part was the most populous, 
 both from natural increase and the accession of new settlers ; 
 whilst the population was more thin and scattered towards 
 the west. The frontier counties were, by reason of this thin 
 ness of population, much larger than those longer settled, 
 and they had no definite western boundary. But as soon as 
 the inhabitants of a frontier county became sufficiently nu 
 merous to require it, the undefined western portion of it was 
 separated from the rest, and formed into a new county with 
 a new name. In this way Goochland had been formed out 
 of Henrico, and in 1744, the year after Mr. Jefferson was 
 born, Albemarle was formed out of Goochland. 
 
 At the period to which we refer, the settlements had ex 
 tended about two hundred miles from the sea-coast, and in 
 the northern half of the colony they had passed the Blue 
 Ridge, thus spreading over about one-third of the state, ac 
 cording to its present limits. The population, at the same 
 period, deduced from statements previously and subsequently 
 made, was something more than two hundred thousand, of 
 which number from a fourth to a third were slaves. 
 
 Two circumstances occurred soon after Virginia was 
 settled, which have had an important influence on the ha 
 bits, character, and fortunes of the country, and the remote 
 effects of one of which it is beyond human foresight to scan. 
 One of these was the cultivation of tobacco, and the other 
 the introduction of African slaves. 
 
 The use of tobacco had been introduced into England by 
 some of the first adventurers to America, twenty years before 
 the settlement of James Town. They had acquired the 
 habit of smoking it during a short residence among the 
 natives, who, having neither wine nor opium, nor the arts of 
 brewing or distilling, found in the properties of this weed 
 that stimulus of the nervous system which man seems every 
 where to crave, and which may be the more coveted by the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 5 
 
 Indian from a peculiarly phlegmatic temperament. The 
 use of it rapidly extended in England, and the more rapidly, 
 perhaps, from the endeavours made by the reigning monarch 
 to prejudice his subjects against it. A demand for tobacco 
 being thus created, and it being already a product of Vir 
 ginia, the settlers soon began to cultivate it for market ; and 
 under the encouragement of the very high prjce it then bore, 
 it so engrossed their attention to the neglect of their corn, 
 that they sometimes suffered severely from scarcity. It long 
 continued almost the sole article of export, and both from its 
 furnishing the means of remittance to England, and from 
 the inadequate supply of the precious metals, which they felt 
 in common with all young and growing communities, it be 
 came the general measure of value, and principal currency 
 of the colony. The members of assembly, the ministers of 
 the established church, the clerks of courts, and sheriffs, were 
 all paid in tobacco. The payment of the county and parish 
 levies, and most of the public taxes, was made in the same 
 commodity. But as it fluctuated in price, rates were some 
 times fixed by the colonial legislature, and sometimes left to 
 the discretion of the county courts, by which the prices of 
 pork, maize, wheat, and other articles of general consump 
 tion, might be paid in this local currency. The quantity of 
 exported tobacco gradually increased with the growth of the 
 colony, until in 1758, it reached seventy thousand hogs 
 heads*, equal to seventy millions of pounds, since which time 
 the product has somewhat diminished. 
 
 As this plant requires land of the greatest fertility, and 
 its finer sorts are produced only in virgin soil, which it soon 
 exhausts, its culture has been steadily advancing westwardly, 
 where fresh land is more abundant, leaving the eastern re 
 gion it has impoverished to the production of Indian corn, 
 
 * The hogshead, which has been a very varying quantity, from 350 Ibs. 
 to 1500 Ibs. or more, then averaged 1000 Ibs. 
 
(j THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 wheat, and other grain. Its cultivation has thus generally 
 ceased in the country below the falls of the great rivers, and 
 in its progress to the west, the centre of the tobacco region 
 is now two hundred miles from the coast. 
 
 The business of cultivating tobacco and preparing it for 
 market requires such continual attention, and so much, and 
 so many sorts of handling, as to allow to the planter little 
 time for any of the other useful processes of husbandry ; and 
 thus the management of his dairy and orchard, and the useful 
 operations of manuring, irrigation, and cultivating artificial 
 grasses, are either conducted in a slovenly way or neglected 
 altogether. The tobacco district nowhere exhibits the same 
 external face of verdure, or marks of rural comfort and taste, 
 as are to be seen in those counties in which its culture has 
 been abandoned. 
 
 But the most serious consequence of the tobacco cultiva 
 tion is to be found in the increase of slaves ; for though it 
 did not occasion their first introduction, it greatly encou 
 raged their importation afterwards. It is to the spirit of 
 commerce, which, in its undistinguishing pursuit of gain, 
 ministers to our vices no less than to our necessary wants, 
 that Virginia owes this portentous accession to her popu 
 lation. A Dutch ship from the coast of Guinea entered 
 James River in 1620, thirteen years after the first settle 
 ment of James Town, and sold twenty of her slaves to the 
 colonists. 
 
 The large profits which could be made from the labour of 
 slaves, while tobacco sold at three shillings sterling a pound, 
 equal to about ten times its ordinary price now, greatly en 
 couraged their further importation, by giving to the planters 
 the means of purchasing as well as the inclination ; and the 
 effect would have been much greater, if they had not been 
 continually supplied with labour from the paupers, and some 
 times the convicts, who were brought from England, and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 7 
 
 sold to the planters for a term of years, to defray the ex 
 penses of their transportation. 
 
 This supply of English servants, together with the gra 
 dual fall in the price of tobacco, had so checked the importa 
 tion of slaves, that in the year 1671, according to an official 
 communication from the governor, Sir William Berkeley, 
 while the whole population was but 40,000, the number of 
 indented servants was 6000, and that of the slaves was but 
 2000. The importations of the latter, he says, did not ex 
 ceed two or three cargoes in seven years, but that of servants, 
 of whom he says, " most were English, few Scotch, and fewer 
 Irish," he estimates at 1500 annually. 
 
 But in process of time slave labour was found preferable 
 to that of indented white servants ; partly because the negro 
 slaves were more cheaply fed and clothed than the labourers 
 who were of the same race as the masters, but principally 
 because they were less able to escape from bondage, and 
 were more easily retaken. The colonial statute book affords 
 abundant evidence of the frequency and facility with which 
 the indented servants ran away from their masters ; and the 
 extent of the mischief may be inferred from the severity of 
 its punishment. In 1642, runaway servants were liable, for 
 a second offence, to be branded on the cheek, though fifteen 
 years afterwards the law was so far mitigated as to transfer 
 this mark of ignominy to the shoulder. In 1662, their term 
 of service, which did not often exceed four or five years, 
 might, for the offence of running away, be prolonged, at the 
 discretion of a magistrate, and the master might superadd 
 " moderate corporal punishment." In the following year, 
 this class of persons, prompted by the convicts who had been 
 sent over after the restoration of Charles the Second, formed 
 a conspiracy of insurrection and murder, which was discovered 
 just in time to be defeated. Seven years afterwards, in 1670, 
 the governor and council took upon themselves to prohibit 
 
8 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the further importation of convicts, whom they call " jail 
 birds ; " and they assign this conspiracy as one of their mo 
 tives for the order. The privilege, too, enjoyed by the ser 
 vant of complaining to the magistrate for the harsh treat 
 ment of his master, either as to food, clothing or punishment, 
 formed, no doubt, a further ground of preference for slaves, 
 who had no such inconvenient rights. 
 
 Under the united influence of these circumstances the 
 number of negro slaves so increased, that in 1732, the legis 
 lature thought proper to discourage their further importa 
 tion by a tax on each slave imported ; and not to alarm the 
 commercial jealousy of England, the law, conforming to the 
 notions of the age, formally provided for what no mode of 
 levying the tax could have prevented, that the duty should 
 be paid by the purchaser. This duty was at first five per 
 cent, on the value of the slave, but in a few years afterwards 
 (L740) it was increased to ten per cent., from which it was 
 never reduced. It did not, however, prevent large importa 
 tions, for we find the number to have increased in 119 years 
 in the ratio of 1 to 146 : that is, from 2000 in the year 1671, 
 to 293,427 in 1790; whilst in the same period the whites 
 had increased only as 1 to 12, or from 38,000 to 454,881. In 
 the forty years which have elapsed from the first to the last 
 census, it is gratifying to perceive that the increase of the 
 free population in Virginia has been somewhat greater than 
 that of the slaves in the proportion of 63 per cent, to 60, and 
 that this comparative gain seems to be gradually increasing. 
 As Eastern Virginia is everywhere intersected by navi 
 gable rivers, which are skirted on either side by rich alluvial 
 lands, the early settlers, whose plantations were principally 
 along the margins of the rivers, were able to carry on a direct 
 intercourse with foreign countries from their separate dwell 
 ings. Thus commerce, by the very diffusion of its most im 
 portant natural facilities, did not here concentrate in a few 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 9 
 
 favourable spots, and foster the growth of towns, as in most 
 of the other colonies ; and at the beginning of the revolu 
 tion, William sburg, the scat of government, and the largest 
 town in Virginia, itself the most populous of the colonies, did 
 not contain 2000 inhabitants. But as the bees which form 
 no hive collect no honey, the commerce which was thus dis 
 persed accumulated no wealth. The disadvantages of this 
 dispersion were eventually perceived by the colonists, and 
 many efforts were made by the legislature to remedy the 
 mischief by authorizing the establishment of towns on se 
 lected sites, and giving special privileges and immunities to 
 those who built or those who resided on them. Their pur 
 pose was also favoured, and even stimulated by the govern 
 ment, from fiscal considerations. But most of these legis 
 lative efforts failed, and none were very successful. Thus 
 in 1G80, as many as twenty towns were authorized by act of 
 assembly, being one for each county ; yet at not more than 
 three or four of the designated spots is there even a village 
 remaining to attest the propriety of the selection. 
 
 There were, indeed, wanting in the colony all the ordinary 
 constituents of a large town. Here were no manufactories to 
 bring together and employ the ingenious and industrious. 
 The colonists, devoting themselves exclusively to agriculture, 
 owned no shipping, which might have induced them to congre 
 gate for the sake of carrying on their foreign commerce to more 
 advantage : here was no court which, by its splendour and 
 amusements, might attract the gay, the voluptuous, and the 
 rich : there was not even a class of opulent landlords to whom 
 it is as easy to live on their rents in town as in the country, and 
 far more agreeable. But the very richest planters all cultivated 
 their own land with their own slaves, and while those lands 
 furnished most of the materials of a generous, and even pro 
 fuse hospitality, they could be consumed only where they 
 were produced, and could neither be transported to a distance, 
 
|0 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 nor converted into money. The tobacco, which constituted 
 the only article of export, served to pay for the foreign lux 
 uries which the planter required ; yet, with his social habits, 
 it was barely sufficient for that purpose, and not a few of the 
 largest estates were deeply in debt to the Scotch or English 
 merchants, who carried on the whole commerce of the country. 
 Nor was this system of credit more eagerly sought by the 
 improvident planter than it was given by the thrifty and sa 
 gacious trader ; for it afforded to him a sure pledge for the 
 consignment of the debtor s crop, on the sales of which his 
 fair perquisites amounted to a liberal profit, and if he was 
 disposed to abuse his trust, his gains were enormous. The 
 merchants were therefore ready to ship goods, and accept 
 bills of exchange on the credit of future crops, while their 
 factors in the colony took care in season to make the debt 
 safe by a mortgage on the lands and slaves of the planter. 
 Some idea of the pecuniary thraldom to which the Virginia 
 planter was formerly subjected may be formed from the fact, 
 that twice a year, at a general meeting of the merchants and 
 factors in Williamsburg, they settled the price of tobacco, the 
 advance on the sterling cost of goods, and the rate of ex 
 change with England. It can scarcely be doubted that the 
 regulations were framed as much to the advantage of the 
 merchants as they believed it practicable to execute. Yet it 
 affords evidence of the sagacious moderation with which this 
 delicate duty was exercised, that it was not so abused as to 
 destroy itself. 
 
 This state of things exerted a decided influence on the 
 manners and character of the colonists, untrained to habits 
 of business and possessed of the means of hospitality. They 
 were open-handed and open-hearted ; fond of society, in 
 dulging in all its pleasures, and practising all its courtesies. 
 But these social virtues also occasionally ran into the kindred 
 vices of love of show, haughtiness, sensualityand many of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 11 
 
 the wealthier class were to be seen seeking relief from the 
 vacuity of idleness, not merely in the allowable pleasures of 
 the chase and the turf, but in the debasing ones of cock- 
 fighting, gaming, and drinking. Literature was neglected, 
 or cultivated, by the small number who had been educated 
 in England, rather as an accomplishment and a mark of dis 
 tinction than for the substantial benefits it confers. 
 
 \ 
 
 Let us not, however, overrate the extent of these conse 
 quences of slavery. If the habitual exercise of authority, 
 united to a want of steady occupation, deteriorated the cha 
 racter of some, it seemed to give a greater elevation of vir 
 tue to others. Domestic slavery, in fact, places the master 
 in a state of moral discipline, and according to the use he 
 makes of it, is he made better or worse. If he exercises his 
 unrestricted power over the slave in giving ready indulgence 
 to his humours or caprice if he habitually yields to impulses 
 of anger, and punishes whenever he is disobeyed, or obeyed 
 imperfectly, he is certainly the worse for the institution which 
 has thus afforded aliment to his evil propensities. But if, 
 on the other hand, he has been taught to curb these sallies 
 of passion or freaks of caprice, or has subjected himself to 
 a course of salutary restraint, he is continually strengthening 
 himself in the virtues of self-denial, forbearance, and mode 
 ration, and he is all the better for the institution which has 
 afforded so much occasion for the practice of those virtues*. 
 If, therefore, in a slave-holding country, we see some of the 
 masters made irascible, cruel, and tyrannical, we see many 
 others as remarkable for their mildness, moderation, and 
 self-command ; because, in truth, both the virtues of the one 
 
 * The character of the Presidents which Virginia has furnished, may 
 be appealed to for a confirmation of this view ; and many living illustra 
 tions will readily present themselves to all who have a personal know 
 ledge of the southern states. 
 
|2 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and the vices of the other are carried to the greater extreme 
 by the self-same process of habitual exercise. 
 
 The Church of England was the established religion of 
 Virginia. The whole colony was divided into parishes 
 commonly about two in a county in each of which was a 
 glebe and parsonage house for the minister, who also received 
 16,000 pounds of tobacco a year from the public treasury. 
 Great jealousy seems to have been entertained by the early 
 settlers against other sects, particularly the Quakers. In 
 1660, all of this sect who came into the colony were to be im 
 prisoned until they gave security to leave it, and masters of 
 vessels were subjected to a penalty of iOOJ. sterling for every 
 Quaker brought into the country. Dissenters from the 
 Church of England, however, gradually increased, particu 
 larly Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists, and at the 
 breaking out of the revolution, they, according to Mr. Jeffer 
 son, constituted one half* of those who professed themselves 
 members of any church. 
 
 The colonial government was modelled after that of the 
 mother country; the Governor, Council, and Burgesses of 
 Virginia corresponding, in their respective functions, to the 
 king, lords, and commons of England. There were, how 
 ever, the following diversities : during the first year of the 
 colony, when it was under the government of the Virginia 
 Company, the Governor, Council, and Burgesses sat toge 
 ther in the same room, and formed a single body, called " the 
 Grand Assembly." The same thing afterwards took place 
 during the greater part of the time of the Commonwealth. 
 The Governor and Council, too, in their judicial character, 
 exercised original as well as appellate jurisdiction, and ap 
 peals from their decision lay to the General Assembly. 
 
 f Mr. Madison thinks that the proportion of Dissenters was consider 
 ably less. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 13 
 
 These appeals were abolished in 1683, by an exercise of the 
 royal prerogative ; but the judicial f auctions of the Governor 
 and Council, constituting the General Court, continued 
 throughout the regal government. The number of Council 
 lors was limited to sixteen, though their places were seldom 
 all filled ; and they were selected by the Crown from those 
 of the inhabitants who were recommended N by their wealth, 
 station, and loyalty. The House of Burgesses, in the year 
 1743, consisted of eighty members : to wit, seventy-six from 
 thirty-eight counties, three from the towns of Williamsburg, 
 James Town, and Norfolk, and one from William and Mary 
 College. 
 
 The political sentiments of the planters were manifested 
 very differently in their relations with each other, and in the 
 concerns of the whole province with the mother country. 
 Whilst, in the latter relation, they, with few exceptions, 
 showed themselves zealous asserters of their civil rights, in 
 the colony itself there was exhibited a strong aristocratical 
 spirit, which several circumstances had contributed to pro 
 duce. The great number of indented servants, who for near 
 a century constituted the largest portion of their agricultural 
 labour, and who were subjected to a rigour of authority not 
 known in England, had always divided the colonists into 
 two distinct classes ; and if many of the degraded caste, 
 after their term of service was expired, had by thrift and good 
 management acquired land and even wealth, yet their former 
 condition was not forgotten ; and it was only in the second 
 or third generation that the original line of distinction was 
 effaced. The introduction of slaves tended to increase and 
 confirm this inequality. The wealthy planter, living on a 
 large estate, where he saw none but obliged guests or ob 
 sequious slaves commonly invested, moreover, with powers 
 legislative, judicial, or military, and sometimes with all 
 united, was likely to have a high sense of personal dignity 
 
14 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and self-importance. Their form of civil polity and the pre 
 vailing religion, endowed as it was with exclusive privileges, 
 contributed in some degree to the same end. The aristo 
 cratic feeling, thus produced, variously manifested itself in 
 the colonial laws. The whole public expenditure was de 
 frayed by a capitation tax, levied on all males bond or free 
 above sixteen years of age, and all female slaves above the 
 same age, by which every other difference in property, except 
 as to slaves, was disregarded ; and as to a part of the tax, 
 the poorest man paid as much as the richest, since the ex 
 pense of making and repairing the public roads was borne 
 equally by all males over sixteen : the right of suffrage was 
 limited to freeholders, except during a part of the time of 
 the Commonwealth, and a few years afterwards ; slaves were 
 regarded as real estate for the purpose of being annexed to 
 the land, and of transmitting an undivided inheritance to the 
 heir: and lastly, in 1705, a law was passed to take away 
 from the courts the power of defeating entails, as had been 
 the practice in the colony, and was still permitted in England. 
 The high wages of the members of assembly may be re 
 garded as a further evidence of the same aristocratic injustice. 
 Their compensation, during the reign of Charles the First, 
 was 150 pounds of tobacco a day, besides the expense of 
 horses and a servant, amounting to about 100 pounds more. 
 After allowing both for the lower money price of tobacco at 
 that period, and the greater value of the precious metals, 
 this daily compensation must be deemed equal to eight or 
 ten dollars at the present time : and as it was paid by the 
 several counties to their respective members, we cannot 
 wonder that it was one of the grounds of popular complaint 
 in the insurrection in 167G, under Nathaniel Bacon*. In 
 
 * Although the immediate cause of the people s taking up arms in 
 that civil commotion, was to defend themselves against the Indians, who 
 were then ravaging the frontier, and who found impunity in the tardy 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 15 
 
 1677, this complaint seemed to the commissioners sent from 
 England so well founded, that, on their recommendation, 
 the wages of the members were greatly reduced. 
 
 Persons thus clothed with power and authority, and ac 
 customed to its exercise, were not likely to prove the most 
 submissive of subjects; and there was probably always a 
 court and a country party in Virginia as well as in England ; 
 yet, by far the larger party of the aristocracy of the colony 
 sided with the Whigs in all the disputes with the crown, or 
 its colonial representative, the Governor. Indeed, the spirit 
 of resistance to illegal or oppressive exertions of the royal 
 prerogative seems never to have been long dormant, from 
 the year 1624, when Virginia ceased to be a proprietary go 
 vernment, until the period of separation. 
 
 The annals of the colony, meagre as they unfortunately 
 are, afford abundant evidence of this firm and independent 
 spirit. Thus, in 1631, the Council and the House of Bur 
 gesses united in the bold step of sending the Governor, Sir 
 Matthew Harvey, a prisoner to England, to be tried for the 
 tyrannical acts of his administration. In 1657, when the 
 colony, which had espoused the royal cause, capitulated to 
 the force sent out by Cromwell, his commissioners expressly 
 stipulated with the House of Burgesses, that the people of 
 
 and indecisive measures of an aged Governor, yet after they had taken 
 the means of 5 redress into their own hands, and returned from their 
 expedition against the Indians, other causes of popular discontent in the 
 laws themselves were the subject of loud complaint, and hecame the 
 reason or afforded a pretext for Bacon to keep his force embodied, and 
 finally to assume the attitude of open war. One of the grievances com 
 plained of was, that all the revenue was raised by a poll tax, by which 
 the wealthy landholder contributed nothing, except so far as he was an 
 owner of slaves. This injustice was the more felt on account of the 
 recent increase of taxes for the purpose of purchasing up the improvident 
 grant made by Charles the Second to two court favourites. They also 
 complained of the high wages of the members of assembly, and the high 
 fees to other public officers ; all indicating that the power of the govern 
 ment was exercised for the benefit of a few at the expense of the many. 
 
16 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Virginia " should have arid enjoy such freedom and privileges 
 as belong to the frecborn people of England; that trade 
 should also be as free in Virginia as in England ; and that 
 no tax, custom or imposition, should be laid in Virginia, nor 
 forts nor castles erected therein without the consent of the 
 Grand Assembly." 
 
 In 1673, Charles the Second having granted the whole 
 province of Virginia to the Lords Culpepper and Arlington 
 for thirty-one years, with the power to grant waste lands, 
 receive quit rents, form new counties, erect courts, and exer 
 cise similar acts of sovereignty, the colonists took alarm, and 
 employed agents in England to apply to the crown, first for 
 leave to purchase up this grant, and then for a new charter, 
 which would secure the colony not only from the repetition 
 of similar grants, but from other invasions of their rights. 
 The application to the king s privy council by the colony s 
 agents set forth ten provisions, which they asked that their 
 new charter should contain ; one of which was, " that no tax 
 or imposition should be laid on the people of Virginia but 
 by the Grand Assembly." After the negotiation of more 
 than a year, the king, in conformity with the recommenda 
 tion of his council, consented to all the requests, and directed 
 a charter to be prepared accordingly. But either before the 
 charter was executed, or, as some say, after execution, but 
 before delivery, the news of Bacon s rebellion caused it to 
 be stopped, and another substituted, in which, to the great 
 disappointment of the colonists, the most important pro 
 visions, including the one respecting taxation, was omitted. 
 
 In 1677, the House of Burgesses made a spirited oppo 
 sition to an invasion of their privileges by the agents of the 
 crown. The Commissioners who had been sent out from 
 England to investigate the circumstances of Bacon s rebel 
 lion, and who had been invested with a general power of 
 sending for persons and papers, had demanded the journals 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 17 
 
 of the House. This demand the Burgesses peremptorily 
 refused ; and their clerk being afterwards compelled by the 
 Commissioners to surrender them, the House, at its next 
 session, after reciting this " act of illegal violence," declared 
 their belief that " his majesty would not grant" this power 
 to the Commissioner, for they " find not the same to have 
 been practised by any of the kin<j.<t of England;" they did* 
 therefore, " take the same to be a violation of their pri 
 vileges." They asked, moreover, for satisfactory assurances 
 that " no such violation of their privileges should be offered 
 for the future." 
 
 This declaration of the Assembly, Charles, in his instruc 
 tions to lord Culpepper, the Governor of Virginia, stigma 
 tizes as " seditious, 1 and requires him to have erased from 
 their proceedings. 
 
 From this time, until the revolution of 1688, the Governor 
 of Virginia and the Assembly seem to have been in a state 
 of continual collision. The popular and the government 
 parties were more distinctly marked, and in a higher state 
 of irritation against each other than at any previous period, 
 occasioned partly by the mutual injuries inflicted during 
 Bacon s insurrection, and yet more by the vindictive course 
 of the Governor and the Royalists which succeeded it, and 
 partly from the more liberal notions of popular rights and 
 constitutional law, which the progress of knowledge, and the 
 discussions provoked by the arbitrary measures of the House 
 of Stuart had produced in every part of the British domi 
 nions. 
 
 In the year 1685 these bickerings rose to their greatest 
 height. The Governor of Virginia, lord Howard, had, by 
 proclamation, declared,, that since an act of Assembly of 
 1 682, which repealed another act of 1680, had not received 
 the royal assent, the act supposed to be repealed was still in 
 force. The House of Burgesses conceiving that the power 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
18 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 now asserted, might, by suspending the exercise of the roya 
 negative on the colonial laws, be used to revive laws that 
 had been long disused, and which every one supposed to 
 have been repealed, made such a spirited remonstrance 
 against this and other offensive acts of the government, that 
 the Governor prorogued the Assembly. 
 
 The reigning monarch, James the Second, in a letter to 
 lord Howard, passes a hard censure on these " irregular and 
 tumultuous " proceedings of the House, the members of which, 
 for thus presuming to question the negative voice intrusted to 
 the Governor, he does not hesitate to charge with " disaffected 
 and unquiet dispositions," and with purposely protracting 
 their time on account of their wages, and he therefore directs 
 the Governor to dissolve the Assembly. As the high wages 
 of the members had long been a subject of complaint, the 
 Governor condescended to touch this popular string, by 
 directing the king s letter ff to be publicly read in every 
 county court, that the inhabitants and burgesses may be 
 made sensible how displeasing such obstinate proceedings 
 were to his Majesty. 
 
 This disagreement continued until 1689, when, on the 
 accession of William and Mary, the liberal principles of the 
 revolution prevailed, and produced a more conciliatory 
 course towards the colonies. From this time until 1764, 
 when the stamp act was proposed, there was no collision 
 between either the crown or its representative and the As 
 sembly, of sufficient importance to attract the notice of 
 historians, except the illegal fee for patents claimed by 
 Governor Dinwiddie in 1754. This the Assembly voted 
 "illegal and oppressive." They even sent an agent to 
 England expressly to procure its repeal. 
 
 While the rapid growth of Virginia, and the other English 
 provinces of America presented to England strong tempta 
 tions to draw a revenue from them, and so to restrict their 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 19 
 
 industry as to prevent their future rivalship with the mother 
 country in commerce or manufactures, the same career of 
 prosperity was continually presenting to the colonies greater 
 power of resistance, and greater inducements to use it. 
 With such inherent motives to discord and repulsion, it was 
 morally impossible that they could permanently continue 
 members of the same government ; and, sooner or later, the 
 separation was inevitable. But that great event was un 
 doubtedly hastened by the wavering and ill- digested policy 
 of the ministers of George the Third, who pursued a course 
 by which they attained the benefits neither of firmness nor 
 moderation ; and in which, from the time the project of 
 levying a tax in America was formed, every measure taken 
 by the administration was regarded by the colonists, if op 
 pressive, as a proof of their danger, and if conciliatory, as an 
 admission of their strength. 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Birth and parentage of Thomas Jefferson. His Education. Sent to 
 College. Dr. Small. His amusements. Description of his person. 
 His familiar letters to John Page. Governor Fauquier. Studies 
 law under George Wythe. Visits Annapolis and Philadelphia. 
 His character as a lawyer. Patrick Henry. The stamp act. Is 
 elected to the General Assembly. It denies the right of Great 
 Britain to tax the colonies. The members meet at the Raleigh 
 i Tavern. Progress of discontents. 
 
 THOMAS JEFFERSON was born on the 2nd day of April, 
 1743, at a place called Shad well, in what is now the county 
 of Albemarle, but which then constituted a part of the 
 county of Goochland. Though at present very near the 
 centre of population of Virginia, it was at that period almost 
 a frontier settlement; and six years before, when his father 
 first seated himself on it, he found but three or four settlers 
 in that part of the country : yet such has been the progress 
 of population, during a single life, that the settlements had 
 extended, at the time of Mr. Jefferson s death, nearly 800 
 miles farther west. 
 
 His family, on the father s side, was, according to tra 
 dition, originally Welsh, but the time when it first migrated 
 to America does not appear. It has been traced back no 
 farther than to Mr. Jefferson s grandfather, who lived at 
 Osborne s, in the county of Chesterfield, and who had three 
 sons. Of these, Thomas died young, Field settled on the 
 southern border of the state, and left numerous descendants, 
 and Peter, the father of the subject of this memoir, settled 
 at Shadwell, as has been mentioned, His mother was Jane 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 
 
 Randolph, of a numerous and wealthy family in Virginia, 
 who, he says, " trace their pedigree far back in England and 
 Scotland," to which, he adds, " let every one ascribe the faith 
 and merit he chooses." He had a brother younger than 
 himself, and six sisters. 
 
 He was put to an English school at five years of age, and 
 at nine he was placed under a Mr. Douglas, a Scotch clergy 
 man, at whose school he was instructed in the Latin, Greek, 
 and French languages, until he was thirteen, at which time 
 he lost his father. He then was sent to the school of Mr. 
 Maury, where he continued two years. He acquired from 
 this gentleman, who was a good scholar, a taste for classical 
 learning, which he retained ever afterwards. 
 
 Mr. James Maury, the late estimable American consul at 
 Liverpool, and w r ho still survives, is the son of Mr. Jeffer 
 son s preceptor, and was his classmate. According to this 
 gentleman, Thomas Jefferson was distinguished at school for 
 diligence and proficiency. He farther says, that whenever 
 young Jefferson was desirous of a holiday, he seemed, from 
 a certain shyness of disposition, averse to soliciting it him 
 self, but would prevail upon some of his school-fellows to 
 make the application ; and if it proved successful, he imme 
 diately withdrew to some place of quiet, where he remained 
 until he had made himself master of the task set for the class, 
 after which he rejoined his young associates, and entered as 
 heartily as any one into their sports and recreations *. One 
 of these was hunting in a neighbouring mountain, part of 
 the south-west range, which traverses Albemarle, and which 
 
 * When Mr. Jefferson, in a letter to Mr. Maury, fifty-seven years after 
 wards, reproached himself with the hahit of procrastination, this com 
 panion of his early years must have thought him greatly altered in this 
 particular. But in truth he was not changed, and his self-condemnation 
 only shows that punctual and industrious as he really was, he fell short 
 of the standard he aimed at. 
 
22 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 then and many years afterwards abounded with deer, wild 
 turkeys and other game. It was in the pure air of these 
 mountains, and in the exercise of these manly sports, that 
 he acquired that vigour of constitution which his erect car 
 riage and light step exhibited to the last. 
 
 At the age of seventeen he was sent to William and Mary, 
 the only college in the colony, where he remained two years ; 
 and to the advantages he there enjoyed, he, not without 
 reason, attributes a decisive influence on his character and 
 future destiny. Dr. William Small, who was a native of 
 Scotland, and then professor of mathematics at William and 
 Mary, seems to have added liberal sentiments and urbane 
 manners to a large stock of science, as well as skill in com 
 municating it : and won by his pupil s modesty, docility, and 
 love of study, he soon formed for him so strong an attach 
 ment as to make him his daily companion. By the same 
 professor he was initiated in the arcana of general science, 
 and more especially instructed in mathematics, ethics, and 
 belles-lettres. The value of such a friend and preceptor to 
 such a pupil is scarcely to be estimated. But for the inci 
 dents of so varied a course of instruction, it may be fairly 
 presumed that Mr. Jefferson would not have been the author 
 of the papers which gave him reputation, before he joined 
 the first congress, and without which reputation he would 
 not have been placed on the committee that drew the Decla 
 ration of Independence ; or, if we can believe that he would 
 nevertheless have been, in the first place, one of the seven 
 delegates from Virginia, and in the next, one of that memo 
 rable committee, we may safely say that the Declaration, as 
 well as other papers drawn by him, would have been far less 
 worthy of their elevated purposes, and less an object of pride 
 to the nation, and of honour to their author. 
 
 It was probably to that diversity of knowledge with which 
 he was here imbued, and which characterizes the Scotch sys- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 23 
 
 tern of instruction, that Mr. Jefferson owed the general taste 
 for science for which he was always distinguished among his 
 compatriots ; and although his time was chiefly given to the 
 more pressing duties of legislator, diplomatist, or statesman, 
 there were few Americans in his day who could boast of 
 equal attainments in science and learning. 
 
 Whilst he was at college, he participated ^n the pleasures 
 and amusements common to his age, without neglecting his 
 studies. His favourite recreations were music and riding, 
 and he is said to have been a good horseman, and to have 
 performed well on the violin. His bosom friend was the late 
 Governor Page, who had a correspondent relish for science 
 and classical literature. Their friendship, founded on con 
 geniality of taste and disposition, continued without inter 
 ruption through life. Some of Mr. Jefferson s letters to this 
 friend, soon after he left college, have been preserved, and 
 extracts from th ?m are now given, not because they indicate 
 any extraordinary talent in the writer, but because they give 
 us some insight into his character, before it had received any 
 modification from his commerce with the world, and make us 
 acquainted with circumstances of which there is no other 
 existing memorial *. 
 
 Like most young collegians, at least of his day, he seems 
 to have fallen in love in Williamsburg ; and although the 
 correspondence which gives us the beginning of this little 
 episode in his life, does not inform us also of the conclusion, 
 it leaves us to infer that it ended in disappointment on his 
 part. It is agreed by Mr. Jefferson s contemporaries that he 
 was not handsome in his youth. He was tall, thin, and raw- 
 boned ; had red hair, a freckled face, and pointed features. 
 
 * I am indebted to John Page, Esq., for these letters to his father. 
 They are probably the earliest specimens of Mr. Jefferson s epistolary 
 "writing extant. They are marked by the same graces of ease and simpli 
 city which characterize his subsequent compositions. 
 
24 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 But with these disadvantages of exterior, his countenance 
 was so highly expressive of intelligence and benevolence, he 
 conversed so fluently and sensibly, and such a vein of plea 
 santry ran through his discourse, that he was even then a 
 favourite with the sex ; and as he advanced in life, when the 
 expression of the features becomes more marked, and more 
 enters into our estimate of manly beauty, he was esteemed a 
 very good looking man in middle age, and quite a handsome 
 old man. But to return to his youthful correspondence : 
 
 Fairjieldy December 25, 1762. 
 Dear Page : 
 
 This very day, to others the day of greatest mirth and 
 jollity, sees me overwhelmed with more and greater misfor 
 tunes than have befallen a descendant of Adam for these 
 thousand years past I am sure ; and perhaps, after excepting 
 Job, since the creation of the world. I think his misfortunes 
 were somewhat greater than mine : for although we may be 
 pretty nearly on a level in other respects, yet, I thank my 
 God, I have the advantage of brother Job in this, that Satan 
 has not as yet put forth his hand to load me with bodily 
 afflictions. You must know, dear Page, that I am now in a 
 house surrounded with enemies who take counsel together 
 against my soul; and when I lay me down to rest, they say 
 among themselves, Come let us destroy him. I am sure if 
 there is such a thing as a Devil in this world, he must have 
 been here last night and have had some hand in contriving 
 what happened to me. Do you think the cursed rats (at his 
 -hgat.on, I SU pp 0se) did not eat up my pocket-book, 
 winch was m my pocket, within a foot of my head? And 
 * contented with plenty for the present, they carried away 
 
 silk * 1 and haif a 
 
 .u, jemmy , llk gwt ^ and ha]f & ^^ ^^ ^^ 
 
 But of this i sLouidl 6 ; C^SS^S,^; 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 25 
 
 know, rats will be rats, and hunger, without the addition of 
 his instigations, might have urged them to do this,) if some 
 thing worse, and from a different quarter, had not happened- 
 You know it rained last night, or if yon do not know it, I 
 am sure I do. When I went to bed, I laid my watch in the 
 usual place, and going to take her up after I arose this 
 morning, I found her in the same place, it s true, but ! Quan 
 tum mutatus ab ilia ! all afloat in water, let in at a leak in 
 the roof of the house, and as silent and still as the rats that 
 had eat my pocket-book. Now, you know, if chance had had 
 any thing to do in this matter, there were a thousand other 
 spots where it might have chanced to leak as well as at this 
 one, which was perpendicularly over my watch. But I ll tell 
 you ; it s my opinion that the Devil came and bored the hole 
 over it on purpose. Well, as I was saying, my poor watch 
 had lost her speech. I should not have cared much for this, 
 but something worse attended it ; the subtle particles of the 
 water with w r hich the case was filled, had, by their penetra 
 tion, so overcome the cohesion of the particles of the paper, 
 of which my dear picture and watch-paper were composed, 
 that, in attempting to take them out to dry them, good God ! 
 Mens horret referre ! my cursed fingers gave them such a 
 rent, as I fear I never shall get over. This, cried I, was the 
 last stroke Satan had in reserve for me ; he knew I cared 
 not for any thing else he could do to me, and was determined 
 to try this last most fatal expedient. Multis fortunes vidne- 
 ribus percussus, hide uni me imparem sensi, et penihis succu- 
 bui ! I would have cried bitterly, but I thought it beneath 
 the dignity of a man, and a man too who had read r&v ovrcuv, 
 rat /AW E<P ^AIV, roc, UK s<f w/j.iv. However, whatever misfortunes 
 may attend the picture or lover, my hearty prayers shall be, 
 that all the health and happiness which Heaven can send may 
 be the portion of the original, and that so much goodness 
 may ever meet with what may be most agreeable in this world, 
 
26 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 as I am sure it must be in the next. And now, although the 
 picture be defaced, there is so lively an image of her im 
 printed in my mind, that I shall think of her too often, I 
 fear, for my peace of mind; and too often, I am sure, to get 
 through old Coke this winter ; for God knows I have not 
 seen him since I packed him up in my trunk in Williams- 
 burg. Well, Page, I do wish the Devil had old Coke, for I 
 am sure I never was so tired of an old dull scoundrel in my 
 life. What ! are there so few inquietudes tacked to this 
 momentary life of our s. that we must need be loading our 
 selves with a thousand more ? Or, as brother Job says, (who, 
 by the by, I think began to whine a little under his afflic 
 tions,) " Are not my days few ? Cease then, that I may take 
 comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return, even 
 to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death." But the 
 old fellows say we must read to gain knowledge, and gain 
 knowledge to make us happy and be admired. Mere jargon ! 
 Is there any such thing as happiness in this world ? No. 
 And as for admiration, I am sure the man who powders most, 
 perfumes most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is 
 most admired. Though to be candid, there are some who 
 have too much good sense to esteem such monkey-like ani 
 mals as these, in whose formation, as the saying is, the tailors 
 and barbers go halves with God Almighty ; and since these 
 are the only persons whose esteem is worth a wish, I do not 
 know but that, upon the whole, the advice of these old fellows 
 may be worth following. 
 
 You cannot conceive the satisfaction it would give me to 
 have a letter from you. Write me very circumstantially 
 every thing which happened at the wedding. Was she 
 there ? because, if she was, I ought to have been at the Devil 
 for not being there too. If there is any news stirring in 
 town or country, such as deaths, courtships, or marriages, in 
 the circle of my acquaintance, let me know it. Kemember 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 27 
 
 me affectionately to all the young ladies of my acquaintance, 
 particularly the Miss Burwells, and Miss Potters, and tell 
 them that, though that heavy earthly part of me, my body, 
 be absent, the better half of me, my soul, is ever with them ; 
 and that my best wishes shall ever attend them. Tell Miss 
 Alice Corbin that I verily believe the rats knew 1 was to win 
 a pair of garters from her, or they never would have been so 
 cruel as to carry mine away. This very consideration makes 
 me so sure of the bet, that I shall ask every body I see 
 from that part of the world what pretty gentleman is making 
 his addresses to her. I would fain ask the favour of Miss 
 Becca Burwell to give me another watch-paper of her own 
 cutting, which I should esteem much more, though it were a 
 plain round one, than the nicest in the world cut by other 
 hands however, I am afraid she would think this presump 
 tion, after my suffering the other to get spoiled. If you 
 think you can excuse me to her for this, I should be glad if 
 you would ask her. Tell Miss Sukey Potter that I heard, 
 just before I came out of town, that she was offended with 
 me about something, what it is I do not know ; but this I 
 know, that I never was guilty of the least disrespect to her 
 in my life, either in word or deed ; as far from it as it has 
 been possible for one to be. I suppose when we meet next, 
 she will be endeavouring to repay an imaginary affront with a 
 real one : but she may save herself the trouble, for nothing 
 that she can say or do to me shall ever lessen her in my 
 esteem, and I am determined always to look upon her as the 
 same honest-hearted, good-humoured, agreeable lady I ever 
 did. Tell tell in short, tell them all ten thousand things 
 more than either you or I can now or ever shall think of as 
 long as we live. 
 
 My mind has been so taken up with thinking of my ac 
 quaintances, that, till this moment, I almost imagined myself 
 in Williamsburg, talking to you in our old unreserved way ; 
 
2g THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and never observed, till I turned over the leaf, to what an 
 immoderate size I had swelled my letter however, that 1 
 may not tire your patience by further additions, I will make 
 but this one more, that I am sincerely and affectionately, 
 Dear Page, your friend and servant, 
 
 T. JEFFERSON. 
 
 P. S. I am now within an easy day s ride of Shadwell, 
 whither I shall proceed in two or three days. 
 
 , Shadwell, Jan. 20M, 1763. 
 
 Dear Page, 
 
 To tell you the plain truth, I have not a syllable to write 
 to you about. For I do not conceive that any thing can 
 happen in my world which you would give a curse to know, 
 or I either. All things here appear to me to trudge on in 
 one and the same round : we rise in the morning that we 
 may eat breakfast, dinner and supper, and go to bed again 
 that we may get up the next morning and do the same : so 
 that you never saw two peas more alike than our yesterday 
 and to-day. Under these circumstances, what would you 
 have me say ? Would you that I should write nothing but 
 truth ? I tell you I know nothing that is true. Or would 
 you rather that I should write you a pack of lies ? Why, 
 unless they were more ingenious than I am able to invent, 
 they would furnish you with little amusement. What can I 
 do then ? nothing, but ask you the news in your world. How 
 have you done since I saw you ? How did Nancy look at 
 you when you danced with her at Southall s ? Have you any 
 glimmering of hope ? How does R. B. do ? Had I better 
 stay here and do nothing, or go down and do less ? or, in 
 other words, had I better stay here while I am here, or go 
 down that I may have the pleasure of sailing up the river 
 again in a full rigged flat ? Inclination tells me to go, re 
 ceive my sentence, and be no longer in suspense : but reason 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 29 
 
 says, if you go, and your attempt proves unsuccessful, you 
 will be ten times more wretched than ever. In my last to 
 you, dated Fail-field, Dec. 25, I wrote to you of the losses I 
 had sustained ; in the present I may mention one more, 
 which is the loss of the whites of my eyes, in the room of 
 which I have got reds, which gives me such exquisite pain 
 that I have not attempted to read any thing since a few days 
 after Jack Walker went down, and God knows when I shall 
 be able to do it. 1 have some thoughts of going to Peters 
 burg, if the actors go there in May. If I do, I do not know 
 but I may keep on to Williamsburg, as the birth night will 
 be near. I hear that Ben Harrison has been to Wilton : 
 let me know his success. Have you an inclination to travel, 
 Page ? because if you have, I shall be glad of your company. 
 For you must know that as soon as the Rebecca (the name 
 I intend to give the vessel above mentioned) is completely 
 finished, I intend to hoist sail and away. I shall visit parti 
 cularly England, Holland, France, Spain, Italy (where I 
 would buy me a good fiddle), and Egypt, and return through 
 the British provinces to the Northward, home. This, to be 
 sure, would take us two or three years, and if we should not 
 both be cured of love in that time, I think the devil would 
 be in it. After desiring you to remember me to acquaint 
 ances below, male and female, I subscribe myself, 
 Dear Page, your friend and servant, 
 
 T. JEFFERSON. 
 
 Shadwell, July 15th, 1763. 
 Dear Page, 
 
 Yours of May 30th came safe to hand. The rival you 
 mentioned I know not whether to think formidable or not, 
 as there has been so great an opening for him during my 
 absence. I say has been, because I expect there is one no 
 longer. Since you have undertaken to act as my attorney, 
 
30 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 you advise me to go immediately and lay siege in form. You 
 certainly did not think, at the time you wrote this, of that 
 paragraph in my letter wherein I mentioned to you my 
 resolution of going to Britain. And to begin an affair of 
 that kind now, and carry it on so long a time in form, is by 
 no means a proper plan. No, no, Page ; whatever assurances 
 I may give her in private of my esteem for her, or whatever 
 assurances I may ask in return from her, depend on it 
 they must be kept in private. Necessity will oblige me to 
 proceed in a method which is not generally thought fair ; 
 that of treating with a ward before obtaining the approbation 
 of her guardian. I say necessity will oblige me to it, be 
 cause I never can bear to remain in suspense so long a time. 
 , If I am to succeed, the sooner I know it, the less uneasiness 
 I shall have to go through. If I am to meet with a disap 
 pointment, the sooner I know it, the more of life I shall 
 have to wear it off: and if I do meet with one, I hope in 
 God, and verily believe, it will be the last. I assure you, 
 that I almost envy you your present freedom ; and if 
 Belinda will not accept of my service, it shall never be 
 offered to another. That she may, I pray most sincerely ; 
 but that she will, she never gave me reason to hope. With 
 regard to my not proceeding in form, I do not know how 
 she may like it. I am afraid not much. That her guar 
 dians would not, if they should know of it, is very certain. 
 But I should think that if they were consulted after I re 
 turn, it would be sufficient. The greatest inconvenience 
 would be my not having the liberty of visiting so freely. 
 This is a subject worth your talking over with her ; and I 
 wish you would, and would transmit to me your whole con 
 fab at length. I should be scared to death at making her 
 so unreasonable a proposal as that of waiting until I re 
 turn from Britain, unless she could first be prepared for 
 it. I am afraid it will make my chance of succeeding con- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 31 
 
 siderably worse. But the event at last must be this, that 
 if she consents, I shall be happy ; if she does not, I must 
 endeavour to be as much so as possible. I have thought a 
 good deal on your case, and as mine may perhaps be similar, 
 I must endeavour to look on it in the same light in which 
 I have often advised you to look on yours. Perfect hap 
 piness, I believe, was never intended by the Deity to be the 
 lot of one of his creatures in this world; but that he has 
 very much put in our power the nearness of our approaches 
 to it, is what I have steadfastly believed. 
 
 The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, 
 frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may 
 greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the 
 attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one 
 of the principal studies and endeavours of our lives. The 
 only method of doing this is to assume a perfect resignation 
 to the Divine will, to consider that whatever does happen 
 must happen ; and that by our uneasiness we cannot pre 
 vent the blow before it does fall, but we may add to its force 
 after it has fallen. These considerations, and others such 
 as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the 
 difficulties thrown in our way ; to bear up with a tolerable 
 degree of patience under this burthen of life ; and to pro 
 ceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive 
 at our journey s end, when we may deliver up our trust into 
 the hands of Him who gave it, and receive such reward as to 
 Him shall seem proportioned to our merit. Such, dear Page, 
 will be the language of the man who considers his situation 
 in this life, and such should be the language of every man 
 who would wish to render that situation as easy as the na 
 ture of it will admit. Few things will disturb him at all : 
 nothing will disturb him much. 
 
 If this letter was to fall into the hands of some of our gay 
 acquaintance, your correspondent and his solemn notions 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON . 33 
 
 confusion ! The whole confab I will tell yon, word for word, 
 if I can, when I see you, which God send may be soon. 
 Affairs at W. and M. are in the greatest confusion. Wal 
 ker, M Clurg, and Wat Jones are expelled pro tempnre, or, 
 as Horrox softens it, rusticated for a month. Lewis Bur- 
 well, Warner Lewis, and one Thompson have fled to escape 
 flagellation. I should have excepted Warner Lewis, who 
 came off of his own accord. Jack Walker Cleaves town on 
 Monday. The court is now at hand, which I must attend 
 constantly, so that unless you come to town, there is little 
 probability of my meeting with you any where else. For 
 God sake come. 
 
 I am, dear Page, 
 
 Your sincere friend, 
 
 T. JEFFERSON 
 
 Devilsburg*, January *23rd, 17(>4. 
 Dear Page, 
 
 I received your letter of Wednesday the 18th instant ; 
 in that, of this day, you mention one which you wrote last 
 Friday, and sent by the Secretary s boy ; but I have neither 
 seen nor heard of such a one. God send, mine of January 
 18th to you may not have shared the same fate; for, by your 
 letter, I am uncertain whether you have received it or not ; 
 you therein say, you hope to have received an answer from 
 me by this time, by which I judge it has miscarried; but 
 you mention mine of December 25th, which puts me in 
 spirits again, as I do not know how you should have got 
 intelligence that I had wrote such a one, unless you had 
 seen my letter of January 19th, in which it was mentioned 
 yes, there is one other way by which you might have received 
 
 * From this designation of the ancient metropolis, it would seem even 
 then to have been no favourite with him. 
 
 VOL. I. D 
 
34 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFKKSON. 
 
 such intelligence. My letter of January 19th may hscve 
 been opened, and the person who did it may have been 
 further incited by curiosity, to ask you if you had received 
 such a letter as they saw mentioned therein ; but God send, 
 and I hope this is not the case. Sukey Potter, to whom 
 I sent it, told me yesterday she delivered it to Mr. T. Nel 
 son, the younger, who had delivered it to you I hope with 
 his own hand. I wish I had followed your example, and 
 wrote it in Latin, and that I had called my dear campana 
 in die*, instead of a^vtXsC. 
 
 We must fall on some scheme of communicating our 
 thoughts to each other, which shall be totally unintelligible 
 to every one but to ourselves. I will send you some of these 
 days Shelton s Tachygraphical Alphabet, and directions. 
 Jack Walker is engaged to Betsy Moore, and desired all 
 his brethren might be made acquainted with his happiness. 
 But I hear he will not be married this year or two. Put 
 campana in die in mind of me ; tell him I think as I always 
 did. I have sent my horses up the country, so that it is 
 out of my power to take even an airing on horseback at 
 any time. My paper holds out no longer, so 
 Must bid you adieu. 
 
 Dcvilsburg, Jan. 19, 1764. 
 
 The contents of your letter have not a little alarmed me ; 
 and really, upon seriously weighing them with what has for 
 merly passed between and myself, lam somewhat 
 
 " The ;iady here alluded to is manifestly the Miss Rebecca Bui-well 
 mentioned in his first letter ; but what suggested the quaint designations 
 of her is not so obvious. In the first of them, Belinda, translated into 
 dog Latin, which was there, as elsewhere, among the facetice of young 
 collegians, became campana indie, that is, bell in day. In the second, 
 the name is reversed, and becomes adnileb, which, for further security, 
 is written in Greek characters, and the lady spoken of in the masculine 
 gender. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 35 
 
 at a loss what to conclude, your semper saltat, semper ridet^ 
 semper loquitur, semper xolicilat, &c., appear a little suspi 
 cious ; but, good God ! it is impossible ! I told you our 
 confab in the Apollo ; but I believe I never told you that 
 we had on another occasion. I then opened my mind more 
 freely, and more fully. I mentioned the necessity of my 
 going to England, and the delays which would consequently 
 be occasioned by that. I said in what manner I should 
 conduct myself till then, and explained my reasons, which 
 appears to give that satisfaction I could have wished ; in 
 short, I managed in such a manner that I was tolerably easy 
 myself, without doing any thing which could give a&viXeC r 
 friends the least umbrage, were the whole that passed to be 
 related to them. I asked no question which would admit of 
 a categorical answer ; but I assured a^vjXeC that such ques 
 tions would one day be asked in short, were I to have 
 another interview with him, I could say nothing now which 
 I did not say then ; and were I, with a view of obtaining one, 
 licentiam solicitandi alils, quibus dec/it postulare, it would be 
 previously necessary to go the rounds cum custodibus ; and 
 after all this, he could be in no other situation than he is at 
 present. After the proofs I have given of my sincerity, he 
 can be under no apprehensions of a change in my sentiments: 
 and were I to do as my friends advise me, I would give no 
 better security than he has at present. He is satisfied that 
 I shall make him an offer, and if he intends to accept of it, 
 he will disregard those made by others ; my fate depends on 
 aviXe y present resolutions, by them I must stand or fall 
 if they are not favourable to me, it is out of my pow r er to say 
 any thing to make them so which I have not said already ; 
 so that a visit could not possibly be of the least weight, and 
 it is, I am sure, what he does not in the least expect. I hear 
 
 you are courting F y B 1, but shall not listen to it 
 
 till I hear it from you. When I was up the country, I wrote 
 
 D2 
 
36 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 a letter to you, dated Fairfield, Dec. 25, 1763 ; let me know 
 if you have received such a one. As I suppose you do not 
 use your Statutes of Britain, if you can lend them to me, till 
 I can provide myself with a copy, it will infinitely oblige me. 
 Adieu, dear Page. 
 
 Devilsburg, April 9///, 17G4. 
 Dear Page, 
 
 This letter will be conveyed to you by the assistance of 
 our friend Warner Lewis. Poor fellow ! never did I see one 
 more sincerely captivated in my life. He walked to the Indian 
 camp with her yesterday, by which means he had an opportu 
 nity of giving her two or three love squeezes by the hand ; 
 and, like a true Arcadian swain, has been so enraptured ever 
 
 since, that he is company for no one. B y has at last 
 
 bestowed her hand on B d; and whether it was for 
 
 money, beauty, or principle, will be so nice a dispute, that no 
 one will venture to pronounce. Two days before the wed 
 ding, I was not a little surprised, on going to the door of 
 my house, to see him alight from his horse. He stepped up 
 to me, and desired the favour of me to come to Mr. Yates 
 at such a time. It was so unexpected, that for some time I 
 could make no reply; at last, I said, -yes," and turned 
 about and walked back into my room. I accordingly at 
 tended, and to crown the joke, when I got there, was dubbed 
 a bridesman. There were many other curious circumstances 
 too tedious to mention here. Jack Walker is expected in 
 town to-morrow. How does your pulse beat after your trip 
 to the Isle of Wight ? What a high figure I should have 
 cut, had I gone ! When I heard who visited you there, I 
 thought I had met with the narrowest escape in the world, 
 wonder how I should have behaved-I am sure I should 
 have been at a great loss. If your mistress can 
 
 little time, your friends here would be very glad to 
 
 see 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 37 
 
 you, particularly Small and myself, as every thing is now 
 ready for taking the height of this place above the water of 
 the creeks. Fleming s relapse will justly afford you great 
 matter of triumph, after rallying you so much on being in 
 love. 
 
 Adieu, dear Page. 
 
 \ 
 P.S. Walker is just arrived he goes out of town on 
 
 Wednesday, and will return again in about three weeks. 
 
 To the friendship of Dr. Small, Mr. Jefferson also owed 
 an acquaintance with two other individuals, who, probably, in 
 many ways exerted an influence on his future character. The 
 first of these was Governor Fauquier, whose talents, highly 
 improved by cultivation, were recommended by the most 
 engaging exterior and manners. It must be remembered, 
 too, that the governors of the English colonies, being re 
 garded as the representatives of royalty, affected a good deal 
 of state, and none more than those of Virginia, where, in 
 keeping with these pretensions, their mansion at the seat of 
 government was called " the palace." At the table of this 
 gentleman, to which Mr. Jefferson, during his residence in 
 Williamsburg, had familiar access, he may be supposed to 
 have acquired both his admirable manners, which reached 
 the utmost extreme of ease that is consistent with dignity or 
 refinement, and that taste for the elegancies of life with 
 which he always embellished the plainness of the republican 
 and the simplicity of the philosopher. The Governor was 
 said to have been a follower of Shaftesbury and Bolingbroke, 
 in morals and religion, and, by the influence of his station 
 and accomplishments, to have rendered their tenets fashion 
 able in Virginia, as well as increased the taste for gaming, to 
 which he was passionately devoted. Mr. Jefferson happily 
 escaped the contagion of this vice ; but it has been thought 
 
38 THE LIFK OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that opinions recommended by genius and taste, as well as 
 rank, were not without their effect on a youthful mind, at 
 once ductile and bold*. Yet the friend who knew him best f 
 gives no credit to this supposed influence ; but justly re 
 marking, that the same fearless and independent spirit, 
 impatient of dictation and contemning authority, is to be 
 seen in all Mr. Jefferson s speculations. He thinks, that so 
 far as the character of his religious and moral opinions are 
 not attributable to the native character of his mind, they 
 are to be ascribed to the time and the country in which he 
 lived. 
 
 The other, and far more valuable acquaintance which he 
 owed to Dr. Small, was Mr, Wythe, at that time a lawyer of 
 eminence, and afterwards, in succession, a member of the 
 first Congress, a professor in William and Mary College, and 
 the Chancellor of Virginia. With this gentleman, who had 
 a vigorous, but somewhat eccentric mind, and who united a 
 Catonian severity of morals with unusual blandness of man- 
 v ners and disposition, Mr. Jefferson studied law, and under 
 his auspices, made his first appearance at the bar of the Ge 
 neral Court in 1767, at the age of foyenty-four. 
 
 In a sketch of the character of his ancient preceptor, drawn 
 by Jefferson for " Sanderson s Biographies," he has correctly 
 delineated its principal features, except that he has passed 
 over its eccentricities, most of which indeed may have grown 
 up in the life of study and seclusion, which Mr. Wythe led 
 after he became Chancellor. Some of his singularities would 
 appear ludicrously extravagant in the recital ; but they were 
 practised so unobtrusively, and were accompanied with such 
 genuine suavity of manners and carriage, that they never 
 
 * This explanation of some of Mr, Jefferson s opinions I received from 
 the late Mr. John Randolph, 
 t Mr. Madison. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. o9 
 
 conveyed the idea of affectation ; and what would have been 
 regarded as improprieties of dress or manners in others, was 
 forgiven in him as a sort of idiosyncrasy, which he could not 
 help, and of which he was not even conscious. 
 
 So young a man as Mr. Jefferson could not but be greatly 
 flattered at being received into the intimate society of three 
 such men as have been mentioned, since he must have known 
 that it could have proceeded only from a high sense of his 
 merit ; and he himself bears testimony to the instruction he 
 derived from their conversation. 
 
 Two years before he was admitted to the bar, and while 
 he was yet a student in Williamsburg, the misunderstanding 
 between Great Britain and colonies had commenced, and the 
 subject of their respective rights had become a theme of 
 universal interest and discussion in America. He would 
 naturally have sided with the great mass of his countrymen 
 in this controversy ; but the ardour with which he espoused 
 their cause was augmented by the circumstances in which 
 he was placed. He had frequent opportunities of listening 
 both to the open debates, and the private conversations of 
 the members of the Legislature, consisting at that time of 
 many men of intelligent, and highly cultivated minds : the 
 able lawyer with whom he studied was among the foremost 
 in resisting the pretensions of Great Britain : and above all, 
 eloquence, whose power is never so great as when it is exerted 
 in the cause of patriotism, lent its magical influence, to add 
 the fervours of passion to the convictions of the under 
 standing. 
 
 It was during the session of the Assembly in May, 1765, 
 that he first had an opportunity of hearing that extraordi 
 nary self-educated orator, Patrick Henry. The occasion on 
 which he most distinguished himself was on the resolutions 
 prepared by himself on the stamp act, which had passed in 
 the preceding January, and had reached Virginia during the 
 
40 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFFHSON. 
 
 session of the Legislature. After the lapse of half a century, 
 Mr. Jefferson declares, that he never heard such strains of 
 eloquence from any other man, and that " Mr. Henry ap 
 peared to speak as Homer wrote." Somewhat must be 
 deducted from this high-wrought panegyric, both for the 
 inexperience of the hearer, and his warm enthusiasm in the 
 cause of the orator ; but we cannot make a large allowance 
 for these biases, without impugning the accounts that are 
 given of Mr. Henry s rare powers of elocution by all who 
 ever heard him speak. 
 
 The repeal of the Stamp Act the year after it was passed 
 produced a short-lived suspension of the ill feeling between 
 Great Britain and her colonies ; but the attempt made by 
 her in the following year, 1767, to draw a revenue from them, 
 in the less obvious form of an impost, small as that impost 
 was, renewed the dispute, which, in eight years of irritation, 
 was aggravated into open war ; and, in eight years more, 
 terminated in the complete overthrow of British authority. 
 
 In the spring of 1766 he went to Philadelphia, for the 
 ostensible purpose of being there inoculated, but, no doubt, 
 also for the gratification of a liberal curiosity. He made 
 this journey of three hundred miles in a one-horse chair, and 
 experienced a full share of the inconveniences incident to 
 travelling in that mode, and at that period. The first day 
 his pampered steed ran off with him twice. He rode through 
 the whole of the next in a drenching rain, " without meeting 
 with a single house to which he could repair for shelter ;" 
 and, on the third, he was near being drowned in fording the 
 Pamunkey. He, however, called at the country-seats of two 
 or three gentlemen of his acquaintance, where he met with 
 some of his old college associates, and in these re-unions, 
 forgot the disasters of flood and field. 
 
 He also took Annapolis in his way, and found the General 
 Assembly of Maryland then in session. In a letter to his 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 
 
 friend Page, from which the preceding particulars were 
 gleaned, he gives an amusing description of the loose and 
 irregular course of proceeding in the Maryland Legislature, 
 so strongly contrasted with the order and dignity which had 
 long characterized the House of Burgesses in Virginia. He 
 then adds : " The situation of this place is extremely beau 
 tiful, and very commodious for trade, having a most secure 
 port, capable of receiving the largest vessels those of 
 400 hhds. being able to brush against the sides of the dock. 
 The houses are in general better than those in Williams- 
 burg ; but the gardens more indifferent. The two towns 
 seem much of a size. They have no public buildings worth 
 mentioning, except a Governor s house, the hall of which, 
 after being nearly finished, they have suffered to go to ruin. 
 I would give you an account of the rejoicings here on the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act*, but this you will probably see in 
 print before my letter can reach you. I shall proceed to 
 morrow to Philadelphia, where I shall make the stay neces 
 sary for inoculation ; thence going on to New York, I shall 
 return by water to Williamsburg, about the middle of July, 
 till which time you have the prayers of, dear Page, 
 
 " Your affectionate friend, 
 
 " T. JEFFERSON." 
 
 * At this time he little dreamt that in the very spot where he saw the 
 people rejoicing that Great Britain consented to relinquish a paltry tax, 
 while she asserted unlimited/powers of legislation, he should witness the 
 ratification of a treaty by which she acknowledged her late suppliant 
 colonies to be sovereign states ; that here, too, he was to behold the more 
 imposing spectacle of the victorious commander of their armies volun 
 tarily resigning his authority to those from whom he had received it 
 and that he himself, then a stranger and unknown, was to bear a con 
 spicuous part in these memorable scenes. But contrasts of this character, 
 though not often so striking as these, have bicome so familiar in the 
 United States, where everything is in a state of rapid progression, as no 
 longer to excite wonder. 
 
42 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Of his success as a practitioner of law he has left no 
 account, and the defect can be but imperfectly supplied 
 from his contemporaries, of whom the few that survive have 
 no precise information on the subject. They state, however, 
 that, as a speaker, his diction was both fluent and perspi 
 cuous ; but that his voice was neither strong nor clear ; and 
 that during the seven or eight years that he practised in the 
 General Court, he was gradually rising to the foremost rank 
 as an accurate, learned, and able lawyer. This is no mode 
 rate praise, when it is recollected that the court in which he 
 practised was the highest judicial tribunal in Virginia; that 
 here all causes of importance, civil and criminal, were de 
 cided ; and here, of course, he encountered the highest 
 forensic talents of the colony, which, always in a state of 
 preparation, were stimulated to their highest efforts by col 
 lision and emulation. Mr. Jefferson s manuscripts attest 
 the labour of his legal researches, as well as his fertility of 
 argument and nicety of discrimination, and leave no doubt 
 that he would have attained the first place in this road to 
 distinction, if the political struggle of his country had not 
 diverted him to another and a higher destiny. 
 
 But the time had now come when Mr. Jefferson was 
 himself to be an actor in that great civil contest, of which 
 he had been for some years an anxious spectator. In 1769, 
 .being then twenty-six years of age, he was elected a member 
 of the House of Burgesses, from the county of Albemarle 
 Lord Botetourt, the Governor, having convened the Legis 
 lature in May, resolutions in opposition to those which had 
 been recently passed by both Houses of Parliament on the 
 proceedings of Massachusetts, were unanimously adopted by 
 the Burgesses, who also voted an address to the King; In 
 these papers they re-asserted the right of laying taxes in 
 Virginia to be exclusively vested in its own Legislature - 
 insisted on their privilege of petitioning for a redress of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 43 
 
 grievances, as well as of procuring the concurrence of the 
 other colonies ; and pronounced the mode of trial of persons 
 charged with treason in the colonies, which had been lately 
 recommended in Parliament, to be illegal and unconstitu 
 tional. The last resolution referred to a joint address of the 
 two houses to the King, in which it was proposed, that the 
 treasonable practices in the colonies should be prosecuted 
 under a statute of Henry the Eighth, according to which 
 the accused might be transported for trial to England. 
 
 The Governor, having heard of these proceedings, without 
 waiting for the official communication of them, abruptly 
 dissolved the Assembly*. But on the following day the 
 members assembled at the Raleigh tavern, and in a room 
 which then bore the classic name of the Apollo, and which it 
 still retains, they entered into articles of agreement, or, as 
 it was then termed " Association," by which they pledged 
 their honour not to import, nor, after the first of September 
 ensuing, purchase certain specified kinds of British merchan 
 dise, so long as the Act of Parliament for raising a revenue 
 in America was unrepealed ; and this agreement they re 
 commended to the general adoption of their constituents. 
 Among the eighty-eight signatures to this " Association," 
 are to be seen the names of George Washington, Peyton 
 Randolph, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas 
 Jefferson, and more than half the remainder afterwards held 
 conspicuous stations either in the civil or military service of 
 their country. Similar Associations had been entered into 
 the year before in Massachusetts, and this mode of appealing 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson, at this his first session, manifested that interest in 
 the subject of slavery which he so often afterwards exhibited. His pro 
 position then, however, was not for a general emancipation, as it has 
 been sometimes stated by his undiscriminating admirers ; but merely to 
 remove the restrictions which the laws had previously imposed on volun 
 tary manumission, and even this was rejected. The general right to 
 manumit was not given in Virginia until the year 1782. 
 
44 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to the interests of Great Britain gradually extended through 
 out most of the other provinces. 
 
 Early in the following year, the house at Shadwell, in 
 which he lived with his mother, caught fire, while they were 
 on a visit to a neighbour ; and in the alarm and confusion of 
 the slaves, almost everything in it was consumed. The one 
 who brought him the first tidings of his misfortune, knowing 
 his master s passion for music, in which he probably partici 
 pated, thus unconsciously parodied Francis the First s con 
 solation to his mother after the battle of Pavia. " But, 
 master, we have saved the fiddle." The extent of his loss, 
 as well as the temper with which he bore it, may be inferred 
 from the following letter, written soon afterwards. 
 
 Charlottesville, Feb. 21, 1770. 
 Dear Page, 
 
 I am to acquaint Mrs. Page of the loss of my favourite 
 pullet ; the consequence of which will readily occur to her. 
 I promised also to give her some Virginia silk which I had 
 expected, and I begin to wish my expectation may not prove 
 vain. I fear she will think me but an ungainly acquaint 
 ance. My late loss may perhaps have reached you by this 
 time ; I mean the loss of my mother s house by fire, and in 
 it of every paper I had in the world, and almost every book. 
 On a reasonable estimate, I calculate the cost of the books 
 burned to have been 200/. sterling. Would to God it had 
 been the money, then had it never cost me a sigh ! To 
 make the loss more sensible, it fell principally on my books 
 of Common Law, of which I have but one left, at that time 
 lent out. Of papers, too, of every kind, I am utterly desti 
 tute. All of these, whether public or private, of business 
 or of amusement, have perished in the flames. I had made 
 some progress in preparing for the succeeding General 
 Court ; and having, as was my custom, thrown my thoughts 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 
 
 into the form of notes, I troubled my head no more with 
 them. These are gone, and, like the baseless fabric of a 
 vision, leave not a trace behind. The records also, and 
 other papers which furnished me with states of the several 
 cases, having shared the same fate, I have no foundation 
 whereon to set out anew. I have in vain attempted to re 
 collect some of them ; the defect sometimes of one, some 
 times of more circumstances, rendering theni so imperfect, 
 that I can make nothing of them. What am I to do then 
 in April? The resolution which the Court has declared of 
 admitting no continuance of causes, seemed to be unalter 
 able : yet, it might surely be urged, that my case is too 
 singular to admit of their being often troubled with the like 
 excuse. Should it be asked, what are the misfortunes of an 
 individual to a Court ? The answer of a Court, as well as of 
 an individual, if left to me, should be in the words of Te 
 rence, "homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto" but 
 a truce with this disagreeable subject. 
 
 Am I never more to have a letter from you ? Why the 
 devil don t you write ? But I suppose you are always in the 
 moon, or some of the planetary regions. I mean, you are 
 there in idea ; and unless you mend, you shall have my 
 consent to be there dc facto ; at least, during the vacations 
 of the Court and Assembly. If your spirit is too elevated 
 to advert to sublunary subjects, depute my friend Mrs. Page 
 to support your correspondences. Methinks I should, with 
 wonderful pleasure, open and peruse a letter written by so 
 fair, and (what is better) so friendly hands. If thinking- 
 much of you would entitle me to the civility of a letter, I 
 assure you I merit a very long one. If this conflagration, 
 by which I am burned out of a home, had come before I had 
 advanced so far in preparing another, I do not know but 
 I might have cherished some treasonable thoughts of leaving 
 these my native hills; indeed I should be much happier 
 
46 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 were I nearer to Rosewell and Severn hills however, the 
 Gods, I fancy, were apprehensive that if we were placed 
 together, we should pull down the moon, or play some such 
 devilish prank with their works. I reflect often with plea 
 sure on the philosophical evenings I passed at Rosewell in 
 my late visits there. I was always fond of philosophy, even 
 in its drier forms ; but from a ruby lip, it comes with charms 
 irresistible. Such a feast of sentiment must exhilarate and 
 lengthen life, at least as much as the feast of the sensualist 
 shortens it in a word, I prize it so highly, that, if you will 
 at any time collect the same Belle Assemblee, on giving me 
 three days previous notice, I shall certainly repair to my 
 place as a member of it. Should it not happen before I 
 come down, I will carry Sally Nicholas in the green chair to 
 Newquarter, where your periagua (how the - - should I 
 spell that word ?) will meet us, automaton-like, of its own 
 accord. You know I had a waggon which moved itself 
 cannot we construct a boat then which shall row itself? 
 Amicus nosier, Fons*, quo modo ayit, et quid acjit ? You 
 may be all dead for anything we can tell here. I expect 
 he will follow the good old rule of driving one passion out 
 by letting another in. Clavum clavo pang ere was your 
 advice to me on a similar occasion. I hope you will watch 
 his immersion as narrowly as if he were one of Jupiter s 
 satellites, and give me immediate notice, that I may prepare 
 a dish of advice. I do not mean, Madam, to advise him 
 against it. On the contrary, I am become an advocate for 
 the passion ; for I too am coelo tactus, Currusf bene se habet. 
 He speaks, thinks, and dreams of nothing but his young 
 son. This friend of ours, Page, in a very small house, with 
 a table, half a dozen chairs, and one or two servants, is the 
 
 * Probably Mr. William Fontaine, of Hanover county, 
 t By this term, he no doubt designated Mr. Dabney Carr, his brother- 
 in-law. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 47 
 
 happiest man in the universe. Every incident in life he so 
 takes as to render it a source of pleasure. With as much 
 benevolence as the heart of man will hold, but with an utter 
 neglect of the costly apparatus of life, he exhibits to the 
 world a new phenomenon in philosophy the Samian sage 
 in the tub of the cynic. Name me sometimes homunculo tuo, 
 not forgetting little die mendactum. I am determined not 
 to enter on the next page, lest I should extend this nonsense 
 to the bottom of that also. A Dieu je vous commis, not 
 doubting his care of you both. 
 
 TH. JEFFERSON. 
 
 He had, some time before this accident, fortunately begun 
 his improvements on the summit of Monticello, a small 
 mountain on the Shadwell tract, to which he has since given 
 celebrity. To this place he removed, as soon as he had 
 made one of its small pavilions habitable, and it continued 
 his home for the rest of his life. 
 
 On returning to their respective counties, all the members 
 were re-elected, with the exception of the very few who had 
 dissented from the majority. But when the Assembly was 
 again convened, all feelings of irritation were greatly soothed 
 by Lord Botetourt s assurances that the ministry had no 
 intention of proposing any further taxes on America, and 
 that they meant to advise the repeal of the duties upon 
 glass, paper, and colours. Although it would seem to have 
 been a fair inference from this communication, that the duty 
 on tea, of which nothing was said, was to be retained, yet, 
 such conclusion either was not drawn by the Assembly, or 
 was disregarded, as, in their answer to the Governor, they 
 express their satisfaction in emphatic and unqualified terms. 
 But in the interval of an adjournment, their minds seem to 
 have undergone a change, and when they again met, they 
 expressed their dissatisfaction in the form of a petition to 
 
48 THE UFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the King ; renewed their non-importation agreement as to 
 particular articles of merchandise, and pledged themselves 
 to continue it until the duty on tea was repealed. 
 
 In March, 1770, an affray had taken place in Boston 
 between some of the citizens and a party of soldiers of one 
 of the British regiments stationed there, in which the latter 
 fired on the townsmen, killed three, and wounded several. 
 This incident produced great sensation in the other colonies, 
 and contributed to keep alive their jealousy and discontent ; 
 yet, from this time to the year 1772, they made no other 
 resistance to the attempt to draw a revenue from them than 
 by the voluntary " Associations" that have been mentioned. 
 But New York having rescinded its non-importation agree 
 ment, as to all articles except those subjected to duty, the 
 example was followed in other places ; and consequently, 
 after the repeal of the other duties, those agreements were 
 limited to the single article of tea. 
 
49 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His Marriage. Committees of Correspondence. Boston Port Bill. 
 Members of Assembly enter into articles of Association. Propose 
 a General Congress. First Convention in Virginia. His vindication 
 of the rights of America. Proceedings of the Convention choose 
 Deputies to a General Congress. Character of that Body. The 
 Convention of Virginia assemble at Richmond. Its Proceedings. 
 Mr. Jefferson chosen a Deputy to Congress. The Powder with 
 drawn from the Public Magazine by Lord Dunmore. The popular 
 irritation it excited. General Assembly convened. Mr. Jefferson 
 prepares a reply to Lord North s propositions. Collision between 
 the Governor and House of Burgesses. Conduct of Lord Dunmore. 
 
 17721775. 
 
 ON the 1st of January, 1772, Mr. Jefferson married Mrs. 
 Martha Skelton, then twenty-three years of age, of whose 
 attractions and gentle virtues tradition speaks most fa 
 vourably. She was the widow of Bathurst Skelton, and 
 the daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer of extensive prac 
 tice. By this marriage Mr. Jefferson acquired a handsome 
 fortune, as Mr. Wayles died in the following year, and 
 divided a large estate among his three daughters. 
 
 In 1772, the political calm, which seems to have super 
 vened in the southern states after the partial repeal of the 
 obnoxious duties, was interrupted by an occurrence in Rhode 
 Island. A Court of Inquiry was there held, with power 
 to send the accused to England for trial; and, on the 
 meeting of the Virginia Assembly in the spring of 1773, 
 this grievance of a sister colony was thought to merit their 
 special notice. Mr. Jefferson seems to have been among 
 the foremost in a cause in which all were zealous. The 
 zeal, however, of the greater number, being more tempered 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
50 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 with caution than suited the ardent tempers of a few mas 
 ter spirits, these determined to meet at the Raleigh, to con 
 sult on the measures proper to be pursued. The party, 
 consisting of Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee, his bro 
 ther Francis Lightfoot Lee, Dabney Carr, Thomas Jefferson, 
 and two or three others, drew up resolutions, the chief 
 object of which was to appoint a standing Committee of 
 Correspondence and Inquiry, consisting of eleven persons, 
 whose duty it should be to obtain early intelligence of the 
 proceedings of Parliament respecting America ; to main 
 tain a correspondence with the colonies; to obtain infor 
 mation respecting the Court of Inquiry recently held in 
 Rhode Island ; and to communicate the result of their 
 proceedings to the House of Burgesses. The legislatures 
 of the other colonies were invited to appoint persons to 
 correspond with the committee. It thus appeared that the 
 policy of selecting one of the weakest colonies for the ex 
 periment of an odious measure, would, by the identity of 
 feeling which pervaded them all, not only be unavailing 
 to the British government, but prove a further bond of 
 union to the colonies. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson mentions in his memoirs, that the consulting 
 members proposed to him to move these resolutions in the 
 house the next day; but that he declined the honour in 
 favour of his brother-in-law, Dabney Carr, a new member, 
 to whom he wished to afford so good an opportunity of 
 making his talents known. The resolutions were accord 
 ingly moved by Mr. Carr on the 12th of March, supported 
 by him with great ability, and unanimously adopted by 
 the house. It may be fairly presumed, both from Mr. 
 Jefferson s course and that of his associates on this occasion, 
 that these resolutions were drawn, and had been first sug 
 gested, by himself. The members of this important com 
 mittee were Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nicholas, Richard 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 51 
 
 Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund 
 Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, 
 Archibald Gary, and Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 A generous emulation for the honour of promoting the 
 cause of the Revolution has occasionally given rise to con 
 flicting claims among the several states. Of this character 
 are the rival pretensions of Massachusetts and Virginia 
 to the merit of originating those powerful engines of colonial 
 union and resistance the Committees of Correspondence. 
 Chief Justice Marshall ascribes their origin to Massachu 
 setts; and states, that, in 1770, the Legislature of that 
 colony appointed a committee to correspond with such com 
 mittees as might be appointed by the other colonies, all 
 of which, sooner or later, followed the example ; and that 
 similar committees were appointed by the other towns of 
 Massachusetts, for the purpose of corresponding with one 
 another. Gordon, however, to whom he refers, speaks only 
 of the last mentioned committees, the origin of which he 
 ascribes to James Warren and Samuel Adams, of Mas 
 sachusetts, and is silent as to the committees for main 
 taining correspondence among the several colonies. Mr. 
 Wirt, on the other hand, gives the honour of originating 
 these committees to Virginia ; though he admits, on the 
 authority of Mr. Jefferson, that Massachusetts adopted the 
 same measure so nearly at the same time as to be entitled 
 to equal honour. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, noticing this subject in his memoirs, after 
 distinguishing between the two kinds of Corresponding 
 Committees, relies on the authority of Gordon to prove that 
 Massachusetts is entitled only to the honour of originating 
 the inferior Local Committees, while he claims for Virginia 
 a similar honour as to the Committees of National Cor 
 respondence. He admits and explains his mistake in the 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 information given to Mr. Wirt, that this proposition " was 
 nearly simultaneous in Virginia and Massachusetts." 
 
 It appears, on further inquiry, that the facts are accurately 
 stated by Judge Marshall, and that the House of Repre 
 sentatives of Massachusetts, on the 7th of November, 1770, 
 appointed a committee to correspond with committees in 
 the other colonies, by the following resolution : 
 
 " Upon motion, ordered, that Mr. Speaker, ( Thomas 
 Gushing), Mr. Hancock, Mr. Hall, Mr. Samuel Adams, 
 and Mr. John Adams, be a Committee of Correspondence, 
 to communicate such intelligence as may be necessary to 
 the agent and others, in Great Britain ; and also to the 
 speakers of the several assemblies throughout the continent, 
 or to such Committee of Correspondence as they have, or 
 may appoint. Said committee, from time to time,, to report 
 the whole of their correspondence to the House of Repre 
 sentatives, and to confer with such committee as the honour 
 able board have appointed to correspond with their agent, 
 as far as they shall judge it necessary." 
 
 The claims of Massachusetts to the merit of first sug 
 gesting this plan of concerted resistance may indeed be 
 carried still farther back; as in 1765*, after the passage of 
 the stamp act, her House of Representatives had invited 
 a meeting of deputies from all the colonial Legislatures, 
 " to consult together" on their common difficulties ;" and 
 afterwards, in February, 1768f, they again addressed a 
 circular letter to all the colonial Assemblies, in which they 
 dwelt on the importance of harmony in their representa 
 tions," and proposed to them, severally, a mutual inter 
 change of sentiment. 
 
 But notwithstanding these examples, and the before- 
 
 * Prior Documents, p. 26. . } . Ib> p 191 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53 
 
 mentioned resolution of 1770, it seems to be conceded that 
 the Massachusetts Corresponding Committee did not com 
 municate with the other colonies, in consequence, it is said, 
 of the " severe censures" passed in England on the circular 
 letter formerly addressed by her Legislature to the other 
 colonies*. As then, Virginia, in 1773, seems not to have 
 been prompted by the example of Massachusetts, and as, 
 moreover, her resolutions did not merely authorize a cor 
 respondence with the other colonies, but also formally re 
 quested them to " appoint some person or persons of their 
 respective bodies, to communicate from time to time with 
 the said committee;" the disputed honour may be fairly 
 divided between the two, by assigning to Massachusetts 
 the merit of first suggesting the plan, and to Virginia that 
 of giving it efficacy. 
 
 It may, however, be remarked, that there probably never 
 was a case in which several distinct communities laboured 
 under a common grievance, requiring the same means and 
 measure of redress, which did not consult how they might 
 best co-operate ; and that to have proposed so natural and 
 obvious an expedient should be deemed an honour worthy 
 of being contested by two states, is to be imputed to the 
 
 * The resolution of the House of Representatives of Massachusetts- 
 Bay, in 1770, appointing a Committee of Correspondence, is given on 
 the authority of Ex- President John Q. Adams, who did the author the 
 favour, in answer to his inquiries, to send him an extract from the 
 Journals of the House. He further remarks, " I presume this was 
 the first appointment of a Committee of Correspondence * of this class. 
 It is noticed by Alden Bradford in his History of Massachusetts, from 
 1764 to 1775 pages 237 and 276. By Gordon, vol. 1, p. 306, and in 
 the third volume of Hutchin son s History of Massachusetts-Bay, page 
 318. It is also to this appointment that Judge Marshall refers in his 
 life of Washington, vol. 2, p. 151. first edition. Bradford, in a note, 
 says, it does not appear that this committee wrote to the other colonies, 
 as a former letter to them from Massachusetts had been so severely 
 censured in England/ " 
 
54 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 importance attached to every thing connected with the 
 Revolution, and to the lustre which the achievement of 
 national independence sheds on all its agents and instru 
 ments. 
 
 The next subject which enlisted the sympathies of Vir 
 ginia was the Boston port bill, by the provisions of which 
 that town was to be cut off from all foreign trade after the 
 1st of June, 1774, as a punishment for its destruction of 
 the tea in the December preceding. This act having 
 reached Virginia while the Assembly was in session, Mr. 
 Jefferson says, that a number of the junior members, com 
 prehending Mr. Henry, the two Lees, and two or three 
 others with himself, no longer willing to submit the direc 
 tion of affairs to the old members, but determining on a 
 bolder course, assembled in the Council Chamber to consult 
 on the measures to be pursued. By way of rousing the 
 people from their recent lethargy, they decided on a day 
 of general fasting and prayer. <e With the help of Rush- 
 worth," he says, " whom we rummaged for the revolutionary 
 precedents and forms of the puritans of that day, we cooked 
 up a resolution somewhat modernizing their phrases for 
 appointing the 1st day of June, on which the port bill was 
 to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer 
 to implore Heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, 
 to inspire us with firmness in support of our rights, and 
 to turn the hearts of the King and Parliament to modera 
 tion and justice." They then resolved that the members 
 would attend in their places on the 1st of June, at ten in 
 the forenoon, and thence " proceed with the Speaker and 
 the mace to the Church," to hear prayers, and " a sermon 
 suitable to the occasion*/ 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s account of this procedure conveys the 
 
 ** *Wirt s life of Henry, p. 85. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 55 
 
 idea that the order or resolution was prepared in a some 
 what different spirit from that in which it was expected to 
 be read : but such discrepancy will be commonly found 
 wherever the aid of religion is invoked to serve a political 
 purpose. 
 
 The next morning, as had been agreed on, the framers 
 of the resolution waited on Robert Carter Nicholas, with 
 a request that he would oifer it his age sand known reli 
 gious character being strictly in keeping with its sentiments, 
 and likely to give it weight. He accordingly made the 
 motion that morning, and it passed without opposition. 
 On the following day, May the 25th, the governor, Lord 
 Dunmore, dissolved the assembly, assigning as the cause 
 this order, which, he said, " was conceived in such terms 
 as to reflect highly on His Majesty and the Parliament of 
 Great Britain." 
 
 The members then repaired to the llaleigh, agreed to 
 articles of association, signed by eighty-nine members, in 
 which they pronounce the Boston port bill the result of a 
 " determined system, formed for the purpose of reducing 
 the inhabitants of British America to slavery :" they declare 
 that tea " ought not to be used" by any well-wisher to con 
 stitutional liberty in America, so long as it was charged 
 with a duty laid for raising a revenue in that country : that, 
 from the course pursued by the East India Company 
 " in favour of arbitrary taxation," they recommend to the 
 people to purchase none of their commodities, except salt 
 petre and spices, until their grievances were redressed : 
 that an attack on one of their sister colonies was an attack 
 upon all, and threatened the ruin of all, unless it was re 
 sisted by their united councils. They therefore further 
 recommend to the Committee of Correspondence, to com 
 municate with the other Committees " on the expediency 
 of appointing deputies from the several colonies of British 
 
56 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 America, to meet in general Congress, at such place, annually, 
 as should be thought most convenient," to deliberate on 
 the measures required by their common interests. They 
 significantly add, " a tender regard for the interests of our 
 fellow subjects, the merchants and manufacturers of Great 
 Britain, prevents us from going farther at this time ; most 
 earnestly hoping that the unconstitutional principle of taxing 
 the colonies without their consent will not be persisted in, 
 thereby to compel us, against our will, to avoid all commer 
 cial intercourse with Britain." 
 
 Not content with merely proposing a general Congress, 
 they took measures for carrying the proposition into effect, 
 so far as Virginia was concerned. They agreed that the 
 members who should be elected under the writs then issu 
 ing*, should be requested to meet in convention, in Wil- 
 liamsburg, on the 1st of August following, for the purpose 
 of appointing delegates, to the Congress, if that measure 
 should be approved in the other colonies, as well as of con 
 sidering the state of public affairs generally. 
 
 The heat thus excited was not allowed to cool. On re 
 turning to their homes, the members, as had been concerted, 
 invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people on the 
 1st of June, and after performing the usual religious service, 
 to address them in discourses suited to the occasion. Thus 
 the influence exercised over the minds of the people by 
 their spiritual pastors, was brought to act on their worldly 
 concerns, and these fervid appeals from the pulpit, co-ope- 
 
 * This fact is stated on the authority of Mr. Jefferson, yet it is not 
 noticed in the annals of the times : but the choice of deputies is men 
 tioned by them as a distinct election. The practice seems to have been 
 for the people, after the election of Burgesses, under the forms of law, 
 was over, to enter into resolutions appointing the same members depu- 
 the Convention, and stating their reasons for making the appoint- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 57 
 
 rating with the previous state of popular feeling, the effect 
 was irresistible. Mr. Jefferson likens it to a shock of elec 
 tricity ; and certainly no plan could have been better de 
 vised to keep up the zeal of the people, which is always 
 liable to flag when not stimulated by fresh excitement. 
 The several counties and corporations re-elected the former 
 members, without exception, and at the same time appointed 
 them deputies to the proposed Convention, which \vas thus 
 in fact, another House of Burgesses under a new name, 
 unincumbered with a Council and unfettered by a Governor. 
 
 The plan of a general Congress having been approved 
 by the corresponding committees in the several colonies, 
 the deputies to the Virginia Convention assembled, as had 
 been agreed on, at Williamsburg, on the 1st of August. 
 
 This Convention was the first assembly of popular repre 
 sentatives in Virginia which convened without the express 
 authority of law, and by virtue of the inherent rights of 
 the people. Mr. Jefferson, who was one of the deputies 
 of Albemarlc, had previously prepared instructions, which 
 he meant to propose, for the delegates whom the Conven 
 tion should appoint to the General Congress ; but falling 
 sick on his way to Williamsburg, and unable to proceed, 
 he sent on two copies of the instructions ; one to Peyton 
 Randolph, who he presumed would be the president of the 
 Convention, and the other to Patrick Henry, who could 
 be their ablest advocate. He thus notices the fate of this 
 document : " Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground 
 taken, or was too lazy to read it (for he was the laziest 
 man in reading I ever knew), I never learned; but he com 
 municated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed the 
 Convention he had received such a paper from a member, 
 prevented by sickness from offering it in his place, and he 
 laid it on the table for perusal. It was read generally by 
 the members, approved by many, though thought too bold 
 
58 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 for the present state of things; but they printed it in pam 
 phlet form, under the title of " a summary view of the 
 rights of British America." It found its way to England, 
 was taken up by the opposition, interpolated by Mr. Burke, 
 so as to make it answer opposition purposes, and in that 
 form ran through several editions. 
 
 Though this paper, from its length, as well as the start 
 ling novelty of some of its doctrines, may not have been 
 exactly suited to its purpose, yet, as it set forth the principal 
 grievances of all the colonies in clear and forcible language, 
 and in a spirit quite in harmony with the tone of public 
 feeling, it added no little to the author s reputation. It 
 begins by assimilating the first English settlers in America 
 to their Saxon ancestors, who had emigrated from Germany, 
 and asserts that the right of sovereignty no more attached 
 to the parent country in the one case than the other : that 
 Great Britain having afforded to her emigrants important 
 aid against a common enemy, they were willing to give in 
 return such privileges in trade as were not too restrictive 
 on the colonists : that the emigrants had adopted the laws 
 of^he mother country, and had continued their political 
 union with her, by acknowledging the authority of the same 
 common sovereign. It complained that the country, acquired 
 by the unassisted efforts of the emigrants, was assumed to 
 be the property of the crown, and either distributed among 
 court favourites, or parcelled out into separate governments : 
 that their natural right to a free trade with all the world 
 had been violated, notwithstanding the formal recognition 
 of the right by a treaty made in 1751, between the common 
 wealth of England and the colony of Virginia; that by 
 several Acts of Parliament, America was arbitrarily pro 
 hibited from selling to other countries what Great Britain 
 would not purchase, and from buying of others what she 
 could not supply, with a view to enhance the profits of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 59 
 
 British monopoly : that, in the same spirit of injustice and 
 oppression, an American was forbidden to make a hat for 
 himself of the fur which he had taken perhaps on his own 
 soil, or to manufacture the iron which he himself had made. 
 
 The paper then refers to particular Acts of Parliament, of 
 recent date, to show a " systematic plan of reducing the 
 colonies to slavery." It especially notices the Act concerning 
 New York, by which " one free and independent Legislature 
 takes upon itself to suspend the powers of another, free and 
 independent as itself;" and it indignantly asks, " Can any 
 reason be assigned why one hundred and sixty thousand 
 electors, in the island of Great Britain, should give law to 
 four millions* in the States of America, every individual of 
 whom is equal to every individual of them in virtue, under 
 standing, and in bodily strength ?" 
 
 The Boston port bill, the Act imposing a duty on tea, and 
 the destruction of the tea in Boston, are also noticed ; and 
 the tyranny of punishing all the inhabitants of that town for 
 the act of a few, is vehemently condemned. Adverting to 
 the statute which authorizes the Governor to send any 
 person charged with murder in Boston to England for trial, 
 and the accumulation of injury which may thus be inflicted 
 on the accused, it adds : " The cowards who would suffer 
 a countryman to be torn from the bowels of their society, in 
 order to be thus offered a sacrifice to parliamentary tyranny, 
 would merit the everlasting infamy now fixed on the authors 
 of the Act." 
 
 Acts of Parliament interfering with the interior legislation 
 of the colonies are then adverted to : as the abuses of the 
 royal negative, not only in the frequency of its exercise, 
 particularly on laws prohibiting the further importation of 
 slaves, but also by its occasional suspension for years, 
 
 * Though this estimate comprehended Canada, it was still too high 
 by a million. 
 
(50 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 whereby the most wholesome laws might be sometimes 
 unreasonably delayed, sometimes suddenly repealed, or laws 
 no longer suited to the circumstances of the colony be un 
 expectedly revived : the refusal of the Governor s assent to 
 a further division of counties in Virginia, except on condition 
 that the new county have no representative in the Legis 
 lature : the abuse of the power of dissolving the colonial 
 assemblies : the introduction of feudal tenures into the 
 colonies, where the lands are properly allodial; and the 
 king s right to grant lands of himself is denied, on the 
 ground that " from the nature and purpose of civil institu 
 tions, all the lands within the limits which any particular 
 society has circumscribed around itself, are assumed by that 
 society, and subject to their allotment," in defect of which 
 allotment, mere occupancy will give title. 
 
 As a further grievance, it is stated that armed forces had 
 been sent to America, though the king " had no right to 
 land a single armed man on our shores," without the same 
 authority from the Legislature of the colony as was given by 
 Parliament to George the Second, to introduce Hanoverian 
 troops into Great Britain : that every state must judge for 
 itself the number of armed men which they may safely trust 
 among them ; of whom they are to consist, and under what 
 restrictions they are to be laid." The paper, in conclusion, 
 thus personally appeals to the monarch : " Open your 
 breast, sire, to liberal and expanded thought. Let not the 
 name of George the Third be a blot on the page of history. 
 You are surrounded by British counsellors, but remember 
 that they are parties. Let no Act be passed by any one 
 legislature which may infringe on the rights and liberties of 
 another. This is the important post in which fortune has 
 placed you, holding the balance of a great, if a well poised, 
 empire. It is neither our wish, nor our interest to separate. 
 We are willing, on our part, to sacrifice everything which 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 61 
 
 reason can ask, to the restoration of that tranquillity for 
 which all must wish. On their part, let them name the 
 terms, but let them be just accept of every commercial 
 preference it is in our power to give, for such things as we 
 can raise for their use, or they make for ours. But let them 
 not think to exclude us from going to other markets to 
 dispose of those commodities which they cannot use, nor to 
 supply those wants which they cannot supply, Still less, 
 let it be proposed that our properties, within our own terri 
 tories, shall be taxed or regulated by any power on earth 
 but our own. The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at 
 the same time : the hand of force may destroy, but cannot 
 disjoin them."* 
 
 Some of the positions taken by Mr. Jefferson in this 
 exposition of his country s wrongs, were scarcely deemed 
 tenable at that time, even in America ; and he afterwards 
 frankly says, " the leap I then proposed was too long, as yet, 
 for the mass of our citizens." The convention, moreover, 
 might have thought it best to omit such topics as were likely 
 to give offence to the friends of America in Great Britain, 
 
 o 
 
 or mingled doubtful claims and minor grievances with the 
 more serious and unquestionable causes of complaint. They 
 therefore prepared another set of instructions more accordant 
 with their views, in which, after premising the necessity for 
 a general congress, and naming the seven deputies whom 
 they had appointed to represent Virginia in that body, they 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson says he was informed by Peyton Randolph, that this 
 document procured for him the honour of a place on a list of proscribed 
 American patriots, in a bill of attainder, commenced in one of the 
 Houses of Parliament, but suppressed while in embryo, by the course of 
 events which recommended more caution. The agent of the House of 
 Burgesses in England made extracts from the bill, copied the names, 
 and sent them to Peyton Randolph. Mr. J. thought the names were 
 about twenty, but he recollected only those of Hancock, the two 
 Adamses, Peyton Randolph, Patrick Henry, and his own. 
 
(32 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 proceed to express their views and sentiments with great 
 directness and simplicity. 
 
 They begin with averring their allegiance to George the 
 Third, their " lawful and rightful sovereign," and that they 
 were determined, with their " lives and fortunes, to support 
 him in the legal exercise of all his just rights and preroga 
 tives;" that they sincerely approved of a constitutional 
 connexion with Great Britain, and a return of the intercourse 
 which formerly united the two countries. They assert, that 
 British subjects in America have the same rights and 
 privileges " as their fellow subjects in Britain;" and, con 
 sequently, that the power assumed by Parliament to bind 
 America, in all cases, is unconstitutional, and inconsistent 
 with the end of government. In illustration of this, they 
 refer to seA^eral late statutes concerning America. They 
 profess acquiescence in the restrictions on their commerce, 
 so long as they are not unreasonable. 
 
 They declare, that to obtain redress of their grievances, 
 they are willing to stop all further importations from Great 
 Britain after the first of November ensuing, and all expor- 
 tations to the same country after the 10th day of August in 
 the succeeding year. They assert their earnest desire to 
 discharge their debts, due in Great Britain, and assign " the 
 heavy injury that would arise to the country, from an earlier 
 adoption of the non- exportation plan," when so much of 
 their labour had been applied to the growing crop ; and they 
 " had been prevented from pursuing other methods of 
 clothing and supporting their families," as their motives for 
 thus restricting the deputies on the subject of exports. In 
 all other respects they request those deputies to co-operate 
 cordially with the other colonies. General Gage s procla 
 mation declaring it treasonable for the people of Massachu 
 setts-Bay to assemble " to consider of their grievances, and 
 form Associations," they pronounce to be odious, alarming, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 63 
 
 and illegal ; and boldly assert, that the attempt to carry its 
 threats into execution " will justify resistance and reprisal." 
 
 In these instructions may be perceived that prudence by 
 which the ardent and bold checked their own impetuosity, 
 until the more cautious and wavering could come up with 
 them ; as in a fleet bent on a united attack, the fastest 
 sailers slacken their course, lest they should be too far in 
 advance of the rest. 
 
 The convention on the 6th of August entered into an 
 agreement, or " Association," contained in a series of reso 
 lutions, in which they advanced some steps farther than the 
 same individuals had done in their " Association" of the 
 preceding May. They now agreed, and recommended to 
 all the other inhabitants of Virginia to agree : 1. Not to 
 import any British merchandise after the 1st of November 
 next. 2. To import no slaves. 3. To use no tea from 
 that day, nor to suffer it to be used in their families. 4. To 
 purchase no East India commodity, if any of the colonists 
 should be compelled to pay for any tea, forced into America 
 and there destroyed. To export no tobacco after the 10th 
 of August, 1775, and in lieu of its cultivation, to encourage 
 manufactures. 6. To improve the breed of sheep, and 
 increase their number. 7. To deal with no merchants who 
 took advantage of the scarcity of goods to enhance their 
 price. 8. Nor with any who would not sign this Associa 
 tion; and after due caution, the county committees are 
 required to publish the names of such as did not conform 
 to the regulations here prescribed. 9. To consider the 
 exporters of tobacco after the 10th of August, 1775, as 
 < inimical to the community," and that they be advertised in 
 like manner. 10. To abide by such alterations in these 
 articles as Congress might recommend, and the delegates 
 of Virginia assent to. 11. To contribute speedily and 
 liberally to the relief of the people of Boston. 12. That the 
 
(J4 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 moderator of the meeting, Robert Carter Nicholas, be em 
 powered to convene the delegates at such time and place as 
 he may think proper. 
 
 The deputies chosen to represent Virginia in the General 
 Congress were selected with great care, and regard was had 
 not only to their talents and weight of character, but also, 
 it is said, to the diversity of their qualifications. Thus 
 Peyton Randolph was recommended by his personal dignity 
 and acquaintance with the rules of order : George Washing 
 ton, by his military talents and experience : Richard Henry 
 Lee, by his persuasive oratory : Patrick Henry, by his spirit- 
 stirring eloquence, and because, moreover, he was the man 
 of the people. Richard Bland was deemed the best writer 
 in the colony. Edmund Pendleton was chosen for his con 
 summate prudence, as well as thorough knowledge of law ; 
 and Benjamin Harrison, as fairly representing the feelings 
 and interests of the wealthy planters.* 
 
 It had been arranged by the Corresponding Committees 
 that the General Congress should meet at Philadelphia on the 
 first Monday in September, (the 4th,) and to this Assembly 
 the eyes of all America were now anxiously turned ; for it 
 was obvious to the most unreflecting, that it must be only 
 by united councils that the colonies could look for the re 
 dress of their wrongs, whether Great Britain was to be con 
 ciliated or resisted. On the appointed clay, all the pro 
 vinces, from Massachusetts to South Carolina, inclusive, 
 except North Carolina, were found to be represented in 
 Philadelphia ; and on the following day they assembled at 
 Carpenters Hall, in Chestnut-street; chose Peyton Ran- 
 
 * These gentlemen were all selected from the tide-water portion of 
 Virginia, except Patrick Henry, who was on the outer skirt of it ; and it 
 may serve to mark the change which sixty years have made to state, 
 that this portion now comprehends little more than six of the twenty- one 
 congressional districts in the state. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 
 
 dolph, president ; and organized themselves into a deliberate 
 Assembly. The delegates from North Carolina attended 
 on the 14th. 
 
 This body, consisting in all of fifty-five members, repre 
 senting the rights and interests of nearly three millions of 
 people, soon proved themselves worthy of the high trust 
 confided to them. The debate was opened by Patrick 
 Henry,, of whose masterly display, as well as of the whole 
 scene, Mr. Wirt has given a vivid and graphic description, 
 in accordance with the tradition of the time. After some 
 days deliberation, they agreed on a declaration of rights set 
 forth in ten resolutions, all of which, except two, passed 
 unanimously. They afterwards entered into a non-impor 
 tation, non-consumption, and non-exportation "Association," 
 not widely different from that which had been adopted by 
 the Virginia Convention : they prepared solemn addresses 
 to the King ; to the people of Great Britain ; to the inhabit 
 ants of British America, their constituents ; and to the 
 people of Canada ; and lastly, they addressed letters to the 
 several colonies of St. John s, Nova Scotia, Georgia, and 
 the Floridas, inviting them to join in the common cause. 
 Amidst these more weighty concerns, they did not fail to 
 express their sympathy for " the sufferings of their country 
 men in Massachusetts-Bay ;" and their wishes that contri 
 butions for the people of Boston should be continued 
 throughout the colonies. 
 
 All the proceedings of this illustrious body are marked 
 with ability, dignity, and zeal, tempered with discretion. It 
 seemed as if the love of country had filled their hearts and 
 minds with a wisdom and purity of purpose suited to the 
 greatness of the occasion. The papers they sent forth to 
 the world supported the claims of the colonists with a force 
 of reasoning which carried conviction to the understanding, 
 and in that style of manly eloquence which only truth and 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
GO THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 justice can attain. While these illustrious patriots thus 
 inspired their countrymen with confidence and enthusiasm,, 
 they added respect to the sympathy which had been pre 
 viously felt for their cause by the more liberal-minded in 
 England, and the votaries of civil liberty every where. This 
 first congress has always been to Americans an object of 
 honest pride, unalloyed with censure or regret ; and if its 
 acts be subjected to the strictest scrutiny, now that every 
 feeling of the time has passed away except the love of country, 
 and that no longer mounts to a passion, it seems to have 
 well merited the high eulogy it universally received. Among 
 its members, the Virginia orators, Henry and Lee, bore the 
 palm for eloquence in debate ; but, for that of the pen, the 
 first place must unquestionably be awarded to Mr. Jay, of 
 New York ; and the second, to the author of the petition to 
 the King, who, according to Mr. Jefferson,* was Mr. Dickin 
 son, of Pennsylvania. But in the no less essential qualities of 
 sagacity and judgment, of unflinching courage and glowing 
 patriotism, where so many were remarkable, it would be 
 difficult to assign pre-eminence. They adjourned on the - 
 26th of October, sine die, having first recommended to the 
 people that another congress should be held at the same 
 place, on the 10th of the ensuing May. 
 
 The convention of Virginia met, according to adjournment, 
 at Richmond, on the 20th of March, 1775. After a full 
 consideration of the proceedings of congress, it unanimously 
 passed on them a vote of approbation, and a vote of thanks 
 to the delegates from Virginia. But as to their future 
 measures, the members manifested the difference already 
 adverted to between the sanguine ardour of youth and the 
 cautious spirit of age, to which, perhaps, we may add the 
 greater tenacity with which the last clings to early habits 
 and attachments. On the fourth day of its session, a me- 
 * Wirt s Life of Henry, p. 109. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. O/ 
 
 morial from the Assembly of Jamaica to the King, which 
 exhibited a lively sympathy for the colonists, having been 
 laid before the convention, it passed a resolution highly 
 complimentary to that body, and concluding with the as 
 surance, that it was " the most ardent wish of the colony to 
 see a speedy return of those halcyon days, when they lived 
 a free and happy people." Mr. Henry then offered two 
 resolutions conceived in a very different spirit. The first 
 declared, that a well-regulated militia is the natural strength 
 and only security of a free government; that it would 
 prevent the necessity of a standing army, and remove the 
 pretext of laying taxes for its support;* and that such a 
 militia was peculiarly necessary at that time of " danger and 
 distress." The second required the colony to be imme 
 diately put into a state of defence ; and appointed a com 
 mittee " to prepare a plan for the embodying, arming, and 
 disciplining such a number of men as may be sufficient for 
 that purpose." 
 
 This decisive step was opposed by most of the older members 
 as premature ; but was finally carried by the force of Henry s 
 eloquence, which showed that it was a measure of as much 
 prudence as boldness ; and that if they would preserve 
 their liberties, " they must fight." A committee of twelve 
 was then appointed, of whom Mr. Jefferson was one, to 
 prepare the plan of defence ; and on the following day they 
 reported one which was adopted, and which, by its simplicity, 
 was suited to the limited resources of the country. 
 
 It recommended to each county to form one or more 
 volunteer companies of infantry, and troops of horse, "to 
 be in constant training, and readiness to act on any emer 
 gency." The counties below tide- water were recommended 
 to raise troops of horse ; and the upper counties to form 
 " a good infantry." Every man was to be provided with 
 
 * Wirt s Life of Henry, p. 116. 
 
 F2 
 
68 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 a rifle, if to be had, or otherwise with a common firelock,, 
 and the requisite ammunition, and " to be clothed in a 
 hunting shirt, by way of uniform." The cavalry equipment 
 was also particularized. To secure a more ample supply 
 of ammunition, the County Committees were recommended 
 to collect as much money as would purchase half a pound 
 of gunpowder, one pound of lead, with the necessary flints 
 and cartridge paper for every " titheable person in the 
 country. 
 
 They then passed an unanimous vote of thanks to Lord 
 Dunmore, for "his truly noble, wise and spirited conduct" on 
 his late expedition against the Indians ; and another to the 
 officers and soldiers who had served under him: appointed 
 a committee of thirteen to prepare a plan " for the encou 
 ragement of arts and manufactures :" and re-elected by 
 ballot the former delegates to Congress. 
 
 On Monday, the 27th, the Convention adopted the 
 various suggestions of the committee, for the encourage 
 ment of arts and manufactures ; appointed a committee of 
 five to inquire whether the King could of right " advance 
 the terms of granting the public lands, 1 and recommended 
 to all persons to forbear purchasing on those conditions. 
 This resolution was in consequence of a recent plan of the 
 Governor, to set up all the public lands at auction, subject 
 to a perpetual quit rent of a half-penny an acre, and the 
 reservation of all precious minerals ; which plan, besides 
 wasting a copious source of national revenue, would have 
 raised up a class of overgrown landholders, dependent on 
 the Crown. Mr. Jefferson was also a member of this com- 
 mittcn. As it was foreseen that Mr. Randolph might, 
 while Congress was sitting, be required to attend the 
 Virginia Assembly, of which he was Speaker, the Conven 
 tion provisionally appointed Mr. Jefferson a deputy to sup 
 ply his place. Then, having declared their functions at 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 60 
 
 an end, and recommended to the people to represent them 
 in Convention for a year, they terminated their short and 
 busy session of eight days. 
 
 On the following day* the Governor issued a proclamation, 
 requiring all magistrates to prevent the appointment of 
 deputies to Congress, and exhorting all persons whatever 
 to desist " from such an unjustifiable proceeding, so highly 
 displeasing to his Majesty." It was, witllout doubt, in 
 tended to have an influence on the members of the Con 
 vention, as the termination of its session could not have 
 been known at Williamsburg at the date of the procla 
 mation. 
 
 In pursuance of what seems to have been a systematic 
 plan of the ministry in England, through the colonial 
 governors, of disarming the American people, Lord Dun- 
 more, on the night of the 20th of April, had all the gun 
 powder in the magazine at Williamsburg removed on board 
 an armed schooner, then lying in James River, except a 
 few barrels which were afterwards found buried in the 
 magazine. The colonists had always thought it prudent 
 to have a depot of arms and ammunition at this place. Such 
 a measure would at any time have caused great sensation ; 
 but the effect was the greater, when, in the disposition of 
 men to propagate and to credit causes of alarm, it was 
 rumoured that the slaves had in many places shown symp 
 toms of insurrection. 
 
 The corporation of Williamsburg immediately addressed 
 the Governor on the subject, and earnestly entreated him 
 to have the powder returned to the magazine. To this 
 the Governor replied, that, hearing of an insurrection in a 
 neighbouring county, he had removed the powder to a place 
 
 * Mr. Wirt is mistaken in stating, p. 129, that this proclamation was 
 published while the Convention was in session. 
 
70 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of greater security ; and that whenever it was wanted for 
 an insurrection, it should be delivered in half an hour ; but, 
 in the mean time, while the people were so excited, and 
 under arms, he did not think it prudent to trust them with 
 it. The indignation and alarm which this occurrence occa 
 sioned throughout the colony, was, without doubt, heightened 
 by the battle of Lexington ; the news of which reached 
 Virginia a few days after the removal of the powder ; and 
 in several of the counties volunteer companies prepared 
 to march to Williamsburg to regain the powder, or make 
 reprisal for its value. Patrick Henry, profiting by this 
 martial temper, put himself at the head of a company of 
 volunteers ; and while on his march to the seat of govern 
 ment, was prevailed upon by some prudent friends to re 
 ceive, in behalf of the Virginia delegates to Congress, the 
 value of the powder from the King s receiver- general. 
 
 The irritation thus excited between the Governor and 
 the people of Virginia, was kept alive by fresh provocations 
 on both sides, so as sometimes to place them on the verge 
 of open hostility, until late in May, when the Governor 
 determined to convene the General Assembly on the 1st 
 of June, for the purpose of laying before them Lord North s 
 " conciliatory propositions." 
 
 These propositions were made, it is supposed, less with 
 an expectation of restoring harmony, than of uniting the 
 people of England, and thus giving strength to the minis 
 try. But as, in the event of their partial success in America, 
 they would produce a division among the colonies, no pains 
 were spared to recommend them to the colonial legislatures. 
 It was in this spirit that Lord Dunmore addressed the 
 Assembly in his opening speech, and leaving out of view 
 that feature of the propositions which made them nugatory, 
 he assured them that in contributing their proportion of 
 the public expense, no specific sum was demanded" of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 71 
 
 them, and " their gift, if they should be induced to offer 
 any, might be in the completest manner free/ He also 
 recommended to them to provide for the officers and sol 
 diers who had served in the late expedition against the 
 Indians, and expressed the hope that the courts of justice 
 would be forthwith opened. They had been closed for 
 civil business, since the preceding June, because the law 
 regulating the fees of officers had expired, N and the enact 
 ment of another had been prevented by the hasty disso 
 lution of the Assembly. 
 
 A committee of thirteen members was appointed to pre 
 pare an answer to the Governor s speech, which was accord 
 ingly done by Mr. Nicholas, the chairman, and presented 
 on Monday, the 5th of June, by the whole House. It was 
 temperate and respectful; professed unshaken allegiance 
 to the King, and unabated attachment to the constitution ; 
 explained why the courts of justice had been partially closed, 
 but expressed a doubt in the present suspension of their 
 commerce, to which the colony had found it necessary to 
 resort, if it would be prudent to open them. They pro 
 fessed themselves ready to provide for the expense of the 
 Indian expedition. Adverting then to a plan of conciliation, 
 they said they would give it a separate answer, after bestow 
 ing on it the consideration its importance demanded. 
 
 To Mr. Jefferson was assigned the duty of preparing 
 this part of their reply, at the instance of Peyton Randolph, 
 who was anxious that the course pursued by Virginia should 
 harmonize with the sentiments and wishes of Congress, and 
 who thought that Mr. Nicholas, the chairman, was not bold 
 enough for the times. 
 
 But before it was presented, the mutual distrust between 
 the Governor and the people brought about a crisis which, 
 in no long time afterwards, terminated the session of the 
 Assembly, and with it the regal authority in Virginia. 
 
72 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 On Monday, the 5th, the House appointed a committee 
 of twenty-one members, to inquire into the late disturbances, 
 and the state of the public magazine. But on the same 
 night, some young men attempting to enter it to obtain 
 arms, two of them were wounded by a spring gun, placed 
 there by order of the Governor, and of which no notice had 
 been given. 
 
 The ferment which this piece of cold-blooded malice and 
 revenge excited among the people, was not lessened when, 
 two days afterwards, the committee appointed to inspect 
 the magazine, whose application for the keys had at first 
 been evaded by the Governor, found that the good mus 
 kets had been deprived of their locks, and that five barrels 
 of powder had been buried in the magazine, for the purpose, 
 it was supposed, of perpetrating still more serious mischief. 
 On the same day, it being reported that Captain Collins, 
 of the Magdalen, was then on his march to the city with 
 a hundred men, the people immediately assembled under 
 arms; but on learning the Governor s assurances to the 
 Council that the rumour was unfounded, they quietly dis 
 persed. His lordship, feeling himself the object of general 
 odium or resentment, and conscious of deserving it, thought 
 it prudent to leave the city with his family that night, or 
 rather at two o clock in the morning, for the Fowey man- 
 of-war, then lying at York. He left a letter for the House, 
 in which he assigned the insecurity of himself and his family 
 as the cause of his removal, but said he should continue to 
 discharge the duties of his office as before, and urged them 
 to proceed with the public business. The two Houses of 
 Assembly the next day united in an address to the Governor, 
 in which they warmly deprecate the imputation of danger 
 to himself or his family, and earnestly entreat him to return, 
 as the best means of restoring the public tranquillity, and 
 without which it would be impracticable to carry on the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 
 
 public business. This address was without effect, and his 
 lordship and the House of Burgesses continued to inter 
 change messages, sometimes with the show of moderation, 
 and sometimes openly taunting or acrimonious, until the 
 24th of June, when the Governor having again refused to 
 meet them for the purpose of receiving such bills, as were 
 ready for his assent, except on board the Fowey, they passed 
 resolutions declaring this a breach of their privileges, and 
 adjourned. 
 
 A part of their proceedings merits a more particular 
 notice. On the 12th of June, the answer to the conciliatory 
 propositions prepared by Mr. Jefferson was reported to 
 the House, and having received a few softening touches 
 from some of the senior members, was adopted. In this 
 paper the Burgesses, after professing their wish for a recon 
 ciliation with the mother country, as, next to the possession 
 of liberty, " the greatest of all human blessings," declare 
 that they cannot accept the proffered terms, for the following 
 reasons : Because the support of civil government belongs 
 exclusively to themselves, in proof of which they refer to 
 an act of Charles II. : because the colonies have the right 
 of giving their money, as the Parliament do theirs, without 
 coercion, from time to time, as public exigencies may require ; 
 that it was not merely the mode of raising, but the freedom 
 of granting this money, for which they had contended: 
 because, though the colony should grant the money as pro 
 posed, all other grievances were left unredressed : because, 
 at the very time of requiring grants of money, the govern 
 ment was preparing to invade the country by sea and land : 
 because, the colonists, on contributing their quota to the 
 common defence, were not allowed to share in the benefits 
 of a free trade, and Great Britain should be content either 
 with a monopoly of their commerce, or with a smaller con 
 tribution from them to the expense of government : and 
 
74 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 lastly, because the propositions involved the interest of all 
 the colonies, and they were bound, by a regard to their 
 honour, as well as safety, not to treat separately. Lord 
 Chatham s bill was mentioned as affording a proper basis 
 for negotiation ; and, referring the subject to the general 
 Congress then sitting, they conclude in the following ani 
 mated strain : 
 
 " For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of appli 
 cation which our invention could suggest, as proper and 
 promising. We have devoutly remonstrated with Parlia 
 ment ; they have added new injuries to the old. We have 
 wearied our King with supplications ; he has not deigned 
 to answer us. We have appealed to the native honour and 
 justice of the British nation ; their efforts in our favour 
 have hitherto been ineffectual. What then remains to be 
 done? That we commit our injuries to the even-handed 
 justice of that Being w r ho doth no wrong, earnestly beseech 
 ing him to illuminate the councils, and prosper the en 
 deavours of those to whom America hath confided her hopes ; 
 that through their wise direction we may again see reunited 
 the blessings of liberty and property, and the most perma 
 nent harmony with Great Britain." 
 
 As soon as the address was agreed to, Mr. Jefferson set 
 out for Philadelphia, and communicated to Congress the 
 first notice of the course taken by Virginia, which met their 
 entire approbation. 
 
 The committee appointed to inquire into the late dis 
 turbances, made their report on the 16th, and they show, 
 on the testimony of a great number of witnesses, many of 
 them merchants and natives of Great Britain, that the 
 colony was in a state of tranquillity before the removal of 
 the gunpowder, but that the minds of the people were greatly 
 inflamed by that event, and the reports that the Governor 
 meant to give freedom to the slaves ; that the suspension 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75 
 
 of civil suits since June of the preceding year was owing 
 to the expiration of the fee bill ; and that few or none 
 wished to be independent of Great Britain. 
 
 In the resolutions passed by the Burgesses before they 
 adjourned, they, with their wonted prudence, guarded botli 
 against alienating their friends and furnishing arguments 
 to their enemies, either in England or Virginia. While, 
 therefore, they indicate to their constituents Hhe necessity 
 of their preparing for the preservation of their property, 
 " their inestimable rights and liberties," and regret that 
 they had been deprived of the opportunity of providing for 
 " the gallant officers and soldiers 1 who had lately defended 
 the country on the frontier, they, in the most emphatic terms, 
 assert their loyalty to the King, and their wish " to preserve 
 and strengthen the bands of amity" with their fellow-sub 
 jects in Great Britain. Thus closed a session which, though 
 it is not marked in the statute book by the passage of a 
 single law, is, by its agency in severing the ties of colonial 
 dependence, the most memorable of any under the regal 
 government. 
 
 It was fortunate for the cause of independence in Virginia 
 that the course pursued by the royal Governor, at this time, 
 was so little likely to inspire esteem or respect. It no 
 doubt contributed to sever the last ties of attachment to 
 England, and to eiface those sentiments of loyalty on which 
 the people of this " colony and dominion " had always prided 
 themselves. To this cause, too, may be ascribed, in part, 
 the unanimity which prevailed here, perhaps to a greater 
 extent than in any other state. A few of the Governor s 
 acts may be mentioned as a specimen of the rest, and as 
 presenting no unapt sample of the style in which the royal 
 dignity and authority were sometimes personated by the 
 colonial Governors. 
 
 The day after the gunpowder was removed, adverting to 
 
76 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the popular indignation it excited, he swore " by the living 
 God, that if a grain of powder was burnt at Captains Joy 
 or Collins, or if any injury or insult was offered to himself, 
 he would declare freedom to the slaves, and reduce Williams- 
 burg to ashes." Declarations of similar import he repeatedly 
 made. 
 
 The first reason assigned by him for the seizure of the 
 powder, in answer to the corporation of Williamsburg, was, 
 that he had heard of an insurrection in a neighbouring 
 county. The reason he afterwards assigned to the House 
 of Burgesses was, that " the magazine was an insecure de 
 pository ;" but he added, as soon as it was made secure, the 
 powder should be restored. And when he was subsequently 
 informed by the House that the magazine had been put in 
 repair, and was reminded of his promise, he replied, that 
 as he no longer resided in Williamsburg, he could not de 
 pend upon the security of the powder there, and that, more 
 over, as it had been received from the Rippon man-of-war, 
 he was accountable for it. By which flimsy and varying 
 excuses, he plainly showed that, in his unwillingness to avow 
 his real motive, he had no scruple about alleging a false 
 one. 
 
 In one of his messages concerning the powder, by way 
 of obtaining credit for the goodness of his motives, he told 
 the House that "he had once ventured, and, if occasion 
 offered, he would again venture, his life in the service of 
 the country." The House, in reply, expressed its sense of 
 his recent services ; but the answer having been delayed, 
 by his withdrawal from the seat of government, and the 
 messages to which it gave rise, his lordship reminded them 
 of the tardiness of their acknowledgments with as little 
 reserve as he had proclaimed his own merits. 
 
 The committee appointed by the House to inspect the 
 magazine, consisting of twenty-one members, called on him 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 77 
 
 for the keys, and, " to avoid mistakes," left with him a writ 
 ten paper, respectfully explaining their object and motives. 
 But because this paper, which purported to be from the 
 committee, was without date or signature, he affected not 
 to understand it, and actually wrote to the House the next 
 day to know whether it had authorized the application, and 
 this, too, after he had promised the committee " to furnish 
 the key as soon as he could procure it." 
 
 When the two Houses proposed, after he had left the 
 palace, that the arms there deposited should be removed to 
 the magazine, as in his absence they were " exposed to his 
 servants and to every rude invader," he told them they 
 were "interfering in a matter which did not belong to them," 
 and asked them who they meant by the term " rude in 
 vaders ?" 
 
 On the whole, the conduct of Lord Dunmore, after his 
 real character began to developc itself, was one tissue of 
 bullying and evasion, haughtiness and meanness. He often 
 dealt out threats which it was undignified to utter, and 
 would have been base to execute, but which, it too plainly 
 appeared, were not executed, because his talents and cou 
 rage were not equal lo his vengeful malignity; and he failed 
 in his promises yet more than in his threats. The vices of 
 his character were the more striking from the contrast pre 
 sented by the House of Burgesses. In language frank and 
 manly, but at the same time temperate and decorous, they 
 vindicated themselves and their constituents against all his 
 injurious imputations; they exposed his subterfuges and 
 inconsistencies, and proved his usurpations. The facts on 
 which they relied were derived either from his own messages, 
 or from testimony which could not be questioned. In argu 
 ment, as in acts, their triumph was complete. The extraor 
 dinary moderation and forbearance they exhibited in this 
 controversy, may in part be attributed to the habitual re- 
 
78 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 spect which was then paid to the representative of majesty, 
 and partly to the supposed importance of putting their 
 adversary in the wrong, and of securing the favour and 
 sympathy of the world : but after making allowance for 
 these considerations, the self-command with which the re 
 presentatives of a free and proud people bore the insolent 
 freaks and taunts of this lordly satrap, may well excite the 
 wonder of their descendants. 
 
 The remainder of Dunmore s inglorious career may now 
 be told. After the adjournment of the House of Burgesses, 
 he prepared to carry on offensive operations against the 
 colonists by all the means he possessed, and in this purpose 
 he seemed to be prompted more by a spirit of vengeance, 
 than by any hope of reducing the country to submission. 
 Having established his head-quarters at Norfolk, with the 
 small naval force under his command he greatly annoyed 
 the inhabitants who were settled on the bays and rivers, 
 by a predatory warfare ; and in November, he proclaimed 
 martial law throughout the colony, and executed his long- 
 threatened plan of giving freedom to all slaves who could 
 bear arms and would flock to his standard. But these 
 measures, though partially annoying, had the effect of irri 
 tating and rousing the people, rather than breaking their 
 spirit. The whole powers of legislation now devolved on 
 the Convention, while the executive functions were per 
 formed by a " committee of safety :" and after many pettv 
 enterprises and skirmishes, attended with various success, 
 and finally setting fire to Norfolk, he was compelled again 
 to take refuge in his ships, and, ere the middle of the 
 following year, the country was rid of him, together with 
 such of the tories and negroes, who had resorted to his 
 standard, as escaped the ravages of war and the small-pox. 
 
79 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Declaration by Congress of the causes of taking up arms. The mani 
 festos of Congress. Mr. Jefferson s share in those papers. Is re- 
 elected to Congress. His previous views on Independence. Pro 
 gress of Public Sentiment. Proceedings of the Virginia Con 
 vention. Declaration of Independence moved in Congress. Mr. 
 Jefferson prepares the draught. When adopted and signed. Its 
 character. He retires from Congress. Elected to the General 
 Assembly of Virginia. Abolition of entails Primogeniture. Their 
 effects considered. Church establishment in Virginia. Its gradual 
 abolition. Entire freedom of religion. Its consequences. 
 
 17751779. 
 
 IT was on the twenty-first day of June, 1775, that Mr. 
 Jefferson, then thirty-two years of age, took his seat in that 
 august body, on whose prudence and firmness hung the poli 
 tical destinies of British America. They had been in session 
 from the 10th of May preceding, in which time they had 
 formed the plan of a confederacy" 1 , under the name of The 
 United Colonies of North America, for their mutual defence 
 and common welfare, to take effect, when ratified by the 
 Provincial Assemblies, and to continue until their grievances 
 were redressed. They had also decided on raising an army ; 
 on creating a paper currency ; and had appointed Colonel 
 George Washington Commander-in-Chief of the confederate 
 forces. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s reputation, as a writer, had already pre 
 ceded him in this body, and, in five days after he had joined 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
80 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 it, we find him one of an important committee appointed 
 to prepare a declaration of the causes of taking up arms. 
 
 This committee was nominated on the 24th of June ; and 
 the first report they made not being approved, Mr. Jeffer 
 son and Mr. Dickinson were added to the committee. A 
 second address was drawn by Mr. Jefferson, but it being 
 too bold for Mr. Dickinson, who still hoped for a recon 
 ciliation with Great Britain, and who was greatly respected 
 both for his integrity and talents, he was requested to alter 
 the paper to his taste. This he did, by preparing a new 
 one, adopting, however, the concluding part of Mr. Jeffer 
 son s draught. It was accepted by the House ; and the 
 part furnished by Mr. Jefferson is here given, as a specimen 
 of his sentiments and diction at that time. 
 
 " We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an uncon 
 ditional submission to the tyranny of irritable ministers, 
 or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have 
 counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dread 
 ful as voluntary slavery. Honour, justice and humanity 
 forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received 
 from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent pos 
 terity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure 
 the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to 
 the wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely 
 entail hereditary bondage upon them. 
 
 " Our cause is just. Our union is perfect our internal 
 resources are great, and, if necessary, foreign assistance is 
 undoubtably attainable. We gratefully acknowledge, as 
 signal instances of the Divine favour towards us, that his 
 providence would not permit us to be called into this severe 
 controversy, until we were grown up to our present strength, 
 had been previously exercised in warlike operations, and 
 possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 81 
 
 fortified with these animating reflections, \ve most solemnly, 
 before God and the world, declare, that, exerting the utmost 
 energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath 
 graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been com 
 pelled by our enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of 
 every hazard, with unabated firmness and perseverance, 
 employ for the preservation of our liberties : being with 
 one mind, resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves. 
 
 " Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our 
 friends and fellow- subjects in any part of the empire, we 
 assure them, that we mean not to dissolve that union which 
 has so long and so happily subsisted between us, and which 
 we sincerely wish to see restored. Necessity has not yet 
 driven us into that desperate measure, or induced us to ex 
 cite any other nation to war against them. We have not 
 raised armies, with ambitious designs of separating from 
 Great Britain, and establishing independent states. We 
 fight not for glory, or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind 
 the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked 
 enemies, without any imputation, or even suspicion of offence. 
 They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer 
 no milder conditions than servitude or death. 
 
 " In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that 
 is our birth-right, and which we ever enjoyed until the late 
 violation of it ; for the protection of our property, acquired 
 solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and our 
 selves, against violence actually offered, we have taken up 
 arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease 
 on the part of the aggressors, and all danger of their being 
 renewed shall be removed, and not before. 
 
 " With an humble confidence in the mercies of the su 
 preme and impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we 
 most devoutly implore his divine goodness to conduct us 
 happily through this great conflict, to dispose our adversaries 
 
 VOL. i. G 
 
82 THE LTFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and thereby to relieve 
 the empire from the calamities of civil war*." 
 
 From more than one anecdote related in Mr. Jefferson s 
 autobiographical sketch, the pride of authorship relative to 
 the several public addresses which emanated from that 
 body, mingled itself with their grave and momentous deli 
 berations. Mr. Jefferson, on the authority of one of his 
 colleagues, had attributed the address to the people of Great 
 Britain, which issued from Congress the year before, to 
 Governor W. Livingston, and had told that gentleman he 
 regarded it as " the production of the finest pen in America." 
 But this coming to the ears of Mr. Jay, its author, he was 
 at some pains to set Mr. Jefferson right in the matter, and 
 to assert his claims to the paternity. So far as Mr. Jeffer 
 son shared in this feeling, it had frequent and ample cause 
 of gratification. On the 22nd of July, he was placed on a 
 committee with Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and Eichard 
 Henry Lee, to consider and report on Lord North s resolu 
 tions ; and as the answer of the Virginia Assembly, of which 
 he was known to be the author, met their views, he was se 
 lected by the committee to prepare the report. 
 
 The grounds taken in this paper are nearly the same as 
 those assumed in the Answer of the Virginia assembly to 
 Lord Dunmore. The diction, however, is altogether dif 
 ferent, and manifestly improved. This reply to what the 
 adherents of the British ministry had affected to style " the 
 olive branch of Lord North," was regarded in England as 
 the ultimatum of the American Congress. It asserts that 
 the colonies have the sole privilege of granting or withhold- 
 
 * It is not unworthy of notice that the above extract, adopted from 
 Mr. Jefferson s draught, is precisely that part of Mr. Dickinson s paper 
 which annalists have commonly quoted. It probably owes this dis 
 tinction, not wholly to its intrinsic superiority, but in part also to its har 
 monizing better with the issue of the contest. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 83 
 
 ing their own money, and that this involves the right of 
 determining its amount, and of inquiring into its application, 
 lest it should be wasted on the venal, or perverted to pur 
 poses dangerous to themselves : that consequently, to pro 
 pose to them to surrender this right, is to ask them to put 
 it in the power of Parliament to render their gifts ruinous 
 in proportion as they are liberal: that all history shows 
 the efficacy of this privilege of giving or withholding money 
 in checking lawless prerogative, and in obtaining a redress of 
 grievances : they showed that the propositions were insidious, 
 in tending to detach some of the colonies from the rest ; 
 as well as unreasonable, in inviting them to purchase the 
 favour of Parliament, without telling them the price : that 
 while they are offered permanent relief from one form of 
 taxation, it is only by perpetually subjecting themselves to 
 another : that the practice of Parliament itself, in granting 
 supplies only from year to year, shows that it does not 
 regard a perpetual grant of revenue as the best security for 
 the good dispositions of those who receive it : that Govern 
 ment, by accompanying its propositions with fleets and 
 armies, addresses itself to the fears of the colonies, which 
 course is the more unwarrantable from the liberality of 
 their former contributions for the common defence. They 
 insist that they cannot be justly required to make other 
 contributions while Great Britain possesses a monopoly of 
 their trade. They deny that Parliament had any right 
 to meddle with the provisions which they may choose to 
 make for their civil government, the power of the colonial 
 legislatures in America being, for this purpose, co-extensive 
 with that of the Parliament in Great Britain. They pro 
 nounce the proposition unsatisfactory, " because it imports 
 only suspension of the mode, not a renunciation of the 
 pretended right," and because it repeals none of the op 
 pressive statutes, but, on the contrary, has been followed 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by new acts of oppression. They say that the object seems 
 to have been to deceive the world into the belief that the 
 only dispute was about the mode of levying taxes, and that 
 Parliament having conceded this point to the colonies, they 
 ought now to be satisfied ; whereas it was about " a claim 
 which would leave them without any thing they could 
 call property ; and that a further object was " to lull into 
 fatal security their fellow-subjects * in Great Britain, until 
 America was reduced to submission. Referring them to 
 some special acts and avowals of the ministry, as proofs of 
 its settled hostility, they ask " if the world can think them 
 unreasonable," or " can hesitate to believe that nothing but 
 their own exertions can defeat the ministerial sentence of 
 death or abject submission." 
 
 Congress, two days afterwards, prepared a second ad 
 dress to the inhabitants of Great Britain, in a tone highly 
 indignant and expostulatory, without being offensive. The 
 second petition to the king, passed on the same day, was, 
 however, in a yet more suppliant style than that of the 
 preceding year*. The fact that Congress adopted a paper 
 so little in harmony with their feelings is attributed by Mr. 
 Jefferson to their high respect for Mr. Dickinson, who drew 
 this petition as well as the firstf . 
 
 |: These two petitions have been frequently confounded. 
 
 f The circumstance is thus explained in his memoirs : " Congress 
 gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their 
 great desire not to go too fast for any respectable part of our body, in 
 permitting him to draw their second petition to the king according to 
 his own ideas, and passing it with scarcely any amendment. The dis 
 gust against its humility was general ; and Mr. Dickinson s delight at 
 its passage was the only circumstance which reconciled them to it. The 
 vote being passed, although further observation on it was out of order, 
 he could not refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction, and 
 concluded by saying, there is but one word, Mr. President, in the 
 paper, which I disapprove, and that is the word Congress ; on 
 which Ben Harrison rose and said, " there is but one word in the paper, 
 Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the word Congress: " 
 
THE LIKE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 
 
 Let us now turn to the Convention of Virginia. The 
 delegates assembled at Richmond on the 17th* of July, as 
 they had agreed to do on the 24th of June, when they sepa 
 rated as members of the House of Burgesses. Being now 
 convinced that conciliation was hopeless, they proceeded to 
 adopt the most energetic measures for the public defence. 
 They decided on raising a regular force of between two and 
 three thousand men, and on arming and training about 
 eight thousand militia. They resorted to every practicable 
 expedient for procuring gunpowder, saltpetre, sulphur, and 
 other military stores, and they appointed a general com 
 mittee of safety, consisting of eleven persons, who con 
 stituted the executive power of the temporary government. 
 
 Amidst this busy preparation for resistance, two of their 
 acts deserve notice, less for their intrinsic importance than 
 because they afford evidence of the lofty spirit which ac 
 tuated these virtuous patriots, and which showed that neither 
 their resentment for injuries received, nor the pressure of 
 their necessities, could be permitted to warp their pure and 
 delicate sense of right. 
 
 The occasion of the first of these acts was as follows : 
 Some volunteer companies in Williamsburg had informed 
 the Convention that they " had resolved to secure all the 
 public money in the hands of the Receiver-General and other 
 collectors for his majesty," and they desired the opinion of 
 the Convention on the measure. Whereupon, that body 
 passed a resolution that " the proceedings of these com 
 panies, though they arose from the best motives, could not 
 be approved," and that they be required to desist from 
 their purpose. 
 
 In the other case, the Convention having ascertained 
 
 * Gerardin, p. 57. In the Life of Patrick Henry it is stated to be the 
 24th of July. I have aimed at accuracy in dates, as error in these is 
 sometimes sufficient to transpose cause and effect. 
 
86 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that the quantity of powder taken from the public magazine 
 by Lord Dunmore was less than had been at first supposed, 
 and consequently that the sum which Mr. Henry had ex 
 acted of the Receiver- General exceeded its value, resolved, 
 that of the 330/. so received, only 1121. 10s. should be re 
 tained, and the residue should be returned to the Receiver- 
 General. 
 
 On the 1 1th of August, Mr. Jefferson was again elected 
 a member of Congress for one year. His colleagues were 
 Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, 
 Thomas Nelson, George Wythe, and Francis Lightfoot 
 Lee, elected in the place of Richard Bland. Washington, 
 Henry, and Pendleton had resigned before the Convention 
 met, and Bland immediately after his re-election. The 
 result of this ballot shows how much Mr. Jefferson had 
 risen in public estimation. He was the third on the list, 
 and was only three votes behind Mr. Lee, and four behind 
 Mr. Randolph. 
 
 The Convention adjourned in September, and assembled 
 at Richmond, for the third time this year, on the 1st of 
 December. After a few days it again transferred its sittings 
 to Williamsburg. The place of President having become 
 vacant by the recent death of Peyton Randolph, while in 
 Congress, Edmund Pendleton was elected to that office, 
 which he held until the 5th of July following, when, by 
 the adoption of the Constitution, the functions of the Con 
 vention ceased. 
 
 Although it must have occurred to every reflecting mind 
 that the time would come when the British provinces on this 
 continent would attain a point of population which would 
 be inconsistent with a state of colonial dependence, yet that 
 period was regarded by all as very distant. Nor did those 
 who were most likely to wish a separation, dream that the 
 time was already come when the colonies were sufficiently 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87 
 
 strong to resist the mighty power of the mother country, 
 even if the people could be brought to desire it. Con 
 vinced of this fact, the efforts of the colonists, for the present, 
 aimed solely to prevent the further extension of British 
 power over them, both on account of its present incon 
 veniences, and for fear of its impeding or frustrating their 
 future independence. 
 
 While this intermediate period was passing, they were 
 content that their accustomed connexion with Great Britain 
 should continue, and they considered themselves compen 
 sated for the restrictions on their foreign commerce by the 
 powerful protection afforded by the British navy ; and under 
 the belief that they were neither strong enough to assert 
 their independence against the power of the parent state, 
 nor to maintain it afterwards, they, so far from wishing to 
 widen the breach between the two countries, exerted them 
 selves to bring about a reconciliation on the terms that they 
 thought not derogatory to a free people. Such were Mr. 
 Jefferson s sentiments. Though few of his countrymen 
 seem to have taken such liberal views of the claims of the 
 colonies, or to have formed with more jealousy and distrust 
 a standard of the power to which they could safely submit, 
 yet he appears to have sincerely wished to preserve the 
 former connexions between England and America, upon 
 what he conceived to be its proper principles. Some of his 
 correspondence, lately published, affords satisfactory evidence 
 of this fact. 
 
 Thus, in a letter to his former tutor and friend, Dr. Small, 
 then residing in Scotland, his native country, on the subjects 
 of the public discontents, and immediately after the battle 
 of Bunker Hill, he says : 
 
 " When I saw Lord Chatham s bill, I entertained high 
 hope that a reconciliation could have been brought about. 
 The difference between his terms and those offered by Con- 
 
88 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gross, might have been accommodated, if entered on, by both 
 parties, with a disposition to accommodate. But the dignity 
 of Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition." And in 
 a letter, dated August 25th, of the same year, to John 
 Randolph, who was then Attorney- General, and who, taking 
 sides with the government, was about to leave Virginia for 
 England, he says: " There maybe people to whose tem 
 pers contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a con 
 tinuance of confusion, but to me it is, of all states but one, 
 the most horrid. My first wish is for a restoration of our 
 just rights ; my second, a return of the happy period when, 
 consistently with duty, I may withdraw myself from the 
 public stage, and pass the rest of my days in domestic ease 
 and tranquillity, banishing every desire of hearing what 
 passes in the world. Perhaps, (for the latter adds con 
 siderably to the former wish,) looking with fondness towards 
 a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping 
 you may contribute towards expediting this good work." 
 He further remarks, " I would rather be in dependence on 
 Great Britain, properly limited, than on any nation upon 
 earth, or than on no nation. But I am one of those, too, 
 who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, 
 assumed by the British Parliament, and which late experi 
 ence has shown they will so cruelly exercise, would lend my 
 hand to sink the whole island in the ocean." And in a 
 subsequent letter to the same gentleman, dated November 
 29th, 1775, after intimating that the colonies were on the 
 eve of separation, he remarks : " Believe me, dear sir, there 
 is not in the British empire, a man who more cordially loves 
 a union with Great Britain than I do ; but, by the God 
 that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a con 
 nexion on such terms as the British Parliament propose ; 
 and in this, I think, I speak the sentiments of America. 
 We want neither inducement nor power to declare and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 89 
 
 assert a separation. It is will alone which is wanting, and 
 that is growing apace under the fostering hand of our king." 
 It is impossible to doubt the sincerity of these declarations, 
 accompanied, as they were, with frank expressions of resent 
 ment for alleged wrong, and avowals of intended resistance, 
 uttered to those whose sentiments on these points differed 
 from his own*. 
 
 From the time of the battle of Lexington, iri April, 1775, 
 the public mind throughout America had been preparing 
 for a separation ; and, in Virginia, the course pursued by 
 Lord Dunmore had for some time kept the people in a state 
 of feverish agitation, which provoked without intimidating, 
 and by a succession of indecisive skirmishes, familiarized 
 their minds to scenes of war, and greatly increased their 
 confidence in their own courage and military resources. 
 
 The Convention met for the fifth and the last time in 
 Williamsburg on the 6th of May ; and on the 15th of May, 
 1776, it took the bold and decisive step of instructing their 
 delegates in Congress, to propose to that body, to declare 
 the colonies independent of Great Britain ; and the Con 
 vention itself immediately set about a declaration of rights, 
 and a new Constitution for Virginia. In obedience to these 
 instructions, on Friday, the 7th of June, Richard Henry 
 Lee, by the request of his colleagues, moved that the Con 
 gress should declare, " that these United Colonies are, and 
 of right ought to be, free and independent states ; that they 
 are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and 
 that all political connexion between them and the state of G mat 
 Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures 
 
 * This view of the state of public sentiment at this time in America 
 is confirmed by the high testimony of the late Mr. Jay, in a letter from 
 him to Mr. Otis, the translator of Botta, who, substituting a train of 
 probable speculation for facts, had stated that the colonists wished for 
 independence long before the revolution. Jay s Life, vol. ii. p. 410. 
 
90 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 should immediately be taken for procuring the assistance of 
 foreign powers, and a confederation be formed to bind the 
 Colonies more closely together" 
 
 The consideration of the subject being postponed to the 
 next day, it was then taken up, and debated on that day, 
 Saturday, and the following Monday, by Messrs. J. Adams, 
 Richard H. Lee, Wythe, and some others, in favour of the 
 proposition ; and by Messrs. Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, 
 Edward Rutledge, Dickinson, and others, against it; whose 
 objections, however, went rather to the time than to the 
 measure itself. As six of the colonies, to wit : New York, 
 New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South 
 ) Carolina, were not yet prepared for this bold step, it was 
 thought prudent to delay a decision for a short time, the 
 first of July; but, meanwhile, to prevent unnecessary delay, 
 a committee was appointed to prepare, by way of manifesto, 
 a Declaration of Independence. 
 
 This committee consisted of Thomas Jefferson, John 
 Adams, of Massachusetts, Dr. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, 
 Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston, 
 of New York. The committee being, as usual, appointed 
 by ballot, and Mr. Jefferson having received the highest 
 number of votes, was selected by the other members to 
 make the draught. He accordingly undertook it* ; and 
 thus became the author of the most memorable public 
 document which history records one with which his name 
 has become so intimately associated, that it would alone be 
 sufficient to keep that name fresh in the recollections of his 
 countrymen to the latest posterity. 
 
 Mr. Lee would, no doubt, have been placed on this committee ; and, 
 according to the established usage towards the mover of a resolution, 
 have been its chairman, had he not obtained leave of absence that day, 
 in consequence of having received intelligence, by express, of the dan 
 gerous illness of some member of his family in Virginia. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91 
 
 Before the original draught was submitted to the whole 
 committee, it was shown, by its author, to Dr. Franklin and 
 Mr. Adams, both of whom contented themselves with two or 
 three verbal alterations*. 
 
 The committee having reported the declaration on the 
 28th of June, it was read, and ordered to lie on the table. 
 On Monday, the first of July, the subject was taken up, was 
 discussed in the committee of the whole, and carried in the 
 committee, on the same day, by the votes of nine states. 
 Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted against it. Dela 
 ware was divided, and the delegates from New York, having 
 been chosen when reconciliation was the general wish of 
 their constituents, and been therefore enjoined to do nothing 
 to impede that object, asked leave to withdraw. 
 
 On the resolution being reported by the committee to the 
 house, the delegates from South Carolina requested a post 
 ponement of the question to the next day, as, though dis 
 approving the resolution, they might then vote for it, for 
 the sake of unanimity. This was done, and, on the following 
 day, South Carolina concurred with the majority, as also did 
 Delaware, by the arrival of a third delegate, who voted in 
 favour of the resolution. The vote of Pennsylvania was 
 also changed, by a change in her delegates that morning; 
 and thus twelve states voted in favour of the resolution on 
 the 2nd of July ; and on the 9th, the approbation of the 
 Convention of New York completed the consent of the 
 thirteen states. 
 
 On the same day, the 2nd of July, the Declaration of 
 Independence, which had been reported on the 2Sth of 
 June, and referred to the committee of the whole on the 1st 
 
 * Mr. Adams s recollections, as stated to Mr. Pickering, in his letter 
 of August 2, 1822, differ somewhat from Mr. Jefferson s, which I have 
 followed. See Jeff. Corr. IV. p. 375. 
 
92 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of July, was considered, and either from motives of policy, 
 or a disposition not to offend the friends of America in 
 England, those passages were struck out which conveyed 
 censures on the people of that country. The clause too 
 reprobating the slave trade was struck out in complaisance 
 to South Carolina and Georgia. The passages erased 
 amount altogether to something less than one-third of 
 the original draught. There were also some slight alter 
 ations in the parts retained*. The debate was continued 
 through the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th of July, and on the evening 
 of the last day, was reported by the committee of the whole, 
 agreed to by the house, and signed by every member pre 
 sent, except Mr. Dickinson. Of the Pennsylvania delegation, 
 consisting of seven members, only three had signed Dr. 
 Franklin, John Morton, and James Wilson ; Robert Morris 
 
 * It was during this debate, that Dr. Franklin, sitting beside Mr. 
 Jefferson, and, observing him " writhing a little under the acrimonious 
 criticisms on some of its parts," told him, by way of comfort, the story 
 of John Thomson, the hatter, which is too characteristical of Franklin s, 
 love of apologue, as well as of his success in that way, to be omitted 
 " When he was a young man, he said a friend of his, who was about to 
 set up in business for himself, as a hatter, consulted his acquaintances 
 on the important subject of his sign." The one he had proposed to 
 himself was this : " John Thomson, hatter, makes and sells hats for 
 ready money," with the sign of a hat. The first friend whose advice he 
 asked, suggested that the word " hatter " was entirely superfluous, to 
 which he readily agreeing, it was struck out. The next remarked, that 
 it was unnecessary to mention that he required " ready money" for his 
 hats few persons wishing credit for an article of no more cost than 
 a hat, or if they did, he might sometimes find it advisable to give it. 
 These words were accordingly struck out ; and the sign then stood, 
 " John Thomson makes and sells hats." A third friend who was con 
 sulted, observed, that when a man looked to buy a hat, he did not care 
 who made it ; on which, two more words were stricken out. On showing 
 to another the sign thus abridged to "John Thomson sells hats;" he 
 exclaimed, " Why who the devil will expect you to give them away ?" 
 On which cogent criticism, two more words were expunged ; and nothing 
 of the original sign was left but " John Thomson," with the sign of the 
 hat. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93 
 
 was accidentally absent; Willing- and Humphreys had 
 withdrawn, and Dickinson refused to sign. The Conven 
 tion of Pennsylvania, then in session in Philadelphia, there 
 fore, on the 20th of July, appointed a new delegation, 
 consisting of the three members who had signed, of Morris, 
 and five new members, to wit : Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor, 
 and Ross, all of whom were permitted to sign. The dele 
 gates from New York, on the 9th, received authority from 
 their Convention to sign, and they signed on the 15th. 
 
 Dr. Thornton, of New Hampshire, who had been ap 
 pointed in September, in the room of John Langdon, did 
 not take his seat until the 4th of November, when he also 
 was permitted to sign. 
 
 In the accounts which have been published of this memo 
 rable act, there has been some slight discordance, occasioned, 
 probably, by confounding the proceedings on the resolution 
 offered by Virginia with those which took place on adopting 
 the Declaration, and also by the circumstance that the first 
 signatures were made to the paper on the 4th of July ; but 
 after it was engrossed on parchment it was again signed by 
 most of the members on the 2nd of August, and, at dif 
 ferent intervals afterwards, by the rest. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s attention was called to these discrepancies 
 by Samuel A. Wells, Esq., of Boston, in 1819, and he there 
 gives the particulars, agreeing with the foregoing statement. 
 His account seems entitled to all credit ; first, because he 
 took notes of what was passing at the time, which those, 
 whose accounts differ from his, do not ay^pear to have done; 
 secondly, because, having been the draughtsman of the 
 Declaration, he was likely to have given it a closer attention 
 than any one else ; and lastly, from his general habits of 
 accuracy, and his satisfactory explanations of the errors of 
 others. 
 
 On the merits of this paper it is not necessary to dilate. 
 
94 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 It is consecrated in the affections of Americans, and praise 
 may seem as superfluous as censure would be unavailing. 
 Yet, as it has been sometimes criticised, it may be remarked, 
 that it seems entitled to every merit which such a paper 
 could well possess. It appeals to the sympathies of mankind, 
 but is still more addressed to their understandings. Had it 
 been more argumentative, it would have shown a want of 
 confidence in the justice of its cause ; had it been less so, it 
 would have been inconsistent with the respect it professed 
 for the opinions of the world. A loftier strain of eloquence 
 would have accorded neither with the solemnity of the oc 
 casion, nor the grave and sober character of the American 
 people, who acted not under the sudden impulse of feeling, 
 but from the deliberate conviction of reason. The language 
 too is suited to this tone of manly dignity. It is sufficiently 
 elevated without being declamatory, and familiar, without 
 being low. It has been said to want condensation ; but 
 greater brevity might have given it an air of flippancy and 
 affectation on the one hand, or of languor and coldness on 
 the other. True eloquence sometimes amplifies, and some 
 times compresses. Upon the whole, we may say, after a 
 close but candid examination of this paper, that it well 
 deserves the commendations it has so generally received, 
 and that it may claim no mean praise for the seductive 
 faults it avoids, as well as the beauties it contains*. 
 
 From this time, Mr. Jefferson ranked among the fore 
 most of the American statesmen. He was placed on the 
 most important committees, and his pen was called upon, 
 as indeed it had been the year beforcf, to discharge some 
 of the ministerial, as well as legislative functions of Congress. 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson was thus engaged in the great con 
 cerns of the confederacy, he was not unmindful of what was 
 
 * See Appendix B. t See Appendix C. 
 
THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 95 
 
 passing in Virginia. Knowing that they were engaged in 
 framing a Constitution for the state, he prepared the draught 
 of one, with a preamble reciting the grievances of the colo 
 nies and the acts of misrule in the King and Parliament, 
 which he transmitted to his friend Mr. Wythe. But the 
 Constitution proposed by George Mason* had been adopted, 
 in committee, before Mr. Jefferson s arrived, and was after 
 wards, with little alteration, adopted by the house. They, 
 however, accepted Mr. Jefferson s preamble, which is nearly 
 the same as the recital of wrongs in the Declaration of In 
 dependence. 
 
 The Convention, on the 12th of June, adopted a Declara 
 tion of Rights, and on the 29th, a Constitution, the first in any 
 of the states, which was framed with a view to a permanent 
 separation from Great Britain, since that of South Carolina 
 and New Hampshire, which alone preceded it, was to conti 
 nue only until a reconciliation took place between the mother 
 country and the colonies. 
 
 Before their adjournment, on the 5th of July, they had 
 re-elected Mr. Jefferson to Congress for another term, al 
 though he had intimated a wish to retire. As soon as he 
 was informed of his re-election, he wrote to the President of 
 the Convention, that " the situation of his domestic affairs 
 rendered it indispensably necessary that he should solicit 
 the substitution of some other person in his room." He says 
 that he had a further inducement to this step, in his wish to 
 
 * Of this gentleman, Mr. Jefferson gives the following forcible, and, 
 as it is believed, just sketch. He was "of the first order of wisdom 
 among those who acted on the theatre of the Revolution, of expansive 
 mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our 
 former Constitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic 
 principles. His elocution was neither flowing nor smooth; but his 
 language was strong, his manner most impressive, and strengthened by 
 a dash of biting criticism, where provocation made it seasonable." 
 1 Jeff. Mem. p. 33. 
 
96 THE LIKE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 assist in reforming the municipal code of Virginia, under the 
 new Constitution. He accordingly withdrew from Congress 
 on the 2nd of September, returned to Virginia, and, in 
 October, sent in a formal resignation. Mr. Harrison was 
 appointed his successor. 
 
 On the 30th of September, Congress gave him a distin 
 guished mark of their confidence and esteem by appointing 
 him a joint commissioner or envoy to France, with Dr. 
 Franklin and Silas Dcane ; and it seems probable, that this 
 appointment would have induced him to forego his schemes 
 of legislative reform, if the situation of Mrs. Jefferson had 
 not been such, that his affection would not permit him either 
 to take her with him, or to leave her behind. 
 
 The Legislature of his native state, to which he had been 
 elected, in his absence, for the county of Albemarle, afforded 
 an ample field for his talents, industry, and devotion to 
 liberal principles. Much was to be done to adapt the laws 
 to the forms and the spirit of the new government; and 
 many changes for the better would present themselves to 
 one, who, like Mr. Jefferson, was familiar with the existing 
 code, who felt an ardent zeal for improvement, and whose 
 mind was enlarged by philosophy. He accordingly took the 
 lead in the work of reformation. 
 
 On the llth of October, three days after he had taken his 
 seat, he brought in a bill for the establishment of Courts of 
 Justice, which was subsequently approved by the house, and 
 passed. Three days afterwards, he introduced a bill to con 
 vert estates in tail into fee simple. This he avows was a 
 blow at the aristocracy of Virginia. 
 
 In that colony, in the earlier periods of its history, large 
 grants of land had been obtained from the crown by a few 
 favoured individuals, which had been preserved in their 
 families by means of entails, so as to have formed by degrees 
 a patrician class among the colonists. These modes of con- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 97 
 
 tinuing the same estates in the same family found a protec 
 tion here which they could not obtain in the mother country; 
 for, by an act passed in the year 1705, the practice of dock 
 ing entails, which had previously prevailed in Virginia, as in 
 England, was expressly prohibited ; and whenever the pecu 
 liar exigencies of a family made it necessary that this re 
 straint on alienation should be done away, it could be 
 effected only by a special act of Assembly. 
 
 The class which thus provided for the perpetuation of its 
 wealth, also monopolized the civil honours of the colony. The 
 counsellors of the state were selected from it, by reason of 
 which the whole body commonly had a strong bias in favour 
 of the crown, in all questions between popular right and 
 regal prerogative. It is but an act of justice to this class to 
 state, that although some of them might have been timid 
 and hesitating in the dispute with the mother country dis 
 posed to drain the cup of conciliation to the dregs yet, 
 others were among the foremost in patriotic self-devotion and 
 generous sacrifices ; and there was but a small proportion of 
 them who were actually lories, as those who sided with 
 Great Britain were then denominated. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was probably influenced less by a regard to 
 the conduct of the wealthy families in the contest, than by 
 the general reason which he thus gives : " to annul this pri 
 vilege, and, instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm 
 and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for 
 the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely 
 provided for the direction of the interests of society, and 
 scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was 
 deemed essential to a well-ordered republic." 
 
 The repeal of this law was effected not without a struggle. 
 It was opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who, both from age and 
 temper, was cautious of innovation; and who, finding some 
 change inevitable, proposed to modify the law so far, as to 
 
 VOL. i. n 
 
98 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 give to the tenant in tail the power of conveying* in fee 
 simple. This would have left the entail in force, where the 
 power of abolishing it was not exercised ; and he was, within 
 a few votes, of saving so much of the old law. 
 
 This law, and another subsequently introduced by Mr. 
 Jefferson, to abolish the^ preference given to the male sex, 
 and to the first-born, under the English common law, have 
 effectually answered their intended purpose of destroying the 
 gross inequality of fortunes which formerly prevailed in Vir 
 ginia. They have not merely altered the distribution of 
 that part of the landed property, which is transmitted to 
 surviving relatives by the silent operation of law, but they 
 have also operated on public opinion, so as to influence the 
 testamentary disposition of it by the proprietors, without 
 which last effect the purpose of the Legislature might have 
 been readily defeated. The cases are now very rare, in 
 which a parent makes, by his will, a much more unequal dis 
 tribution of his property among his children than the law 
 itself would make. It is thus that laws, themselves the 
 creatures of public opinion, often powerfully react on it. 
 
 The effects of this change in the distribution of property 
 are very visible. There is no longer a class of persons pos 
 sessed of large inherited estates, who, in a luxurious and 
 ostentatious style of living, greatly exceed the rest of the 
 community : a much larger number of those who are wealthy 
 have acquired their estates by their own talents or enterprise ; 
 and most of these last are commonly content with reaching 
 the average of that more moderate standard of expense 
 which public opinion requires, rather than the higher scale 
 which it tolerates. 
 
 Thus, there were formerly many in Virginia who drove a 
 coach and six, and now such an equipage is never seen. 
 There were probably twice or three times as many four- 
 horse carriages before the revolution as there are at present ; 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 
 
 but the number of two-horse carriages may be now ten, or 
 even twenty times as great as at the former period. A few 
 families too could boast of more plate than can now be met 
 with ; but the whole quantity in the country has increased 
 twenty, if not fifty fold. 
 
 Some nice but querulous observers have thought that they 
 perceived a correspondent change in the manners and intel 
 lectual cultivation of the two periods ; and while they admit, 
 that the mass of the people may be now less gross, and more 
 intelligent than the backwoodsman, the tobacco-roller *, or 
 the rustic population generally, under the regal government, 
 yet they insist, that we now have no such class as that which 
 formerly constituted the Virginia gentleman, of chivalrous 
 honour, and polished manners at once, high-minded, li 
 beral, delicate, and munificent ; and that, as to mental culti 
 vation, our best educated men, of the present day, cannot 
 compare with the Lees, the Randolphs, the Jeffersons, Pen- 
 dletons, and Wythes, of that period. 
 
 This comparison, however, cannot easily be made with 
 fairness ; for there are few who have lived long enough to 
 compare the two periods, and those few are liable to be 
 biassed on one side or the other, according to their early 
 predilections and peculiar tastes. But apart from these 
 individual influences, there is a general one to which we 
 are all exposed. Time throws a mellow light over our 
 recollections of the past, by which their beauties acquire 
 a more touching softness, and their harsher parts are thrown 
 
 * The tobacco was formerly not transported in wagons, as at present, 
 but by a much simpler process. The hogshead, in which it was packed, 
 had a wooden pin driven into each head, to which were adjusted a pair of 
 rude shafts, and thus, in the way of a garden roller, it was drawn to 
 market by horses. Those who followed this business of tobacco rolling 
 formed a class by themselves hardy, reckless, proverbially rude, and 
 often indulging in coarse humour, at the expense of the traveller, who 
 chanced to be well dressed, or riding in a carriage. 
 
 H2 
 
100 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 into shade. Who that consults his reason can believe, if 
 those scenes of his early days, to which he most fondly looks 
 back, were again placed before him, that he would again 
 see them, such as memory depicts them ? His more dis 
 criminating eye, and his less excitable sensibility, would now 
 see faults which then escaped his inexperience, and he would 
 look tranquilly, if not with indifference, on what had once 
 produced an intoxication of delight. Yet, such is the com 
 parison which every one must make between the men and 
 things of his early and his later life ; and the traditionary 
 accounts of a yet earlier period are liable to the same ob 
 jection, for they all originate with those who describe what 
 they remember, rather than what they actually observed. 
 We must, therefore, make a liberal allowance for this com 
 mon illusion, when we are told of the superior virtues and 
 accomplishments of our ancestors. 
 
 The intellectual comparison may be more satisfactorily 
 made. While it is admitted, that Virginia could, at the 
 breaking out of the Revolution, boast of men that would 
 hold a respectable rank in any society ; yet, after making 
 allowance for the spirit-stirring occasion which then called 
 forth all their talents and faculties, there seems to be no 
 reason to suppose that there is any inferiority in the pre 
 sent generation. It must be recollected, that by the more 
 general diffusion of the benefits of education, and the con 
 tinued advancement of mental culture, we have a higher 
 standard of excellence in the present day than formerly; 
 and in the progressive improvement which our country has 
 experienced in this particular, the intellectual efforts which, 
 in one century confer distinction, would, in that which suc 
 ceeds it, scarcely attract notice. It may be safely said, that 
 a well written newspaper essay would have then conferred 
 celebrity on its author, and a pamphlet would have been 
 regarded as great an achievement in letters as an octavo 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 
 
 volume at present. Nor does there pass any session of 
 the Legislature, without calling forth reports and speeches, 
 which exhibit a degree of ability and political information, 
 that would, forty years ago, have made the author s name 
 reverberate from one end of British America to the other. 
 The supposed effects of this change in the distribution 
 of property, in deteriorating manners, an^jl lowering the 
 standard of intellectual merit, may then well be called in 
 question. 
 
 Another law, materially affecting the polity of the state, 
 and the condition of society, owes it origin, in part, to Mr. 
 Jefferson. This was the act to abolish the church establish 
 ment, and to put all religious sects on a footing. The means 
 of effecting this change were very simple. They were merely 
 to declare, that no man should be compelled to support 
 any preacher ; but should be free to choose his sect, and 
 to regulate his contribution for the support of that sect, at 
 pleasure. 
 
 From the first settlement of Virginia, the Church of 
 England had been established in the colonies. The inha 
 bited parts were laid off into parishes, in each of which was 
 a minister, who had a fixed salary, in tobacco, together with 
 a glebe and parsonage-house. There was a general assess 
 ment on all the inhabitants, to meet the expenses. Mr. 
 Jefferson thus explains the success of rival sects : "In pro 
 cess of time, however, other sectarisms were introduced, 
 chiefly of the Presbyterian family ; and the established 
 clergy, secure for life in their glebes and salaries, adding 
 to these generally the emoluments of a classical school, found 
 employment enough in their farms and school-rooms for 
 the rest of the week, and devoted Sunday only to the edi 
 fication of their flock, by service, and a sermon at their 
 parish church. Their other pastoral functions were little 
 attended to. Against this inactivity, the zeal and industry 
 
102 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of sectarian preachers had an open and undisputed field ; 
 and by the time of the Revolution,, a majority* of the in 
 habitants had become dissenters from the established church, 
 but were still obliged to pay contributions to support the 
 pastors of the minority. This unrighteous compulsion, to 
 maintain teachers of what they deemed religious errors, was 
 grievously felt during the regal government, and without 
 a hope of relief. 7 
 
 The successive steps by which an institution, which was 
 deeply rooted in the affections of many of the principal 
 citizens, was deprived of its power and property, without 
 disturbing the public tranquillity, may be not unworthy of 
 notice. 
 
 In the bill of rights which was drawn by George Mason, 
 June 12, 1776, the principle of religious freedom is distinctly 
 asserted in the last article, which declares, " that religion, 
 or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner 
 of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and con 
 viction, not by force or violence ; and, therefore, all men 
 are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according 
 to the dictates of conscience." But the Constitution itself, 
 passed June 29th, is silent on the subject of religion, ex 
 cept that it renders " all ministers of the gospel" incapable 
 of being members of either house of Assembly, or of the 
 Executive Council. 
 
 At the first session of the Legislature, in the same year, 
 under the new Constitution, numerous petitions were re 
 ceived for abolishing the general assessment for the estab 
 lished church ; and, at this session, Mr. Jefferson draughted 
 and supported a law for the relief of the dissenters, which, 
 he says, brought on the severest contests in which he was 
 ever engaged. Here, too, he encountered the formidable 
 
 * This probably greatly overrates their number. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 
 
 opposition of Mr. Pendleton, and Mr. R. C. Nicholas, both 
 zealous churchmen. The bill finally passed ; but modified 
 by its opponents. It declared all acts of Parliament, which 
 prescribe or punish the maintenance of any opinions in mat 
 ters of religion; the forbearing to repair to church, or the 
 exercising any mode of worship whatsoever, to be of no 
 validity within the Commonwealth it exempts dissenters 
 from all contributions for the support of the established 
 church; and, as this exemption might, in some places, make 
 the support of the clergy too burthensome on the members 
 of the church, it suspends, till the end of the succeeding 
 session, all acts which provide salaries for the clergy, (except 
 as to arrears then due,) and leaves them to voluntary con 
 tributions. But, at the same time, it reserves to the estab 
 lished church its glebe lands, and other property, and it 
 defers " to the discussion and final determination of a future 
 Assembly," the question, whether every one should not be 
 subjected by law to a general assessment for the support 
 of the pastor of his choice ; or " every religious society 
 should be left to voluntary contributions." The church 
 party had previously succeeded so far as to obtain a decla 
 ration in committee, " that religious assemblies ought to be 
 regulated, and that provision ought to be made for con 
 tinuing the succession of the clergy, and superintending 
 their conduct." 
 
 In the two following years, the question of providing for 
 the ministers of religion by law, or leaving it to individual 
 contributions, was renewed ; but the advocates of the latter 
 plan were only able to obtain, at each session, a suspension 
 of those laws which provided salaries for the clergy the 
 natural progress in favour of liberal sentiments being coun 
 terbalanced by the fact, that some of the dissenting sects, 
 with the exception of the Baptists, satisfied with having 
 been relieved from a tax which they felt to be both unjust 
 
104 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and degrading, had no objection to a general assessment ; 
 and, on this question, voted with the friends of the church. 
 But the advocates of religious freedom finally prevailed, 
 and after five suspending acts, the laws for the support of 
 the clergy were, at the second session of 1779, unconditionally 
 repealed. And although Mr. Jefferson was not then a 
 member of the Legislature, it is probable that his influence, 
 as Governor of the Commonwealth, was efficiently exerted 
 towards its repeal. But to protect the rights of conscience, 
 it was not deemed enough to remove past injustice, it was 
 also thought prudent to prevent its recurrence. Among 
 the bills, therefore, reported by the revisers, was the cele 
 brated act of religious freedom drawn by Mr. Jefferson, 
 which not merely re-asserts the principles of religious liberty 
 contained in the bill of rights, but aims to give them per 
 manence, by an argument equally clear, simple, and con 
 clusive*. 
 
 This bill, with many others, was not acted upon by the 
 Legislature for several years ; but, in the mean time, the 
 friends of the Episcopal church prepared to make one more 
 effort to recover a portion of its ancient privileges by a ge 
 neral assessment. Their first object was to get an act of 
 incorporation for the church, to enable it the better to retain 
 and defend the large property it held, as well as to facilitate 
 further acquisitions. A resolution having passed by a large 
 majority, in favour of incorporating " all societies of the 
 Christian religion" which desired it, leave was immediately 
 given to bring in a bill " to incorporate the Protestant 
 Episcopal church," by which the minister and vestry, in 
 each parish, were made a body corporate, for holding and 
 acquiring property, and regulating the concerns of the 
 church, and which finally passed into a law. The plan of 
 
 * See Appendix D. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 
 
 a general assessment met with more difficulty. The petitions 
 which had been got up among the people gave it the show 
 of popularity, and it received the powerful aid of Patrick 
 Henry s eloquence. Thus supported, it seemed likely to 
 obtain a majority, when those who were opposed to the 
 measure, on principle, for the purpose of gaining time, pro 
 posed to refer the matter to the people, before the Legis 
 lature acted on it, and they succeeded in postponing it. 
 George Mason, George Nicholas, and others of this party, 
 then proposed to Mr. Madison, to prepare a remonstrance 
 to the next Legislature against the assessment, to be cir 
 culated through the state for signatures. This was done, 
 and the paper which he prepared, exhibiting the same candid, 
 dispassionate and forcible reasoning, which has ever cha 
 racterized the productions of his pen, convinced those who 
 before doubted, so that there was a general disapprobation 
 of the measure among all sects and parties ; and at the next 
 session, the table could scarcely hold the petitions and re 
 monstrances against the proposed assessment. Such a 
 manifestation of public opinion was not to be resisted. The 
 measure was abandoned, and Mr. Jefferson s bill, with some 
 slight alterations, was then passed, without difficulty. 
 
 To conclude this history of religious establishments in 
 Virginia : the law could not fairly claim the praise of im 
 partiality, so long as a single church had the benefits of 
 incorporation ; and the injustice was the greater, if, as the 
 other sects maintained, most of the large property it held it 
 owed to the public bounty. In two years afterwards, the act 
 allowing religious incorporations was repealed, but with a 
 saving to all religious societies of the property they possessed, 
 with the right of appointing trustees for its management. 
 In 1799, all these laws, as well as those made for the benefit 
 of the dissenters and the church, were repealed, as incon 
 sistent with the bill of rights, and the principles of religious 
 
106 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 freedom and lastly, in 1801, the overseers of the poor, in 
 each county, were authorized to sell all its glebe lands, as 
 soon as they shall become vacant by the death or removal 
 of the incumbents for the time ; but reserving the rights of 
 all private donations before 1777. By the execution of this 
 act, the last vestige of legal privilege which this church had 
 over other sects was completely eradicated. 
 
 Before this experiment of the entire freedom of religion 
 was made, philosophical sagacity had foreseen that if there 
 were numerous religious sects in a country, all equal in the 
 eye of the law, they would live together in more harmony 
 with one another, and be less likely to disturb the public 
 peace, than where there was an established church, armed 
 with the power of the law, to repress dangerous heresies, 
 and to control rival sects. That principle has been com 
 pletely verified by the experience of the United States. 
 The ministers of the different persuasions live here, if not 
 in fraternal concord, at least with all the outward signs of 
 peace ; and the public witnesses no other consequence of 
 their diversity in sentiment than in the general emulation 
 for popular favour. This emulation has, however, produced 
 another effect which was not expected. It was supposed by 
 some that the experiment was likely to result in the general 
 decline of religion. They said, that if the support of the 
 ministers of religion and the teachers of its doctrines are left 
 to depend on voluntary contributions, these would commonly 
 be inadequate and precarious : that although the fervour of 
 new-born zeal may occasionally call forth sufficient liberality, 
 it cannot be expected to prevail permanently against a 
 feeling so steady and powerful with the mass of mankind, as 
 the love of property; and that the ministers, worse and 
 worse paid, would lessen in number, and deteriorate in 
 quality, until they fell into insignificance and utter disgrace : 
 that nothing but the resistless force of law can extract from 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 
 
 the community the means of supporting an adequate and 
 respectable ministry ; and consequently, for religion to be 
 permanent, it must be established and maintained by legal 
 authority. Yet, contrary to this plausible reasoning, it is 
 found that the emulation produced among the several sects, 
 since they have all been put on an equal footing, has the 
 effect of increasing their fervour, their sanctity, and exertions, 
 which again produce a correspondent effect on the commu 
 nity. They all find, that it is only by being more orthodox 
 expounders of the scriptures, by having more of the unction 
 of piety, by more cogent reasoning, or more persuasive 
 eloquence, that they can extend the influence of their par 
 ticular sect, as well as increase their individual fame. There 
 is, therefore, an energy, and an extensive diffusion of re 
 ligious sentiment at this time, which was unknown before 
 the Revolution, and it has been for some years on the in 
 crease. It is true, that the rewards of its ministers are more 
 moderate than they probably would be if there was an 
 establishment, and less than in any of the nations of Europe ; 
 but it is still found sufficient to keep up an adequate number 
 of preachers, aided as it is by the additional zeal and piety 
 which this state of things calls forth : and if many individuals 
 now pay nothing, or very little towards the support of a 
 minister, there are some who contribute more liberally than 
 they might be required to do under an establishment. 
 
 There is another consequence to be observed from this 
 entire freedom of religion in the United States, and its de 
 pendence on the public favour for support. The emulation 
 for popularity is not confined to the different sects, but even 
 extends to the members of the same church ; and their 
 rivalships sometimes proceed so far as to divide the same 
 sect in the same town into two parts, forming distinct con 
 gregations, under separate pastors, and assembling in sepa 
 rate churches. Occasionally, the seceders lay the foundation 
 
108 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 for a new sect, which being propagated by zeal and talent, 
 comes in time to rival its parent in numbers and influence. 
 It is for time to show how far this course of ramification will 
 be extended, and what will be its remote effects on the 
 cause of religion generally. 
 
 In October, of this year, Mr. Jefferson having a regard to 
 the present centre of population which was steadily travel 
 ling westwardly, as well as the exposure of Williamsburg to 
 the incursions of an enemy, proposed to remove the seat of 
 government sixty miles farther west, to Richmond. But 
 this measure, like the preceding, was in advance of public 
 opinion, and did not prevail until three years afterwards. 
 
109 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson proposes a general revision of the laws. Appointed one of 
 the Committee. His objections to Codification. Distribution of the 
 labour. Character of the Revisal. Edmund Pendleton. Criminal 
 Law. James Madison. The right of Expatriation declared. Sys 
 tem of Education. Jefferson s opinions on Slavery. Arguments 
 for and against the practicability of Emancipation. His hospitable 
 and humane attentions to the English prisoners quartered in Al- 
 bemarle. Prevents their removal from the county. 
 
 17771779. 
 
 ONE of the first measures which Mr. Jefferson had pro 
 posed at this session, was a general revision of the laws, for 
 the purpose of adapting them to the new form of govern 
 ment, as well as of introducing particular ameliorations. 
 The plan was adopted by the house ; and early in Novem 
 ber, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason, 
 Thomas L. Lee, were appointed a committee, with him, for 
 its execution. The committee met at Fredericksburg, in 
 January, 1777, to settle their plan of proceeding, and to 
 distribute to each one his part of the work. The first ques 
 tion they discussed was, whether they would recommend the 
 substitution of an entirely new code for the existing system 
 of laws, or merely a modification of the latter, to suit the 
 present circumstances of the country a question which 
 must recur, after certain intervals, in all free and civilized 
 communities; and, in deciding which, men are reduced, as 
 in many other matters of human policy, to a choice of evils. 
 
 Under the best digested and most cautiously worded code 
 that the wit of man could devise, cases w r ould soon arise in 
 which the application of the rule of law would be uncertain ; 
 
110 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sometimes by reason of inherent uncertainty of language, 
 and sometimes because the legislatures did not foresee those 
 cases, or deemed them too unimportant to be provided for. 
 At other times, the case, though clearly within the words of 
 the statute, is yet accompanied with such peculiar circum 
 stances, that it seems doubtful, to those whose duty it is to 
 administer the law, whether it is within the spirit and in 
 tention of the rule. And lastly, a case may appear to be 
 comprehended within two different and incompatible rules, 
 and the question is, which is to prevail. In all of these 
 contingencies, we must find our way through the labyrinth 
 of uncertainty, by arguments drawn from analogy, or con 
 siderations of public utility, or the presumed intention of the 
 framer, in the application of which, there is great scope for 
 difference of opinion. Hence has arisen the proverbial 
 uncertainty of law, invariably incidental to all codes ; and 
 hence, the numerous judicial decisions by which the clear 
 omissions of the Legislature are supplied, and their ambigui 
 ties explained. But every new adjudication makes a new 
 rule of action, or right ; and when, in process of time, these 
 decisions have been greatly multiplied, a new evil arises 
 from this very multiplicity, both from the nicety of the prin 
 ciples which they have settled, and from the difficulty of 
 reconciling some of the rules with others on kindred subjects, 
 so as to erect the knowledge of such multifarious rules into 
 a separate science, which it requires the acutest intellect, and 
 the study of a whole life to understand. 
 
 For the purposes of abridging this labour, of making the 
 laws intelligible to a greater number, and of removing much 
 of this uncertainty, it has been proposed to revise these 
 judicial decisions from time to time; and after rejecting 
 some, and amalgamating others, to embody them thus im 
 proved in the written, or statute law. This course, on which 
 Mr. Bentham has conferred celebrity, under the name of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ill 
 
 codification, was proposed by the committee on this occasion ; 
 but a majority*, including Mr. Jefferson, were opposed to 
 it, so far as respects the unwritten law, for reasons which 
 must be deemed cogent, though they should fail to convince. 
 
 " To compose a new institute," they said, " like those of 
 Justinian and Bracton, or that of Blackstone, which was the 
 model proposed by Mr. Pendleton, would be an arduous 
 undertaking, of vast research, of great consideration and 
 judgment; and when reduced to a text, every word of that 
 text, from the imperfection of human language, and its in 
 competence to express distinctly every shade of idea, would 
 become a subject of question and chicanery, until settled by 
 repeated adjudications; that this would involve us for ages 
 in litigation, and render property uncertain, until, like the 
 statutes of old, every word had been tried and settled, by 
 numerous decisions, and by new volumes of reports and 
 commentaries ; and that no one of us, probably, would un 
 dertake such a work, which, to be systematical, must be the 
 work of one hand." 
 
 Two of the committee, Mr. Mason and Mr. Lee, having 
 soon after resigned, on the ground that, not being lawyers, 
 they did not feel themselves fit for the undertaking, the 
 other three members distributed the work among themselves 
 in the following manner. The common law and the British 
 statutes to the fourth year of James the First (when Vir 
 ginia first had a separate legislature) were allotted to Mr. 
 Jefferson : the same statutes, from that period to the present 
 day, to Mr. Wy the ; and the statute law of Virginia to Mr. 
 Pendleton. As the most important part of the duty was 
 assigned to Mr. Jefferson, it is an evidence of the high 
 
 * On this question of codifying the common law, I learn from Mr. 
 Madison, that Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Lee were strongly in favour of it. 
 Mr. Wythe and Mr. Jefferson as decidedly opposed to it, and Mr. Mason 
 gave the casting vote against it. 
 
112 THE 1JFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 respect in which he was held by his associates, themselves 
 esteemed as the best lawyers in Virginia, and two of the 
 ablest men in the union. 
 
 As the law of descents and that for the punishment of 
 crimes fell within his province, he proposed to the committee 
 to settle their leading principles before he entered on the 
 duty of draughting the statutes ; and having proposed to 
 abolish the right of primogeniture, and to put females on 
 the same footing as males, in inheritances, he was opposed 
 by Mr. Pendleton, with whom partiality for the ancient law 
 prevailed ; and who, finding he could not preserve to the 
 first-born the whole rights he had previously enjoyed, pro 
 posed to give him a double portion. Mr. Jefferson objected, 
 that the elder son could have no claim, in reason, to twice 
 as much as his brother or sisters, " unless he could eat twice 
 as much, or do double work ;" and Mr. Wytlie agreeing 
 with him, it was decided to make them all equal. 
 
 The part which Mr. Pendleton took on this and some 
 other proposed changes in the laws, tends to give a false 
 impression of that distinguished patriot and jurist. It was 
 not because he wanted liberality, or was blindly attached to 
 ancient things, that he was sometimes unwilling to carry the 
 process of reform to the farthest verge of what was right in 
 the abstract, but from a spirit of conciliation to those whose 
 interests or prejudices were about to be assailed. Thus, in 
 aiming to correct the prejudice in favour of primogeniture, 
 which was extensively diffused in Virginia, he wished to 
 concede something to those who had been led by habit and 
 education to cherish it, and to take that middle course which 
 long prevailed in some of the Northern states. It was not, 
 in short, that he was prompted by his own narrow views, but 
 because he was indulgent and forbearing to such views in 
 others. He afterwards became the presiding judge in the 
 highest court of judicature in Virginia, and filled the office 
 
THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 113 
 
 with equal dignity and ability twenty-four years after he 
 would have been disqualified by the constitutions of some of 
 the states; and never was a judge less trammelled by false 
 refinements, or technicalities, or ancient abuses, in attaining 
 the great ends of jurisprudence. His thorough knowledge 
 of the law, and his fertility in argument, were always used to 
 advance the cause of justice, and never to impede it. This 
 was so much his character, that while from the elegance and 
 perspicuity of his diction, as well as the liberality of his 
 views, he was called the Mansfield of Virginia, it was ob 
 jected by some cavillers, (for what excellence is exempt 
 from these ?) that he confounded the functions of a chancel 
 lor with those of a common law judge. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, after bearing testimony of his high intellec 
 tual powers, and his unrivalled dexterity in debate, adds, that 
 he was " one of the most virtuous and benevolent of men." 
 The difference between Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Jefferson, 
 was between a bold, sanguine, uncompromising temper, and 
 one that was cautious, temporizing, and conciliating be 
 tween the confidence of thirty-five, and the prudence of sixty. 
 If the event has shown that this was one of the occasions in 
 which boldness was not rashness, yet it was also one in which 
 a temporizing policy would have finally effected the same 
 result ; for it may be safely affirmed, that if Mr. Pendleton 
 had succeeded in moulding the law as he wished, it would 
 long ago have been changed, as unsuited to the spirit of the 
 age, since, in all the other states, the children of a person 
 dying intestate inherit equal portions. 
 
 The clearness and simplicity with which this law was 
 drawn by Mr. Jefferson, has long been the theme of praise 
 among Virginia lawyers. But subsequent interpolations in 
 the statute, suggested, it is said, with a view to prevent 
 particular estates from passing into other families, rendered 
 some of its provisions both inconsistent and obscure, and thus 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gave rise to several questions concerning inheritances, which 
 could be settled only by the process of litigation and judicial 
 decision. 
 
 In criminal law, the committee were disposed to act on 
 the system recommended by Beccaria ; and, abolishing the 
 punishment of death, in all cases, except for treason and 
 murder, to have a gradation of punishments by hard labour. 
 In some cases, however, they proposed to adopt the prin 
 ciple of retaliation. Mr. Jefferson, in his memoirs, seems 
 to wonder how " so revolting a principle obtained their 
 approbation," as well he might; since, besides being repug 
 nant to modern feelings, it is often absurd, and sometimes 
 impracticable*. 
 
 This part of Mr. Jefferson s labours indicates a good 
 deal of industry and legal research ; and it introduced many 
 innovations which still constitute a part of the penal code 
 of Virginia. In a letter to Mr. Wythe, in November, 1778, 
 in speaking of the act for " proportioning crimes and punish 
 ments, in cases heretofore capital," which he encloses, he 
 says, " in its style, I have aimed at accuracy, brevity, and 
 simplicity ; preserving, however, the very words of the 
 established law, whether their meaning had been sanctioned 
 
 o 
 
 by judicial decisions, or rendered technical by usage. The 
 same matter, if couched in the modern statutory language, 
 with all its tautologies, redundancies, and circumlocutions, 
 would have spread itself over many pages, and been unin 
 telligible to those whom it concerns. Indeed, I wished 
 to exhibit a sample of reformation in the barbarous style, 
 into which modern statutes have degenerated from their 
 ancient simplicity. And I must pray you to be as watchful 
 over what I have not said, as what is said ; for the omissions 
 
 * It seems from his letter to Mr. Wythe, in November, 1778, that 
 this principle was adopted against his approbation. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 115 
 
 of this bill have all their positive meaning. I have thought 
 it better to drop in silence the laws we mean to discontinue, 
 and let them be swept away by the general negative words 
 of this, than to detail them in clauses of express repeal." 
 
 In framing the other laws, he took the precaution, when 
 re-enacting an English statute, not to vary its ancient 
 diction, lest " he should give rise to new questions by new 
 expressions ; and in all draughts of new statutes, he en 
 deavoured to avoid the tautology and repetition which are 
 found in modern statutes, and which multiplied efforts at 
 certainty, he justly remarks, by saids and aforesaids, by ors 
 and by ands, to make them more plain, are really rendered 
 more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common 
 readers, but to the lawyers themselves." 
 
 The committee completed their work in February, 1779, 
 a little more than two years, and they had comprised all the 
 common law which they thought it expedient to alter, and 
 all either of the English or Virginia statutes, which they 
 thought should be retained, in one hundred and twenty- 
 six bills, occupying nearly ninety folio pages. The work 
 of each member was afterwards carefully scrutinized, and 
 amended by the whole committee of three, and reported 
 to the General Assembly in the following June. Some of 
 the bills were occasionally selected and passed by the Legis 
 lature, but the great body of them were not acted on until 
 the year 1785, when, as Mr. Jefferson remarks, " by the un 
 wearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the 
 endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations and 
 delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills were 
 passed by the Legislature, with little alteration." It sems 
 probable, from the language here used, that Mr. Jefferson 
 was annoyed by the cavils and objections which were made 
 to some of the bills reported by this class of men, who were 
 at once most likely to perceive objections, and most capable 
 
 i 2 
 
116 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of enforcing them. His acquaintance with Mr. Madison, 
 who was destined to occupy so distinguished a place in the 
 subsequent history of his country, commenced in 1776. 
 From that time, until they were separated by death, there 
 was an uninterruptible friendship of fifty years, never em 
 bittered by envy or rivalry, and neither weakened by sepa 
 ration, nor cooled by difference of opinion. They first met 
 in the Legislature of their native state, and Mr. Jefferson, 
 referring to the occasion, thus speaks to posterity of his 
 illustrious friend and compatriot. 
 
 " Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776, a new mem 
 ber and young; which circumstances, concurring with his 
 extreme modesty, prevented his venturing himself in debate, 
 before his removal to the Council of State, in November, 1 777. 
 From thence he went to Congress, then consisting of few 
 members. Trained in those successive schools, he acquired a 
 habit of self-possession, which placed at ready command 
 the rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, 
 of his extensive information, and rendered him first of every 
 assembly afterwards, of which he became a member. Never 
 wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but pur 
 suing it closely in language, pure, classical, and copious ; 
 soothing always the feelings of his adversaries by civilities 
 and softness of expression, he rose to the eminent station 
 which he held in the great National Convention of 1 787 ; 
 and in that of Virginia, which followed, he sustained the 
 new Constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against 
 the logic of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of 
 Mr. Henry. With these consummate powers were united 
 a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny has ever 
 attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his pen, 
 and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office 
 of the nation, I need say nothing they have spoken, and 
 will for ever speak for themselves." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 117 
 
 At the session of the General Assembly, in May, 1779, 
 Mr. Jefferson introduced a law which denned who were citi 
 zens of the Commonwealth, and recognised the right of 
 expatriation, as well as prescribed the mode in which it 
 should be exercised. The rights of citizenship, being given, 
 according to the common law of England, by birth, can 
 never be divested. The tie of allegiance is considered to 
 be indissoluble. But the opposite principle on which the 
 Legislature of Virginia proceeded, better accords with the 
 liberal spirit of the age, by promoting the welfare of indi 
 viduals, without practically affecting national security or 
 prosperity. The great mass of every community are in 
 evitably destined to remain in the country where they are 
 born the happy and thrifty from choice; the poor from 
 necessity so that, of all the possible dangers to a nation, 
 that arising from excessive emigration appears to be the 
 most visionary. The rule then of perpetual allegiance 
 cannot be justified by national considerations: whilst, on 
 the other hand, individuals often find that their talents, 
 which are idle and unprofitable at home, may be usefully 
 and gainfully exerted abroad, or that they can attain that 
 peace of mind in other countries, which from some disap 
 pointment, or humiliation, or injustice, is denied them at 
 home. If utility, or the conduciveness to human happiness, 
 be the foundation of natural law, individuals should, except 
 under special circumstances, have the right of locomotion 
 and expatriation, without violating the rights of the country 
 abandoned. It was, no doubt, with these rational and 
 philanthropic views that the law in question was suggested. 
 The right has since expressly received the general sanction 
 of the American people, and has found a virtual recognition 
 in the practice of all other civilized nations. 
 
 The committee having made such important provisions for 
 the equal distribution of property, next endeavoured to pro- 
 
118 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 vide for the intelligence of the people by a general system 
 of juvenile instruction ; it seeming to them, that the stability 
 of republican government depended upon diffusion of know 
 ledge, together with the prevention of those overgrown for 
 tunes, which are at once likely to kindle ambition, and to 
 furnish the means of gratifying it ; as well as to encourage 
 a distinction between the vulgar and the well-born. By 
 the first-mentioned course of legislative policy, the com 
 munity is kept right in its feelings : by the second, in their 
 opinions, and in the knowledge of the means of taking care 
 of their interests. These seem to be the two grand pillars 
 of popular government, and no effort should be spared to 
 place them on bases at once solid and broad. 
 
 With these views, a general system of education was pro 
 posed by the committee, which, by their request, was prepared 
 by Mr. Jefferson. The plan recommended three degrees of 
 instruction, adapted to the different classes of society. 1st. 
 Elementary Schools, for all the children in the community. 
 2ndly. Colleges, for a further degree of instruction, suited to 
 the common purposes of life, and to all who were in easy 
 circumstances. 3rdly. To exalt William and Mary into a 
 University, for teaching the highest branches of science, and 
 to aid it by an extensive library. Bills for these several 
 objects were reported; but they all lay dormant until 1796, 
 and then were acted on only so far as concerned the elemen 
 tary schools. But as a new clause was then introduced, by 
 which the execution of the law in each county was left dis 
 cretionary with its magistrates ; and as, moreover, the bill 
 provided that every county should defray the expense of its 
 own schools, whereby the wealthy would be made to bear 
 the expense of educating the poor, the magistrates, who 
 generally belong to the wealthy class, were unfavourable to 
 the plan, and it was not carried into execution in a single 
 county. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 119 
 
 A plan very similar to the preceding was adopted by the 
 Legislature in 1816 ; and, as to the elementary schools, and 
 the University, was soon afterwards carried into execution. 
 Both these branches are now in a course of experiment that 
 promises success. 
 
 On the subject of slaves, one which Mr. Jefferson seems 
 always to have regarded with the interest of a patriot, as 
 well as of a philanthropist, the committee were content 
 merely to make a digest of the laws concerning them. But 
 they further agreed to an amendment to the bill, whenever 
 it should be taken up, by which all the children of slaves, 
 born after an appointed day, should be free, and be carried 
 out of the state when they arrived at a certain age. " It 
 was, however, found, he says, that the public mind would not 
 yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it even at this day. 
 Yet the day is not distant, when it must bear and adopt it, 
 or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in 
 the book of fate, than that these people are to be free ; nor 
 is it less certain, that the two races, equally free, cannot live 
 in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion, have 
 drawn indelible lines of distinction between them. It is 
 still in our power to direct the process of emancipation and 
 deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degree, as that the 
 evil will wear off insensibly, and their place be, pari passu, 
 filled up by free white labourers. If, on the contrary, it is 
 left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the 
 prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example 
 in the Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This 
 precedent would fall far short of our case." 
 
 These propositions seem scarcely to admit of question; 
 and yet so little regard is paid to the interests of posterity, 
 when they thwart our present convenience, that nothing is 
 done by the present generation towards warding off the 
 future danger ; but every one who brings his mind to look at 
 
J20 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the probable consequences, consoles himself with the belief 
 that the crisis of the disease will not arrive in his day, and 
 that until it does arrive, the inconveniences, so far as they 
 are perceived, are either compensated by some attendant 
 advantage, or are irremediable. 
 
 ^~The whole sum of the moral and political mischiefs of 
 slavery may not be overrated by moralists and economists, 
 but those mischiefs are perhaps not precisely of the cha 
 racter supposed. Thus, while it is agreed on all hands, that 
 domestic slavery is unfavourable to the productive industry 
 of a country, the disadvantage is commonly attributed to the 
 effect produced on the slave, who is urged by the strongest 
 impulses of his nature, to work as sparingly, and consume as 
 lavishly as he can. But the mischief of slavery seems to 
 consist more in its effects on the master than on the slave. 
 It necessarily tends to make him idle, indolent, proud, 
 luxurious, and improvident. It is true, that the slave, not 
 having the same direct interest in the fruits of his labour, or 
 of his frugality as the freeman, will often be less industrious, 
 and more wasteful. But, on the other hand, he is as often 
 made to be a more industrious producer, and a more frugal 
 consumer, than he would be if free. As a proof of this, the 
 wages of slaves on canals, roads, and other public works, are 
 little less than those of freemen, and sometimes they are the 
 same. In a few cases, they have even been preferred, as 
 being more manageable. Both their food and clothing too 
 are somewhat cheaper and coarser than those of freemen. 
 It is then, by its moral effects, on the character of the master, 
 that it lessens the productive wealth of a community ; and 
 that Virginia and the Carolinas are less populous, less 
 wealthy and improved than New England, New York, and 
 Pennsylvania: that Maryland is more so than the first- 
 named states, since she has fewer slaves than they have ; 
 but less so than the last, because she has slaves, and they 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 121 
 
 have none : and lastly, that Ohio has grown and improved 
 faster than Kentucky, which had the advantage of prior 
 settlement. 
 
 Such being the disadvantages inseparable from slavery, f 
 the question for the statesman to consider is, whether it be 
 practicable for the country to rid itself of the evil, consistently 
 with its own safety ? Two very different modes readily sug 
 gest themselves. One is to emancipate them, and suffer 
 them to remain in the state, partaking, in a greater or less 
 degree, of the privileges of the whites. The other is, to 
 send? them out of the country, either as slaves or freemen. 
 The first plan seems very easy to those who have never 
 lived in a country in which negro slavery prevails, and who 
 cannot justly estimate the rooted and irreconcilable preju 
 dices to which this relation between two distinct races gives 
 rise. They seem to think that nothing but the fiat of the 
 Legislature is required to knock off the shackles of the 
 slave, and to exalt him at once into the equal and associate 
 of his former master ; and by a still more intimate union, 
 subsequently, to amalgamate the two races into one. They 
 so think, though they every day see men drawing a line of 
 separation between themselves and their fellow men, who 
 differ in no respect from themselves, except in some matter 
 of opinion or belief, or some purely artificial distinction. Do 
 they suppose that any arguments of political expediency 
 would ever bring the English House of Lords, voluntarily, 
 to relinquish their exclusive privileges ; or that the members 
 of the established church would, with their own consent, 
 admit all other sects to an equal participation of their rights ? 
 Did the patrician order in Rome ever willingly surrender 
 any portion of their political power to the plebeians? 
 And in all cases, have those who possessed the power ever 
 wanted pretexts of general utility, national safety, or tran 
 quillity some form of the public good to continue things 
 
122 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 as they were ? This course may be abstractedly wrong ; but 
 it is sufficient that it is natural, to show that the scheme is 
 impracticable in a popular government. 
 
 / The people then, in the slave-holding states, will never 
 purposely resort to this cure of the evil. If it takes place 
 at all, it must be by the slow and imperceptible operation of 
 time, and not by the agency of the law. Nay more, when 
 they contemplate the possibility of such a result, they will 
 do all they can to prevent what is so repugnant to their 
 feelings. But even if we were to suppose the Legislature, 
 and consequently a majority of the people who have clfosen 
 them, to divest themselves of these feelings, or prejudices, 
 and to venture on the great experiment, who can pretend to 
 say that it would be a safe one ? When, in every community, 
 men are found splitting into parties, on points of difference 
 often so minute as to be unintelligible to a stranger, who 
 can foresee how much they would be aggravated where the 
 line of separation has been drawn by nature herself; and 
 where sensible impressions might impart their own peculiar 
 vividness to the feelings of party animosity ? This visible 
 difference between the two races tends now to preserve 
 public tranquillity, by operating on the minds both of 
 master and slave, and confirms the authority of the one, and 
 the submission of the other. The master more easily per 
 suades himself that he is naturally superior an opinion 
 which the most philosophical of the citizens of the south 
 conscientiously maintain and the slave canjbe more readily 
 brought to believe that the inferiority, of which he must 
 necessarily be conscious, is the work of nature, rather than 
 of man ; and he is, on that account, more resigned to his 
 condition. But when once he is admitted to a political 
 equality, much of this prestige would soon disappear. The 
 effects of property, education, natural talent, would dispel 
 the greater part of their own sense of inferiority, without 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 
 
 proportionally altering the opinions of the whites ; and the 
 sullen ill-will which now occasionally exists, would be ex 
 changed for the more bitter and implacable animosity that 
 arises between equals and rivals struggling for the mastery. 
 History affords little light on this subject ; but the fierce 
 contests between the Saracenic and Gothic races in Spain ; 
 and yet more, between the blacks and the whites of St. 
 Domingo,, which ended only in the extermination of the 
 weaker party, seem to be too much in accordance witli the 
 ordinary principles of our nature, not to warn us against so 
 fearful an experiment. 
 
 The plan of colonizing the emancipated slaves is the only 
 one which the public can be brought to sanction ; and about 
 its practicability, there is a great diversity of opinion in the 
 slave-holding states. Though its difficulties may have been 
 overrated by some, they must be admitted to be great, 
 under the most favourable circumstances, by every one who 
 gives to the subject an attentive examination. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson always regarded emancipation, accompanied 
 with colonization, as practicable ; and while engaged in the 
 revision, he had prepared a plan for that object, which was 
 not indeed reported by the committee, but which they meant 
 should be offered to the Legislature, by way of amendment, 
 when the bill concerning slaves was taken up. This plan 
 was to declare all children born after the passage of the act 
 to be free, but to continue with their parents till a certain 
 age ; then be brought up, at the public expense, to tillage, 
 arts or sciences, according to their genius, till the females 
 should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one. They were 
 to be colonized in such place as the circumstances of the 
 time should render most proper, taking with them arms, 
 implements of the household and the handicraft art, seeds, 
 pairs of the useful domestic animals, and to be declared a 
 free and independent people. Our alliance and protection 
 
124 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to be extended to them, till they had acquired strength, 
 and vessels to be sent, at the same time, to other parts of 
 the world for an equal number of white inhabitants, who 
 were to be induced to migrate hither, by proper encourage 
 ments. 
 
 Supposing the plan adopted, let us see its operation. 
 Allowing the rate of increase to be so kept down by emi 
 gration to other states, as the last census shows it to have 
 been between 1820 and 1830, that is, one per cent, annually ; 
 thirty dollars for the cost of transporting each emigrant 
 to Africa, and the same sum for his temporary support 
 there ; it may be shown, that, on this plan, the state would 
 be rid of all its slaves by the year 1901, except the few 
 who would be over sixty-five years of age : and that the 
 annual cost would, in 1858, when the transport of the eman 
 cipated would begin, be 420,000 dollars ; would gradually 
 increase to 504,200 dollars, until the year 1879; after 
 which, it would gradually diminish until the year 1901, when 
 it would cease altogether. 
 
 The objections w r hich have presented themselves to this 
 plan are, that it violates the rights of private property : 
 that while the right of the community to tax its individual 
 citizens is limited only by the extent of the public exigencies, 
 its duty is to make these taxes equal, and not to throw them 
 exclusively on one class such a course being equally con 
 trary to natural justice, and to that constitutional principle 
 which forbids the seizure of private property for public use, 
 without just compensation : that the slave-holding interest 
 in Virginia having a majority in the Legislature, the plan 
 could not be adopted without its approbation ; and it can 
 not be supposed, they would consent to impose on them 
 selves more than their just share of the public burthens : 
 that if the emancipated slaves are to be paid for, it requires 
 an amount of taxation which the people probably could not 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 
 
 endure, and certainly would not voluntarily submit to : or, 
 if under the influence of some strong feeling, they can be 
 supposed willing to impose on themselves such unwonted 
 burthens more than four times the amount of the state 
 revenue it would be only for a time, and could not be ex 
 pected to continue for the term that is necessary to suc 
 cess : that, therefore, in the event of a war or other pub 
 lic calamity, or whenever the zeal for emancipation had 
 been overpowered by some new object of popular excite 
 ment, they would relieve themselves from the pressure, and 
 abandon the scheme. 
 
 It is further objected, that the slaves constitute the chief 
 class of productive labourers in the state, and that as the 
 same process of colonization which increased the public 
 burthens would diminish the means of meeting them, the 
 state would decline in wealth so long as the plan was in 
 operation : that this decline of prosperity would be yet 
 greater from the increased emigration of the whites, which 
 the increased taxation would produce : that it would be 
 unreasonable to expect white labourers from other states, 
 or from Europe, to replace the slave labour sent away ; as 
 the stigma which slavery always affixes to bodily labour, 
 and which has hitherto discouraged migration to Virginia, 
 would continue until slavery was abolished : that the dis 
 tinction between the anfe natl and post nati, drawing an 
 odious line between children of the same parents, would 
 produce settled discontents in the minds of those who were 
 retained in slavery, which would stimulate them to insur 
 rection and rebellion : that this plan of deportation, if prac 
 ticable, would be an act of cruelty to the emancipated, by 
 severing the ties of kindred and country, and compelling 
 them to seek a precarious livelihood in a new colony, which, 
 continually receiving large accessions to its class of con 
 sumers, would often be exposed to the evils of scarcity : 
 
12G THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and lastly, that the colonists themselves, as soon as they 
 had confidence in their strength, might rebel against the 
 further admission of the new settlers ; and the emigrants 
 being thus converted into soldiers, and made to fight, instead 
 of work, the plan of colonization must then be abandoned, 
 whether they succeeded in obtaining a foothold, or were 
 repulsed. 
 
 On the other hand, the framers of the scheme, while they 
 admit that the country cannot rid itself of its slaves, but at 
 great cost and difficulty, insist, that it cannot escape the 
 evil by doing nothing : that setting aside the mischiefs of 
 slavery, moral and political, those of emancipation, whatever 
 they may be, must be encountered, sooner r later ; as the 
 time must come, when the value of a slave will not repay 
 the cost and care of raising him, in which case, slavery 
 necessarily terminates : and although we cannot determine 
 with precision when that period will arrive, depending as it 
 does upon so many variable circumstances, yet we may fairly 
 presume it will take place in less than a century. Long 
 before the lapse of that time, the slave-holding states, at 
 a diminished rate of increase, will contain forty millions 
 of inhabitants, or more than sixty to a square mile; and 
 labour must have considerably declined from its present 
 value before this moderate density is reached. We have 
 to choose then between the evils of emancipation when the 
 remedy, though severe, is practicable, and the same evils 
 when they admit of neither cure nor mitigation. 
 
 They insist that the plan would violate no principle of 
 right, and would be neither impracticable nor oppressive ; 
 that, so far as there was inequality in the tax, it was justified 
 by what had always been deemed a fair principle of legis 
 lation, the practice of taxing nuisances, and whatever is 
 detrimental to the community : and, in point of fact, it 
 would make an unimportant difference whether the slave- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 127 
 
 holders were paid for their emancipated slaves or not, since 
 nine-tenths of the taxable funds of the state are held by 
 this class, and the slaves being generally distributed among 
 the citizens, in proportion to their wealth, the slave-owners 
 would have to advance almost as much, by way of tax, as 
 they would receive in the way of compensation : that the 
 slave-holders, being also landlords, they would find their 
 remuneration in the increased value of their lands, which 
 the abolition of slavery would eventually impart: that 
 the larger portion of the cost, the value of the eman 
 cipated slaves, would be less felt, inasmuch as it would 
 fall on property that was not yet productive, and long 
 before it could become so : that as the expense of trans 
 portation would not begin for eighteen years, prepara 
 tions, in the mean time, could be made for their removal 
 and reception in the colony, by which means, the cost may 
 be brought far within the ordinary estimate ; but supposing 
 it to begin on 420,000 dollars a year, that sum would require 
 a tax of but forty cents from each inhabitant ; so that the 
 charge on Virginia, for the attainment of this great moral 
 and political object, would be less than one- fourth of what 
 she contributes to the national revenue, and not half of 
 what she saves by the discharge of the national debt : that 
 her interest in the public lands, if prudently managed, might 
 be made adequate to defraying the greater part, if not all 
 the public expense ; that if such a plan were once adopted, 
 there are hundreds of our most intelligent and patriotic citi 
 zens, who, seeing a prospect of ridding the country of what 
 they regard as its greatest curse, would further the object by 
 money, as well as emancipation ; and many, who could not 
 conveniently part with their slaves during life, would eman 
 cipate them by will : that the certain prospect of the abo 
 lition of slavery would invite settlers from abroad: that 
 the stream of population from the Northern states, and 
 
128 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 from Europe, would naturally seek its level in Virginia, 
 after the barrier which had so long obstructed its course 
 was removed : that such a healthy infusion of industry, skill, 
 and capital would give new vigour to the agriculture, arts 
 and manufactures of the state, and to the morals and thrift 
 of its people ; and while the gross product of her soil and 
 industry would thus be augmented, in quantity and value, 
 she would have weight in the national councils for the whole 
 of her labouring population, and not merely for three-fifths 
 of it, as at present. 
 
 In reply to the other objections, they urge that the evils 
 apprehended from the distinction between the ante nati and 
 the post nati are altogether visionary, because, when a similar 
 course has produced no such consequences in other states, 
 they ought not to be expected here, where emancipation 
 would be accompanied with a sentence of banishment : and 
 because rebellion would be prevented, then as now, by a 
 conviction that it would be ineffectual, especially when a 
 large part of the community already had, and the children 
 of the rest would have, the desired boon of freedom : that 
 the colonists would not possess either the power or inclina 
 tion to refuse to receive new settlers until the colony had 
 acquired a density of population which supposes the execu 
 tion of the plan ; for until that was attained, new settlers 
 would be welcomed as an accession to their wealth and 
 strength : that Africa still has territory enough for a large 
 addition to her population, provided improved arts of hus 
 bandry and civilization were introduced at the same time ; 
 and the plan of colonization to that continent does not pre 
 clude subsidiary schemes of sending coloured emigrants to 
 Hayti, and other places : that the English West Indies may 
 soon afford an outlet, or even a part of the Pacific coast ; 
 that it would imply a singular tenderness for posterity to 
 refuse to let them form an independent government on this 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 120 
 
 continent,, and yet to let them remain in a connexion with 
 the same posterity, at once indissoluble and irreconcilable : 
 and lastly, that these hazards are contingent, while the evils 
 we would avoid are certain ; and should the scheme on any 
 account be suspended, or even arrested, a great public 
 benefit would be achieved by the plan, in proportion to its 
 partial execution. 
 
 To whichever party we may be disposed to assign the 
 preponderance in their arguments on this question, we must 
 admit that there is sufficient weight in the views entertained 
 by one side to keep alive the hopes of the advocates of 
 emancipation, and in those of the other to make the scheme 
 appear impracticable ; from which we may infer, that nothing 
 less than a deep sense of its necessity, and a general popular 
 feeling, amounting to enthusiasm, will be ever able to over 
 come its difficulties, or even to encounter them. 
 
 With this session terminated Mr. Jefferson s duties as 
 legislator, and it may be remarked that, in this character, 
 there seems to have been no one of his compatriots who 
 had taken such far-sighted and philosophical views in adapt 
 ing the civil institutions of Virginia to its new circumstances, 
 or who had contributed so largely to give them effect. Of 
 the laws of which he was the author or chief promoter, he 
 regarded the four that have been mentioned as forming 
 a system by which every fibre of ancient or future aristocracy 
 would be eradicated, and a foundation laid for a government 
 truly republican. These laws he thus eulogizes : " The 
 repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation 
 and perpetuation of wealth, in select families, and preserve 
 the soil of the country from being daily more and more 
 absorbed in mortmain. The abolition of primogeniture, and 
 equal partition of inheritances, removed the feudal and un 
 natural distinctions which made one member of every family 
 rich, and all the rest poor ; substituting equal partition, the 
 
 VOL. i. K 
 
130 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 best of all agrarian laws. The restoration of the rights of 
 conscience relieved the people from taxation for the support 
 of a religion not theirs ; for the establishment was truly the 
 religion of the rich, the dissenting sects being entirely com 
 posed of the less wealthy people ; and these, by the bill for 
 a general education, would be qualified to understand their 
 rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence 
 their parts in self-government : and all this would be effected 
 without the violation of a single natural right of any one 
 individual citizen. To these, too, might be added, as a 
 further security, the introduction of the trial by jury into the 
 chancery courts, which have already ingulphed, and continue 
 to ingulph, so great a proportion of the jurisdiction over our 
 property. 
 
 In the beginning of this year, the removal of the troops 
 captured at Saratoga, under General Burgoyne, from Boston 
 to Virginia, afforded Mr. Jefferson an opportunity of ex 
 hibiting liberality towards the enemies of his country, and, 
 in the exercise of the rites of hospitality, of softening the 
 rigours of captivity. These troops had reached Albemarle 
 early in 1779, and were stationed five miles north of Char- 
 lottesville. Some deviation from the courtesy of modern 
 warfare might have been excusably withheld from these 
 prisoners, from the odiousness of the cause in which they 
 were engaged ; but humane and generous sentiments pre 
 vailed, and the interchange of civility begat a kindness of 
 feeling which in some cases ripened into friendship. He 
 contributed to make the situation of all the prisoners more 
 comfortable, and those officers who were recommended by 
 their manners, taste for letters, or music, were often his 
 guests. The merit of these attentions was enhanced by the 
 delicacy which accompanied them. In reply to a card from 
 Major-General Phillips, Mr. Jefferson says: " The great 
 cause which divides our countries is not to be decided by 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131 
 
 individual animosities. The harmony of private societies 
 cannot weaken national efforts. To contribute by neigh 
 bourly intercourse and attention to make others happy is 
 the shortest and surest way of being happy ourselves. As 
 these sentiments seem to have directed your conduct, we 
 should be as unwise as illiberal, were we not to preserve the 
 same temper of mind." 
 
 To Major-General Reidesel*, who commanded the Hessian 
 troops, he wrote : " The little attentions you are pleased to 
 magnify so much, never deserved a mention or thought. 
 Opposed as we happen to be in our sentiments of duty and 
 honour, and anxious for contrary events, I shall nevertheless 
 sincerely rejoice in every circumstance of happiness and 
 safety which may attend you personally." The example of 
 Mr. Jefferson was followed by most of the wealthier inhabi 
 tants of the county, and many of the officers, both English 
 and German, have borne grateful testimony to the polite 
 and hospitable character of the Virginians, and of Mr. Jef 
 ferson, in particular. 
 
 These troops had not been long in Albemarle before it 
 was proposed to remove them to some place where it would 
 be easier to furnish them with the necessary supplies, and 
 where it would be found less practicable for the prisoners to 
 desert. On hearing this, Mr. Jefferson addressed a long 
 
 * The lady of this officer, who was a German baron, after her return 
 to her own country, published the letters she had written to her friends, 
 during her residence in Albemarle, which were translated by Mr. Wal- 
 lenstein, of the Russian Legation, about ten years ago, and thus rcpub- 
 lished in Philadelphia. She is still recollected, or lately was, by some 
 of the oldest inhabitants, as a handsome, agreeable woman, but somewhat 
 of an Amazon in stature, dress, and in riding, according to the fashion 
 in Germany, like a man. 
 
 The letters are amusing not the less, perhaps, for a seasoning of 
 scandal and bear grateful testimony to Mr. Jefferson s hospitalities 
 The General lived at Colle, then the property of the well-known Mazzei 
 and where his vineyard was then in the course of experiment. 
 
 K2 
 
132 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 letter to Governor Henry, in which he set forth so many 
 strong reasons against their removal from Albemarle, that 
 they were permitted to remain. He urged the healthiness 
 of the spot, its central position, equally secure from attacks 
 from the east and the west, and that the prisoners themselves 
 would be deprived of those comforts which they had now 
 gathered around them. 
 
 A part of this document seems to deserve transcribing, 
 not only for its liberal sentiments, in strict accordance with 
 its author s conduct towards the prisoners, but also for the 
 pleasing picture it exhibits of the efforts made by the troops 
 to beguile the tedium of inaction, and the irksomencss of 
 captivity. 
 
 " It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors 
 of war as much as possible. The practice, therefore, of 
 modern nations of treating captive enemies with politeness 
 and generosity is not only delightful in contemplation, but 
 really interesting to all the world, friends, foes, and neutrals. 
 Let us apply this : the officers, after considerable hardships, 
 have all procured quarters, comfortable, and satisfactory to 
 them. In order to do this, they were obliged, in many in 
 stances, to hire houses for a year certain, and at such ex 
 orbitant rents, as were sufficient to tempt independent 
 owners to go out of them, and shift as they could. These 
 houses, in most cases, were much out of repair. They have 
 repaired them at a considerable expense. One of the 
 general officers has taken a place for two years, advanced 
 the rent for the whole time, and been obliged, moreover, to 
 erect additional buildings, for the accommodation of a part 
 of his family, for which there was not room in the house 
 rented. Independent of the brick work, for the carpentry 
 of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen 
 hundred dollars. The same gentleman, to my knowledge, 
 has paid to one person three thousand six hundred and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 133 
 
 seventy dollars, for different articles, to fix himself commo- 
 diously. They have, generally, laid in their stocks of grain, 
 and other provisions ; for it is well known that officers do 
 not live on their rations. They have purchased cows, sheep, 
 &c. ; set into farming ; prepared their gardens, and have 
 a prospect of quiet and comfort before them. To turn to 
 the soldiers the environs of the barracks ar6 delightful, the 
 ground cleared, laid off in hundreds of gardens, each inclosed 
 in its separate paling ; these well prepared, and exhibiting 
 a fine appearance. General lleidescl alone laid out upwards 
 of two hundred pounds in garden seeds for the German 
 troops only. Judge what an extent of ground these seeds 
 would cover. There is little doubt, that their own gardens 
 will furnish them with a great abundance of vegetables 
 through the year. Their poultry, pigeons, and other pre 
 parations of that kind, present to the mind the idea of a 
 company of farmers, rather than a camp of soldiers. In 
 addition to the barracks built for them by the public, and 
 now very comfortable, they have built great numbers for 
 themselves, in such messes as fancied each other ; and the 
 whole corps, both officers and men, seem now happy and 
 satisfied with their situation. Having thus found the art of 
 rendering captivity itself comfortable, and carried it into 
 execution, at their own great expense and labour, their 
 spirits sustained by the prospect of gratifications rising 
 before their eyes, does not every sentiment of humanity 
 revolt against the proposition of stripping them of all this, 
 and removing them into new situations, where, from the 
 advanced season of the year, no preparations can be made for 
 carrying themselves comfortably through the heats of sum 
 mer ; and when it is known that the necessary advances for the 
 conveniences already provided, have exhausted their funds 
 and left them unable to make the like exertions anew?" 
 
134 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson elected Governor of Virginia. Difficulties of his situation. 
 George Rogers Clarke. Retaliation on Governor Hamilton and 
 others. Its effects. Claims of Virginia to the Western Territory. 
 Resisted by other states. Her cession of the Territory. Difficulty 
 of providing military supplies and of transporting them. Arnold s 
 predatory incursion. Its success explained. Abortive attempts to 
 capture Arnold. Invasion under Phillips and Arnold. Their opera 
 tions. Correspondence between the Governor and General Phillips. 
 Meeting of the Legislature. It adjourns to Charlottesville. Lord 
 Corriwallis invades Virginia. The Governor declines a re-election. 
 His motives. Tarlton detached to Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson 
 and the members of Assembly narrowly escape capture. 
 
 1779 1781. 
 
 BUT Mr. Jefferson was now about to enter on a new field 
 of public service, for some of the duties of which he was 
 little qualified by his previous habits and pursuits. On the 
 1st of June he was elected Governor of the state; Mr. 
 Henry having served as long as the constitution allows. 
 It was not, however, an uncontested honour, as his friend, 
 Mr. Page, was his competitor. This gentleman had been 
 a member of the Council of state under the regal govern 
 ment; but as, on the breaking out of the disturbances, he 
 had taken sides with his country, he had thereby acquired 
 great popularity, and the greater from the contrast which 
 his course presented to that of some of his associates. It 
 is gratifying to know, that the delicate position in which 
 Mr. Jefferson and he were now placed by others, produced 
 no interruption to their friendship. 
 
 It was, however, for the time, painful and embarrassing 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 135 
 
 to both. Mr. Page wrote to Mr. Jefferson on the occasion, 
 in a style suited to his amiable and disinterested character, 
 and Mr. Jefferson, in reply, expressed lively regret that the 
 zeal of their respective friends should have ever placed 
 them " in the situation of competitors ;" but he adds, " I 
 am comforted, however, with the reflection that it was their 
 competition, not ours, and that the difference of the num 
 bers which decided between us was too insignificant to 
 give you a pain, or me a pleasure, had our disposition 
 toward each other been such as to admit those sensations." 
 
 Mr. Page was a member of the first Congress, under the 
 new Constitution, and in 1822 succeeded Mr. Munroe as 
 Governor of Virginia, in which office he continued the con 
 stitutional term of three years. 
 
 At the age then of thirty-six, Mr. Jefferson, who had al 
 ready so signalized himself as a legislator and jurist, was about 
 to test his talents for executive duties. The period when 
 he was thus called upon to act was one of peculiar difficulty. 
 In the beginning of the year 1779, there was an evident 
 relaxation, on the part of the states, from their former efforts 
 to carry on the war. This was not owing to any cooling 
 of their ardour in the cause of independence, nor yet to 
 the continued pressure of heavy taxation; but to a too 
 sanguine reliance on the recent treaty with France, as well 
 as the known favourable dispositions of other European 
 powers ; and, naturally overrating their results, they con 
 sidered the war as almost virtually terminated. The evil 
 was not despondence, but too confident security. Congress 
 partook somewhat of the popular languor which was thus 
 produced, and the requisitions of General Washington met 
 with a tardy and inadequate compliance. These untoward 
 circumstances, as the Commander-in-chief had foreseen, were 
 perceived by the enemy, and he determined to avail himself 
 of them by a vigorous campaign in the South. 
 
136 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 It was on this occasion that General Washington, in a 
 letter to a friend in Virginia, thus expresses himself: " I 
 have seen, without despondency, even for a moment, the 
 hours which America has styled her gloomy ones ; but I 
 have beheld no day, since the commencement of hostilities, 
 when I have thought her liberties in such imminent danger 
 as at present." 
 
 He afterwards adds, "let this voice, my dear sir, call 
 upon you, Jefferson, and others. Do not, from a mistaken 
 opinion, that we are to sit down under our vine, and under 
 our own fig-tree, let our hitherto noble struggle end in 
 ignominy. Believe me, when I tell you, there is danger of 
 it. I have pretty good reasons for thinking that the admi 
 nistration, a little while ago, had resolved to give the matter 
 up, and negotiate a peace with us upon almost any terms ; 
 but I shall be much mistaken, if they do not now, from the 
 present state of our currency, dissensions, and other circum 
 stances, push matters to the utmost extremity. Nothing, I 
 am sure, will prevent it, but the interruption of Spain, 
 and their disappointed hope from Russia." 
 
 The British Commissioners, who conducted the war, 
 having determined to transfer the theatre of its operations 
 to the South, Georgia was accordingly invaded in the latter 
 end of 1778, and reduced to submission. While the British 
 were following up their success by marching into South 
 Carolina, General Matthews made a descent on the south 
 eastern part of Virginia. But the object of this incursion, 
 being merely plunder and the destruction of stores and 
 shipping, began and ended in the month of May, before 
 Mr. Jefferson s administration commenced. From that time, 
 imtil 1781, Virginia seems not to have been the scene of 
 active hostilities, and the military duties of the Governor 
 had been limited to the raising and equipping the quota of 
 troops which the state was required to furnish to the general 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 137 
 
 army duties of no very easy execution, at that period ; but in 
 the discharge of which, Governor Jefferson appears to have 
 exhibited the requisite activity, judgment, and decision. 
 
 One of the first occasions in which he was called upon 
 to exercise his executive functions, was to retaliate on some 
 British prisoners the cruelties they were said to have stimu 
 lated the Indians to perpetrate on the western, frontier, and 
 had even practised themselves. 
 
 Some time in the previous year, an expedition had been 
 proposed and undertaken by George Rogers Clarke, against 
 a military station at Vinccnnes, on the Mississippi, which, 
 now a part of the state of Illinois, was then within the limits 
 of the original charter of Virginia. Colonel Hamilton, the 
 British Governor of Detroit, a brave and skilful officer, had 
 made himself master of this fort in the December preceding; 
 and having repaired the fortifications, he meant, in the 
 spring, to get possession of Kaskaskias, another fort; and 
 when joined by about 700 Indian warriors of the neighbour 
 ing tribes, to penetrate to Fort Pitt, sweeping Kentucky 
 on his way ; and he thus hoped to subjugate all the country 
 comprehended under the name of West Augusta. Clarke, 
 who seems to have been endowed with every military virtue 
 and talent, having learnt that Hamilton had weakened his 
 garrison, immediately formed the daring scheme of attacking 
 him in Vinccnnes, before he was strengthened by his Indian 
 allies ; and his enterprise was crowned with complete suc 
 cess. With a hundred and thirty raw unpractised men, 
 such as he was able to pick up, he marched, in the depth 
 of winter, through woods, and swamps*, and hostile Indians, 
 
 * The difficulties of the march may be conjectured from the fact, that 
 when within three leagues ef the enemy, it took them five days to cross 
 a piece of swampy land in the Wabash. They reached the fort in the 
 evening, and, without waiting for rest or refreshment, immediately 
 made the attack. The surrender took place on the evening of the next 
 day. 
 
138 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to the fort then commanded by Colonel Hamilton, and 
 attacked it with so much vigour that the garrison,, which 
 had consisted of 79 regulars, surrendered themselves pri 
 soners of war. Hamilton and two others he sent through 
 Kentucky to Williamsburg, and they arrived soon after 
 Mr. Jefferson had entered on the duties of his office. 
 
 It appears by the advice of the council on the subject 
 of these prisoners, that according to the papers which had 
 been sent on with them, Hamilton had incited the Indians 
 to perpetrate their accustomed cruelties, without distinction 
 of age, sex, or condition ; that his treatment of American 
 prisoners had been inhuman ; and that he had offered 
 " standing rewards for scalps," but none for prisoners. 
 Charges of a similar character were alleged against the 
 other prisoners, Dejean, a magistrate, and Lamotte, a cap 
 tain of volunteers ; in consequence of which evidence, and 
 the general ill-treatment which American officers, when in 
 captivity, had occasionally experienced from the enemy, 
 the Governor, by the advice of council, ordered that Hamil 
 ton and his associates should be put in irons, confined in 
 the dungeon of the public jail, debarred the use of pen, ink 
 and paper, and excluded from all converse except with their 
 keeper. 
 
 The confinement of Governor Hamilton in a dungeon, 
 and in irons, was soon made a matter of complaint by Ge 
 neral Phillips, the senior officer of the Convention troops, 
 and such treatment was alleged to be equally unwarranted 
 by the facts of this case, and by the usages of war in capitu 
 lations, generally. On the 17th of July, Mr. Jefferson wrote 
 to consult General Washington on this point, and his an 
 swer, received in the Governor s absence, having advised 
 a more lenient course, either on the ground taken by General 
 Phillips, or on principles of general policy, the irons were 
 accordingly taken off the prisoners, by order of the council. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSO1S 7 . 139 
 
 On Governor Jefferson s return to Williamsburg, the pri 
 soners were offered their discharge 011 parole, on their en 
 gaging not to say or do anything to the prejudice of the 
 United States. As they refused the first part of the stipu 
 lation, and insisted on " freedom of speech/ 1 they were 
 retained in jail. Hamilton s associates afterwards yielded, 
 and gave the parole required, but he himself, persisting in 
 his first refusal, continued in close confinement. Being 
 afterwards advised by General Phillips to give the parole, 
 he finally complied. In the following year he was allowed 
 to go to New York*. 
 
 The course pursued towards Hamilton and his companions 
 
 * Now that the feelings of national enmity have disappeared in better 
 natures and subsided in the worst, we may be permitted to question the 
 justice of the stigma which has been thus publicly ailixed to the cha 
 racter of this British officer. It so happened that in my early youth 
 I was acquainted with Governor Hamilton, and occasionally partaking 
 of his hospitality, had frequent opportunities of seeing and knowing 
 him. He was born in Ireland, was an educated, well-bred gentleman, 
 possessed of a soldierly frankness and great liberality ; and, though he 
 had that decision and firmness which mark the military man, there was 
 nothing to show that he wanted humanity. He always had the con 
 fidence of his government, and, after the war, was made governor, first 
 of Bermuda, and afterwards of Dominica. It may then be fairly pre 
 sumed, that, in inciting the Indians to hostilities against the United 
 States, he acted under the orders of his superiors, rather than from the 
 impulse of any sanguinary or vindictive feelings of his own. 
 
 The above inference is strengthened by the following circumstances. 
 1. The despatches of Colonel Clarke make no mention of Hamilton s 
 ill-treatment of prisoners, as they would naturally have done if his 
 conduct had been as atrocious as was represented. 2. The charges 
 against him were always denied by General Phillips, no doubt on the 
 authority of Hamilton. 3. A fact stated by Colonel Clarke himself is 
 inconsistent with the charge that Governor Hamilton " encouraged the 
 Indians more to bring in scalps than prisoners," as he writes that, while 
 he was attacking the fort, an Indian party came in with two prisoners. 
 1. Because the council, in their order, seem to be influenced by the 
 general conduct of the British towards American prisoners still more 
 
140 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 for some time threatened to produce embarrassment, and to 
 aggravate the evils of captivity. The British at first de 
 clared that no officers of the Virginia line should be released 
 until the case of Governor Hamilton was adjusted : and they 
 proceeded to execute their threats on Colonel Willing, who 
 was further charged with great cruelties at Natchez. As 
 soon as information of this fact was received by the executive 
 of Virginia, they stopped a flag of truce which was on the 
 eve of setting sail with British prisoners to New York. In 
 October, Governor Jefferson wrote to Colonel Mathews, an 
 officer of the Virginia line, recently a prisoner in New York, 
 and then at Williamsburg on parole, stating the grounds of 
 the severity that had been practised towards Hamilton, and 
 denying that they furnished any ground of retaliation. He 
 added that the executive of Virginia would pay constant 
 attention to his situation and that of his fellow prisoners, 
 and that the British officers and soldiers who were prisoners 
 were pledges for their safety. The Governor at the same 
 time wrote to General Washington, inclosing a copy of the 
 preceding letter to Colonel Mathews, with a copy of the 
 
 than the special acts imputed to Hamilton. 5. Because I remember to 
 have heard him, in a conversation with a gentleman, then a member of 
 Congress from South Carolina, speak in terms of regret and reprobation 
 of the unjustifiable severities, and even cruelties, which had been prac 
 tised in the war on both sides ; thereby showing, either that the par 
 ticular charges against him were not true, in point of fact, or that he 
 had acted in obedience to orders which he disapproved. 
 
 Governor Jefferson, however, finds ample justification in the course 
 pursued towards Hamilton, not merely from his wish to protect the people 
 on the frontier, whose complaints were loud against Hamilton, but be 
 cause he acted by the unanimous advice of his council, and because 
 Hamilton obstinately refused to accept his parole on the condition re 
 quired, but insisted on " freedom of speech," which was not to be per 
 mitted to an enemy, one of whose modes of warfare was to excite 
 disaffection in the slaves. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 141 
 
 advice of council,, which recommended retaliation on the 
 British prisoners, and that a prison ship should be fitted up 
 for the purpose. He adds : " I am afraid I shall hereafter, 
 perhaps, be obliged to give your excellency some trouble in 
 aiding me to obtain information of the future usage of our 
 prisoners. I shall give immediate orders for having in 
 readiness every engine which the enemy have contrived for 
 the destruction of our unhappy citizens captured by them. 
 The presentiment of these operations is shocking beyond 
 expression. I pray heaven to avert them : but nothing 
 in this world will do it*, but a proper conduct of the / 
 enemy." 
 
 On the 28th November, he again wrote to General Wash 
 ington on the same subject, and requested him to communi 
 cate the treatment which Virginia prisoners received from 
 the British. 
 
 Fortunately for the cause of humanity, and the national 
 character of the parties, this policy, as foolish as it is bar 
 barous, was not permitted to proceed further, and without 
 doubt the course pursued by the executive of Virginia con 
 tributed to arrest it. 
 
 The next important measure which engaged the attention 
 of Governor Jefferson was his endeavour to extend and 
 strengthen the territorial claims of Virginia to the west. 
 After Spain undertook, in 1779, to be the mediator between 
 the belligerents, there seemed to have been a general ex 
 pectation in the United States that peace was at hand, and 
 as the terms uti possidctis were deemed probable, Mr. Jef 
 ferson, with a view of securing the right of Virginia as far 
 as the Mississippi, employed persons to ascertain, by obser 
 vation, the point where the parallel of 36 30 , the southern 
 
 * This passage lias been somewhat varied in Gerardin s continuation 
 of the history of Virginia, p. 358. 
 
142 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 limit of Virginia, intersected that river, and to measure its 
 
 o * 
 
 distance from the mouth of the Ohio. As soon as the order 
 was executed, Colonel Clarke was directed to select a strong 
 position on the Mississippi, near the southern boundary of 
 Virginia ; there to establish a fort and garrison ; and, in 
 the mean time, to erect forts at different points towards the 
 great lakes, which would answer the double purpose of 
 taking possession of the country, and of affording it pro 
 tection. Fort Jefferson, on the Mississippi, now within the 
 limits of Kentucky, was thus erected. This measure at 
 first gave offence to the Chickasaw Indians, but on hearing 
 an explanation of its motives from Colonel Clarke, they 
 became reconciled. In the execution of the rest of this duty, 
 in a country occupied by Indian tribes, Clarke showed that 
 his judgment and address were equal to his enterprise, by 
 his succeeding in keeping the Indians at peace when it was 
 practicable, and in playing off their hostilities against each 
 other when it was not. 
 
 Although the claims of Virginia to the country north-west 
 of the Ohio were thus gaining strength, from the rights of 
 conquest in addition to those derived from her original 
 charter, they were not suffered to pass undisputed by some 
 of the other states, who insisted that all the lands, the title 
 of which had originally been in the crown, and had never 
 been alienated, were the common property of the confede 
 ration, by the right of conquest, inasmuch as the revolution 
 had transferred the supreme power from the British sovereign 
 to the United republic. This ground was supported with 
 great earnestness and ingenuity on their part, and was 
 warmly resisted by Virginia in a spirited remonstrance to 
 Congress in the October session of 1779. But this delicate 
 question was happily settled by a voluntary cession, from 
 Virginia to the United States, of the country in dispute, on 
 certain conditions, and the territory thus ceded comprehends 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 143 
 
 the three flourishing states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
 which already contain more than twice as many white in 
 habitants as are in the state which ceded them. 
 
 Although, during the chief part of Mr. Jefferson s ad 
 ministration, Virginia was not the theatre of the war, and it 
 raged far to the south or the north of the state, it must not 
 on that account be supposed that the office of Governor was 
 a sinecure, or that it did not afford him who iield it ample 
 opportunity of exhibiting the talents required for the ex 
 ecutive functions of government. His situation called for 
 the constant exercise of vigilance, forecast, judgment, and 
 decision ; if in nothing else, in the shifts and expedients it 
 was necessary to resort to for counteracting the difficulties, 
 both physical and moral, which the states then encountered. 
 
 Virginia was not the less required to contribute her quota 
 to the continental armies, because the enemy was not within 
 her territory. Sometimes the difficulty of compliance con 
 sisted in procuring men, at others ammunition, or clothing 
 or arms, and even waggons to transport them. " The want 
 of money," as he remarked, " cramped every effort," and it 
 was to be supplied by the most unpalatable of all substitutes, 
 force alluding to the practice of impressments. The dif 
 ficulty of obtaining waggons seems surprising at this time, 
 when that useful vehicle is to be met with in such numbers 
 on all the high roads, unless w r e recollect that the population, 
 little more than half what it is at present, w r as confined 
 principally to the country below the falls of the rivers, where 
 the bulky products of agriculture are carried to market 
 chiefly by water. This inconvenience is frequently men 
 tioned in his letters to the general officers*. 
 
 * Thus to General Gates he writes, in August, 1780 : Finding that 
 no great number of waggons is likely to return to us, \ve will immediately 
 order as many more to be bought and sent on as soon as we possibly can. 
 
144 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The commander-in-chief of the state, in short, instead of 
 being confined to the duties of a general superintendence, 
 sufficiently arduous at that time, was compelled to descend 
 to those of a quarter-master and commissary. 
 
 The following letter to General Stevens is characteristic 
 not only of the very embarrassing circumstances of the 
 times, but also of the equality with which they were borne 
 by all classes. 
 
 Richmond, September loth, 1780. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I beg leave to trouble you with a private letter on a little 
 matter of my own, having no acquaintance at camp with 
 whom I can take that liberty. Among the waggons impressed 
 for the use of your militia, were two of mine. One of them 
 I know is safe, having been on its way from hence to Hills- 
 borough at the time of the late engagement. The other, 
 I have reason to believe, was on the field. A waggon master, 
 who says he was near it, informs me the brigade quarter 
 master cut out one of my best horses, and made his escape 
 on him ; and that he saw my waggoner loosening his own 
 horse to come off, but the enemy s horse were then coming 
 up, and he knows nothing further. He was a negro man, 
 
 But, to prevent too great expectations, I must again repeat, that I fear 
 no great number can be got." . . . " Tents, I fear, it is in vain to expect, 
 because there is not in this country stuff to make them. We have 
 agents and commissioners in constant pursuit of stuff, but hitherto re 
 searches have been fruitless." To General Stevens, in September, he 
 says, " What is to be done for waggons I do not know. We have not one 
 shilling in the treasury to purchase them. We have ordered an active 
 quarter- master to go to the westward, and endeavour to purchase on 
 credit, or impress, a hundred waggons and teams." To General Washing 
 ton, in the same month, "We are still more destitute of clothing, tents, 
 and waggons, for our troops. The southern army suffers for provisions, 
 which we could plentifully supply, were it possible to find means of 
 transportation." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 145 
 
 named Phill, lame in one arm and leg. If you will do me 
 the favour to inquire what is become of him, what horses are 
 saved, and to send them to me, I shall be much obliged to 
 you. The horses were not public property, as they were 
 only impressed, and not sold. Perhaps your certificate of 
 what is lost may be necessary to me. The wagon master 
 told me that the public money was in my wagon, a circum 
 stance which perhaps may aid your inquiries. After apolo 
 gizing for the trouble, I beg leave to assure you that I am, 
 with great sincerity, 
 
 Your friend and servant, 
 
 TIL JEFFERSON. 
 
 But the time was now approaching when these supplies, 
 which were procured with so much difficulty in Virginia, 
 were wanted to defend the homes and firesides of her own 
 citizens. On the 22nd of October, the Governor received 
 information that a British fleet had made its appearance in 
 the Chesapeake, having on board about three thousand 
 troops, commanded by General Leslie : that eight hundred 
 men were landed in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth, and 
 another party on the Bay side of Princess Anne. On the 
 23rd, one thousand infantry were landed in the neighbour 
 hood of Hampton, of which they took possession. The 
 whole force was afterwards collected at Portsmouth. The 
 executive lost no time in embodying as large a force as they 
 could arm, but the number that could be properly equipped 
 was very inadequate to the occasion. Preparations were 
 also made for the immediate removal of the Convention 
 troops into Maryland. General Lawson having just enlisted 
 five hundred volunteers for the purpose of marching to the 
 relief of South Carolina, this force was put in requisition ; 
 
 VOL. i. L 
 
146 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and General Stevens, moreover, prepared to return from the 
 south to the defence of his native state. 
 
 The Governor suggested to General Washington, on the 
 i 3d of November, that the enemy had probably come with 
 an expectation of meeting with Lord Cornwallis in Virginia; 
 that his precipitate retreat had left them without a concerted 
 object, and that they were waiting further orders. This 
 conjecture was verified a few days afterwards, by an inter 
 cepted letter* from General Leslie to Lord Cornwallis, 
 dated the 4th of November. 
 
 Leslie, having been disappointed in his expectation of a 
 junction with Lord Cornwallis, in Virginia, suddenly left 
 Portsmouth, and re-embarked for South Carolina. 
 ^ In December! the gallant Clarke came to Richmond, then 
 N the seat of government, to solicit the means of undertaking 
 his favourite expedition against Detroit, and the reasons 
 which he urged in favour of the enterprise were so cogent, 
 that it received the countenance of the Executive. As, 
 however, the requisite military stores were not to be had 
 in Virginia, the Governor made an application to General 
 Washington for a part of those deposited at Fort Pitt ; but 
 before any further measures were taken, the whole attention 
 and resources of the government were again demanded for 
 the more imperious purposes of self-defence. 
 
 On the 30th of December the Governor received infor 
 mation that twenty- seven sail of vessels were seen entering 
 
 * Governor Jefferson gives the following account of its discovery : 
 " It was taken from a person endeavouring to pass through the country 
 from Portsmouth towards Carolina. When apprehended, and a proposal 
 made to search him, he readily consented to be searched, but, at the 
 same time, was observed to put his hand into his pocket and carry some 
 thing towards his mouth, as if it were a quid of tobacco : it was ex 
 amined, and found to be a letter, of which the enclosed is a copy, written 
 on silk paper, rolled up in gold-beater s skin, and nicely hid at each 
 end, so as not to be larger than a goose quill." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 147 
 
 the Capes of Virginia the day preceding, and it being 
 probable that this was the British armament which General 
 Washington had, early in the month, apprized him was 
 preparing in New York, General Nelson was immediately 
 despatched to the lower country, and vested with large dis 
 cretionary powers for calling out the militia and otherwise 
 preparing for resistance, according to the exigency of cir 
 cumstances. No intelligence was received on that day, but 
 on the day after, it being ascertained that the fleet were 
 proceeding up James River, the Governor made a requisition 
 of half of the militia from the neighbouring counties to at 
 tend. On the same day the Legislature rose. 
 
 As the success and impunity of this predatory incursion 
 have furnished Mr. Jefferson s enemies with a copious theme 
 of censure, its details are given with a minuteness which the 
 occasion would not otherwise deserve. The facts were pub 
 lished under his sanction, and have never been contradicted. 
 
 On the 3d of January, the fleet came to anchor at James 
 Town, and on the 4th it reached Westover, where about 
 900 men, but then supposed to be a much larger force, 
 landed, under the command of the notorious Arnold, and 
 proceeded on their march towards Richmond. Until then, 
 it was not known whether that town or Petersburg was the 
 object of attack. The Governor, on the same day, called 
 out the whole of the militia from the adjacent counties, but 
 having no means of present resistance, he endeavoured to 
 secure that part of the public property which could be re 
 moved, by having it transported to the south bank of James 
 River. Such of it as had been previously sent to Westham, 
 six miles above Richmond, was also ordered to cross the 
 river. That night the enemy encamped at Four-mile Creek, 
 twelve miles below Richmond. At half after seven o clock, 
 at night, the Governor set out for Westham, and, having 
 stopped to hasten the transportation of the arms and stores, 
 
 L2 
 
148 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 he proceeded to join his family at Tuckahoe, eight miles 
 farther, which place he reached after midnight. 
 
 The next morning, having taken his family across the 
 river, and sent them to a place of safety, he rode down to 
 Britton s, opposite to Westham, and gave further orders 
 concerning the public property ; the transportation of which 
 had been continued through the whole night, and part of 
 the next day, until the approach of the enemy. He then 
 proceeded to Manchester, from whence he had a full view 
 of the invading force. They had reached Richmond at one 
 o clock in the afternoon of that day, at which time there were 
 only 200 militia, including those of the town, embodied. 
 
 The Governor, wishing to advise with Baron Steuben, 
 then commanding the new levies in the state, intended for 
 the South, and which then amounted to 200 recruits, went 
 to Chetwood s, his head-quarters, a few miles from Man 
 chester, but learning he was at Colonel Fleming s, the 
 Governor proceeded to that place, where he continued that 
 night. While there, some of the citizens of Richmond 
 waited on him, to tender an offer from Arnold not to burn 
 the town, provided British vessels were permitted to come 
 to it unmolested, and take off the tobacco there deposited. 
 The offer was unhesitatingly rejected. As soon as Arnold 
 reached Richmond, he sent a detachment under Colonel 
 Simcoe to destroy the cannon foundry above the town, 
 which having done, they advanced to Westham ; but finding 
 that all the public property sent thither had been transported 
 over the river, they returned to Richmond the same day. 
 On the 6th, the Governor returned to Britton s, and having 
 given orders respecting the public archives, rejoined his 
 family in the evening at Fine Creek. The British, after 
 burning some public and some private buildings, as well as 
 a large quantity of tobacco, left Richmond about twenty-four 
 hours after they entered it, encamped at Four-mile Creek, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 149 
 
 and on the 7th, at Berkley and Westover ; having thus 
 penetrated thirty-three miles into the country from the place 
 of debarkation, and completed their incursion, without loss, 
 in forty-eight hours from the time of their landing. On the 
 7th, the Governor went to Manchester, where he remained 
 that night, and the next day returned to Richmond. 
 
 On the evening of the 8th, the enemy detached a party 
 of horse to Charles City Court House, where they surprised 
 150 militia, of whom they killed one, wounded three, and 
 took seven or eight prisoners. On the 9th, they embarked 
 their cavalry; on the 10th, their infantry, and began to 
 descend the river. 
 
 The operations of the enemy were not confined to James 
 River. Another detachment had ascended the Appoma- 
 tox, as far as Broadway, but were there met by General 
 Smallwood, with 200 or 300 militia, and compelled to re 
 treat. In the mean time, the militia were collecting on 
 both sides of James River, under the direction of Baron 
 Steuben ; and it was hoped that the enemy might be cut 
 off on their retreat, or at least be greatly annoyed ; but 
 the wind, which had favoured their ascent, was equally pro 
 pitious to them on their return. George Rogers Clarke 
 volunteered his services on the occasion, and almost the 
 only annoyance received by the British in this incursion 
 was from him. On the evening of the 10th, in descending 
 the river, Arnold, hearing that Baron Steuben was posted 
 in the neighbourhood, landed a detachment of 300 men 
 at Hood s, under Lieutenant- Colonel Simcoe. As soon 
 as Steuben, then on his march down the south side of 
 the river, and within nine miles of Hood s, was informed 
 of their landing, he despatched Colonel Clarke to meet 
 them, who succeeded in decoying a party of the enemy into 
 the pursuit of a small number of his men, purposely exposed 
 to their view, until they came up with his main body, which, 
 
150 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by a single fire, killed seventeen, and wounded thirteen ; 
 but the British pressing on with fixed bayonets, and 
 Clarke s men being unpractised militia, badly armed, fled 
 in confusion. 
 
 Arnold returned to Portsmouth on the 20th of January, 
 intending to establish himself there ; and by the arrival of 
 three transports, which, had been separated from him in 
 a storm, his force now amounted to 2000 men. At the 
 same time, the militia who were embodied, amounted to 
 about 4000, divided into three encampments ; one at Frede- 
 ricksburg, under General Weedon, another near Williams- 
 burg, under General Nelson, and a third at Cabin Point, 
 under Baron Steuben. 
 
 The bare communication of the fact, that a force of 1000, 
 or at most 1500 men, was able to invade a country, con 
 taining at that time a population of more than half a million, 
 and 50,000 enrolled militia ; march to its metropolis ; de 
 stroy all the public and much of the private property found 
 there and in its neighbourhood ; and to leave the country 
 with impunity, is, at first, calculated to excite our surprise, 
 and to involve both the people and those who administered 
 its affairs in one indiscriminate reproach. >> But there seems 
 to be little ground for either wonder or censure, when it is 
 recollected that these 50,000 militia were scattered over 
 a surface of more than as many square miles ; that the 
 metropolis, which was thus insulted, was but a village con 
 taining scarcely 1800 inhabitants, half of whom were slaves ; 
 and that the country itself, intersected by several navigable 
 rivers, could not be defended against the sudden incursions 
 of an enemy whose naval power gave it the entire command 
 of the water, and enabled it to approach within a day s 
 march of the point of attack. 
 
 In these details, it is not seen how Mr. Jefferson could 
 have acted otherwise than he did, unless he had, on receiving 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151 
 
 the information from General Washington, immediately 
 called out the militia. His reasons for not doing this are 
 thus stated by Mr. Gerardin*, and it is believed, under 
 Mr. Jefferson s direct authority: " Intimations of a similar 
 nature from the Commander-in-chief, or Congress, had for 
 some time past been almost constantly hanging over the 
 heads of the Governor and Council. It had, therefore, become 
 necessary for them to determine whether such intimations 
 should be considered as sufficient ground, at all times, for 
 calling the militia into the field, or that measures should be 
 adopted only in the event of actual invasion. The financial 
 embarrassments of the country, the ideas, habits, and disposi 
 tions of the people, decided in favour of the latter. A standing 
 army of militia was deemed inexpedient, if not impracticable. 
 Economy was now more necessary than ever, and inattention 
 to it in the beginning had gone far towards that ruin of 
 the public finances, which strenuous and well-directed efforts 
 might yet retrieve. At the same time the executive, thus 
 warned by the Commander-in-chief of a blow which might 
 be aimed at them, awaited with watchful anxiety the full 
 development of the enemy s views, resolved to act according 
 as circumstances should require." 
 
 The difficulty of collecting a large body of militia, and 
 still more of keeping them in the field, has always been 
 found to be very great, whenever the experiment has been 
 tried ; and it was the greater on the present occasion, in 
 consequence of the recent alarm from Leslie s incursion, and 
 the ineffectual attempts then made, even after the enemy 
 was at their doors, to embody any large force. Nor is it 
 without reason that the same writer remarks, " Had even 
 the greater part of the population of Virginia been suffi 
 ciently armed, it is doubtful whether all her assailable 
 
 i 
 * History of Virginia, chap, viii. 
 
J52 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 points could have been secured from insult and injury, 
 against an enemy in full possession of the command of the 
 water. With an empty treasury, with scarcely any arms, 
 with a formidable combination to oppose in the west, an 
 advancing foe to meet in the south, and continual demands 
 on her resources to answer in the north, it is no matter of 
 surprise that she should not be fully prepared to repel this 
 new invader from the east." 
 
 In addition to these arguments we may adduce the 
 respectable testimony of the biographer of General Green, 
 who thus vindicates Mr. Jefferson from the injustice which 
 1 had been done him as Governor of Virginia : " Never did 
 an officer of the United States experience more cordial and 
 zealous support than that which Green received at this time 
 from Governor Jefferson. That the Governor s office in 
 another quarter should have been less ready, less judicious, 
 or less efficient, it is difficult to conceive. Every requisition 
 of the commanding general was promptly complied with, 
 the militia of the neighbouring counties ordered into the 
 field, and several active and spirited measures pursued for 
 replenishing Washington s corps of horse. Indeed, it is 
 a well-known fact, that his popularity was at this time 
 greatly affected by charges of his having done too much ; 
 and if we suppose his efforts in other quarters to have been 
 met with the same querulous spirit, it is not difficult to 
 assign a cause why there were not sufficient preparations 
 made for repelling the incursions of Arnold." 
 
 The capture of this arch traitor had been a favourite 
 object in America, from the time of his defection ; and two 
 modes of getting possession of his person had been sug 
 gested. One, by a few individuals, who, making a sudden 
 incursion into his camp, might secure him, and carry him off; 
 and the other, by blockading him both by sea and land, and 
 thus compelling a surrender of his whole force. Mr. Jeffer- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 153 
 
 son, conceiving that while he was stationed at Portsmouth 
 the first plan might be practicable, wrote to General Muh- 
 lenburg to select men for that purpose, and at the same 
 time offer them a reward of five thousand guineas in the 
 event of success. But Arnold s circumspection made the 
 scheme impracticable. The same plan had previously sug 
 gested itself to General Washington, and was attempted, 
 but failed. 
 
 The other plan was also attempted by him, while Arnold 
 was at Portsmouth, but was attended with no better success. 
 The French fleet was then in Newport, Rhode Island, and 
 retained there by the superiority of the British naval force 
 lying at the east end of Long Island. But several of the 
 British ships having been destroyed in a tempest, a favour 
 able opportunity was presented for the French fleet to come 
 out and co-operate with the militia in capturing the forces 
 at Portsmouth, of which General Washington urged the 
 French commander to take advantage with his whole force. 
 But Admiral Destouches, having been misinformed on this 
 point, thought proper to send only a detachment of his force, 
 which was inadequate to the object; and the English fleet 
 being refitted soon afterwards, it was not safe for Destouches 
 to venture out. But he being subsequently rejoined by the 
 squadron first sent out, it was determined to repeat the 
 attempt with the whole fleet, and they accordingly left 
 Newport on the 8th of March. They were overtaken by 
 Arbuthnot with the British fleet off Cape Henry, with which 
 they had an engagement, that made it expedient to return 
 to Newport ; and thus was this second attempt defeated. 
 
 On the 26th March, General Phillips joined Arnold at 
 Portsmouth with two thousand troops, and took the com 
 mand, to the great relief of the army, who felt no respect for 
 Arnold. At this time the state of Virginia was lamentably 
 deficient in the means of defence. There were, indeed, men 
 
154 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 enough for the occasion,, but the means of arming and 
 equipping them were unattainable. There were neither 
 arsenals, nor the means of manufacturing either arms or am 
 munition. In a letter from the Governor to the Virginia 
 delegation in Congress he writes, January the 18th, 1781 : 
 "If there be a rock on which we are to split, it is the want 
 of muskets, bayonets, and cartouch boxes ;" and to General 
 Washington on the 8th February : " The fatal want of arms 
 puts it out of our power to bring a greater force into the 
 field than will barely suffice to restrain the adventures of the 
 pitiful body of men they have at Portsmouth." Hitherto 
 the want of money had been supplied by the ready expedient 
 of paper; but this paper being unredeemed, and, conse 
 quently, constantly increasing in quantity, was as constantly 
 decreasing in value ; and now the depreciation had become 
 so great, and increased so rapidly, that the public revenue 
 was far in the rear of the public necessities, and the treasury 
 was in a fair way to be soon exhausted. 
 
 In this state of imbecility, as well known to the enemy as 
 to themselves, Phillips and Arnold ascended James River 
 on the 18th of April, with 2500 men. They landed below 
 Williamsburg, which they entered on the 20th, and destroyed 
 some public property there, at York, and other places in the 
 vicinity, re -embarked on the 22nd, and on the 24th they 
 landed at City Point, at the mouth of the Appomatox, and 
 the next day marched up to Petersburg. They here met 
 with a check from Steuben with 1000 men, but he was com 
 pelled to retreat twelve miles, and wait for reinforcements. 
 At Petersburg they destroyed a large quantity of tobacco 
 there deposited, and some small vessels. Then dividing 
 their forces, Phillips marched to Chesterfield Court House, 
 where he destroyed the barracks, and some flour; while 
 Arnold proceeded to Osborne s, where he destroyed the 
 tobacco there deposited. A small marine force was sta- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155 
 
 tioned in the river, but finding it was about to be attacked 
 by artillery, the crews set fire to the vessels, and escaped to 
 the opposite bank. At Warwick, Phillips and Arnold again 
 united their forces, and marched to Manchester, where they 
 destroyed a large quantity of tobacco. They would have 
 crossed over to Richmond, had not the arrival of La Fayette 
 there the day before deterred them. They then returned 
 to Warwick, where they destroyed the tobacco, the ware 
 houses which contained it, several mills, a rope-yard, together 
 with the flour and shipping they found there. 
 
 From Warwick they descended the river, but when they 
 had proceeded below Burwell s Ferry, in consequence of 
 tidings received from Portsmouth, they re-ascended the 
 river as far as Brandon, where the army disembarked on 
 the 7th of May, and on the 9th marched into Petersburg. 
 La Fayette, who was stationed between Chickahominy and 
 Pamunkey rivers, having apprehended that Richmond was 
 the object of attack, immediately repaired thither for its 
 defence. When, however, the British landed at Brandon, 
 conjecturing that a junction was to be effected between 
 Cornwallis and Phillips at Petersburg, he continued his 
 march to that town, but found it, on his approach, in the 
 possession of the enemy. His force being inferior, he 
 inarched back to James River, which he re-crossed at Wilton. 
 No time was lost in removing the military stores at Rich 
 mond to different points higher up the river, but principally 
 to Albemarle Old Court House. La Fayette determined to 
 remain on the north side of James River, until he should be 
 reinforced by the accession of Virginia militia, and by some 
 troops from Pennsylvania which he had reason to expect. 
 
 It having been a common practice with the British to 
 attempt to lay the inhabitants of the country through which 
 they marched under parole, whereby they" aimed to take 
 away all means of future resistance, the Governor issued 
 
156 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 a proclamation, requiring those persons who had given such 
 paroles, " to repair to some of the posts or vessels of the 
 enemy, and by surrender of their persons to cancel such 
 engagements, and not to rejoin the Commonwealth until 
 they were free to act as becomes good citizens." This pro 
 duced, to a great extent, the desired effect. 
 
 During this invasion, a question of etiquette arose between 
 Governor Jefferson and General Phillips, which is no other 
 wise important except as it throws light on the character of 
 the parties, and the temper with which the war was con 
 ducted. The Governor, having only the copy of a passport 
 for a vessel allowed to carry supplies to those Virginians who 
 were prisoners in Charleston, wrote to General Phillips for 
 an original passport. The General directed his answer, 
 " To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., American Governor of Virginia" 
 Mr. Jefferson, unwilling that the prisoners should suffer 
 from a mere point of punctilio, opened the letter ; but took 
 occasion soon afterwards, in writing to Phillips in a case in 
 which their relative situations were reversed, to address him 
 as " William Phillips, Esq., Commanding the British forces 
 in the Commonwealth of Virginia" He, at the same time, 
 wrote to Captain Gerlach, the flag master, that the Conven 
 tion troops in Virginia " should perish for want of neces 
 saries, before any should be carried to them through this 
 state, till General Phillips either swallowed this pill of re 
 taliation, or made an apology for his rudeness." By the 
 death of this officer soon afterwards, the command again 
 devolved on Arnold, who retained it until it was superseded 
 by Lord Cornwallis s arrival at Petersburg. 
 
 The necessity of making further preparations for the 
 public defence, and an exhausted treasury, induced the Go 
 vernor to convene the Assembly on the 1st of March. In 
 his opening message, after a disclosure of the public ne 
 cessities, he gave a detailed account of the recent invasion. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157 
 
 The Legislature made provision for raising two legions, of 
 six companies of infantry and one troop of horse, each. 
 They subjected the militia to the rules of the Continental 
 service, and martial law was established within twenty miles 
 of the American and the British camp. The Governor was 
 empowered to call out such numbers of the militia as should 
 be required; to make impressments of provisions, horses, 
 boats; and to apprehend disaffected persons; and addi 
 tional encouragement was given to the recruiting service. 
 But it was found necessary to resort to further emissions of 
 paper, and accordingly the Treasurer was authorized to issue 
 twenty millions of dollars in bills, redeemable in 1792, and 
 the Governor, five millions more. But conscious of the 
 insufficiency of this expedient, the law had allowed a certain 
 quantity of tobacco to each officer, in lieu of salary. The 
 legislature then adjourned to the 7th of May; but in con 
 sequence of the danger with which Richmond was threatened 
 by Phillips and Arnold, they on the 10th of May adjourned 
 to the 24th, to meet at the village of Charlottesville. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis, having crossed James River, at West- 
 over, was, on the 26th of May, proceeding towards Richmond, 
 then occupied by La Fayette, with 300 men, militia included. 
 The force of the enemy was estimated at 7000 men. ^ftlr. 
 Jefferson writes to General Washington on the 28th : " A 
 number of privateers on the rivers prevent us from receiving 
 any aid from the counties lying on navigable waters ; and 
 powerful operations meditated against our western frontier, 
 by a joint force of British and Indian savages, have, as 
 your Excellency before knew, obliged us to embody be 
 tween 2000 and 3000 men in that quarter." And regard 
 ing the situation of the state as one of great danger, he 
 adds : " Were it possible for this circumstance to justify 
 in your Excellency a determination to lend us your personal 
 aid, it is evident, from the universal voice, that the presence 
 
158 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of their beloved countryman, whose talents have so long 
 been successfully employed in establishing the freedom of 
 kindred states, to whose person they have still flattered 
 themselves they retained some right, and have ever looked 
 up, as their dernier resort in distress, would restore full 
 confidence of salvation to our citizens, and would render 
 them equal to whatever was not impossible." 
 
 In this letter, he signifies his intention of retiring from 
 the office of Governor, in pursuance of a long-declared 
 resolution. A number of the members of the Legislature, 
 sufficient to elect a speaker, did not attend until this day ; 
 and three days afterwards his office expired. He states 
 in his memoirs that he resigned, or rather, declined a re 
 election, " from a belief, that under the pressure of the 
 existing invasion, the public would have more confidence 
 in a military chief, and that the military commander being 
 invested with the civil power also, both might be wielded 
 with more energy, promptitude and effect, for the defence 
 of the state." 
 
 La Fayette, unable to contend with the superior force 
 under Cornwallis, marched to the upper country, as soon 
 as the enemy had crossed James River. But Lord Corn 
 wallis, having provided his army with a great number of 
 the best horses in Virginia, relied so much on being able 
 to overtake La Fayette, by the means of rapid movement 
 thus furnished, that he wrote to a friend in England, " the 
 boy cannot escape me." Having, however, penetrated into 
 the interior, without coming nearer the American army, 
 he abandoned the pursuit, and turned his attention to minor 
 objects. One of these was the destruction of the military 
 stores deposited at the Point of Fork, fifty miles above 
 Richmond; and another, was an attempt to capture the 
 members of the Legislature, then sitting in Charlottesville, 
 and to seize on the person of the Governor. The two last 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159 
 
 objects were confided to Colonel Tarlton, with 250 men; 
 and so rapid were his motions, that, but for an accident, 
 he must have succeeded. A gentleman who was in the 
 neighbourhood of the British army, and who suspected 
 Tarlton s object, was able, by means of a fleet horse, and 
 a nearer road, to give two hours notice of his approach*. 
 As it was, all the members of the Assembly, except seven, 
 effected their escape, and re-assembled on the 7th of June, 
 at Staunton, about forty miles west of Charlottesville. Tarl 
 ton, hearing that there were many gentlemen of the lower 
 country then at the houses of Dr. Walker and Mr. John 
 Walker, which lay near his route, for a moment lost sight 
 of his principal object, and resolved to make them prisoners. 
 He accordingly divided his force, and sent a part to Mr. 
 John Walker s, while he himself stopped at the house of 
 Dr. Walker. Several gentlemen were here made captives. 
 
 When Tarlton approached within ten miles of Charlottes 
 ville, he detached a party of horse, under Captain M Lcod, 
 to Monticello, to seize Mr. Jefferson. But he had, about 
 sunrise, received the intelligence of Tarlton s approach. 
 Several members of the Legislature, including the speakers 
 of both houses, were then his guests, and they hastened to 
 Charlottesville to adjourn the Legislature. Mrs. Jefferson 
 
 * Another accident contributed to defeat Colonel Tarlton s purpose. 
 The following facts are stated on the authority of a gentleman who 
 received them from Dr. Walker himself. On Tarlton s arrival at his 
 house, he had ordered breakfast to be prepared for the Colonel and the 
 officers ; but the operations of the cook appearing to be unusually tardy, 
 and his guest manifesting great impatience, he went to the kitchen 
 himself to inquire the cause of the delay ; and was there told by the 
 cook that he was then engaged in preparing the third breakfast, the two 
 first having been taken from him by some of Colonel Tarlton s men ; 
 on which the Doctor told his guest, that if he wished for breakfast, he 
 must place a guard of soldiers to protect the cook, which was accord 
 ingly done. The time that was thus lost, it appeared, on comparing 
 notes afterwards, saved the delegates from capture. 
 
160 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and her three children hurried off in a carriage to Colonel 
 Edward Carter s, about six miles to the south. Mr. Jeffer 
 son followed afterwards on horseback, and had not left his 
 house ten minutes before the British entered it. His pro 
 perty, books, and papers, were all respected, with the excep 
 tion of the waste which was committed in his cellars, by a 
 few of the men, without the knowledge of the commanding 
 officer. Tarlton entered Charlottesville on the 4th of June, 
 four days after Mr. Jefferson s term of office expired. He, 
 on the next day, rejoined Lord Cornwallis, who had estab 
 lished his head-quarters at Elk Hill, a plantation near the 
 Point of Fork belonging to Mr. Jefferson. Here every 
 sort of wanton mischief was perpetrated. Besides making 
 a free use of the cattle, and carrying off all the horses fit for 
 service, as was to be expected, the throats of the young 
 horses were cut, the growing crops of corn and tobacco were 
 destroyed, those of the preceding year, together with the 
 barns which contained them, and all the fences on the 
 plantation, were burnt. Other plantations shared a similar 
 fate, though not to the same extent. Thirty thousand 
 slaves were taken from Virginia by the British in these 
 invasions, of whom twenty- seven thousand were computed 
 to have died of the small pox, or camp fever. The whole 
 amount of property carried off and destroyed, during the 
 six months preceding Cornwallis s surrender, has been 
 estimated at 3,000,000/. sterling. 
 
161 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Public discontents in Virginia. Clamours against Governor Jefferson. 
 He is threatened with impeachment. The charges against him 
 canvassed. His vindication. Writes the notes on Virginia. Cha 
 racter of that work. Is elected to the Legislature. Invites an 
 investigation into his conduct. The Legislature unanimously vote 
 him their thanks. Is appointed an Envoy to negotiate peace. De 
 clines. The death of Mrs. Jefferson. His appointment renewed 
 and accepted. His embarkation prevented by the news of peace. 
 Is elected to Congress. Recommends a common money of account 
 adopted by Congress. Plan of a standing Executive Committee 
 its failure. General Washington resigns his command. Abuses 
 of debate in deliberative bodies. Debate on the ratification of the 
 Treaty of Peace its final ratification. The committees of which he 
 was a member. His report on the foreign relations of the United 
 States. The Cincinnati Association it becomes an object of 
 jealousy. General Washington consults Mr. Jefferson on this sub 
 ject. His views. Its dissolution. 
 
 17811784. 
 
 THE depredations of the enemy, vexatious and often ruinous 
 to individuals, produced the ordinary effect of complaint 
 against those who had charge of the public defence, and 
 especially against the Governor. He was held accountable 
 for the national loss and disgrace, which were mainly attri 
 butable to the state of the country, and for which the blame, 
 if any was merited, ought to have been shared by all. The 
 Legislature, which met in Staunton, smarting under the 
 mortification of being twice driven from their place of sitting, 
 fell in with the popular clamour, and, under the feelings of 
 the moment, Mr. George Nicholas, a member from Albemarle, 
 proposed the impeachment of Mr. Jefferson, and a day was 
 appointed at the succeeding session for a hearing. 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
1(52 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The proceedings on this occasion seems to have been con 
 ducted very loosely, and no vote was taken on the question 
 which might indicate the sentiments of the majority, as the 
 hearing was appointed with the concurrence of Mr. Jeffer 
 son s friends, to give him an opportunity of repelling the 
 accusation. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson has suggested that this measure in the 
 Legislature was connected with another entertained some 
 
 o 
 
 time before, which was to appoint a Dictator, during the 
 invasion of Cornwallis ; that the project was supported by 
 many of the members ; and that they had fixed on Governor 
 Henry as the proper person for that office. This fact has 
 been denied, and there seems to be no other evidence of it 
 than that which is to be found in the recollections of the 
 rumours of the day, or in those traditionary accounts which 
 have a similar foundation ; yet, it having been attested by 
 several who were members, and denied by no one who had 
 the same opportunity of knowing the fact, it ought not now 
 to be questioned. It is known that this project had been 
 previously entertained in a moment of disaster and gloom, 
 in the latter end of 1776; that Mr. George Mason went so 
 far as to declare in the house of Delegates, that " it might 
 be necessary to give unlimited power for a limited time;" 
 and that Mr. Henry was believed to be the person whom its 
 supporters then also had in view. His biographer gives 
 countenance to the probability of both these projects, and 
 only denies Mr. Henry s agency in suggesting them. 
 
 Supposing this scheme to have been entertained by some 
 individuals, there seems to be no good ground for imputing 
 to Mr. Henry any participation in the attack on Mr. Jeffer 
 son; but it is probable that both the impeachment and 
 dictatorship originated in that state of alarm, and consequent 
 desire of change, which the public disasters would naturally 
 produce, and that so favourable an occasion called forth all 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 163 
 
 the private enmity which might have been previously rank 
 ling in the minds of many against Mr. Jefferson, and which 
 more than one of his public acts was known to have caused. 
 Hitherto, he had escaped the open assaults of hostility ; but 
 without doubt it was because he had afforded no fit occasion 
 to his enemies, rather than that he had none. No man can 
 act a conspicuous part in the public concerns of his country, 
 without making enemies, as well as friends. If no other 
 cause exist, his very merits and success will excite the envy 
 of his competitors. But, in addition to this, he can scarcely 
 avoid opposing, in his course, measures which others have 
 found profitable, or have honestly believed salutary, and 
 thus patriotism concurs with rivalry and self-love, to draw 
 down upon him a degree of ill-will, in proportion to the 
 sphere of his activity. The unanimity with which the 
 people of Virginia had resisted the unwarranted pretensions 
 of Great Britain, and the sense of common danger, had 
 produced more than ordinary harmony hitherto among her 
 public men. Yet it is easy to see that the demon of civil 
 discord had not been utterly idle, and that he had found fit 
 materials for his purpose before the war had terminated. 
 Mr. Henry, for a time, had his partizans and opponents. 
 General Washington always had his ; and while Mr. Jeffer 
 son was Governor, it appeared that he also was not without 
 his share. He had been instrumental in several public 
 measures which materially affected private interests. It 
 was he who first proposed to remove the seat of government 
 from Williamsburg to Richmond, a change which occasioned 
 an immediate loss to those who held property in the former 
 capital*, and which, on other accounts, was unacceptable to 
 
 * Twenty years after the removal of the seat of government, traces of 
 resentment and ill-will to Mr. Jefferson from this source might be dis 
 tinctly seen in the " Old City," and its vicinity ; and, although the gale 
 of his popularity, then at its height, readily dispelled the smoke from 
 these petty fires, it was continually rising. 
 
 M2 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 many citizens of the lower country. The blows successfully 
 levelled at the aristocracy of the country, in the fundamental 
 changes which have been mentioned, gave offence to some, 
 from their motive, as well as their tendency. And lastly, 
 the friends of the established church saw in him their most 
 decided and uncompromising opponent. With all these 
 motives to hostility, it was to be expected that his conduct, 
 while Governor, would be scanned with jealous circumspec 
 tion, and that any errors he might have committed would 
 be uncandidly magnified and unsparingly censured. 
 
 The grounds on which he was arraigned before the bar of 
 public opinion, for he was never required to answer before 
 any other tribunal, were these: that he had not put the 
 country in a state of preparation and defence, as soon as he 
 received the information from General Washington of the 
 meditated invasion : that, after the invasion, he did not use 
 the means of resistance which the country then possessed : 
 that he too much consulted his personal safety, when Arnold 
 first entered Richmond, by which others were dispirited and 
 discouraged : that he ignominiously fled from Monticello to 
 the neighbouring mountain, on TarletoiVs approach to Char 
 lottes ville : and that the office of Governor, which he had 
 once prevented a fit person from filling, he had voluntarily 
 abandoned, as soon as it became one of difficulty and 
 danger. 
 
 There is not one of these charges, which, if it be examined, 
 in a spirit of candour, does not admit of a satisfactory re 
 futation not one on which he has not long since been 
 acquitted by the great mass of his countrymen. Personal 
 ill-will, and yet more party rancour, though refuted are not 
 always silenced, and while Mr. Jefferson was President, these 
 charges were revived and reiterated through the opposition 
 papers. It was in answer to one of these attacks in 1805, 
 th it a formal vindication was prepared by himself, and pub- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 165 
 
 lishcd anonymously. In the following extract from this 
 paper, the reader may see his own defence against the prin 
 cipal charges in his own words : having given a circumstan 
 tial narrative of Arnold s incursion in January, 1781, to 
 which that already presented to the reader strictly conforms, 
 it thus proceeds : 
 
 " Soon after this, General Phillips having joined Arnold 
 with a reinforcement of 2000 men, they advanced as;ain up 
 to Petersburg, and about the last of April, to Manchester. 
 The Governor had remained constantly in and about Rich 
 mond, exerting all his pow-ers for collecting militia, and 
 providing such means for the defence of the state as its 
 exhausted resources admitted. Never assuming a guard, 
 and with only the river between him and the enemy, his 
 lodgings were frequently within four, five, or six miles of 
 them." 
 
 " M. de la Fayette, about this time, arrived at Richmond 
 with some continental troops, with which, and the militia 
 collected in the neighbourhood, he continued to occupy that 
 place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips and 
 Arnold held Manchester and the south bank. But Lord 
 Cornwallis, about the middle of May, joining them with the 
 main southern army, M. de la Fayette was obliged to retire. 
 The enemy crossed the river, and advanced up into the 
 country, about fifty miles, and within thirty miles of Char- 
 lottesville, at which place the Legislature being to meet 
 in June, the governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, 
 two or three miles from it. His office was now near expiring 
 the country under invasion by a powerful army no 
 services but military of any avail unprepared by his line 
 of life and education for the command of armies, he believed 
 it right not to stand in the way of talents better fitted than 
 his own to the circumstances under which the country was 
 placed. He, therefore, himself proposed to his friends in 
 
166 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the Legislature, that General Nelson, who commanded the 
 militia of the state, should be appointed Governor, as he 
 was sensible that the union of the civil and military power 
 in the same hands, at this time, would greatly facilitate 
 military measures, This appointment accordingly took 
 place on the 12th of June, 1781." 
 
 After narrating the particulars of Tarleton s attempt to 
 surprise him at Monticello, he thus comments on the charge 
 which his enemies had founded on that enterprise : " This 
 is the famous adventure of Carter s Mountain, which has 
 been so often resounded through the slanderous chronicles of 
 federalism. But they have taken care never to detail the 
 facts, lest these should show, that this favourite charge 
 amounted to nothing more than that he did not remain in 
 his house, and there singly fight a whole troop of horse, 
 or suffer himself to be taken prisoner. Having accompanied 
 his family one day s journey, he returned to Monticello. 
 Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours stay in Charlottes- 
 ville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded 
 with them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty 
 miles south-west, where, riding on his farm, some time after, 
 he was thrown from his horse, and disabled from riding on 
 horseback for a considerable time. But Mr. Turner finds 
 it more convenient to give him this fall, in his retreat before 
 Tarleton, which had happened some weeks before, as a proof 
 that he withdrew from a troop of horse with a precipitancy 
 which Don Quixotte would not have practised. 
 
 " The facts here stated most particularly, with date of 
 time and place, are taken from the notes made by the writer 
 hereof, for his own satisfaction at the time the others are 
 from memory, but so well recollected, that he is satisfied 
 there is no material fact misstated. Should any person 
 undertake to contradict any particular, on evidence which 
 may at all merit the public respect, the writer will take the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 167 
 
 trouble (though not at all in the best situation for it) to 
 produce the proofs in support of it. He finds, indeed, that 
 of the persons whom he recollects to have been present on 
 the occasions, few have survived the intermediate lapse of 
 four and twenty years. Yet he trusts that some, as well 
 as himself, are yet among the living ; and he is positively 
 certain that no man can falsify any material fact here stated. 
 He well remembers, indeed, that there were then, as there 
 are at all times, some who blamed everything done contrary 
 to their own opinion, although their opinions were formed 
 on a very partial knowledge of facts. The censures which 
 have been hazarded by such men as Mr. Turner, are nothing 
 but revivals of these half- informed opinions. Mr. George 
 Nicholas, then a very young man, but always a very honest 
 one, was prompted by these persons to bring specific charges 
 against Mr. Jefferson. The heads of these, in writing, were 
 communicated through a mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, 
 who committed to writing also the heads of justification on 
 each of them. I well remember this paper, and believe the 
 original of it still exists ; and though framed when every 
 real fact was fresh in the knowledge of every one, this fabri 
 cated flight from Richmond was not among the charges 
 stated in this paper, nor any charge against Mr. Jefferson 
 for not fighting, singly, the troop of horse. Mr. Nicholas 
 candidly relinquished further proceeding. The House of 
 Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honourable sen 
 tence of entire approbation of Mr. Jefferson s conduct, and 
 so much the more honourable, as themselves had been wit 
 nesses to it. And Mr. George Nicholas took a conspicuous 
 occasion afterwards, of his own free will, and when the mat 
 ter was entirely at rest, to retract publicly the erroneous 
 opinions he had been led into on that occasion, and to make 
 just reparation by a candid acknowledgment of them." 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson was confined at Poplar Forest, his 
 
168 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 estate in Bedford, in consequence of the fall from his horse, 
 and was thereby incapable of any active employment, public 
 or private, he occupied himself with answering the queries 
 which Mons. de Marbois, then Secretary of the French Lega 
 tion to the United States, had submitted to him respecting 
 the physical and political condition of Virginia ; which 
 answers were afterwards published by him, under the title 
 of " Notes on Virginia." When we consider how difficult 
 it is, even in the present day, to get an accurate knowledge of 
 such details in our country, and how much greater the diffi 
 culty must have then been, we are surprised at the extent 
 of the information which a single individual had been thus 
 able to acquire, as to the physical features of the state the 
 course, length and depth of its rivers ; its zoological and 
 botanical productions ; its Indian tribes ; its statistics and 
 laws. After the lapse of more than half a century, by much 
 the larger part of it still gives us the fullest and most accu 
 rate information we possess of the subjects on which it treats. 
 Some of its physical theories are indeed in the rear of mo 
 dern science ; but they form a small portion of the book, 
 and its general speculations are marked with that boldness, 
 that utter disregard for received opinions, which always 
 characterized him ; and the whole is written in a neat flow 
 ing style, always perspicuous, and often peculiarly apt and 
 felicitous. 
 
 The Ex- Governor was soon after elected a member of 
 the General Assembly, from the county of Albemarle, with 
 Mr. George Nicholas, and as this gentleman had urged 
 the impeachment against him, in the previous session, Mr. 
 Jefferson applied to him, through a mutual friend, for the 
 charges intended to be alleged against him, and having 
 obtained them, he, through the same friend, stated his 
 grounds of defence. It is worthy of remark, that among 
 these charges, the flight" from Richmond and from Mon- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169 
 
 ticello, the favourite grounds of party censure many years 
 afterwards, were not included. When the Legislature met 
 in December, Mr. Jefferson, with the boldness of conscious 
 integrity, rose, and expressed his readiness to meet any 
 accusation that might be preferred against him. None was 
 made; and in a short time afterwards, 19th of December, 
 1781, the following resolution passed unanimously : 
 
 " Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the General 
 Assembly be given to our former Governor, THOMAS JEF 
 FERSON, Esq., for his impartial, upright, and attentive admi 
 nistration, whilst in office. The Assembly wish, in the 
 strongest manner, to declare the high opinion which they 
 entertain of Mr. JEFFERSON S ability, rectitude and integrity, 
 as a chief magistrate of this Commonwealth, and mean, by 
 thus publicly avowing their opinion, to obviate and to re 
 move all unmerited censure.* 
 
 There is indeed nothing in the preceding resolution to 
 repel the charge of a want of military talents in Mr. Jeffer 
 son ; but this was a merit to which he never made preten 
 sion, and indeed the want of it was the avowed motive for 
 his withdrawing from the office. It shows, however, that 
 the Assembly were satisfied that he had not in any part 
 of his administration acted culpably, as his enemies have 
 alleged, and had he not been unjustly accused, or had there 
 even been colour for any of the charges, it may be fairly 
 presumed that some member would have been found ready 
 to express his dissent, or at least to propose some modifica 
 tion of the resolution. Nor can it be supposed that Mr. 
 George Nicholas, always distinguished for his firmness as 
 well as integrity, would have publicly retracted his former 
 charges, if he had not been thoroughly convinced of their 
 injustice*. 
 
 * It has been further objected, that the resolution of the Legislature 
 is not exculpatory, because it is silent as to the charges of misconduct 
 
170 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The year Mr. Jefferson was first elected Governor, he was 
 also appointed one of the visiters of William and Mary Col 
 lege, in which capacity he effected an important change in 
 the institution, by abolishing the grammar school attached 
 to it, the two professorships of divinity, and that of oriental 
 languages, and by substituting a professorship of law and 
 police, one of anatomy, medicine and chemistry, and one 
 of modern languages. But none of these changes proved 
 permanent, except the professorships of law, and of modern 
 languages. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was, on the 15th of June, 1781, associated 
 by Congress with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and 
 Mr. Laurens, as ministers plenipotentiary for negotiating 
 peace, which was then expected to take place through 
 the mediation of Russia. He was obliged to decline the 
 appointment, from the same family considerations which 
 had operated to prevent his acceptance of a similar mission 
 in 1776. It seems that the expected mediation of Russia 
 
 which had been brought against Mr. Jefferson. But even this cavil can 
 not avail his enemies, as those charges are expressly mentioned injhe 
 resolution which passed the house of delegates, and are made the avowed 
 motive of the vote of approbation. It is in these words : 
 
 " Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the General Assembly be 
 given to our former Governor, Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, for his im 
 partial, upright, and attentive administration of the powers of the exe 
 cutive, whilst in office ; popular rumours gaining some degree of cre 
 dence by more pointed accusations, rendered it necessary to make an 
 inquiry into his conduct, and delayed that retribution of public grati 
 tude so eminently merited ; but that conduct having become the object 
 of scrutiny, tenfold value is added to the approbation, founded on a cool 
 and deliberate discussion. The Assembly wish, therefore, in the .strongest 
 manner, to declare the high opinion which they entertain of Mr. Jeffer 
 son s ability, rectitude and integrity, as chief magistrate of this Com 
 monwealth, and mean, by thus publicly avowing their opinion, to obviate 
 all future, and to remove all former unmerited censure." 
 
 The preceding resolution passed the house unanimously, but was 
 amended in the Senate, by striking out the words in italics, so as to 
 improve the form, without affecting its substance. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 171 
 
 never took place ; and, in the mean time, the surrender of 
 Lord Cornwallis, at York, on the 19th of October, 1781, 
 having rendered the cause of Great Britain in America 
 hopeless, and Congress having in the next year received 
 intimations of a favourable temper on her part, the appoint 
 ment of Mr. Jefferson was renewed in November, and was 
 now accepted. His motive for acceptance he thus explains : 
 " I had about two months before lost the cherished com 
 panion of my life, in whose affection, unabated on both 
 sides, I had lived the last ten years in unchequered happi 
 ness." The character he uniformly supported in all the 
 other domestic relations, his remarkable suavity of temper, 
 and kindness of feeling in private life, give us assurance 
 that this was not an exaggerated view of his connubial 
 felicity. 
 
 Of his sensibility on this mournful occasion, and of his 
 tender and affectionate attentions to the deceased, in her 
 last illness, we have the following touching picture from 
 one* who had the best opportunity of knowing them : 
 
 " As a nurse, no female ever had more tenderness or 
 anxiety. He nursed my poor mother, in turn, with aunt 
 Can* and his own sisters ; sitting up with her, and adminis 
 tering her medicines and drink to the last. For four months 
 that she lingered, he was never out of calling. When not 
 at her bed-side, he was writing in a small room that opened 
 immediately at the head of her bed. A moment before 
 the closing scene, he was led from the room almost in a 
 state of insensibility by his sister, Mrs. Carr, who with 
 difficulty got him into his library, where he fainted, and 
 remained so long insensible, that they became apprehensive 
 he never would revive. The scene that followed, I did not 
 
 * Mrs. Randolph, who has favoured me with many interesting par 
 ticulars, in answer to my inquiries, and who, I trust, will excuse me for 
 conveying the interesting facts she relates in her own language. 
 
172 THE LIFE OF THOMA.S JEFFERSON. 
 
 witness; but the violence of his grief (when, by stealth, 
 I entered his room at night) I dare not trust myself to de 
 scribe. He kept his room three weeks, during which I was 
 never a moment from his side. He walked almost inces 
 santly, night and day, lying down only occasionally, when 
 nature was completely exhausted, on a pallet, that had been 
 brought in during his long fainting fit. My aunts remained 
 constantly with him for some weeks, I do not remember how 
 many. When, at last, he left his room, he rode out, and 
 from that time he was incessantly on horseback, rambling 
 about the mountain, in the least frequented roads, and just 
 as often through the woods. In those melancholy rambles 
 I was his constant companion, a solitary witness to many a 
 violent burst of grief; the remembrance of which has con 
 secrated particular scenes of that lost home beyond the 
 power of time to obliterate*." 
 
 He left Monticello on the 19th of December, 1782, and 
 in eight days reached Philadelphia, a distance now travelled, 
 
 * In the burying -place at Monticello, by the side of the granite obelisk, 
 lately erected to Mr. Jefferson himself, may be seen a marble slab which 
 covers the remains of this lady, and on which are inscribed the following 
 Greek lines : 
 
 E< $1 Sctvovruv - 
 Aitrag lyu xa.x 
 
 The lines are taken from that part of Achilles s speech, over the dead 
 body of Hector, in the 22nd book of the Iliad, in which, after saying that 
 he will never forget Patroclus while he has life ; he adds, " and though 
 spirits in a future state be oblivious of the past, he will even there re 
 member his beloved companion." 
 
 A Greek epitaph wears the appearance, at first sight, of an ostentation 
 j of learning, on a most inappropriate occasion; but such a censure is in 
 consistent not only with Mr. Jefferson s general character, but also with 
 the fact, that few persons of his day, to whom the classics were familiar, 
 quoted them so seldom. We may, therefore, with more probability refer 
 the singularity to some refinement of delicacy, which, in paying a tribute 
 to the memory of the deceased, sought to veil the expression of his feel 
 ings from indiscriminate observation. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JKFFERSON. 173 
 
 by the ordinary means of conveyances in thirty-six hours. It 
 was his intention to embark at that place, but the French 
 minister, Luzerne, offered him a passage in the Romulus 
 frigate, which was then lying below Baltimore, blocked up 
 by the ice. He accepted the offer, and, in awaiting the time 
 of her sailing, employed a month, with his wonted industry, 
 in looking over the papers in the office of State; for the pur 
 pose of acquiring a more intimate knowledge of our foreign 
 relations. He then went to Baltimore, and having waited 
 there a month longer, information was received that a pro 
 visional treaty of peace had been signed by the American 
 commissioners on the 3d of September, to become absolute 
 on the conclusion of peace between France and Great Britain. 
 On receiving this intelligence, Mr. Jefferson went back to 
 Philadelphia, and being released from his mission, now no 
 longer needed, he returned to Virginia, and reached home 
 on the 15th of May, 1783.^ 
 
 On the 6th of the following month, the Legislature again 
 appointed him a delegate to Congress, to take effect from 
 the 1 st of November. Thus affording a further proof, if 
 further proof were wanted, that the Legislature did not deem 
 his conduct, as Governor, in any respect censurable, for if 
 they had, they would not so soon have taken occasion to 
 confer on him this new mark of their confidence. He left 
 Monticello on the 16th of October, arrived at Trenton on 
 the 3d of November, and took his seat on the 4th ; on which 
 day Congress adjourned to the 26th, to meet at Annapolis, 
 the seat of government of Maryland. 
 
 Already had the zeal which once animated the members 
 of this body so cooled, that a majority of the states, which, 
 by the articles of confederation, was necessary to constitute 
 a quorum, even for minor concerns, did not assemble till the 
 13th of December, eighteen days after the time appointed 
 by adjournment. One of the first subjects which seemed to 
 
174 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 engage Mr. Jefferson s attention this session was that of 
 a national money. From causes that were partly local, but 
 principally from the inadequate supply of the precious metals 
 which is always experienced in new colonies, their currency, 
 nominally the same as that of the mother country, had ge 
 nerally depreciated, and when it became stationary, the 
 depreciation greatly varied among the states. Thus 100/. 
 sterling, or money of Great Britain, was equivalent in New 
 England and Virginia to 13317. In Pennsylvania, Jersey, 
 Maryland, and Delaware, to 166f /. In New York and 
 North Carolina, to I77|7. In South Carolina and Georgia, 
 to 103f/. It was, therefore, desirable to provide a money 
 unit, which, being adopted by all the states, would facilitate 
 their commercial intercourse, save time, and favour accuracy. 
 The attention of Congress had been called to the subject 
 in January, 1782, and it had been referred to the public 
 financier, Robert Morris, who, together with his assistant, 
 Mr. Gouverneur Morris, had made an elaborate report, 
 showing the denominations of money in the several states ; 
 the value of foreign coins in circulation; and the importance 
 of a general standard value, as well as of a money unit. He 
 proposed for that unit I- 1440 of a dollar, which would be 
 a common measure of the penny of every state, without 
 leaving a fraction. The subject was resumed at the suc 
 ceeding session in April, 1/83 ; but nothing was done. It 
 was again taken up at the present session, and referred to 
 a committee, of which Mr. Jefferson was a member. He 
 prepared some notes on the subject, in which he objected to 
 Mr. Morris s money-unit, 1440 for a dollar, as inconvenient 
 by the great number of figures required to express it, and 
 by its making calculations more laborious. He, therefore, 
 proposed in its stead the dollar as the unit, and other coins, 
 so related to this as to be adapted to the decimal arithme 
 tic. These notes were submitted to Mr. Morris, to which 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 175 
 
 he replied, adhering to his first plan, except so far as to 
 make his unit equal to a hundred of those just proposed. 
 Mr. Jefferson rejoined, and the committee reporting in 
 favour of his plan, it was in the following year adopted by 
 Congress, and is the one which now prevails. 
 
 Although no reform could be more obviously beneficial, 
 yet such is the difficulty of breaking inveterate, habit, that, 
 although nearly half a century has elapsed since this con 
 venient mode of reckoning was recommended, and partially 
 adopted ; although all public accounts, both in the general 
 and state governments, have been since kept according to 
 this plan, and nearly all the coin in circulation is adapted 
 to it, the old mode of reckoning still extensively prevails, 
 especially as to shillings and pence. The same silver coins 
 are thus called and reckoned throughout the union four 
 several ways; and some of them, at values not suited to the 
 decimal notation. The advantage of the new mode is so 
 great in book-keeping that it is now universally adopted for 
 that purpose. 
 
 It is worthy of notice, that Mr. Jefferson s estimate of gold 
 to silver at fifteen to one was objected to by Mr. Morris, 
 because, as he showed, it rated gold too high ; but such has 
 been the fluctuation in the relative prices of these metals, 
 that the same estimate has since rated gold so much too low 
 as almost to banish it from the country, until its value was 
 raised to sixteen for one. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, from a regard to the convenience of the 
 decimal notation, was desirous of seeing it applied to weights 
 and measures; but that would be an experiment of more 
 doubtful success, as it would not have the same aids as that 
 of money has had ; nor would it produce the same saving of 
 time, since most commodities, however measured as to quan 
 tity, are also measured as to value, and, of course, share in 
 the advantage of this money of account. 
 
176 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The inconveniences of the very imperfect system of go 
 vernment that had been adopted in the struggle for national 
 independence, began now to manifest themselves, when the 
 sense of common danger in the several states no longer 
 bound them together. Limited as were the functions of 
 Congress, it was found that they could not conveniently be 
 executed by one body, even when it was in session ; that 
 this imperfect execution must be often interrupted by oc 
 casional vacations; and that if permanent sessions were 
 otherwise practicable, they would be defeated by the jealousy 
 of the State Legislatures, of which there had been already 
 open manifestations. As some remedy for these inconve 
 niences, Mr. Jefferson proposed that a committee of states 
 should be appointed, under the 9th article of the Confedera 
 tion, to sit in the recess of Congress : that the functions of 
 Congress should thereafter be divided into executive and 
 legislative ; the latter to be reserved to the whole body, and 
 the former to be exercised by that committee. The pro 
 position was adopted ; but it proved, on trial, an utter failure. 
 The members entered on their duties after the subsequent 
 adjournment of Congress, " quarrelled very soon; split into 
 two parties ; abandoned their post, and left the government 
 without any visible head, until the next meeting of Con 
 gress." He takes occasion from this fact, and the general 
 disposition which men- have to divide into parties, to pro 
 nounce against the policy of a plural executive. The same 
 inconvenience will be ever found in deliberative assemblies 
 also, and it but too often stands in the way of the public 
 interest; though, in general, the mischief is less serious 
 there, as the necessity for passing a new law is seldom as 
 urgent as for executing one which the Legislature has 
 deemed it expedient to pass. 
 
 On the 19th of December General Washington came to 
 Annapolis, for the purpose of resigning the command of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 177 
 
 American army. Having communicated his purpose the 
 next day to Congress, and inquired whether his resignation 
 should be by a written communication, or at an audience, 
 they decided on the latter it appearing to them, as it had, 
 no doubt, appeared to him, that there was a propriety in 
 yielding up his authority in the same way as he had received 
 it eight years before ; and that an act so closely connected 
 with his country s glory, and his own, should be performed 
 with more than ordinary solemnity. A committee, of which 
 Mr. Jefferson was chairman, was accordingly appointed to 
 make arrangements for the occasion. The ceremony took 
 place in the State House Hall, at 12 o clock, on the 23d of 
 December, in the presence of all the officers of the federal 
 and state government, and of numerous spectators attracted 
 by the occasion. The moral grandeur of the scene, and the 
 patriotic exultation it was likely to call forth, could not sup 
 press a feeling of tender melancholy on beholding that 
 connexion dissolved, which had been the source of national 
 pride and glory ; and many of the spectators, yielding to 
 this emotion, melted into tears. The principal actors them 
 selves, General Washington, and the president of Congress, 
 General Mifflin, were almost overpowered by their feelings. 
 This closing act of the great drama made a deep impression 
 on the whole American nation, and forms one of the in 
 teresting subjects with which Trumbull s pencil has adorned 
 the Capitol at Washington. The addresses of the general, 
 and of the president of Congress, in reply, exhibit the same 
 beautiful simplicity, both as to thought and diction, which was 
 suited to the occasion. That of the president, ascribed to 
 Mr. Jefferson, is cited as a specimen of his happiest manner. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " The United States, in Congress assembled, receive with 
 emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation 
 of the authorities under which you have led their troops 
 
 VOL. r. N 
 
178 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 with success through a perilous and doubtful war. Called 
 upon by your country to defend its invaded rights, you ac 
 cepted the sacred charge, before it had formed alliances, and 
 whilst it was without funds, or a government to support you. 
 You have conducted the great military contest with wisdom 
 and fortitude, invariably regarding the rights of the civil 
 power through all disasters and changes. You have, by the 
 love and confidence of your fellew citizens, enabled them to 
 display their martial genius, and transmit their fame to pos 
 terity. You have persevered, till these United States, aided 
 by a magnanimous king and nation, have been enabled, 
 under a just Providence, to close the war in freedom, safety, 
 and independence; on which happy event we sincerely join 
 you in congratulations. 
 
 " Having defended the standard of liberty in this new 
 world ; having taught a lesson useful to those who inflict, 
 and to those who feel oppression, you retire from the great 
 theatre of action, with the blessings of your fellow citizens 
 but the glory of your virtues will not terminate with your 
 military command, it will continue to animate remotest ages. 
 " We feel with you our obligations to the army in general, 
 and will particularly charge ourselves with the interests of 
 those confidential officers, who have attended your person to 
 this affecting moment. 
 
 " We join you in commending the interests of our dearest 
 country to the protection of Almighty God, beseeching Him 
 to dispose the hearts and minds of its citizens, to improve 
 the opportunity afforded them, of becoming a happy and 
 respectable nation. And for you, we address to Him our 
 earnest prayers, that a life so beloved may be fostered with 
 all his care ; that your days may be happy as they have been 
 illustrious ; and that He will finally give you that reward 
 which this world cannot give." 
 
 Many years afterwards, in speaking of this session, he 
 drew the following lively picture of the loquacious and dis- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 179 
 
 putations spirit which is but too prevalent in deliberative 
 assemblies. " Our body, 1 he remarks, " was little numerous, 
 but very contentious. Day after day was wasted on the 
 most unimportant questions. A member, one of those af 
 flicted with the morbid rage of debate, of an ardent mind, 
 prompt imagination, and copious flow of words, who heard 
 with impatience any logic which was not his own, sitting 
 near me, on some occasion of a trifling, but wordy debate, 
 asked me how I could sit in silence, hearing so much false 
 reasoning, which a word would refute ? I observed to him, 
 to refute indeed was easy, but to silence, impossible : that 
 in measures brought forward by myself, I took the labouring 
 oar, as was incumbent on me ; but that, in general, I was 
 willing to listen : that if every sound argument, or objection, 
 was used by some one or other of the numerous debaters, it 
 was enough ; if not, I thought it sufficient to suggest the 
 omission, without going into a repetition of what had been 
 already said by others ; that this was a waste and abuse of 
 the time and patience of the house, which could not be 
 justified. 
 
 " I served with General Washington in the legislature 
 of Virginia, before the Revolution, and, during it, with Dr. 
 Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak 
 ten minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which 
 was to decide the question. They laid their shoulders to 
 the great points, knowing that the little ones would follow 
 of themselves. If the present Congress," he adds, " errs 
 in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to 
 which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose 
 trade it is to question every thing, yield nothing, and talk 
 by the hour ?" 
 
 His account of the debate on the ratification of the defi 
 nitive treaty of Peace was a practical illustration of these 
 abuses of discussion. The subject of this treaty, which had 
 
 N2 
 
180 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 been signed at Paris, on the 3rd of September, was referred 
 to a committee, of which Mr. Jefferson was chairman. The 
 ratification of the treaty requiring, by the articles of con 
 federation, the presence of nine states, and only seven being 
 present, on the 23rd of December, letters were addressed to 
 the Governors of the several states, urging the necessity that 
 their delegates should give their immediate attendance. 
 On the 26th, Mr. Jefferson, by way of saving time, proposed 
 that three vessels should be held in readiness to carry the 
 ratification to Europe ; one at Annapolis, another at New 
 York, and a third at some eastern port. It was opposed by 
 one of his colleagues, Dr. Lee*, on the ground of its expense, 
 and he suggested that the seven states then present in Con 
 gress should ratify the treaty. This proposition was after 
 wards formally made by another member, and was gravely 
 debated for two days ; one of the arguments relied upon 
 being, that although the confederation required the assent 
 of nine states to enter into a treaty, yet its conclusion could 
 not be called the entrance into it. The measure was lost, 
 and, by general consent, it was unnoticed in the proceedings. 
 
 * This gentleman, Dr. Arthur Lee, a joint commissioner to France 
 with Doctor Franklin and Silas Deane, was singularly impracticable 
 in his temper and disposition. He seems to have been one of those who 
 rarely lose an opportunity of complaint, or censure, or contradiction. 
 While he resided in England, one of his early acquaintances having 
 
 inquired about him of Dr. M , who had recently returned to Virginia, 
 
 the latter answered the inquiry -by the following characteristical anec 
 dote : Dr. Lee, being once caught in a shower of rain in London, sought 
 shelter under a shed, and a gentleman who had joined him, from the 
 same motive, civilly remarking, " It rains very hard, Sir his difficult 
 companion immediately replied, " It rains hard, Sir ; but I don t think 
 you can say it rains very hard." 
 
 He was the youngest of six brothers, who formed a brilliant constel 
 lation of talent, which was both hearty and efficient in the cause of the 
 Revolution ; and nothing would have been said to detract, in the smallest 
 degree, from the mass of their merit, if it had not been thought that 
 the foregoing trait of character would throw light on more than one 
 passage in the annals of the Revolution. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 181 
 
 Finding that those who thought seven states competent 
 to the ratification were restless under the loss of their 
 motion, Mr. Jefferson,, on the 3rd of January, suggested a 
 middle course by a resolution, which, reciting the facts of the 
 presence of but seven states, of their unanimity in favour 
 of the ratification, and of their disagreement as to their 
 competency to ratify, proposed a present ratification to avail 
 so far as their power legitimately extended : that this pro 
 visional ratification should be forthwith transmitted to the 
 American ministers at Paris ; but not to be used by them 
 until circumstances should make it necessary : that they 
 should apply for an extension of the time allowed for ratifi 
 cation : and that if they did not receive ratification by nine 
 states in time, they were then to offer the one now sent, 
 with the requisite explanations. The proposition, which 
 seems the best that could have been made,, under the em 
 barrassing circumstances of the occasion, was also debated 
 two days; and on the third was adopted. The President 
 of Congress was directed to write to the ministers at Paris 
 to that effect ; but in about ten days afterwards, delegates 
 having attended from Connecticut, and one from South 
 Carolina, the treaty was ratified on the 14th of January, 
 1 784, by a unanimous vote. 
 
 The treaty was ratified by the nine states of Massachu 
 setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, 
 represented by twenty-one delegates. New Hampshire 
 and New Jersey were not fully represented, having but a 
 single member each. New York and Georgia were wholly 
 unrepresented. One cannot but wonder that so little in 
 terest was manifested in perfecting a treaty of such im 
 portance as to require a direct appeal from the seven states 
 assembled to procure the requisite number, and that even 
 then, there were four states which did not formally vote on 
 the ratification. 
 
182 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 It must have been with lively feelings of patriotic and 
 personal pride that Mr. Jefferson now signed, and had, as 
 chairman of the committee to whom it was referred, reported 
 the treaty that acknowledged and confirmed the Indepen 
 dence, of which, seven years before, he had drawn the Decla 
 ration. Besides himself, there were four other members 
 who were also actors in the first and last scene of this grand 
 political drama. They were Mr. Gerry of Massachusetts, 
 Mr. Ellery of Rhode Island, Mr. Sherman of Connecticut, 
 and Mr. Morris of Pennsylvania. 
 
 The delegates from Virginia, on the 1st of March, 1784, 
 tendered to Congress a deed of cession of the territory 
 north-west of the Ohio, in pursuance of an authority vested 
 in them by the legislature of that state on the 20th of Oc 
 tober preceding. A motion having been made to qualify 
 the acceptance of the deed, by a declaration that such ac 
 ceptance should not be considered as admitting the validity 
 of the claims of Virginia, it received the votes of only three 
 states Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. An 
 unconditional acceptance being then agreed to, the deed 
 was duly executed by the delegates, Thomas Jefferson, 
 Samuel Hardy, Arthur Lee, and James Munroe, and its 
 provisions have become articles of solemn compact between 
 the general government and the states which have been 
 since formed out of that territory. 
 
 The estimation in which Mr. Jefferson was held by his 
 associates in this body, as well as his indefatigable industry, 
 may be inferred from the facts that he was twice elected 
 its presiding officer, during the indisposition of the presi 
 dent, and that he was appointed the chairman of all its 
 most important committees. There were, besides the com 
 mittees on the ratification of the treaty of peace, and on 
 the powers and duties of the committee of states, which have 
 been mentioned, a committee on the state of the public debt 
 
THK LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. J 83 
 
 and the expenses of the current year; another, to revise 
 the treasury department ; another, to provide for the govern 
 ment of the north-western territory ; another, for the loca 
 tion and disposition of the public lands ; and lastly, a com 
 mittee to prepare instructions to American ministers in 
 negotiating commercial treaties. 
 
 On all these occasions the measures rccomrnended by him 
 appear to have been adopted, except in two instances. One 
 was that provision in the ordinance for the government of 
 the north-western territory, by which, after the year 1800, 
 slavery was there interdicted, and which, not receiving the 
 support of a majority of the states, (six only of the ten 
 present voting for it,) was rejected. The other was the 
 ordinance providing for the location and sale of the public 
 lands, which, on the question of consideration, received the 
 vote only of North Carolina. It seems, however, to have 
 suggested some of the best features of the admirable system 
 which was afterwards adopted. 
 
 Of these several legislative acts, there is no one, perhaps, 
 as interesting as that which proposes, in the form of instruc 
 tions to our ministers, improvements in international law, 
 whether we consider the public benefits which would result 
 from them, or the enlightened views which dictated them*. 
 The report drawn by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted by Con 
 gress, recommended that the United States should enter 
 into treaties with all those European powers with whom they 
 had not yet been formed, and that both with those powers, 
 and those with whom treaties had been already formed, the 
 following stipulations be made : 
 
 1. Free admission of the ships and merchandise of one party 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson, in his letter to President Adams, dated March 30, 
 1826, modestly gives Dr. Franklin the credit of originating these bene 
 ficent principles of public policy, and he is certainly entitled to much 
 of it, but a part of it seems also justly due to Mr- Jefferson himself. 
 
184 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSOK 
 
 into the ports of the other, on paying duties, as the most 
 favoured nation. 
 
 2. A more qualified reciprocity, as to the nations which 
 hold territorial possessions in America. 
 
 3. That in all such treaties, and in every case arising 
 under them, the United States be considered as one nation, 
 upon the principles of the federal constitution. 
 
 4. That private property and industry be protected, and 
 privateering be abolished. 
 
 5. Contraband articles no longer to be liable to confis 
 cation ; but liable to be detained on paying their value. 
 As to all other articles, that free ships should make free 
 goods. Blockades to be defined, and the rights of neutrals 
 protected. 
 
 7. Aliens to be allowed to dispose of lands to which they 
 may be heirs. 
 
 8. That such treaties be limited to ten, or at most fifteen 
 years. 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson was at Annapolis, he wrote to Gene 
 ral Washington in April, 1784, on the subject of the Cin 
 cinnati Association, recently established, in answer to one 
 from the General. It is well known that at the termination 
 of the war, the officers of the American army, when about 
 to separate, many of them for ever, with a view of keeping 
 alive the recollection of their past dangers and their common 
 triumph, and of binding themselves together in bands that 
 might resist the effects of time and separation, agreed to 
 form a society, which, in reference to the transition made 
 by most of them from the occupation of husbandry to that 
 of arms, took its name from the Roman Cincinnatus. Natu 
 rally inclining to mingle with it somewhat of military show 
 and distinction, they called the society an order; thus in 
 dicating that it was an honour and a privilege; and in 
 imitation of the honours of knighthood and similar personal 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 185 
 
 distinctions, they provided an external badge, which was 
 of the character of the emblems worn by the knights and 
 other privileged orders of Europe. Had they stopt here, 
 it is likely that their institution must have merely submitted 
 to the silent envy of the rest of the community, excluded 
 from a similar honour, or to the accusation of ostentatiously 
 proclaiming their own past services. But, by way of per 
 petuating the society which was thus to commemorate their 
 former friendship and public services, they provided that 
 the eldest son of every deceased member should also be a 
 member, and that the privilege should be transmitted by 
 descent for ever. This feature, which would have been 
 certain, if it had succeeded in its purpose of perpetuating 
 honourable distinction, to have increased the odium of the 
 society, or order, with future generations, was even now 
 offensive to that quick sense which " snuffs the approach 
 of tyranny in every tainted breeze." The first public notice 
 of the society was by Judge Burke, of South Carolina, after 
 wards a member of Congress from that state, in a pamphlet 
 in which he endeavoured to show that it contained the germ 
 of a future privileged aristocracy, and that the noxious plant 
 should be nipt in the bud, before it was allowed to take 
 root in our soil. The society was viewed with a certain degree 
 of disfavour before, and this appeal added jealousy and 
 alarm to ill-will, and furnished its opponents with arguments. 
 After that time, there was a plain expression of popular 
 disapprobation. The society was even publicly censured 
 by the governor of South Carolina, in his address to the 
 Assembly, and by the legislatures of three states, Mas 
 sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. General 
 Washington, to whom this republican jealousy was not likely 
 to be unknown, or to be disregarded, on the 8th of April, 
 1784, addressed a letter to Mr. Jefferson, on the subject, 
 inquiring into the real state of public opinion, as well as 
 
180 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFEKSON. 
 
 the sentiments of Congress, to which Mr. Jefferson replies 
 at great length. 
 
 In this letter, Mr. Jefferson, after giving credit to the 
 motives and feelings which led to the formation of the 
 society, expresses his doubts whether it would be found to 
 " foster those friendships it was intended to preserve." Pre 
 suming they would, at their stated meetings, have delibera 
 tions and debate, he remarks, " the way to make friends 
 quarrel, is to put them in disputation under the public eye." 
 He then frankly states the objections which were urged 
 against the society: "that it was repugnant to the prin 
 ciples of the confederation, and the letter of some of our 
 constitutions, to the spirit of all of them : that the foundation 
 on which all these were built, being the natural equality 
 of man, the denial of every pre-eminence, but that annexed 
 to legal office ; and, particularly, the denial of a pre-emi 
 nence by birth : that, however, in their present dispositions, 
 citizens might decline accepting honorary instalments into 
 the order, a time might come when a change of dispositions 
 would render these nattering, when a well-directed distri 
 bution of them might draw into the order all the men of 
 talents, of office and wealth, and, in this case, would probably 
 secure an engraftment into the government : that in this 
 they will be supported by their foreign members, and the 
 wishes and influence of foreign courts : that experience has 
 shown that the hereditary branches of modern governments 
 are the patrons of privilege and prerogative, and not of 
 the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors they 
 generally are : that, beside these evils, which are remote, 
 others may take place more immediately : that a distinction 
 is kept up between the civil and military, which it is for 
 the happiness of both to obliterate : that when the members 
 assemble, they will be proposing to do something, and what 
 that something may be, will depend on actual circumstances : 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 187 
 
 that being an organized body, under habits of subordina 
 tion,, the first obstruction to enterprise will be already sur 
 mounted: that the moderation and virtue of a single cha 
 racter have probably prevented this Revolution from being 
 closed as most others have been, by a subversion of that 
 liberty it was intended to establish : that he is not immor 
 tal, and his successor, or some of his successors, may be 
 led by false calculation into a less certain road to glory. 1 
 
 He states his impressions, that Congress was unfavour 
 able to the institution, and that although they might not 
 express their sentiments, unless forced to do so, they would 
 probably " check it by side blows whenever it came in their 
 way ; and in competitions for office, on equal, or nearly 
 equal grounds, would give silent preferences to those who 
 are not of the fraternity." He concludes with the opinion, 
 that if it was intended to continue the society, it would be 
 better to make no application to Congress : and that no 
 modification of it would be unobjectionable, except that 
 which would "amount to annihilation;" for such would 
 be the effect of parting with its inheritability, its organiza 
 tion, and its assemblies. 
 
 At a meeting of the society soon afterwards in Philadel 
 phia, the hereditary principle and the power of adopting 
 honorary members were abolished ; but the society, in all 
 other respects, was preserved. According to Mr. Jefferson, 
 General Washington, convinced that the society was disap 
 proved by the great mass of his fellow citizens, used his 
 influence at the meeting in Philadelphia for its suppression, 
 and notwithstanding a strong opposition, such would have 
 been the result, by the vote of a great majority, if the envoy 
 they had despatched to France, for the purpose of providing 
 badges for the order, and of inviting the French officers to 
 become members, had not returned at the time ; and as 
 these invitations had been cordially accepted, it was thought 
 
188 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that to retract the offer would subject themselves to the 
 reproach of levity and ingratitude : they, therefore, deter 
 mined that the society should retain its existence, its meet 
 ings, and its charitable funds. The order was to be no 
 longer hereditary ; it was to be communicated to " no new 
 members ; the general meeting, instead of being annual, 
 was to be triennial only. The eagle and riband, indeed, 
 were to be retained, because they were worn, and they 
 wished them to be worn by their friends who were in a 
 country where they would not be objects of offence ; but 
 themselves never wore them. They laid them up in their 
 bureaus, with the medals of American Independence, with 
 those of the trophies they had taken, and the battles they 
 had won." 
 
 Since that time, the society has excited so little public 
 interest, or even notice, that its history is with difficulty 
 traced. In some of the states it is yet continued, and the 
 members hold, or until lately held, triennial meetings. In 
 others, it has, after a lingering existence, been suffered to 
 experience a silent dissolution. That of Virginia met in 
 1822, and not anticipating another meeting, took steps for 
 the early transfer (long before decided on) of their funds to 
 Washington College. The transfer was accordingly made 
 in 1824, to the treasurer of Virginia, for that institution, and 
 amounted to about 15,000 dollars. 
 
189 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 \ 
 
 Mr. Jefferson appointed Minister to France. Embarks at Boston. 
 Meeting with Dr. Franklin in Paris. State of Society there. They 
 endeavour to make commercial treaties. Their partial success and 
 its causes. Publishes his Notes on Virginia. Theory of the de 
 generacy of animals in America. Statue of Washington. Remains 
 sole minister. Negotiations against the tobacco monopoly. Asserts 
 the doctrine of free trade. His qualifications of it. His opinion of 
 a navy. Sends a model for the capitol at Richmond. The Barbary 
 powers. Proposes a plan of resistance by combined forces. Causes 
 of its failure. His multifarious correspondence. Negotiations with 
 the Barbary states. Conference with the French minister on Ame 
 rican commerce. Oglethorpe s heirs. Case of Lister Asquith. 
 Taste for country life. 
 
 17841786. 
 
 ON the 7th of May, Congress having resolved to add a 
 third minister plenipotentiary to Mr. Adams and Dr. Frank 
 lin, Mr. Jefferson received the appointment; and this was 
 the fourth time that honour had been conferred on him. 
 Two days before, a proposition had been made to reduce the 
 salaries of foreign ministers, from eleven thousand one hun 
 dred and eleven dollars, to eight thousand. During the 
 animated debate on this subject, Mr. Jefferson appears never 
 to have voted ; and as he was very regular in his attendance, 
 the probability is, that he was aware that he was to be 
 nominated, and that he refrained from motives of extreme 
 delicacy his vote being liable to misconstruction, whichever 
 way he had given it. The salaries were thus fixed at nine 
 thousand dollars, at which they have ever since continued, 
 though, for the principal missions to Europe, it is confessedly 
 inadequate. 
 
190 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 On the llth of May, Mr. Jefferson left Annapolis for 
 Philadelphia, where his eldest daughter then was. He de 
 cided on taking her with him to France, and leaving the 
 other two in the care of their aunt, Mrs. Eppes. He pro 
 ceeded to Boston, with a view of embarking at that port. 
 In this journey, he took pains to inform himself of the nature 
 and extent of the commerce of each state, and even went to 
 New Hampshire and Vermont, with the same object. They 
 sailed on the 5th of July in a merchant ship, bound to Cowes, 
 which place they reached in a short and pleasant passage of 
 nineteen days. After a brief detention, in consequence of 
 the illness of Miss Jefferson, they proceeded on to Havre, 
 and remaining there three days, reached Paris on the 6th 
 day of August, 1784. 
 
 He lost no time in calling on his distinguished colleague, 
 Dr. Franklin, who was then living at Passy, a village in the 
 neighbourhood of Paris. There were many points of con 
 geniality between these individuals, and they seemed to have 
 contracted a friendship from the time their acquaintance 
 commenced, in 1775. As Dr. Franklin left the United 
 States for France in the following year, they now met, after 
 a separation of eight years. Besides the pleasures of re 
 newed intercourse, they must, without doubt, have felt much 
 patriotic congratulation, that their hopes and plans of 1776, 
 which were then involved in the uncertainty of the future, 
 had since been so happily realized, and that they were now 
 representing their country as an independent nation, at the 
 most polished court, and the most attractive capital of Eu 
 rope ; one too, which, in many points, was particularly suited 
 to the tastes of both the ministers. 
 
 At that time, everything called philosophy, whether phy 
 sical or moral, was greatly in vogue in Paris. Talent and 
 industry had combined, of late years, to cast extraordinary 
 lustre over the studies of nature, and the encyclopedists had 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 191 
 
 given to every branch of speculative science an eclat which 
 poetry and literature had once monopolized. Never had a 
 public minister been as popular in a foreign country as 
 Franklin now was in Paris. His discoveries in electricity had 
 given him a high rank among the men of science ; and his 
 reputation for political sagacity, and original views in go 
 vernment and political economy, was little inferior. These 
 recommendations alone would have been sufficient to insure 
 him the same general welcome in the polite circles of Paris 
 that Hume and Gibbon so warmly acknowledge in their own 
 case. But when it was recollected, that he had also borne 
 a conspicuous part in that revolution which had dismembered 
 a powerful rival of her most considerable colonies, and which 
 was in so many ways gratifying to France, he became as 
 great a favourite at court as among the savans and litterateurs 
 of Paris. His very simplicity of manners, and plainness of 
 dress, so strongly in contrast with the modes then prevalent 
 in the world of fashion, gave an additional charm to his 
 society, partly by its novelty, and partly because they had 
 more of the ease and grace of nature, to which, however 
 habituated to artificial forms of society, we never become 
 insensible. He thus became recommended by fashion, where 
 fashion had supreme sway ; and the youthful and the aged 
 of both sexes, the frivolous and the gay, as well as the grave 
 and learned, paid him the unfeigned homage of their respect 
 and admiration. When Mr. Jefferson reflected on the extra 
 ordinary public favour his colleague enjoyed, he seemed 
 to feel it a misfortune that he was to succeed him as the sole 
 minister of his country, conceiving that he must suffer so 
 greatly by the comparison. 
 
 It was with this feeling that he answered the French 
 minister, Vergennes, who, adverting to Dr. Franklin s inten 
 tion of returning to America, remarked to Mr. Jefferson, 
 " vous remplacez Mons. Franklin, je crois." To which he 
 
192 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 promptly replied, that he succeeded Dr. Franklin ; but no 
 one could replace him. But although no one could be ex 
 pected to hold the same high place in the regards of the 
 Parisians as Dr. Franklin, it was no small advantage to Mr. 
 Jefferson to have such a friend to introduce him. He thus 
 at once obtained a passport to the most intelligent and 
 cultivated society in that refined metropolis ; and probably 
 the United States did not then furnish another individual 
 who could so well have supplied Dr. Franklin s place, at the 
 court of Versailles, as Mr. Jefferson. He had gone to France 
 with all the predilections for the country which national 
 gratitude and his acquaintance with the most accomplished 
 French officers in America could inspire, and all the resent 
 ment against England that war and a sense of national 
 wrong could provoke. He was also imbued with the same 
 combined taste for letters and science which was then the 
 reigning mode in Paris. We accordingly find that he made 
 a very favourable impression on the French nation : while 
 they, their manners, tastes, and modes of living, obtained 
 a place in his regards, which continued to his latest hour. 
 
 As Mr. Jefferson had been associated with Dr. Franklin 
 and Mr. Adams, for the purpose of forming commercial 
 treaties with the European nations, no time was lost in giving 
 notice of his arrival to Mr. Adams, then at the Hague ; and 
 he soon joined them at Paris. Before they attempted any 
 negotiation on the subject, they proposed a general protocol 
 of their propositions, in conformity with the principles pre 
 scribed by Congress. 
 
 Their first attempt was to improve the commercial rela 
 tions of the United States with France. But, in a conference 
 with the Count de Vergennes, the minister for foreign affairs, 
 he thought the future commercial intercourse between the 
 two nations had better be left to the legislative regulations 
 of both parties, according to their amicable dispositions. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 193 
 
 The ministers of the other European powers were succes 
 sively sounded on the subject of entering into commercial 
 treaties with the United States, but the proposition was 
 received with a coldness which discouraged further advances 
 by all of them, except Prussia, Denmark, and Tuscany. 
 Frederick, who was little influenced by ordinary maxims of 
 caution, or false notions of dignity, met the proposal cordially, 
 and a treaty with him, through his minister at the Hague, 
 was soon concluded. With Denmark and Tuscany, nego 
 tiations were purposely protracted by the American ministers, 
 until their powers expired, from the apprehension that 
 treaties made with these powers, on terms of reciprocity, 
 might operate injuriously in their future negotiations with 
 the great colony holding nations of Europe. 
 
 The unwillingness which it appeared now, and for some 
 years afterwards, that other nations had to enter into treaties 
 with the United States, was attributed by Mr. Jefferson to 
 their ignorance of the value of our commerce ; but it seems 
 probable that they were also influenced by the known weak 
 ness of the bands which held the states together, and the 
 great probability, that they would cither dissolve into several 
 distinct governments, or that they would be united under 
 one of a more stable and energetic character ; so that, in 
 cither event, no engagement could now be formed which 
 could be regarded as permanent. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, soon after his arrival, took a house in the 
 Cul de sac Tetebouf, near the Boulevards, and furnished his 
 house in a style of expense more than proportioned to his 
 salary. His household then consisted of Colonel Humphreys, 
 the secretary of legation, and Mr. Short, his private secretary, 
 with his daughter, until she was placed in a convent, for her 
 education. 
 
 One of the first objects which engaged his attention was 
 the printing his notes on Virginia. He had, for the sake of 
 
 VOL. i. o 
 
194 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 gratifying a few friends with copies, wished to publish them 
 in America, but was prevented by the expense. He now 
 found that they could be printed for about a fourth of what 
 he had been asked at home. He, therefore, corrected and 
 enlarged them, and had 200 copies printed. Of these, he 
 presented a few in Europe, and sent the rest to America. 
 One of them having fallen into the hands of a bookseller, 
 in Paris, he had it translated into French, and submitted 
 the translation to the author for revision. It was a tissue of 
 blunders, of which only the most material he found it con 
 venient to correct ; and it was thus printed. A London 
 bookseller, having requested permission to print the original, 
 he consented, " to let the world see that it was not really so 
 bad as the French translation had made it appear." 
 
 Having presented one of the copies to General Chastellux, 
 the author, in a subsequent letter to that gentleman, re 
 news his attack on the proposition, " that animals degene 
 rated in America," and pays a respect to this gratuitous 
 hypothesis, which it seemed little to deserve. Adverting to 
 the work of the Abbe Raynal, in which this degeneracy is 
 maintained, he remarks : " Your knowledge of America 
 enables you to judge this question, and to say, whether the 
 lower class of people in America are less informed, and less 
 susceptible of information than the lower class in Europe ; 
 and whether those in America, who have received such an 
 education as that country can give, are less improved by it 
 than Europeans, of the same degree of education." So far 
 as the question respects the comparison between the abori 
 ginal man of America with the European, Mr. Jefferson 
 gave a great advantage to his opponents, in conceding the 
 natural inferiority of the negroes to the whites ; it being 
 easy to admit the inferiority of one race, confessedly as un 
 improved in the arts of life, when it has been already admitted 
 in another. This question did once excite the sensibility of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 195 
 
 Americans* ; but it is now deemed to have been so settled 
 by a more enlarged observation and a sounder philosophy, 
 that man here, as well as everywhere else, has all his faculties, 
 bodily and mental, improved, according as circumstances are 
 favourable to their cultivation and development, that it is 
 seldom noticed but in derision ; and as adding another to 
 the many examples of the " follies of the wise." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson seems at first to have felt a delicacy in 
 giving these notes a general diffusion, less perhaps from 
 unwillingness to appear in the character of an author, than 
 because he was fearful that some of his speculations might 
 not prove to the taste of his countrymen ; especially his re 
 marks on the constitution of Virginia, on domestic slavery, 
 and probably those on religion. Without doubt, his opinions 
 on all these topics have contributed to swell the number of 
 his enemies, though some of them have also procured him 
 friends, both at home and abroad. In giving General Chas- 
 tellux permission to republish a part of the notes in the 
 Journal de Physique, he expressly excepts the strictures on 
 slavery, and the constitution of Virginia, on the ground that 
 " they might produce an irritation, which would indispose 
 the people towards the two great objects he had in view." 
 He made a similar remark in a letter to Mr. Munroe. 
 
 The Legislature of Virginia had authorized him and his 
 colleagues to provide a competent person to take the statue 
 of General Washington. The execution of this request 
 
 * The author acknowledges that he once shared largely in this feeling, 
 hut it had long ago subsided into indifference after he saw that time, 
 which corrects so many erroneous theories, was silently refuting this. 
 And since he has been engaged in the present work, he has found in 
 the wisdom, nobleness of sentiment, energy of purpose, and ability of 
 execution of those whose deeds he has been compelled to study, (though 
 able but briefly to notice,) quite as good grounds for maintaining the op 
 posite theory that man, at least, by being transplanted to this continent, 
 lias improved rather than deteriorated. 
 
 o2 
 
196 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 devolved naturally upon Mr. Jefferson, and he accordingly 
 procured Houdon, then occupying the highest rank among 
 French sculptors, to go over to America, for the purpose of 
 making his work a copy from the life. This commission was 
 executed by him in a prompt, judicious, and business-like 
 way, and the result of the sculptor s labour now adorns the 
 Capitol, or state-house, of the metropolis of Virginia. He 
 was, at the same time, recommended by Mr. Jefferson as a 
 proper person to undertake the equestrian statue of General 
 Washington, which Congress voted in the days of national 
 poverty and economy, but has never executed in the season 
 of wealth, and lavish expenditure. It would seem, that as 
 the ability increased, the inclination diminished*. 
 
 In June, 1785, Mr. Adams left Paris for London, to which 
 place he was appointed minister ; and Dr. Franklin having 
 obtained the permission to return to America, which he had 
 long sought, Mr. Jefferson remained the sole representative 
 of his country, at Paris, in the character of minister plenipo 
 tentiary. He exhibited in this situation the same unwearied 
 industry which had always distinguished him, and to which 
 he owes no small portion of his success in life. 
 
 On the 15th of August, he opened his commercial nego 
 tiations in a letter to the Count de Vergennes, in which he 
 proposes to place the trade in tobacco on a footing that 
 would be more advantageous to both countries. He urged, 
 that by reason of the monopoly which the French govern 
 ment reserved to itself in this trade, the merchants of both 
 countries were discouraged from importing it into France, 
 and exchanging it for the manufactures and productions 
 of that country ; it being " contrary to the spirit of trade, 
 and to the dispositions of merchants, to carry a commodity 
 to any market where but one person is allowed to buy it, 
 
 * The people seem now about to take this business in their own hands, 
 and to make amends for the tardy justice of their representatives, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 197 
 
 and. where, of course, that person fixes its price, which the 
 seller must receive, or re-export his commodity, at the loss 
 of his voyage thither. Experience accordingly shows that 
 they carry it to other markets, and that they take in ex 
 change the merchandise of the place where they deliver it." 
 That France has bought large quantities of tobacco from 
 England, which she has paid for in coin, and that much of 
 the commodity, which the farmers-general purchase in 
 America, is also paid for in coin. He urges, that this ex 
 portation of coin may be prevented, and that of commodities 
 would take its place, if both operations were left to the 
 French and American merchants, instead of the farmers- 
 general. " They will import," he says, " a sufficient quan 
 tity of tobacco, if they are allowed a perfect freedom in 
 the sale ; and they will receive in payment, wines, oils, bran 
 dies, and manufactures, instead of coin ; forcing each other, 
 by their competition, to bring tobacco of the best quality ; 
 to give to the French manufacturer the full worth of his 
 merchandise ; and to sell to the American consumer at the 
 lowest price they can afford ; thus encouraging him to use 
 in preference the merchandise of this country." He states, 
 that these benefits to trade may be obtained without any loss 
 of revenue to the French government, as it may be increased 
 by an impost, which he recommends on a plan similar 
 to that pursued in England, by which the tobacco, on 
 importation, is deposited at the king s warehouse, and the 
 duty on it is paid as it is withdrawn for consumption ; by 
 which mode a higher duty is levied on tobacco in England 
 than in France. By this system, he shows, the price to the 
 consumer may be reduced from three livres to two livres 
 the pound, without loss to the revenue : that this reduction 
 of price would greatly increase the consumption, probably 
 in the same proportion, and thus the revenue would be 
 proportionally enhanced, from thirty millions of livres to 
 
198 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 forty-five millions ; or, if the consumption were not increased, 
 the king would levy on his people forty-eight millions, where 
 seventy- two millions are now levied, leaving twenty millions 
 in their pockets, either to remain there, or to be levied in 
 some other form, should the state of the revenue require it. 
 It would also enable its subjects, annually, to sell between 
 nine and ten millions of their products, instead of sending 
 abroad nearly that sum in coin, which eventually finds its 
 way to England. 
 
 He examines two objections to his proposition. The first 
 is, that it will encourage smuggling. But this he denies, 
 as the temptation would then be less than at present, when 
 what costs fourteen sous, may now be sold for sixty, but 
 will then sell for but forty. Secondly, that it will render 
 the farmers- general less able to make loans to the public 
 treasury. To this he answers, that if the farm on tobacco 
 be estimated at one-eighth of all the farms, it can lessen 
 their ability only in that proportion ; and it is to be con 
 sidered, whether this advantage " is worth the annual sacri 
 fice of twenty-four millions ; or, if a much smaller sacrifice 
 to other monied men will not produce the same loans of 
 money in the ordinary way." 
 
 The chief advantage expected for America, is an increase 
 of consumption. " The other markets of Europe having too 
 much influence to permit any augmentation of price." "This," 
 he says, " will give us a vent for so much more, and of 
 consequence, find employment for so many more cultivators 
 of the earth : and in whatever proportion it increases this 
 production for us, in the same proportion will it procure 
 additional vent for the merchandise of France, and employ 
 ment for the hands which produce it." He expects too, that 
 by bringing our merchants to France," they would procure 
 a number of commodities in exchange, better in kind, and 
 cheaper in price/ He also hoped, that it would unite 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 199 
 
 the two nations still closer in friendship,, by binding them 
 in interest. " In truth," he adds, " no two countries are 
 better calculated for the exchanges of commerce. France 
 wants rice, tobacco, potash, firs, and ship timber. We want 
 wines, brandies, oils, and manufactures. There is an affec 
 tion too between the two people, which disposes them to 
 favour one another." These views seem to be in accordance 
 with sound principles of trade, except that the advantages 
 to France, in the increased sale of her products, in conse 
 quence of an increased consumption of tobacco, seems to 
 be greatly overrated. Nor is it seen how there could have 
 been an increased demand for tobacco in France, without 
 producing some increase of price in America. Perhaps 
 these considerations induced the French minister to resist 
 the proposition. But whatever was the cause, it failed of 
 its purpose, and the policy which it calls in question has 
 been ever since pursued. 
 
 Of the advantages of removing all restrictions on com 
 merce, he seems to have been fully sensible. In a letter 
 to Mr. Adams, in July, 1785, he thus speaks of the policy 
 of subjecting aliens to higher duties than are paid by citi 
 zens : " As far as my inquiries enable me to judge, France 
 and Holland make no distinction of duties between aliens 
 and natives. I also rather believe that the other states 
 of Europe make none, England excepted, to whom this 
 policy, as that of her navigation act, seems peculiar. The 
 question then is, should we disarm ourselves of the power 
 to make this distinction against all nations, in order to 
 purchase an exemption from the alien duties in England 
 only ? for, if we put her importations on the footing of 
 native, all other nations with whom we treat will have a 
 right to claim the same. I think we should, because, against 
 other nations, who make no distinctions in their ports be 
 tween us and their own subjects, we ought not to make a 
 
200 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 distinction in ours. And if the English will agree in like 
 manner to make none, we should with equal reason abandon 
 the right as against them. I think all the world would 
 gain by setting commerce at perfect liberty. I remember 
 that when we were digesting the general form of our treaty, 
 this proposition to put foreigners and natives on the same 
 footing was considered : and we were all three, Dr. Frank 
 lin, as well as you and myself, in favour of it." 
 
 In a letter received from Mr. Jay, he had been asked 
 " Whether it would be useful to us to carry all our own 
 productions, or none?" and he evidently shows a preference 
 for the Chinese policy. This opinion may seem inconsistent 
 with a clear perception of the benefits of free trade, but on 
 this occasion he postpones pecuniary gain to what he deemed 
 higher considerations of national policy. 
 
 " We have now," he says, " lands enough to employ an 
 infinite number of people in their cultivation. Cultivators 
 of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the 
 most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, 
 and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty 
 and interests by the most lasting bonds. As long, therefore, 
 as they can find employment in this line, I would not con 
 vert them into mariners, artisans, or any thing else. But 
 our citizens will find employment in this line, till their num 
 bers, and of course their productions, become too great for 
 the demand, both internal and foreign. This is not the 
 case as yet, and probably will not be for a considerable 
 time. As soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be turned 
 to something else. I should then, perhaps, wish to turn 
 them to the sea, in preference to manufactures ; because, 
 comparing the characters of the two classes, I find the former 
 the most valuable citizens. I consider the class of artificers 
 as the panders of vice, and the instruments by which the 
 liberties of a country are generally overturned, However, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 201 
 
 we arc not free to decide this question on principles of theory 
 only. Our people are decided in the opinion, that it is 
 necessary for us to take a share in the occupation of the 
 ocean, and their established habits induce them to require 
 that the sea be kept open to them, and that that line of 
 policy be pursued which will render the use of that element 
 to them as great as possible. I think it a duty in those 
 intrusted with the administration of their affairs, to conform 
 themselves to the decided choice of their constituents : and 
 that, therefore, we should in every instance preserve an 
 equality of right to them, in the transportation of com 
 modities, in the right of fishing, and in the other uses of the 
 sea." 
 
 But he thinks that wars will be the inevitable conse 
 quence : u That their property will be violated on the sea, 
 and in foreign parts their persons will be insulted, impri 
 soned, &c., which outrages we must resent. That the only 
 way to deter injustice will be to put ourselves, by means 
 of a naval force, in a situation to punish it. I think it," he 
 says, " to our interest to punish the first insult ; because 
 an insult unpunished is the parent of many others." In 
 case of a war with England, he thought we should abandon 
 the carrying trade, because we could not protect it. " Foreign 
 nations must in that case be invited to bring us what we 
 want, and take our productions in their own bottoms. This 
 alone could prevent the loss of those productions to us, and 
 the acquisition of them to our enemy. Our seamen might 
 be employed in depredations on their trade." He after 
 wards adds, " Our vicinity to their West India possessions 
 and to the fisheries, is a bridle which a small naval force 
 on our part would hold in the mouths of the most powerful 
 of these countries. I hope our land office will rid us of 
 our debts, and that our first attention then will be to the 
 beginning of a naval force, of some sort. This alone can 
 
202 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 countenance our people as carriers on the water, and I sup 
 pose them to be determined to continue such." 
 
 His view of the consequences of our engaging in foreign 
 commerce has proved to be prophetic, for we have experi 
 enced all those various species of ill-treatment which he 
 mentions. Every war in which we have been engaged with 
 France, with England, and with the Barbary powers, has 
 grown out of injuries to our maritime rights and interests. 
 But the question is, whether the whole sum of gain from 
 our navigation and foreign commerce has not exceeded the 
 whole sum of loss. I presume there arc none competent to 
 make the comparison who will hesitate to answer in the 
 affirmative. Besides, the expedient which Mr. Jefferson 
 suggests, of inviting other nations to carry on our trade, 
 when, in case of war with England, we could not safely be 
 our own carriers, is quite as impracticable ; for the same 
 dominant power on the ocean, which we could neither en 
 counter nor elude on that element, would be able to blockade 
 our ports, and prevent other nations from bringing us their 
 productions and taking off ours, as we experienced in the 
 late war. There is, then, no effectual way of keeping our 
 access to the great highway of nations open, but by a naval 
 force that will make a general blockade impracticable, and 
 a partial one harmless, whenever the means of internal com 
 munication shall be improved according to the singularly 
 happy capabilities of our country. 
 
 The change which Mr. Jefferson s mind underwent as to 
 the policy of a navy, was directly contrary to that of the 
 party with which he was associated ; for while they who had 
 first opposed it, had, under the influence of its splendid 
 successes in the late war, afterwards become its staunch 
 friends, he who had at first deemed a navy necessary to the 
 defence of our commerce, and the resources of the country 
 fully competent to its support, afterwards, both in Mr. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203 
 
 Adams s administration and his own, distrusted the efficacy 
 of this species of defence, and continued of this opinion until 
 the capture of the Guerriere, when opposition from every 
 quarter was silenced in the shouts of victory. How far this 
 and other brilliant achievements on the ocean produced a 
 second change of opinion, there is no recorded evidence. 
 
 He was not suffered to give his time exclusively to di 
 plomatic concerns, or even to the elegant amusements and 
 social pleasures of Paris. Numerous commissions, both 
 from individuals and public bodies, occupied much of his 
 time and attention. Some of them, however, were so much 
 in accordance with his own tastes and predilections, that he 
 found more pleasure than annoyance in fulfilling them. Of 
 this character was an application from those who had the 
 direction of the new state-house, or capitol, which was about 
 to be erected in his native state. As he had in his notes 
 been somewhat of a critic in architecture, and had declared 
 that " the genius of the art seemed to have shed its male 
 dictions over the land of his birth," these gentlemen were 
 induced to request him to furnish a plan for the proposed 
 building. He promptly undertook the office, and with his 
 usual diligence, and more than usual ardour, set about pro 
 viding all that he knew his own country then to want, that 
 is, both models, workmen, and some of the materials. He 
 applied to an architect of reputation, and, under the influence 
 of his extreme partiality for Grecian architecture, they se 
 lected as a model the Maison quarree of Nismcs, which he 
 pronounces " one of the most beautiful, if not the most 
 beautiful and precious morsel of architecture left us by an 
 tiquity." As this building was originally a temple, and 
 contained but a single room, to which its form is very well 
 suited, it took them some time to make the plan of the in 
 terior " convenient for the three branches of government," 
 and the more, in consequence of " avocations to other ob- 
 
204 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 jects." In the meanwhile he learnt, to his great regret and 
 mortification, that the directors were about to proceed upon 
 a plan of their own. He immediately wrote to two friends, 
 Mr. Madison and Mr. Edmund Randolph, to prevail on them 
 to arrest the progress of the work, until the plans then pre 
 paring could be sent on. He states that his plan is not only 
 more beautiful than the one the directors proposed, but 
 more convenient, and would not cost more than two-thirds 
 as much. Besides, he asks, " how is a taste in this beautiful 
 art to be formed in our countrymen, unless we avail our 
 selves of every occasion when public buildings are to be 
 erected, of presenting to them models for their study and 
 imitation ? " To Mr. Madison he remarks, " You sec I am 
 an enthusiast on the subject of the arts. But it is an en 
 thusiasm of which I am not ashamed, as its object is to 
 improve the taste of my countrymen, to increase their repu 
 tation, to reconcile to them the respect of the world, and 
 procure them its praise." The appeal was successful, and 
 his plan was adopted, but the work being committed to 
 inexperienced hands, was not well executed ; and two or 
 three deviations from the model, in points not deemed by 
 them material, have somewhat impaired its beauty. Nor 
 docs this class of edifices seem to be as well suited to a 
 number of unconnected apartments as it is for a single room, 
 for which it was always designed in the temples of antiquity; 
 and hence this incongruity in the capitol of Richmond, that 
 while, to suit the arrangement of the interior, the entrance 
 from without is at the sides of the building, the portico, 
 which is the sign of the entrance, is at the end. 
 
 After his colleagues left him, and his diplomatic duties 
 were limited to our relations with France, his efforts were 
 principally directed to obtain the admission of our principal 
 staples into that country on favourable terms, as also a trade 
 to the French colonies. In these efforts he acknowledges 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 205 
 
 the active and zealous co-operation of the Marquis de la 
 Fayette, who seemed to be actuated by the same regard for 
 his adopted, as his native country. He docs justice also to 
 the good dispositions of the Count de Vergennes, and the 
 French government generally. 
 
 In consequence of the capture of two American vessels in 
 the Mediterranean by the Barbary cruisers, Mr. Jefferson s 
 attention was forcibly called to this subject; and feeling a 
 great repugnance to the course then generally pursued by 
 the European nations, of buying exemption from their piracy 
 by tribute, he proposed an association among those powers 
 that were most exposed to their depredations; and actually 
 proposed articles of confederation, which he submitted to 
 such of their ministers as were at Paris. These articles 
 proposed, That such of them as were at war with the Bar 
 bary states, or any portion of them, should enter into a 
 convention to act in concert against those states, beginning 
 with the Algerines. 2. That any other power might be 
 permitted to accede to the convention, on the terms pre 
 scribed by the parties at the time of accession. 3. The 
 object of the convention should be to compel the piratical 
 states to peace, without price, and to guarantee such peace 
 to each other. 4. The combined operations to be, constant 
 cruises on their coast, with a moderate naval force, previously 
 agreed on. Six frigates, with as many tenders and zebecs, 
 were supposed to be sufficient. The force to be divided into 
 two parts one-half cruising while the other was in port. 
 5. The force agreed on to be furnished by the parties, in 
 quotas as agreed on. 6. To prevent the miscarriages arising 
 from a want of harmony among officers of different nations, 
 the parties to consider whether it would not be better to 
 contribute their quotas in money, to be employed in fitting 
 out, and keeping on duty, a single fleet. 7. To consider 
 also the policy of giving full powers in relation to this matter 
 
206 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to their ambassadors and ministers, for the execution of this 
 convention, and the vote of each to be in proportion to the 
 quota of his sovereign. 8. To avoid the embarrassment 
 from the personal solicitations for office, there should be no 
 officers for the council of Ambassadors, such as commis 
 sioners, secretaries, &c., nor any lucrative appointments, but 
 those whose functions were exercised on board the vessels 
 of the fleet. 9. That war between any of the parties to the 
 convention should not extend to this convention, but as to 
 this object they should be regarded as at peace. 10. When 
 Algiers was reduced to submission, the other Barbary states, 
 if they persisted in their piracies, should be acted against 
 and in like manner, separately or together. 11. Whenever 
 the convention would interfere with a treaty between any 
 one of the parties to the convention and the Barbary powers, 
 the treaty was to prevail, and the party to be allowed to 
 withdraw." 
 
 Spain, having just concluded a treaty with Algiers, was 
 indisposed to the plan. It was, however, approved by Por 
 tugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Denmark, and 
 Sweden ; but they expressed apprehensions that France 
 would not favour it, and they wished the sentiments of the 
 Count de Vergennes to be ascertained. Mr. Jefferson s ac 
 count of the course he pursued to this object, is as follows : 
 " I had before taken occasion to inform him of what we were 
 proposing, and, therefore, did not think it proper to insinuate 
 any doubt of the fair conduct of his government ; but, stating 
 our propositions, I mentioned the apprehensions entertained 
 by us, that England would interfere in behalf of those pira 
 tical governments. She dares not do it, said he. I pressed 
 it no further. The other agents were satisfied with this 
 indication of his sentiments, and nothing was now wanting 
 to bring it into direct and formal consideration, but the 
 assent of our government, and their authority to make the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 207 
 
 formal proposition." The plan was then communicated by 
 him to Congress, and he further informed them, it was ex 
 pected that we should maintain a frigate towards its exe 
 cution. But the United States were then in no condition 
 to make such an engagement. Their recommendations to 
 the states for contributions were so openly neglected, that 
 they declined entering into a contract which they were not 
 certain of punctually fulfilling ; and thus a scheme which 
 subsequent events shows to have been so practicable, en 
 tirely failed. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Bellini*, of Williamsburg, he says, 
 that in science, he thinks the mass of the people in France 
 are two centuries behind ours ; their literati, half a dozen 
 years before us. Most persons out of America will think, 
 that in both of these comparisons his affections have over 
 leaped his judgment. But he has done more justice to the 
 French nation on the subject of manners and the fine arts. 
 " With respect to what are termed polite manners," he re 
 marks, " without sacrificing too much the sincerity of lan 
 guage, I would wish my countrymen to adopt just so much of 
 European politeness as to be ready to make all those little 
 sacrifices of self, which really render European manners 
 amiable, and relieve society from the disagreeable scenes 
 to which rudeness often subjects it. Here, it seems that 
 a man might pass a life without encountering a single rude 
 ness. In the pleasures of the table they are far before us, 
 because, with good taste they unite temperance. They do 
 not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming 
 themselves into brutes. I have never yet seen a man drunk 
 in France, even among the lowest of the people. Were I 
 to proceed to tell you how much I enjoy their architecture, 
 sculpture, painting, music, I should want words. It is in 
 
 * This gentleman was a native of Florence, and was the professor of 
 modern languages in the college of William and Mary. 
 
208 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 these arts they shine. The last of them, particularly, is an 
 enjoyment, the deprivation of which with us cannot be calcu 
 lated. I am almost ready to say, it is the only thing which 
 from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite of all the 
 authority of the decalogue, I do covet." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s public duties, for the remainder of the 
 year, 1785, after he was left the sole minister of his country, 
 consisted in endeavouring to obtain admission into the ports 
 of France for the great American staples ; in his efforts to 
 effect a combination of the European powers against the 
 piratical states ; and, what may also be regarded as a public 
 duty, in taking measures for procuring plans both of a state- 
 house and public prison for his native state ; and a fit per 
 son to make the statue voted to General Washington. 
 Each of these last commissions seem to have occupied much 
 of his time and attention. In addition to these public 
 services, his letters, published and unpublished, show that 
 he had numerous private commissions to execute, and that 
 he communicated to his correspondents, in different parts 
 of the United States, all that was new or remarkable in the 
 annals of science and literature. The great number and 
 diversity of facts of this character adverted to show at once 
 the variety of his knowledge, and his unceasing desire to add 
 to it. Thus we find him noticing astronomical facts in the 
 Connoissance des terns, to Dr. Styles, the president of Yale 
 College : to others, a mechanical contrivance for propelling 
 boats ; speculations on the bones found on the Ohio ; and 
 the effects of independence on the character of the Greeks. 
 In his reflections on this last subject, his admiration of the 
 classics, joined to his zeal for civil liberty, led him to " ex 
 pect once more to see the language of Homer and Demos 
 thenes a living language." To Dr. Price, he writes on the 
 subject of domestic slavery. For several friends in Virginia 
 he purchased books. To Mr. Hartley, the British minister, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 209 
 
 who signed the treaty of Peace, he communicates a full ac 
 count of the public measures in the United States. To Van 
 Staphorst and Company, the value of American certificates 
 of debt. To Judge Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, who was 
 equally devoted to music and to poetry, an improvement 
 in musical instruments. To several others he imparts the 
 attempted improvements on balloons, then still an interesting 
 novelty in Paris, and the melancholy fate of Pilatre de 
 Rozier, who lost his life by the balloon in which he had 
 ascended taking fire. To one young friend he pens a dis 
 suasive against coming to Europe for his education. To 
 another, a nephew*, the minutest details as to his course of 
 studies. In a letter to the governor of Georgia, he discusses 
 the merits of the claim of the Chevalier de Mezieres, a 
 nephew of General Oglethorpe. In all these, his mind 
 exhibits, in a perspicuous style, its characteristic acuteness 
 and boldness, with an occasional tinge of some favourite 
 theories, or predominant national feelings. 
 
 Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson, had been 
 authorized by Congress to treat with the Barbary states ; 
 but their powers were at first unavailing, for want of money, 
 an indispensable requisite, at that time, in all pacific nego 
 tiations with those states. Funds being afterwards put 
 into the hands of the ministers for this object, they appointed 
 an agent, Mr. Barclay, to treat with all those powers. But 
 before he left Paris, Mr. Jefferson having received intelli 
 gence, in September, that the Algerines had taken two 
 American vessels, he and Mr. Adams thought it best to 
 let Mr. Barclay proceed to Marocco, and to send another 
 agent, Mr. Lambe, to Algiers. One of the vcsesls captured 
 and carried into Algiers, was commanded by Richard O Brien, 
 afterwards known by the name of Commodore, and made 
 
 * This was the eldest son of his brother-in-law, Mr. Carr, who is men 
 tioned in the second chapter. 
 
 VOL. I. p 
 
210 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 American Consul at Algiers, as soon as peace was concluded 
 with that country. Congress had limited the sum to be ex 
 pended in this negotiation to 80,000 dollars ; and Mr. Jeffer 
 son thought one-half might be paid to Algiers, as it possessed 
 half the power of those states, and one-fourth to Marocco. 
 He prepared instructions to Barclay, who was restricted 
 to the sum of 20,000 dollars, for all the expenses of the 
 treaty, whether by presents to the emperor, or his officers. 
 He was further directed to make inquiries into the nature 
 and extent of the commerce of Marocco, and by whom car 
 ried on : to describe their ports, as to draught of water 
 and fortifications : their coin : their naval force : their ships : 
 seamen : times, and plan of cruising : the treatment of 
 their prisoners : the mode and terms of redemption : their 
 land forces and revenues. 
 
 In November, 1785, Mr. Jefferson communicated with 
 Mr. Adams, on the subject of a treaty with Portugal. As 
 the Portuguese minister had objected to the importation 
 of flour from America, because his nation preferred import 
 ing the wheat and manufacturing it themselves, he en 
 deavoured to prove that it would be to the interest of Por 
 tugal to import flour, by the following considerations : that 
 the wines of Portugal were preferred in America, in con 
 sequence of their being suited to our hot summers : that 
 the southern states would take manufactures of cotton and 
 wool, and the northern both the raw material and the manu 
 factures : that Portugal would have a good share of the 
 trade of supplying the southern states with East India 
 goods. His argument was supported by a reference to 
 facts and details, which showed an intimate acquaintance 
 with our trade, and which could not have been acquired 
 by one of his previous habits without extraordinary in 
 dustry. 
 
 In December, he had a long conference with the Count 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 211 
 
 de Vergennes on the subject of our commerce with France. 
 The minister complained that all our trade centred in Eng 
 land, which Mr. Jefferson thus explained : The commerce 
 between two countries could not be kept up except by an 
 exchange of commodities. If, therefore, the American mer 
 chant was forced to carry his produce to London, it could 
 not be expected he would make a voyage f)*om thence to 
 France with the money, to lay it out there ; and in like 
 manner, if he could bring his commodities with advantage 
 to France, he would not make another voyage to England 
 with the money to lay it out there, but would take in ex 
 change the merchandise of France. To all of which the 
 French minister assented. He then examined in detail the 
 principal products of America, for the purpose of seeing 
 which of them could be profitably imported into France. 
 1. Rice France is supplied with this article chiefly from the 
 Mediterranean and from Egypt. 2. Indigo Her own colo 
 nies adequately supply her with this article, and of a better 
 quality than the American. 3. Flour, fish, and provisions, 
 they produce in sufficient quantities at "home. None of the 
 preceding commodities, therefore, furnish the materials of 
 commerce between the two countries. He then considered 
 the articles which France would buy of America. 1. Peltry 
 and furs In consequence of the western posts being still 
 in the hands of the English, we have none of that article at 
 present. If possessed of these posts, w r e could furnish France 
 to the amount of 2,000,000 livres annually. 2. Potash An 
 experiment was now making whether this w r ould be a profit 
 able article of import. 3. Naval stores Trials are also 
 making in these : the result doubtful. 4. Whale oil The 
 prospects of this branch of trade were favourable, since the 
 duty in France had been reduced. 5. Tobacco The letter 
 formerly written on this subject by Mr. Jefferson was brought 
 to the Count s notice, and he was told that we now received 
 
212 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 2,000,000 of livres for tobacco purchased in the United 
 States, and the money was remitted to London ; that the 
 tobacco which France bought in America was also paid for 
 in coin; but that if the trade were open, our merchants 
 would bring it to France, and take merchandise in return. 
 The minister replied that the king now received a revenue 
 from tobacco of 28,000,000 livres, and that the amount was 
 too considerable for them to tamper with the subject. Mr. 
 Jefferson again pressed the advantages of the warehouse 
 system as to revenue, but could obtain no promise. The 
 Count laid a stress on the privilege of carrying fish to the 
 French West Indies, and when the discriminating duties in 
 favour of the French were urged by Mr. Jefferson as ex 
 cluding us from the trade, he replied, that their fishermen 
 could not furnish the quantities required in the Islands, and 
 that from the greater economy and management of the 
 Americans, they had been able to sell their fish at 25 livres 
 the quintal, while the French were obliged to ask 36 livres. 
 
 With no less zeal and talent the American minister de 
 fended his country against some other complaints made by 
 Vergennes, especially against the charge of delay in the 
 administration of justice. He maintained that it was far 
 more expeditious now than before the revolution : that, in 
 the case of debts due to British creditors, special laws had 
 been passed in Virginia to prohibit their recovery, on account 
 of the slaves which the British, in violation of the treaty of 
 peace, had carried away ; but that the law was afterwards 
 so modified as to allow the recovery in seven annual pay 
 ments : that, as to all other creditors, there was no unneces 
 sary delay ; and he presumed that the complaint was not 
 better as to other states than as to Virginia. The whole of 
 this conference was conducted on his part with equal temper 
 and ability, exhibiting a thorough knowledge of the subjects 
 discussed, and great fertility of argument. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 213 
 
 Soon after this conference with the Count de Vergenncs, 
 Mr. Jefferson addressed a letter to the Georgia delegates in 
 Congress, in which, after referring them to his despatches 
 to Mr. Jay, containing his views on the claims of Ogle- 
 thorpe s heirs, he says, " I have thought it best to present 
 to them those claims in the least favourable point of view, 
 to lessen as much as possible the effects of a disappointment : 
 but I think it my duty to ask your notice and patronage of 
 this case, as one whose decision will have an effect on the 
 general interests of the Union." The interests of the Che 
 valier de Mezicres are " espoused by those whom it is our 
 interest to gratify." " The pecuniary advantages of confis 
 cation, in this instance, cannot compensate its ill effects. It 
 is difficult to make foreigners understand those legal dis 
 tinctions between the effects of forfeiture, of escheat, and of 
 conveyance, on which the professors of the law might build 
 their opinions in this case. They can see only the outlines 
 of the case, to wit: the death of a possessor of lands lying 
 within the United States, leaving an heir in France, and 
 the state claiming those lands in opposition to the heir. 
 An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise 
 than a state. Perhaps, too, in every case which either party 
 to a treaty thinks to be within its provisions, it is better not 
 to weigh the syllables and letters of the treaty, but to show 
 that gratitude and affection render that appeal unnecessary." 
 He on the same day recommended the case to the patronage 
 of the Governor of Georgia. 
 
 There was also a private case of American citizens which 
 gave him no little trouble, and which conveys a lively idea 
 of the severity of the laws of France against smuggling. 
 This was the case of Lister Asquith and his five companions, 
 who were thrown into prison for violating the revenue laws 
 of France. Asquith was a citizen of Maryland, and being 
 
214 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 involved in an important law-suit in England which required 
 his presence, determined to go thither in a small schooner 
 of his own, which he loaded with tobacco and flour for Liver 
 pool. The schooner he had purchased as measuring 59J 
 tons, but she had been registered at 21 tons, by way of 
 evading the double duties on American vessels in England. 
 The vessel stopped in Hampton Roads, and learning that 
 tobacco would be a better article than flour, the latter was 
 landed, with a view of substituting tobacco ; but a storm 
 coming on, they were driven out to sea. While in the 
 English channel, another storm drove them a second time 
 
 O 
 
 to sea, when, in distress for provisions, and unable to reach 
 England, they put into France. Asquith went to Roscof 
 and made a protest of the facts, and reported his vessel and 
 cargo to the custom-house. Having represented the bur 
 then of his vessel to be only 21 tons, he was told she was liable 
 to confiscation, on which he gave a true state of the case, and 
 was permitted so to report her ; she was, however, afterwards 
 visited by other persons, who seized her, carried her to the 
 pier, and to that restricted both her and the crew, by putting 
 a sentinel over them. The officers then had the vessel 
 measured, and, by omitting the cabin, steerage, Sec., reduced 
 her burthen to nearly one-half. They were afterwards com 
 mitted to close prison at St. Pol de Leon, where they had 
 been confined ever since, that is, for three months. They 
 were accused, first, of having sold tobacco in contraband ; 
 and secondly, as having entered a port of France in a vessel 
 less than thirty tons burthen. The evidence of their selling 
 was some loose tobacco in their possession, which they satis 
 factorily explained. 
 
 These people, however, were afterwards sentenced to the 
 galleys, and to a fine, which the king remitted : their vessel 
 and cargo were confiscated to the farmers of the revenue. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 215 
 
 It was not until the latter part of May that they were re 
 leased, and the expenses of their enlargement and subsist 
 ence were furnished by Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 He now took occasion to renew his correspondence with 
 Baron Geismer, who had shared Mr. Jefferson s hospitality 
 at Monticello, while he was a prisoner in Albemarle. He 
 tells the Baron that he is savage enough to prefer the woods, 
 the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, to all the 
 brilliant pleasures of the gay metropolis of France. " I 
 shall, therefore, he says, " rejoin myself to my native country, 
 with new attachments, and with exaggerated esteem for its 
 advantages ; for though there is less wealth there, there is 
 more freedom, more ease, and less misery." 
 
 Declarations of this kind often originate in insincerity and 
 affectation ; sometimes from the wish to appear superior to 
 those sensual indulgences and light amusements which are 
 to be obtained only in cities, and sometimes from the pride 
 of seeming to despise what is beyond our reach. But the 
 sentiment here expressed by Mr. Jefferson is truly felt by 
 many an American, and we have no reason to doubt it was 
 felt also by him. There is a charm in the life which one 
 has been accustomed to in his youth, no matter what the 
 modes of that life may have been, which always retains its 
 hold on the heart. The Indian who has passed his first 
 years with his tribe, is never reconciled to the habits and 
 restraints of civilized life. And although in more artificial 
 and advanced stages of society, individuals, whether they 
 have been brought up in the town or the country, are not 
 equally irreconcilable to a change from one to the other, 
 it commonly takes some time to overcome their preference 
 for the life they have been accustomed to : and in many 
 instances it is never overcome, but continues to haunt the 
 imagination with pleasing pictures of the past or imagina 
 tions of the future, when hope gives assurance that those 
 
216 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 scenes of former enjoyment may be renewed. That most 
 of our country gentlemen, past the heyday of youth, would 
 soon tire of Paris, and pant after the simple pleasures and 
 exemption from restraint which their own country affords, 
 is little to be wondered at ; but it is the more remarkable 
 in Mr. Jefferson, and more clearly illustrates the force of 
 early habit, when it is recollected that he found in the 
 French metropolis that society of men of letters and science 
 which he must often have in vain coveted in his own coun 
 try, and that here he met with those specimens of music, 
 painting, and architecture, for which he had so lively a re 
 lish. But in these comparisons between the life we are 
 leading and that which we have left, or are looking forward 
 to, we must always allow much to the force of the imagina 
 tion, and there arc few men who felt its influence more than 
 Mr. Jefferson. In one of his letters to Mr. Carmichael, he 
 says, " I sometimes think of building a little hermitage at 
 the Natural Bridge (for it is my property), and of passing 
 there a part of the year at least." 
 
217 
 
 CHAPTER IX. s 
 
 Mr. Jefferson joins Mr. Adams in London. Their cold reception. Policy 
 of the British government towards America. Treaty with Portugal 
 not ratified. Unsuccessful negotiation with the Tripoline minister. 
 Mr. Jefferson s description of England. His contributions to the 
 Encyclopedic Methodique. The progress of population in the United 
 States. Inland Navigation. Elk horns. Live oak. Fossil shells. 
 Debts of Virginians. New federal Government for the United 
 States proposed. Houdon s statue of Washington. Proposes a 
 donation to La Fayette. British debts in Virginia. Objects to 
 the proposed extent of some new states. His opinion of the powers 
 of Congress. Act of religious freedom. Popular instruction. Har 
 bour of Cherbourg. Philosophical dialogue. Easterly winds. Con 
 nexion between the Atlantic and Pacific. The Cincinnati. His 
 schemes of future happiness. Assists Ledyard, the traveller- his 
 enterprises. Complains that his despatches had been published. 
 Carriage wheels. 
 
 17861787. 
 
 MR. JEFFERSON S first official act this year was to join Mr. 
 Adams in London, with the view of perfecting some treaties 
 to which his concurrence was necessary. In February, he 
 received information from Mr. Adams that there was a 
 prospect of forming treaties with Tripoli, Tunis, and espe 
 cially with Portugal. He accordingly set out a few days 
 afterwards, and arrived in London about the 18th of March. 
 He called on Mr. Adams the very night he arrived, and 
 again the next day. But a temporary indisposition of the 
 Portuguese minister delayed their interview with him. 
 
 His visit to London appeared to him and Mr. Adams to 
 afford a good opportunity of ascertaining the real senti 
 ments and ultimate determination of the British cabinet, 
 
218 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 on the subject of a commercial treaty with the United 
 States. He remarked to a correspondent, " there is no 
 doubt what that determination will be ; but it will be useful 
 to have it, as it may put an end to all further expectations 
 on our side the water, and show that the time is come for 
 doing whatever is to be done by us for counteracting the 
 unjust and greedy designs of this country." 
 
 On this occasion, as well as many others, he showed a 
 thorough conviction, that the English government had a 
 determined hostility towards the United States ; and this 
 belief may help to explain, and in some measure to warrant, 
 his own ill-feeling against that government. In a letter 
 to Mr. Langdon, of New Hampshire, in September, 1785, 
 he remarks, "in spite of treaties, England is still our enemy. 
 Her hatred is deep rooted and cordial, and nothing is want 
 ing with her but the power to wipe us and the land we 
 live on out of existence. Her interest, however, is her ruling 
 passion ; and the late American measures * have struck at 
 that so vitally, and with an energy too of which she had 
 thought us quite incapable, that a possibility seems to open 
 of forming some arrangement with her. When they shall 
 see decidedly that without it, we shall suppress their com 
 merce with us, they will be agitated by their avarice, on the 
 one hand, and their hatred and their fear of us, on the 
 other. The result of this conflict of duty and passions is 
 yet to be awaited." 
 
 In the same month he wrote to Mr. Izard, of South Caro- 
 
 * This alludes to the recommendation of Congress, of the 30th of 
 April, 1784, to the states, to invest that body with the power, for fifteen 
 years, of excluding from the ports of the United States the vessels of 
 all nations not having a treaty of commerce with them, and also of 
 passing an act on the principles of the British navigation act. At the 
 date of Mr Jefferson s letter, seven states had passed laws in conformity 
 with the recommendation, and three others had partially complied with 
 it. See Journals of Congress, March 3, 1786. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 219 
 
 Una : " England shows no disposition to enter into friendly 
 connexions with us. On the contrary, her detention of our 
 posts seems to be the speck which is to produce a storm. 
 I judge that a war with America would be a popular war 
 in England. Perhaps the situation of Ireland may deter 
 the ministry from hastening it on." 
 
 It must be confessed, that he had but too much ground 
 for his opinions of English hostility. It was manifested, 
 by the perpetual taunts and calumnies of their journals, 
 and the increased difficulties in negotiation which American 
 ministers experienced wherever British influence prevailed. 
 It was indeed impossible that the losing party, in a civil 
 contest, and a contest where the stake was so great, could 
 feel well- affected towards their successful adversaries, whether 
 they regarded their own previous injustice, their haughty 
 threats, their contemptuous sneers, or their final discom 
 fiture and loss. 
 
 All that he met with in England seemed to confirm his 
 previous impressions. He writes to his old colleague, 
 Richard Henry Lee : " With respect to a commercial treaty 
 with this country, be assured that this government not only 
 has it not in contemplation at present, to make any, but 
 that they do not conceive that any circumstances will arise, 
 which shall render it expedient for them to have any political 
 connexion with us. They think we shall be glad of their 
 commerce on their own terms. There is no party in our 
 favour here, either in power or out of power." After noticing 
 the inveterate hostile feelings of the king, he adds, " The 
 object of the present ministry is to buoy up the nation 
 with flattering calculations of their present prosperity, 
 and to make them believe they are better without us 
 than with us. This they seriously believe ; for what is 
 it men can not be made to believe ? I dined the other day 
 in a company of the ministerial party. A General Clark, 
 
220 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 a Scotchman and a ministerialist, sat next to me. He intro 
 duced the subject of American affairs, and in the course of 
 the conversation, told me, that were America to petition 
 Parliament to be again received on her former footing, 
 the petition would be very generally rejected. He was 
 serious in this, and I think it was the sentiment of the com 
 pany, and is the sentiment perhaps of the nation. In this 
 they are wise ; but for a foolish reason. They think they 
 lost more by suffering us to participate of their commercial 
 privileges, at home and abroad, than they lose by our poli 
 tical severance*. 
 
 When he appeared at court, he saw, or thought he saw, 
 that " the ulcerations in the king s mind left nothing to be 
 expected from him 1 " On his presentation to their majesties, 
 at their levees," he remarks, " it was impossible for any thing 
 to be more ungracious than their notice of Mr. Adams and 
 myself." He adds, te that on the first conference with the 
 Marquis of Carmarthen, the minister for foreign affairs, 
 the distance and disinclination which he betrayed in his 
 conversation, the vagueness and evasions of his answers to 
 us, confirmed me in the belief of their aversion to do any 
 thing with us." 
 
 In his official communications with Mr. Jay, the secretary 
 for foreign affairs, just before he left England, he thus 
 dwells on the supposed unfriendly feelings of the British 
 government, and its indisposition to treat with the United 
 
 * Yet strange as it might then have seemed to Mr. Jefferson, Great 
 Britain has never failed since the peace, except during the late war and 
 the interruptions of our foreign commerce which preceded it, to export 
 more goods to this country than she had ever done when they were colo 
 nies, and, of course, to derive more benefit from their trade ; and though, 
 had they remained colonies, the same trade would have continued to in 
 crease as it had done, yet the increase would not have been so great as 
 it was after their independence, when they had new sources of wealth 
 opened to them. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 221 
 
 States. " With this country nothing is done ; and that 
 nothing is intended to be done on their part, admits not 
 the smallest doubt. The nation is against any change of 
 measures ; the ministers are against it ; some from principle, 
 others from subserviency : and the king, more than all 
 men, is against it. If we take a retrospect to the beginning 
 of the present reign, we observe, that amidst all the changes 
 of ministry, no change of measures with respect to America 
 ever took place, excepting only at the moment of the peace, 
 and the minister of that movement was immediately removed. 
 Judging of the future by the past, I do not expect a change 
 of disposition during the present reign, which bids fair to 
 be a long one, as the king is healthy and temperate. That 
 he is persevering we know. If he ever changes his plan 
 it will be in consequence of events, which, at present, neither 
 himself nor his ministers place among those which are 
 probable. Even the opposition dare not open their lips 
 in favour of a connexion with us, so unpopular would be 
 the topic. It is not that they think our commerce unim 
 portant to them. I find that the merchants have set suffi 
 cient value on it. But they are sure of keeping it on their 
 own terms. No better proof can be shown of the security 
 in which the ministers think themselves on this head, than 
 that they have not thought it worth while to give us a con 
 ference on the subject, though, on my arrival, we exhibited 
 to them our commission, observed to them that it would 
 expire on the 12th of next month, and that I had come over 
 on purpose to see if any arrangements could be made before 
 that time. Of two months which then remained, six weeks 
 have elapsed without one scrip of a pen, or one word from 
 a minister, except a vague proposition at an accidental 
 meeting. We availed ourselves even of that to make another 
 essay, to extort some sort of declaration from the court : but 
 their silence is invincible." 
 
222 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 In another letter written on the same day, he detailed 
 what had taken place at a conference of Mr. Adams and 
 himself with the chairman of the committee of American 
 merchants, who called on them with their previous per 
 mission. He was told by the American ministers,, that the 
 obstructions thrown in the way of the recovery of British 
 debts, were in consequence of the refusal on the part of 
 England to deliver up the western posts, and the with 
 drawal of property from America, contrary to stipulation. 
 They further justified those legislative acts, by the utter 
 impossibility of making immediate payment, from the scar 
 city of coin in the United States : that they had been de 
 sirous of making explanations on this subject, but the over 
 tures not having been attended to by England, the states 
 had been obliged to act for themselves. On the suggestion 
 of five annual payments of the debts, he said that arrange 
 ment would be acceptable. But they differed on the subject 
 of interest. The American ministers insisted that interest 
 should be suspended during the war; which he, of course, 
 opposed. The subject of the future commerce between the 
 two countries being urged, he said he had no authority to 
 speak on this matter ; but, as to the arrangement about the 
 old debts, he said he would proceed to Lord Carmarthen s 
 on that subject, and the ministers should hear from him ; 
 which, however, they never did. 
 
 At this time, the largest part of our exports went to Eng 
 land, and she almost exclusively supplied us with manufac 
 tures. When then she found the trade of the United States 
 so profitable, her unwillingness to enter into any commercial 
 arrangements with them, and her indifference about soften 
 ing her refusal by a spirit of courtesy or conciliation, can be 
 attributed only to the utter want of power, under the old 
 confederation, to adopt efficient measures of retaliation ; 
 and so long as that imbecility continued, it was easy for 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 223 
 
 Great Britain to exclude American shipping from any share 
 of her commerce. Since, therefore, she derived every ad 
 vantage of the trade with America which she could have, 
 she had every motive to keep aloof from negotiation, in 
 which she must either concede some advantage she then 
 possessed, or her objections to concede it would have the un 
 gracious appearance of refusing terms of reciprocity ; whereas 
 now, her advantages seemed to be the result of mere muni 
 cipal regulations, and of the natural course of trade. 
 
 As a further evidence that these were the considerations 
 which dictated the coldness and reserve with which England 
 received every overture towards negotiation, a difference in 
 her course was perceived as soon as the states took measures 
 for enlarging the powers of Congress over the foreign com 
 merce of the union. This change is adverted to in several 
 of Mr. Jefferson s letters. 
 
 Our ministers were more successful in their negotiation 
 with Portugal. A treaty of commerce, on terms mutually 
 satisfactory, was agreed on with the Portuguese minister; 
 but his government refused to ratify it, through the influence 
 of several noblemen, who were the owners of windmills, in 
 the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and who were opposed to the 
 treaty, because it permitted the importation of flour as well 
 as wheat, by which their profits would be diminished. 
 
 In their conference with the Tripoline minister, as to the 
 terms on which a peace with his sovereign could be nego 
 tiated, he demanded the sum of thirty thousand guineas, 
 and as much for a peace with Tunis, for which he undertook 
 to engage. This being more than ten times as much as the 
 American ministers had the power to offer, the negotiation 
 was soon broken off. They considered that it would require 
 eight times this sum, that is, more than a million of dollars, 
 to purchase peace with all the four Barbary states : and in 
 consideration of the largeness of the amount, as well as the 
 
224 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 uncertainty of the continuance of peace, Mr. Jefferson very 
 naturally expressed the opinion, that it might be better at 
 once to compel a peace by arms. He also suggested a 
 third expedient, that of abandoning the Mediterranean trade 
 to other nations. 
 
 On this subject, there was a difference of opinion between 
 him and Mr. Adams*, the latter being in favour of buying 
 a peace with them on the best terms we could. In a letter 
 to his colleague, of July 11, 1786, Mr. Jefferson supports his 
 plan of going to war by the following considerations : that 
 the course was recommended both by justice and honour : 
 it would procure us respect in Europe : it would arm the 
 federal government with the safest of all instruments of coer 
 cion over its delinquent members, and prevent it from using 
 what would be less safe : it would be less expensive than 
 any other plan, and equally effectual. He contended, that 
 a fleet carrying one hundred and fifty guns, one-half of 
 which to be in constant cruise, would be sufficient for the 
 object. This fleet, for six months, would cost 450,000/. 
 sterling, and its annual expense would be 300/. sterling a 
 gun, equal to 45,000/. a year. As some marine force would 
 be always indispensable, it was only the excess which should 
 be charged to the Algerine war ; and it would cost nearly 
 as much as has been mentioned to buy peace of them. He 
 then refers to the experience of France forty years before, 
 when Algiers, having been blockaded for three months by 
 three frigates, under De Massaic, submitted to the terms 
 
 * It is probable that the impression produced on Mr. Adams s mind, 
 on this occasion, inclined him, at that advanced age when the recol 
 lection is partial and confused, to regard Mr. Jefferson as the father of 
 the American navy. This is a credit which perhaps can be fairly given 
 to no individual; but he has a far better claim to it than Mr. JelFerson ; 
 for the navy hardly could be considered as a distinct branch of the na 
 tional force before his administration, and up to that time, he had ever 
 been its strenuous advocate. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 225 
 
 he proposed. In conclusion, he urged, that if we declared 
 war against Algiers, Naples certainly, and Portugal probably, 
 would join us. The plan of purchasing peace was however 
 adopted, and persevered in until the year 1815, when Mr. 
 Jefferson s course was finally and successfully pursued. 
 
 On this question, it is worthy of remark, both these gen 
 tlemen took the sides that were opposite to the general 
 character of their temper and policy. Mr. Jefferson, who 
 was generally in favour of peace, was, on this occasion, the 
 open advocate for war : and Mr. Adams, who,, both before 
 and afterwards, was among the most strenuous asserters of 
 the national rights and dignity, was willing, in conformity 
 with the usage of other nations, to become tributary to those 
 contemptible freebooters. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s account of England seems to have bor 
 rowed a tinge from the feelings excited by his cold recep 
 tion at St. James s, and his disappointment in most of the 
 objects of his journey. He thus describes it in a letter to 
 his friend Mr. Page : " I returned here but three or four 
 days ago, after a two months trip to England. I traversed 
 that country much, and own, both town and country fell short 
 of my expectations. Comparing it with this, I found a 
 much greater proportion of barrens ; a soil in other parts 
 not naturally so good as this, not better cultivated, but 
 better manured, and therefore more productive. This pro 
 ceeds from the practice of long leases there, and short ones 
 here. The labouring people here are poorer than in Eng 
 land : they pay about one-half of their produce in rent ; 
 the English, in general, about a third. The gardening in 
 that country is the article in which it surpasses all the earth ; 
 I mean their pleasure gardening. This indeed went far 
 beyond my ideas. The city of London, though handsomer 
 than Paris, is not so handsome as Philadelphia. Their 
 architecture is in the most wretched style I ever saw, not 
 
 VOL. I. Q 
 
226 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 meaning to except America, where it is bad, nor even Vir 
 ginia, where it is worse than in any other part of America 
 which I have seen. The mechanical arts in London are 
 carried to a wonderful perfection." 
 
 But the extensive application of science and mechanical 
 art to purposes of utility which he here witnessed, extorted 
 from him the liveliest admiration and praise. " I could 
 write you volumes," he says to Charles Thomson, the well- 
 known secretary to Congress, " on the improvements which 
 I find made, and making here, in the arts. One deserves 
 particular notice, because it is simple, great, and likely to 
 have extensive consequences. It is the application of steam, 
 
 as an agent for working grist mills." "I hear you 
 
 are applying the same agent in America to navigate boats ; 
 and I have little doubt but that it will be applied generally 
 to machines, so as to supersede the use of water-ponds, 
 and, of course, to lay open all the streams for navigation. 
 We know that steam is one of the most powerful engines 
 we can employ; and in America fuel is abundant*." 
 
 Some short time after he visited London, he returned 
 answers to a number of queries which had been addressed 
 to him by Monsieur de Meusnier, author of the article 
 Economic politiqiie et diplomatique in the Encyclopedic 
 Methodique. They relate to the powers and course of pro 
 ceeding in Congress : to the paper money of the United 
 States : the amount of debts due to England : the con 
 tinuance and extension of the confederacy : the character 
 of the constitution of Virginia. To all these he returned 
 satisfactory answers ; and on the article " Etats Unis" being 
 
 * While the application of steam, as a moving power, has been far 
 more extended and multiplied than Mr. Jefferson could have anticipated, 
 it has not superseded the use of water, which is found to be a much 
 cheaper mechanical power than steam in this country, and even cheaper 
 than steam is in England. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 227 
 
 submitted to him (by Monsieur Meusnier), he made notes 
 on several passages, by way of correction or illustration. 
 
 Some of these remarks are not undeserving of notice, as 
 characteristical of the time or the writer. One of his an 
 swers, in particular, gives a fuller and more accurate history 
 of the paper money issued by the United States, than is to 
 be met with elsewhere*. 
 
 He states the amount of debt due from Virginia to Great 
 Britain, at the conclusion of the war, to amount to two, or 
 perhaps, three millions sterling, which was nearly as much 
 as all the other states owed together. 
 
 He denies that the convicts who were sent to America 
 were a sufficient number to deserve mention as a class of 
 the men who peopled the United States. It was in an ad 
 vanced period of their history that the practice began. He 
 questions whether the descendants from this description of 
 persons now amount to four thousand. He admits that 
 indented servants formed a considerable supply. These 
 were persons who being anxious to go out to America, but 
 who had not the means of defraying the expense of the 
 voyage, agreed with any person who would advance the 
 money to the captain to serve him for a certain number 
 of years, and this agreement being made by a writing which 
 the lawyers term an indenture, they were called indented 
 servants. 
 
 He estimates the whole cost of the war at one hundred 
 and forty millions of dollars, of which the paper money 
 emitted by Congress was nominally 200,000,000 ; that issued 
 by the states supposed to be of the same amount ; equivalent 
 to 72,000,000 in specie ; the public debt of the federal 
 government, foreign and domestic, 43,000,000, and the 
 debts of the several states 25,000,000 ; which, for the eight 
 
 * See Appendix F. 
 
 Q2 
 
228 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 years from the battle of Lexington to the definitive treaty 
 of peace, was seventeen millions and a half a year. He 
 gives a history of the Cincinnati, according with his letter 
 to General Washington on this subject. In refuting an 
 assertion in an English journal, that the population of the 
 United States had declined since 1776, he shows the con 
 jectural estimates at different times. The supposed popu 
 lation in the thirteen states in June, 1775, was 2,448,000, 
 which is very near the number that may now be calculated 
 from more accurate data than Congress then possessed : 
 for, since we have found by the subsequent censuses that 
 the rate of increase has, since 1790, been very nearly uniform, 
 it is reasonable to suppose that it was equally so for the 
 fifteen years previous, making a small deduction for the 
 effects of the war. Taking that ratio, then, we find the 
 population, on the 1st of August, 1775, to be 2,506,000. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson here ventures into some speculations on 
 the future population of these states, when the subject had 
 more novelty than at present ; and he considers that the 
 territory then possessed by the United States, and com 
 puted to contain a million of miles, was competent to the 
 support of one hundred millions of inhabitants, instead of 
 thirty millions, as the author of the article had stated, and 
 qualified with a peut-eire. He at the same time supposes 
 that North and South America, south of the 50th degree 
 of north latitude, contain twelve millions of miles, and, by 
 the same rate of population, they are capable of supporting 
 twelve hundred millions of souls. Though this estimate 
 may even now appear extravagant to many, yet it is far 
 short of that computation which has been lately made, on 
 plausible data too, in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia 
 Britannica, where the inhabitants of this continent, in 
 about two centuries more, are estimated at eighteen hundred 
 millions ! 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 229 
 
 He also assumed that whenever the population reaches 
 ten to the square mile, the people are disposed to emi 
 grate to unoccupied lands, and that the United States would, 
 in forty years from that time, 1785, have its whole territory 
 peopled at that rate. At this period he supposed that the 
 people would not be restrained within the limits of the 
 United States, and that when the population, of both con 
 tinents shall have reached one hundred and twenty millions, 
 the whole country will be settled. 
 
 Subsequent experience has shown, that the tendency of 
 our population to spread itself over vacant territory is not 
 so great as Mr. Jefferson has here supposed ; for, in sixteen 
 years after this time, the territory of the United States 
 was carried beyond the Mississippi, so as to double its for 
 mer extent, and thus the difficulties which then existed 
 against emigration were removed; notwithstanding which, 
 the numbers east of the Mississippi exceed twelve to a 
 square mile ; and, judging by the experience of the more 
 populous states, it will go on to increase until it may attain 
 four or five times that number, although there may yet be 
 vacant territory within their limits. According to Mr. 
 Jefferson s calculation, the whole territory of the United 
 States, which is estimated at something more than two mil 
 lions of miles, would be occupied when their population reached 
 twenty millions ; but, from our past experience, when it 
 has attained that population (which will be in 1846), there 
 may be half a million of miles of unoccupied territory. 
 
 Some of the most interesting parts of his correspondence 
 may now be noticed in chronological order : 
 
 To General Washington he writes to ask for a description 
 of Bushnel s machine for propelling boats. He congratu 
 lates the General on the prospect of the Dismal Swamp 
 Canal, and of making the Potomac and James rivers navi 
 gable, all of which schemes had been then proposed, and 
 
230 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 warmly supported by General Washington. He suggests, 
 in addition, a canal connecting the Cayahoga and Beaver 
 creek. This scheme of connecting lake Erie with the Ohio 
 has been since accomplished by the more magnificent scheme 
 of one entire canal, and it follows this very stream of Caya 
 hoga above thirty miles. The connexion thus formed is at 
 a point on the Ohio 360 miles below that contemplated by 
 Mr. Jefferson. He also takes occasion, in adverting to the 
 disposition which General Washington had recently made 
 of the canal shares bestowed on him by the Virginia legis 
 lature, to express his wonted interest on the subject of edu 
 cation. " It is an axiom in my mind," he says, " that our 
 liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people 
 themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree 
 of instruction. This it is the business of the state to effect 
 on a general plan." 
 
 He requested Colonel Archibald Carey, of Chesterfield, 
 to send him " the largest pair of deer s horns that he could 
 procure, and, if possible, the stuffed skin of one." He 
 wished also for a pair of elk s horns, with a view of support 
 ing his opposition to the theory of Buffon. 
 
 It seems that the live oak was so little wanted at home at 
 that time, and its value was so little understood in France, 
 that General Greene, who had married and settled in 
 Georgia after the peace, had proposed, through Mr. Jeffer 
 son, to furnish the French government with this invaluable 
 timber, and all the success he could obtain, with the aid of 
 La Fayette, was to send for " samples of the wood." 
 
 With the celebrated llittenhouse of Pennsylvania he dis 
 cusses the origin of the marine shells which are everywhere 
 found in the elevated portions of our globe. 
 
 Noticing the three hypotheses 1. That they were de 
 posited there in the general deluge : 2. That they are the 
 remains of animals that once lived and perished in the spots 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 231 
 
 on which they are now found : 3. That they grow or shoot 
 as crystals do he seems to yield no credit to any solution 
 which has been given of the phenomenon. 
 
 To Archibald Stuart of Virginia, afterwards one of the 
 judges of the General Court, he writes : " American repu 
 tation in Europe is not such as to be flattering to its citi 
 zens. Two circumstances are particularly objected to us : 
 the non-payment of our debts, and the want of energy in 
 our government. They discourage a connexion with us. 
 I own it to be my opinion that good will arise from the 
 destruction of our credit*. I see nothing else which can 
 restrain our disposition to luxury, and to the change of those 
 manners which can alone preserve republican government. 
 As it is impossible to prevent credit, the best way would be 
 to cure its ill effects, by giving an instantaneous recovery 
 to the creditor. This would be reducing purchases on 
 credit to purchases for ready money. A man would then 
 see a prison painted on every thing he wished, but had not 
 ready money to pay for." 
 
 In the same letter he also entered into some speculations 
 concerning the separation of Kentucky, not only from Vir 
 ginia, but also from the confederacy, as then seemed pro 
 bable. " Our present limits," he remarks, " are not too large 
 for good government, nor will the increase of votes in Con 
 gress produce any ill effect. On the contrary, it will drown 
 the little divisions at present existing there. Our confede 
 racy must be viewed as the nest from which all America, 
 north and south, is to be peopled. We should take care, 
 too, not to think it for the interest of that great continent, 
 
 * The evils of running in debt, which is always prevalent in a slave- 
 holding and agricultural country, were nowhere more felt than in Vir 
 ginia. They were aggravated by the course of the trade in tobacco, then 
 its chief staple, as is well explained by Mr. Jefferson in his conference 
 with Mons. de Vergennes. 
 
232 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to press too soon on the Spaniards. Those countries can 
 not be in better hands ; my fear is that they are too feeble 
 to hold them till our population can be sufficiently advanced 
 to gain it from them, piece by piece. The navigation of 
 the Mississippi we must have." To this correspondent he 
 also intimates his earnest desire of having the skeleton, skin, 
 and horns of an elk. 
 
 He some time before had the satisfaction to hear that the 
 several states, finding that they could not, under their ex 
 isting confederacy, protect their foreign commerce either 
 against the injurious regulations of t>ther nations, or the 
 rival restrictions of one another, were likely to concede to 
 Congress powers adequate to these objects. In a letter to 
 Mr. Madison, dated in February, 1786, he expresses the 
 pleasure this intelligence had afforded him, and adds, " I 
 will venture to assert that there is not one of its opposcrs, 
 who, placed on this ground, would not see the wisdom of 
 this measure. The politics of Europe render it indispen 
 sably necessary that, with respect to every thing external, 
 we be one nation only, firmly hooped together. Interior go 
 vernment is what each state should keep to itself. If it were 
 seen in Europe that all the states could be brought to con 
 cur in what the Virginia Assembly has done, it would pro 
 duce a total revolution in their opinion and respect for us. 
 And it should ever be held in mind, that insult and war are 
 the consequence of a want of respectability in the national 
 character. As long as the states exercise separately those 
 acts of power which respect foreign nations, so long will 
 there continue to be irregularities, committed by some one 
 or other of them, which will constantly keep us on an ill 
 footing with foreign nations. 
 
 The measures which immediately led to the formation of 
 the present constitution have too much interest to be passed 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 233 
 
 over in silence. Though extending over a period of more 
 than five years, it is thought better to present them in a 
 continuous view, in the following sketch : 
 
 At the termination of the war of Independence, Great 
 Britain, knowing the value of American commerce, and fear 
 ing it would be diverted into rival channels, was willing to 
 enter into arrangements with the United States, on a foot 
 ing of reciprocity, and even to depart from her colonial mo 
 nopoly, so far as to continue to the states their former 
 trade to the West Indies *. But she soon found that she 
 had nothing to fear in the way of retaliation, by reason of 
 the limited powers of Congress, and the difficulty of con 
 certed action in thirteen separate legislatures, whose jea 
 lousies, commercial and political, were no longer repressed 
 by a sense of common danger. She saw her advantage, 
 and profiting by her own restrictions, and our want of them, 
 excluded American vessels from her colonies, and the 
 importation of many American products even in British 
 bottoms. 
 
 The pride, as well as the self-interest, of America was 
 aroused by this measure of British policy, and various at 
 tempts at retaliation, or counteraction, were made ; some 
 times by the separate efforts of individual states, and at 
 others, by a proposed enlargement of the powers of Con 
 gress : but every plan failed. The requisite powers were 
 indeed promptly granted by most of the states ; but they 
 were neglected by others, or so clogged as to be useless : 
 and unanimity was required to alter the articles of confe 
 deration. As to the states themselves, so far were they 
 from co-operating by their separate legislative acts, that 
 
 * This is evinced by the bill introduced into Parliament by Mr. Pitt, 
 in March, 1783, for a temporary regulation of the commercial inter 
 course between the two countries. 
 
234 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 they but too often systematically counteracted the regu 
 lations of each other, and in laying their impost, were un- 
 derbidders for a larger share of the trade by whomsoever 
 carried on. 
 
 The public mind was, however, gradually ripening into a 
 sense of the necessity of adopting a general system of de 
 fensive measures, when in January, 1786, the General As 
 sembly of Virginia, by resolution, appointed eight commis 
 sioners to meet such others as should be appointed by the 
 other states, for the purpose of digesting a system of uni 
 form commercial regulations, which, when ratified by the 
 states, should be executed by Congress*. The resolution 
 having also directed the commissioners to propose the time 
 
 * Judge Marshall states, doubtless on good authority, that this propo 
 sition owed its first suggestion to a recommendation made hy the com 
 missioners of Virginia and Maryland, who formed a compact in March, 
 1785, respecting the navigation and jurisdiction of the Chesapeake and 
 some of its waters, while on a visit at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Supposing ^him right, it is curious to t trace the successive steps by 
 which this mode of organizing a plan of national government was gradu 
 ally developed. 
 
 1. Virginia and Maryland appoint commissioners to regulate the navi 
 gation and j urisdiction on the waters which divide the two states. 
 
 2. In adjusting these points, they see the importance of a uniformity 
 in their impost and revenue ^laws ; they therefore propose a further com 
 pact with a view to that object. 
 
 3. The legislature of Virginia, in considering this proposition, is natu 
 rally led to wish an extension of the regulations of the impost to the other 
 states, since an arrangement limited to two states would merely miti 
 gate the evil, not remove it. 
 
 4. When the commissioners who met at Annapolis consulted on 
 giving Congress the power of making commercial regulations, they 
 would see that, to give that power efficacy, they must grant many other 
 powers. They, therefore, propose a general revision of the articles of 
 confederation. 
 
 5. The deputies assembled in convention, on beginning the business 
 of reform, soon found that it was better to make a new and entire 
 structure than to repair the old one ; and their decision was confirmed 
 by the people. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 235 
 
 and place of meeting, they accordingly, in their circular to 
 the other states, proposed to meet at Annapolis in the en 
 suing September. 
 
 It appears that all the states appointed commissioners, 
 except Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, and Geor- 
 gia; but those only of New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl 
 vania, Delaware, and Virginia attended. They assembled 
 on the llth of September, appointed John Dickinson, of 
 Delaware, their Chairman, and after some deliberation, not 
 deeming it " advisable to proceed on the business of their 
 mission," when so many states were unrepresented, and 
 being persuaded that the mere regulation of trade would 
 require an extension of the powers of Congress, they agreed, 
 in a joint report to their respective legislatures, to recom 
 mend " a convention of deputies from the different states" 
 to be held at Philadelphia, on the second Monday of 
 May next, "to devise such further provisions as shall ap 
 pear to them necessary to render the constitution of the 
 federal government adequate to the exigencies of the 
 union." Copies of this report, signed by the chairman, 
 were transmitted to Congress, and to the executives of all 
 the states not represented*. 
 
 On the 21st of February, 1787, Congress, by resolution, 
 declared such a convention expedient. On the 25th of May, 
 deputies from nine states had assembled at Philadelphia, 
 and having elected George Washington their President, 
 proceeded to deliberate on the form of a national govern 
 ment. They were subsequently joined by deputies from 
 
 * The individuals who have the honour of having first suggested the 
 convention which formed the present constitution, were Eghert Benson 
 and Alexander Hamilton, of New York; Abraham Clark, William C. 
 Houston and James Schureman, of New Jersey ; Tench Coxe, of Penn 
 sylvania; George Read, John Dickinson and Richard Bassett, of Dela 
 ware ; Edmund Randolph, James Madison and St. George Tucker, of 
 Virginia. 
 
236 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 all the other states, except Rhode Island, amounting to 
 fifty -five in all, who, after a laborious and anxious session 
 of nearly four months, succeeded in agreeing on a federal 
 constitution, to be laid before Congress, and to go into 
 operation when ratified by nine states. 
 
 The instrument was received by Congress on the 28th of 
 September, 1787, and by them submitted to the several 
 states for ratification. It was ratified by Delaware, Penn 
 sylvania, and New Jersey, in 1787 ; by Georgia, Connec 
 ticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New Hamp 
 shire/Virginia, and New York, in 1788. Congress, having 
 these ratifications, took measures for electing a president 
 of the United States, and appointed the 4th of March, J 789, 
 for the new constitution to go into operation. 
 
 North Carolina ratified the constitution in November, 
 1789, and Rhode Island in May, 1790. 
 
 Adverting to the statue of General Washington, which 
 Houdon had just finished, he spoke of the several inscrip 
 tions and devices which had been proposed for it, and gave 
 the preference to the following. On one side of the pedes 
 tal a Latin inscription, which he thus translates : " Behold, 
 reader, the form of George Washington. For his worth, 
 ask history; that will tell it when this stone shall have 
 yielded to the decays of time. His country erects this 
 monument, Houdon makes it:" on the second side, the 
 evacuation of Boston in basso-rilievo, with the motto, " Hos- 
 tibus primum fucjatis ;" on the third, the capture of the Hes 
 sians, with " Hostibus iterum devictis ;" on the fourth, the 
 surrender at York, with " Hostibus ultimum debellatis" 
 
 " I am persuaded," he says to Mr. Madison, " that a 
 gift of lands by the state of Virginia to the Marquis de La 
 Fayette, would give a good opinion here of our character, 
 and would reflect honour on the Marquis. Nor am I sure 
 that the day will not come when it might be a useful asylum 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237 
 
 to him. The time of life at which he visited America was 
 too well adapted to receive good and lasting impressions, 
 to permit him ever to accommodate himself to the principles 
 of monarchical government ; and it will need all his own 
 prudence,, and that of his friends, to make this country 
 a safe residence for him. How glorious, how comfortable 
 in reflection will it be, to have prepared a refuge for him 
 in case of reverse* ! " 
 
 Thirty- eight years afterwards Mr. Jefferson had the satis 
 faction of seeing this manifestation of national gratitude, 
 on a much larger scale, at a time, too, when it was much 
 more acceptable to the object of it, and when it probably 
 received the first impulse from himself f. 
 
 Having been informed by Mr. William Drayton that the 
 South Carolina Agricultural Society had elected him a 
 member, in May he sent them the seeds of a grape (Spanish 
 St. Foin) which he thought would suit the climate of that 
 state, and endeavoured to procure acorns of the cork oak ; 
 justly remarking that " we were probably far from pos 
 sessing as yet, all the articles of culture for which nature 
 has fitted our country ; that to find them out requires 
 abundance of unsuccessful experiments ; but that if, in a 
 multitude of these, we make one useful acquisition, it repays 
 our trouble." 
 
 Aware of the mass of debt which the states, generally, 
 and Virginia in particular, owed to England, he thought 
 the most effectual remedy for the evil was to discourage, 
 and even interdict, the trade ; and thus took some of the 
 
 * The legislature of Virginia had, in the year 1 781, ordered a marble 
 bust of La Fayette to be made in Paris and presented to him, and another 
 for the state, which now occupies a niche in the same room of the Capitol 
 that contains the statue of Washington. 
 
 f 1 The first proposition that Congress should make a donation to Gene 
 ral La Fayette, appeared in the little paper printed at Charlottesville, 
 and was probably suggested by Mr. Jefferson. 
 
238 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 same views which have since recommended the adoption of 
 the tariff, and have been urged to justify it. Speaking to 
 a Virginia correspondent and distant relative, Mr. T. Plea- 
 sants, of the benefits of obtaining a free admission of our 
 tobacco into France, he remarks : " I consider it as the 
 most effectual means of procuring the full value of our 
 produce, of diverting our demands for manufactures from 
 Great Britain to this country to a certain amount, and of 
 thus producing some equilibrium in our commerce, which 
 at present lies all in the British scale. It would cement 
 a union with our friends, and lessen the torrent of wealth 
 which we are pouring into the laps of our enemies. For 
 my part, I think that the trade with Great Britain is a 
 ruinous one to ourselves, and that nothing would be an 
 inducement to tolerate it but a free commerce with their 
 West Indies : and that this being denied to us, we should 
 put a stop to the losing branch. The question then is, 
 whether they are right in their prognostications, that we 
 have neither resolution nor union enough for this." His 
 subsequent remarks are still more at war with the maxim 
 of laissez nous faire. " Every thing I hear from my own 
 country fills me with despair as to their recovery from their 
 vassalage to Great Britain. Fashion and folly are plunging 
 them deeper and deeper into distress ; and the legislators 
 of the country becoming debtors also, there seems no hope 
 of applying the only possible remedy, that of an immediate 
 judgment and execution. We should try whether the 
 prodigal might not be restrained from taking on credit 
 the gewgaw held out to him in one hand, by seeing the 
 keys of a prison in the other." 
 
 It seems that at this time it was proposed by some to 
 lay off the country between the Atlantic states and the 
 Mississippi, in states of 160,000 square miles, to which 
 plan Mr. Jefferson urges strong objections in a letter to 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 239 
 
 Mr. Monroe, dated in July. " You would surely reverse 
 the nature of things," he remarks, in making small states 
 on the ocean, and large ones beyond the mountains. If we 
 could in our consciences say, that great states beyond the 
 mountains will make the people happiest, we must still ask, 
 whether they will be contented to be laid off into large 
 states. They certainly will not, and if they decide to divide 
 themselves we are not able to restrain them. They will 
 end by separating from our confederacy, and becoming its 
 enemies. We had better then look forward and see what 
 will be the probable course of things. This will surely 
 be a division of that country into states of a small, or at 
 most, of a moderate size. If we lay them off into such, 
 they will acquiesce, and we shall have the advantage of 
 arranging them so as to produce the best combinations of 
 interest." 
 
 His notions of the subordination of the states to the 
 united power of the whole, even under the old confedera 
 tion, differ widely from those of state rights, and inde 
 pendence now entertained. In a letter to Mr. Monroe, in 
 August, in speaking of the importance of a navy to awe 
 the Barbary states, he observes : " It will be said, there 
 is no money in the treasury. There never will be money 
 in the treasury till the confederacy shows its teeth. The states 
 must see the rod ; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. 
 I am persuaded, all of them would rejoice to see every one 
 obliged to furnish its contributions. It is not the difficulty 
 of furnishing them which beggars the treasury, but the fear 
 that others will not furnish as much. Every rational citizen 
 must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and 
 should fear to see it on any other element than the water. 
 A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occa 
 sion bloodshed : a land force would do both." On the 
 same subject, Dr. Franklin had remarked to Mr. Jefferson, 
 
240 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 in a letter dated the 20th of March preceding. " The dis 
 position to furnish Congress with ample powers augments 
 daily, as people become more enlightened." 
 
 He writes to his old preceptor, Mr. Wythe " Our act 
 for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. The am 
 bassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe, 
 resident at this court, have asked of me copies of it, to send 
 to their sovereigns, and it is inscribed at full length in seve 
 ral books now in the press ; among others, in the new En 
 cyclopedic. I think it will produce considerable good even 
 in those countries where ignorance, superstition, poverty 
 and oppression, both of body and mind, in every form, arc 
 so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that their re 
 demption from them can never be hoped. If all the sove 
 reigns of Europe were to set themselves to work, to eman 
 cipate the minds of their subjects from their present ignorance 
 and prejudices, a thousand years will not place them on 
 that high ground, on which our common people are now 
 setting out. Ours could not have been so fairly placed 
 under the control of the common sense of the people, 
 had they not been separated from their parent stock, and 
 kept from contamination, either from them, or the other 
 people of the old world, by the intervention of so wide an 
 ocean." 
 
 He then descants on the benefits of popular instruction. 
 " I think by far the most important bill in our whole code 
 is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. 
 No other sure foundation can be devised for the preserva 
 tion of freedom and happiness. 1 After some common-place 
 denunciations of kings, nobles and priests, he adds : "Preach, 
 my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance ; establish and 
 improve the law for educating the common people. Let 
 our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us 
 against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 241 
 
 this purpose, is not more than the thousandth part of what 
 will be paid to kings, priests and nobles, who will rise up 
 among us, if we leave the people in ignorance." He admitted, 
 that the people of England were less oppressed than in 
 France ; but that the foundation was laid even with the 
 English for a despotic government, by their admiration of 
 nobility, wealth and pomp. Then indulging sin a refined 
 speculation, he argued, that the harbour of Cherbourg, 
 which the French were constructing, would by its conse 
 quences hasten that catastrophe. He supposed, that when 
 the French were thus provided with a harbour on the Chan 
 nel, sufficient for their whole navy, the chief obstacle to an 
 invasion from France would thereby be removed ; and that 
 there would then be a necessity for England to keep up a 
 large standing army, which would enable the government to 
 make itself absolute. This is but an ordinary example of 
 the uncertainty of most speculations on the future destiny of 
 nations. Events arc always occurring to mock human fore 
 sight, and render nought all our calculations of remote 
 effects. The harbour of Cherbourg was indeed completed; 
 but instead of the French navy being thereafter formidable 
 to England, it was, by the course of events, in the next war, 
 actually annihilated ; and the danger of invasion was never 
 so great as after this very annihilation. The army in Eng 
 land was increased to an unprecedented amount, for the 
 purpose of preventing the invasion. Yet the spirit of liberty 
 was greater in England, both before and since that event, 
 than at any former period. 
 
 The history of the false predictions of great national 
 disasters and benefits would form a most curious and in 
 structive volume. 
 
 In the month of September, Mr. Jefferson chanced to 
 dislocate his right wrist*, so as to be incapable of writing 
 
 * Mrs. Randolph s notice of this incident, in the notes with which she 
 
 VOL. I. R 
 
242 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 with it, in consequence of which his correspondence was 
 for some time suspended, until he had brought himself 
 to write with his left hand, which he used for about three 
 months. 
 
 In this time, he addressed a long letter to Mrs. Cosway, 
 an English lady, whom, with her husband, he had recently 
 seen in France, and sent her, by way of philosophical jeu 
 d esprit, a dialogue between the head and the hearty in which 
 the separate functions of the understanding and the passions 
 of human life are meant to be exhibited. The task is not 
 ill-executed, considering the inherent difficulty of uniting 
 just and sound philosophy with the easy gaiety and spright- 
 liness of wit. 
 
 In November he wrote to Monsieur Le Roy, a member 
 of the Academy of Sciences, on the progressive extension 
 of the easterly wind into the interior of the country, as the 
 land is generally cleared of its forests. Assuming the fact 
 as unquestionable, he attempts to explain it by an hypo 
 thesis, founded on the known laws of heat and air. Yet, 
 in opposition to this hypothesis, it is found that, beyond 
 the tropics, the westerly winds everywhere prevail, and it 
 is this circumstance that alone affords a satisfactory solu 
 tion of the higher temperature of the western, over the 
 
 has favoured me, gives too much insight into her parent s habits and 
 character to be pretermitted. " At one o clock, he always rode or 
 walked. He frequently walked as far as seven miles into the country. 
 Returning from one of those rambles, he was joined by some friend, 
 and being earnestly engaged in conversation, he fell, and broke, and 
 dislocated his wrist. He said nothing at the moment, but holding the 
 suffering limb with the other hand, he continued the conversation till 
 he arrived near to his own house, when informing his companion of the 
 accident, he left him to send for the surgeon. The fracture was a com 
 plicated one, and probably much swollen before the arrival of the sur 
 geon ; but it was not set, and remained ever after weak and stiff. While 
 disabled by this accident, he was in the habit of writing with his left 
 hand, in which he soon became very expert the writing being well 
 formed, but stiff." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 
 
 eastern coasts of continents, in the same latitude. The 
 ocean being" both cooler in summer and warmer in winter 
 
 O 
 
 than the land, the wind, which blows across it more from 
 the west than the east, proportionally attempers the western 
 coasts. 
 
 He then indulges in some conjectures of the probable 
 effects of opening a communication between sthe Atlantic 
 and the Pacific, at the isthmus of Panama. But they seem 
 to ascribe too much effect to the opening of a single chan 
 nel, since the tropical wind forms a broad zone, and acts on 
 a proportional breadth of ocean, and produces the current 
 called the Gulf-stream, rather by the breadth of water, thus 
 driven on the American coast, than by its elevation. A 
 single outlet, therefore, the force of whose current would be 
 only according to the difference of level between the two 
 oceans, would have little effect on the whole mass of waters 
 in the bay of Mexico ; but that mass would continue its 
 general movement to the part of the Atlantic, which, though 
 but little lower, affords a vent sufficiently large. 
 
 In the same month, having written to General Washing 
 ton to make inquiries in behalf of a wealthy house in Paris, 
 which was disposed to engage in the fur trade, he notices 
 the article " Cincinnati," in the Encyclopedic, written by 
 himself; but which the editor of that work had altered. 
 He sends a copy to the general, and requests him to point 
 out any errors he may perceive. He then adds, " what 
 has heretofore passed between us on this institution, makes 
 it my duty to mention to you, that I have never heard a 
 person in Europe, learned or unlearned, express his thoughts 
 on this institution, who did not consider it as dishonourable 
 and destructive to our government ; and that every Avriting 
 which has come out since my arrival here, in which it is 
 mentioned, considers it, even as now reformed, as the germ 
 whose developement is one day to destroy the fabric we 
 
 R2 
 
244 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 have reared." He then states his own views to be similar, 
 and most earnestly deprecates the continuance of an insti 
 tution which is pregnant with the mischief of introducing 
 in the country an aristocracy the worst of all forms of go 
 vernment. 
 
 A letter to Mr. Munroe, in December, strikingly shows 
 how fallacious are all our schemes of future happiness ; and 
 fallacious, not merely as to the facts themselves that are 
 foreseen, but also as to their unfitness for our purpose, if 
 they were to happen. Mr. Jefferson expresses to Mr. Mun 
 roe an earnest wish that he would make the county of Albe- 
 marle his place of residence ; states, that Mr. Short will do 
 so ; and suggests that Mr. Madison may be tempted to 
 follow their example : " This," he says, " will be society 
 enough, and it will be the great sweetener of our lives. 
 Without society, and a society to our taste, men are never 
 contented. The one here supposed, we can regulate to our 
 minds, and we may extend our regulations to the sumptuary 
 department, so as to set a good example to a country which 
 needs it, and to preserve our own happiness clear of embar 
 rassment." 
 
 Only a small part of this scheme was realized, and that 
 but for a short time. Mr. Madison continued at his pater 
 nal seat in Orange county, which he enlarged and embel 
 lished, and where, in a dignified retirement, he still con 
 tinues to charm all persons of true taste and feeling, by the 
 amenity of his manners, by the unclouded cheerfulness of 
 his temper, by his extraordinary conversational talent, and 
 to astonish them by the vigour, the resources, and the 
 sprightliness of the intellect which still exhibits its pristine 
 powers of grasping the most difficult problem in politics 
 or morals, and of perceiving and relishing every species 
 of the ludicrous, that is not unbecoming the sage and the 
 gentleman. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 
 
 Mr. Short continued in Europe many years, first, as Se 
 cretary of Legation, at Paris, and afterwards, as Charge 
 cV Affaires, or Minister, at different courts. When he re 
 turned to America, he found in Philadelphia the nearest 
 approach to the numerous comforts afforded by an European 
 capital. Mr. Munroc did, indeed, purchase land, and build 
 a house in Albcmarle, but by reason of his successive pub 
 lic employments, he, perhaps, did not reside five years out 
 of the forty which elapsed from the time this vision of the 
 pleasures of friendship was sketched by Mr. Jefferson, to 
 the time of his death. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable, that three of the four indi 
 viduals, whom Mr. Jefferson thus contemplated as sharing 
 in the same neighbourhood the tranquil delights of a country 
 life, subsequently attained the office of President of the 
 United States, so much had reality, on this occasion, out 
 stripped imagination. Mr. Jefferson suggests to Mr. Mun- 
 roe two modes of rendering the drudgery of practising law 
 unnecessary. One was to obtain a seat in the executive 
 council of Virginia, and the other, a place in the judiciary 
 of the state. The first of these situations then had a salary 
 attached to it of only 833i dollars : the other, about 1200 
 dollars. Yet, this gentleman, whom these very moderate 
 incomes were then deemed sufficient to provide with a com 
 petency, through the greater part of his subsequent life 
 received annually from 3333-1 dollars to 25,000 dollars, 
 amounting in all to upwards of 400,000 dollars ; and these 
 sums had been so inadequate to his expenses, that his debts 
 were sufficient to leave an incumbrance on an estate devised 
 to him by an uncle, after having exhausted all the rest of 
 his property. 
 
 Of the many similar examples which our country occa 
 sionally presents, of men being elevated beyond their most 
 sanguine expectations,, there can be few more striking than 
 this, of one whose views, after he became a public man, 
 
246 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 were limited to a residence in what was then a sequestered 
 part of the country, on an income of 1000 dollars, and who 
 afterwards received a salary of 25,000, lived in a furnished 
 palace, and became the chief magistrate of ten millions of 
 people. 
 
 It was during this year that Mr. Jefferson became ac 
 quainted with John Ledyard, the American traveller, who 
 had come to Paris with the hope of forming a company to 
 engage in the fur trade of the western coast of America. 
 
 Being disappointed in this project, Mr. Jefferson, know 
 ing his enterprising character and love of travel, suggested 
 to him to undertake to explore the American continent, 
 by traversing Europe and Asia to Kamschatka, and cross 
 ing over from thence in a Russian vessel to Nootka Sound, 
 from which place he could travel over land to the United 
 States. This scheme fell in so well with Ledyard s adven 
 turous spirit, that he readily embraced it, and immediately 
 took means for carrying it into execution. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson undertook to procure the permission of the 
 empress of Russia, and for that purpose interested her 
 minister, de Semoulin, and Baron Grimm, her special cor 
 respondent ; but permission being refused, on the alleged 
 ground that the enterprise was chimerical, Ledyard per 
 severed, and set off for St. Petersburg, under the expectation 
 of being able to convince the empress that his scheme was 
 practicable. On his arrival there, finding that she was 
 on a visit to the Crimea, he set out, and proceeded on 
 towards the Pacific*, but was soon arrested, by order of the 
 empress, and sent back to Poland. 
 
 Ledyard expressed great gratitude to Mr. Jefferson for 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson was mistaken in supposing that Ledyard was within 
 200 miles of the Pacific coast. He reached no farther than Yakutsk, 
 which is reckoned to be 2017 versts, equal to 1345 miles from Kam 
 schatka. When he was seized, he was 2855 versts from the Pacific, 
 in consequence of having retraced a part of his course to accompany 
 Captain Sellings, a Russian officer, to Irkutsk. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 247 
 
 the attentions and other favours shown him while in Paris, 
 and it would seem that he owed principally to Mr. Jefferson 
 and the Marquis de La Fayette, the means of support. In 
 one of his letters to a friend, he says, " I make these trips 
 to Paris often ; sometimes to dine with this amiable French 
 man (La Fayette), and sometimes our minister, who is a 
 brother to me." 
 
 There was at the time an air of mystery in the order 
 made by the empress for Ledyard s seizure, the reason as 
 signed being, that he was regarded as a French spy. It, 
 however, is now evident that it originated either in the 
 political jealousy of the government, which did not wish 
 the attention of other powers called to the settlements the 
 empress was then making on the north-west coast of America, 
 or the commercial jealousy of the merchants at Irkutsk, who 
 were engaged in the fur trade. Had he succeeded in reach 
 ing the north-west coast, it seems hardly possible he could 
 have traversed this continent, without having his progress 
 arrested by imprisonment or death, from some of the savage 
 tribes whom he would have encountered in his journey. 
 Nor would his voyage have cast much additional light, either 
 on the character of the aborigines, or their origin. In their 
 general appearance, the Indians of this continent resemble 
 the Kalmucks of Asia enough to make it probable that they 
 are scions of the same stock, as Ledyard believed, and it 
 remains for the researches of philology, which has done 
 so much in that way, to afford further proofs of their affinity. 
 
 Had Ledyard, however, succeeded in his subsequent at 
 tempt to penetrate into the interior of Africa, he might 
 have anticipated much of that addition to geographical 
 knowledge, which has been since made by Parke, Denham, 
 Clapperton, and others. 
 
 He seems to have felt the liveliest attachment to Mr. Jef 
 ferson. Though he lived only about three months after he 
 
248 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 arrived in Egypt,, he wrote three letters to his bene 
 factor. In one of them he thus warmly expresses himself: 
 " Having been in Cairo only four days, I have not seen much 
 of particular interest for you ; and, indeed, you will not ex 
 pect much of this kind from me. My business is in another 
 quarter, and the information I seek totally new. Anything 
 from this place would not be so. 
 
 " At all events I shall never want a subject when it is 
 to you I write. I shall never think my letter an indifferent 
 one, when it contains the declaration of my gratitude and 
 affection for you ; and this, notwithstanding you thought 
 hard of me for being employed by an English Association, 
 which hurt me much while I was at Paris. You know your 
 own heart, and if my suspicions are groundless, forgive 
 them, since they proceed from the jealousy I have, not to 
 lose the regard you have, in time past, been pleased to 
 honour me with. You are not obliged to esteem me, but I 
 am obliged to esteem you, or to take leave of my senses, and 
 confront the opinions of the greatest and best characters I 
 know. If I cannot, therefore, address myself to you as a 
 man you regard, I must do it as one that regards you for 
 your own sake, and for the sake of my country, which has set 
 me the example." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Jay, of January the 9th, Mr. Jefferson 
 complains of the publication of his despatches of the 27th of 
 May preceding, in which he had detailed a conversation 
 with the Count de Vergennes on the subject of tobacco. 
 " It will," he says, " tend to draw on the Count the formi 
 dable phalanx of the farms ; to prevent his committing him 
 self to me in any conversation which he does not mean for 
 the public papers ; to inspire the same diffidence into all 
 other ministers with whom I might have to transact busi 
 ness; to defeat the little hope, if any hope existed, of getting 
 rid of the farm on the article of tobacco ; and to damp that 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 
 
 freedom of communication which the resolution of Congress 
 of May the 3d, 1784, was intended to re-establish. " 
 
 His sensibility to everything which might affect the repu 
 tation of his countrymen, even in small things, is manifested 
 by a letter he wrote about this time to Monsieur de Creve 
 Coeur, in which he asserted, for the farmers of New Jersey, 
 the claim to the invention of the rim of a carriage-wheel of 
 one single piece, which had been recently spoken of in 
 England, as an invention of that country. He says the 
 practice of making such wheels had long existed in New 
 Jersey, and that it had been communicated by Dr. Franklin, 
 when in London, to the very man who had there obtained 
 the patent for it, as he had admitted to Mr. Jefferson 
 himself. 
 
250 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Political troubles of France. Meeting of the Notables. Shay s insur 
 rection in Massachusetts. Newspapers. Thoughts on Government: 
 Navigation of the Mississippi. Visits the South of France. His 
 style of travelling. Nismes. Secret overtures from a Brazilian and 
 a Mexican. His views of the new Constitution of the United States. 
 Debt due to French officers. Is joined by his younger daughter. 
 Note to the French minister. Cultivation of the vine and olive com 
 pared. His opinions on the power of coercion on the states Moral 
 philosophy Religion Travelling. Advice in a law question. 
 Statuary costume. Increasing discontents in France. Effects of 
 European wars on the United States. Progress of the French Re 
 volution. Letter to Mr. Wythe. Imports the bones of a Moose. 
 Imputed project of the English ministry. 
 
 1787. 
 
 AT this period, when nearly all Europe wore the face of 
 peace and order ; when its two most powerful states, Eng 
 land and France, had apparently laid aside not only their 
 ancient animosity, but even their commercial jealousy, and 
 had entered into a treaty of a more liberal character than 
 the world had before witnessed, there were causes se 
 cretly at work to bring about a convulsion, which, besides 
 overturning all former establishments, whether of policy, re 
 ligion, or morals, in the country where it broke out, agitated 
 to its centre every civilized nation on the globe. Other 
 revolutions have decided the political destiny of nations- 
 have given freedom to people, or have transferred them 
 from one set of rulers to another ; yet customs, manners, 
 habits, and ways of thinking remained unchanged. Even 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 251 
 
 where conquest has been followed by a change in the institu 
 tions and character either of the vanquished or the victors,, 
 that change has been gradual and slow. But in the French 
 Revolution, the changes of power and of property were not 
 greater than that of opinion, and all these changes were 
 almost immediate. The desire of reform soon became the 
 love of innovation, until a prurient thirst for novelty, seek 
 ing gratification in everything, from the highest to the 
 lowest concerns of life, subverted all that seemed most stable 
 by time, habit, or affection. 
 
 Those who have speculated on this great event have dwelt 
 on particular circumstances, as its direct causes, such as the 
 financial embarrassments of the nation : the spirit of inde 
 pendence which had been for some years manifested by the 
 Parliaments : the influence of their men of letters, who were 
 mostly free-thinkers in religion and republicans in govern 
 ment : the American Revolution, the success of which, by 
 gratifying the national pride of the French, had endeared its 
 cause to their affections ; and some have even supposed that, 
 but for the imbecile character of Louis XVI. and the indis 
 cretions of his queen, the throne of France would have yet 
 retained its ancient splendour, and its monarch his place in 
 the hearts of the people. 
 
 That each of these circumstances contributed to bring 
 about the revolution at the precise time it happened, and to 
 give it the very form and character it assumed, will be 
 readily conceded; but it seems probable that there were 
 causes yet deeper than those which had been long silently 
 at work, and which must, at no remote period, have wrought 
 an entire change in the civil condition of France, though 
 none of the circumstances referred to had ever existed; 
 though the American Revolution had not occurred ; though 
 the reigning monarch had possessed firmness and decision, 
 and the Parliaments had wanted them ; though Voltaire 
 
252 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and Rousseau had never lived ; and though the public debt 
 had not exceeded the resources of the treasury. 
 
 If we take a general survey of the progress of society in 
 modern Europe, we shall perceive the folloAving great causes 
 of change, operating steadily and universally, though with 
 unequal steps, in diiferent times and places : science of 
 every description is constantly acquiring new facts, discover 
 ing new relations, and settling ncw r principles : all the useful 
 arts of life receive a similar improvement by the invention 
 of new machines, new processes, and by a greater variety of 
 materials. The correspondent increase of the materials of 
 thought have disposed man more to reasoning and reflection, 
 so that he is less under the deceptions influence of his pas 
 sions ; less prone to superstitious fear ; less ferocious and 
 implacable in his resentments : the advancement of art, too, 
 and the greater diffusion of wealth have elevated the inferior 
 ranks of society nearer to a level with the highest : and, 
 lastly, since such numbers now derive a support from the 
 exercise of their own industry, rather than from the bounty 
 of a feudal baron, much of that deference for rank which 
 formerly existed has disappeared, and the pride of family 
 has been superseded by the pride of talents and wealth. In 
 a word, knowledge and prosperity, which are yet more 
 efficient in swaying the acts of civilized man than physical 
 force, have greatly augmented, and become more diffused 
 throughout the community. 
 
 The consequence of this altered state of things was, that 
 political power required a new distribution, correspondent 
 with the changes of moral power, and the discordance be 
 tween the civil institutions and the state of society becoming 
 every day greater, such distribution must sooner or later 
 necessarily take place. If those institutions were so 
 organized as to admit of partial and gradual amendments, 
 as seems to be the character of the British government, the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 
 
 political change might be both peaceable and safe ; but if 
 they were not,, revolution and civil convulsion seemed the 
 inevitable consequence. The institutions of France did not 
 possess this conservative principle of amendment. Usage 
 there made the law, and whatsoever had its sanction, ac 
 quired thereby an authority which could not be resisted. 
 Now, as the few to whom this supreme law gave exclusive 
 privileges and the power of enforcing them, could not be 
 expected to make a voluntary surrender of their advantages, 
 and those who were excluded more and more felt the griev 
 ance, and their power of redressing it, the change that was 
 to ensue could scarcely be brought about except by violence 
 and revolution. 
 
 It was in January, 1787, that Mr. Jefferson first mentioned 
 this subject in his official despatches, by noticing those po 
 litical difficulties which induced the French government to 
 call the Notables of the country a step which had not 
 been taken for one hundred and sixty years before. The 
 conjectured motives, he says, in his letter to Mr. Jay, were 
 the following : the toleration of the Protestant religion : the 
 removal of the custom-houses from the interior to the fron 
 tier : the equalization of the cjabelles, or duties on salt, 
 throughout the kingdom : the sale of the king s domains to 
 raise money, or finally, to effect this last necessary end by 
 some other means. He admits, however, that the purpose 
 was known only to the government. 
 
 In a letter to a friend, he observes, that " this event, which 
 will hardly excite any attention in America, is deemed here 
 the most important one which has taken place in their civil 
 line, during the present century. Our friend, de La Fayctte, 
 was placed on the list (of notables) originally. Afterwards 
 his name disappeared; but finally was reinstated. This 
 shows that his character here is not considered as an indif 
 ferent one ; and that it excites agitation. His education in 
 
254 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 our school has drawn on him a very jealous eye, from a court 
 whose principles are a most absolute despotism." 
 
 In his remarks on Shay s rebellion in Massachusetts, he 
 expresses principles in favour of popular opinions and feel- 
 * ings to which he seemed to have steadily adhered through 
 life. " The interposition of the people themselves, on the 
 side of government, has had a great effect on the people 
 here. I am persuaded myself, that the good sense of the 
 people will always be the best army. They may be led 
 astray for a moment, but will soon correct themselves. The 
 people are the only censors of their governors ; and even 
 their errors will tend to keep them to the true principles of 
 their institution. To punish these errors too severely, would 
 be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The 
 way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people 
 is to give them full information of their aifairs, through the 
 channel of public papers, and to contrive that those papers 
 should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis 
 of our government being the opinion of the people, the very 
 first object should be to keep that right ; and were it left 
 to me to decide, whether we should have a government with 
 out newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I 
 should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I 
 should mean that every man should receive those papers, 
 and be capable of reading them." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, however, lived to see that these, his favour 
 ite means of enlightening and instructing the people, were 
 as potent, and often as ready instruments for the diffusion 
 of falsehood as truth ; that if the latter is sure in the end 
 to prevail in the struggle for the mastery between them, it 
 is often only after a long contest, frequent discomfitures, 
 and the most arduous efforts of her adherents ; and that if 
 these should chance to have feeble heads, or failing hearts, 
 as is sometimes the case, error may then obtain a triumph. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255 
 
 and may long enjoy it. He became, in a subsequent part 
 of his life, so sensible of this, that he almost ceased to read 
 the newspapers, and, as he says to one of his correspond 
 ents, confined himself to a single one, the Richmond En 
 quirer, in which he found nothing politically heterodox, or 
 personally offensive. But while these ephemeral teachers 
 of truth and vehicles of information are, in common with 
 everything belonging to man, thus imperfect, and liable to 
 abuse, it is not seen how large a community could continue 
 free or intelligent without them ; as the air which, though 
 it sometimes conveys offensive odours, sometimes noxious 
 vapours, and in its greatest agitations, becomes the destruc 
 tive hurricane, is, nevertheless, the indispensable aliment 
 of life. It was only to this great result that Mr. Jefferson 
 had reference. 
 
 The following opinions* savour somewhat of those Uto 
 pian notions of civil society and government, which had been 
 recommended by Rousseau, in the wantonness of conscious 
 eloquence, and which were then much in favour among the 
 literati of France. 
 
 " I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) 
 which live without government, enjoy, in their general mass, 
 an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who 
 live under the European governments. Among the former, 
 public opinion is in the place of law, and restrains morals 
 as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the lat 
 ter, under the pretence of governing, they have divided 
 their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not 
 exaggerate : this is a true picture of Europe. Cherish, 
 therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their at 
 tention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but re 
 claim them by enlightening them. If once they become 
 inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress 
 * In a letter to Colonel Edward Carrington of Virginia, 
 
256 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become 
 wolves." 
 
 A letter to Mr. Madison this month, January, contains 
 some further speculations on government, which were sug 
 gested by the same occurrences in the eastern states, and 
 which manifest the same arguments in favour of democratic 
 principles. He expresses a hope, that the excesses into 
 which the people have been betrayed, "will provoke no 
 severities from their governments." 
 
 " Societies," he says, " exist under forms sufficiently dis 
 tinguishable. 1. Without government, as many of our In 
 dians. 2. Under governments, wherein the will of every 
 one has a just influence ; as is the case in England, in a 
 slight degree, and in our states in a great one. 3. Under 
 governments of force, as is the case in all other monarchies, 
 and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the 
 curse of existence, under these last, they must be seen. It 
 is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem, not 
 clear to my mind, that the first condition is not the best. 
 But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of 
 population. The second state has a great deal of good in 
 it. The mass of mankind, under that, enjoys a precious 
 degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils too : the 
 principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. 
 But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it 
 becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quie- 
 tam servitutem. Even this evil is productive of good. It 
 prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a 
 general attention to the public affairs. I hold it, that a 
 little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as ne 
 cessary in the political world as storms in the physical. 
 Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the en 
 croachments on the rights of the people which have pro 
 duced them. An observation of this truth should render 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257 
 
 honest republican governors so mild in their punishments 
 of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is 
 a medicine necessary for the sound health of the govern 
 ment." 
 
 His views on the navigation of the Mississippi, which he 
 had been informed Congress thought of abandoning to 
 Spain, are likely to meet with a more general Concurrence 
 than the preceding. He confidently predicted that such a 
 course would occasion a separation of the western from the 
 eastern country. He thus reasons on that event. " If they 
 declare themselves a separate people, we are incapable of a 
 single effort to retain them. Our citizens can never be in 
 duced, either as militia or as soldiers, to go there to cut 
 the throats of their own brothers and sons, or rather, to be 
 themselves the subjects, instead of the perpetrators of the 
 parricide. Nor would that country quit the cost of being 
 retained against the will of its inhabitants, could it be done. 
 But it cannot be done. They are able already to rescue 
 the navigation of the Mississippi out of the hands of Spain, 
 and to add New Orleans to their own territory. They will 
 be joined by the inhabitants of Louisiana. This will bring 
 on a war between them and Spain ; and that will produce 
 the question with us, whether it will not be worth our while 
 to become parties with them in the war, in order to re-unite 
 them with us, and thus correct our error ? And were I to 
 permit my forebodings to go one step further, I should pre 
 dict that the inhabitants of the United States would force 
 their rulers to take the affirmative of that question. I wish 
 I may be mistaken in all these opinions." 
 
 In the same letter, he gives Mr. Madison his opinion of 
 some public men, of whom, as he had again become a mem 
 ber of Congress, it was important that he should form a 
 correct estimate. The sketches are made with that freedom 
 which a friend would have a right to expect, yet some may 
 
 VOL. i. s 
 
258 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 think that the dark touches are sufficiently strong. There 
 is but one which is not relieved by some excellence or vir 
 tue : the only shade to the character of La Fayette is an 
 undue love of popularity, and Mr. Jefferson predicts he 
 would one day rise above it. 
 
 His warm attachment to France thus expresses itself: 
 <e nothing should be spared on our part to attach this country 
 to us. It is the only one on which we can rely for support, 
 under every event. Its inhabitants love us more, I think, 
 than they do any other nation on earth. This is very much 
 the effect of the good dispositions with which the French 
 officers returned." 
 
 The dislocation of his wrist still giving him pain, and not 
 yielding to other remedies, he determined to try the effect 
 of mineral baths, which had been recommended, and for that 
 purpose set out on a tour to the south of France. But this 
 was far from constituting his sole, or even perhaps his prin 
 cipal inducement ; for, as he states in his letter to Mr. Ma 
 dison, he would then have an opportunity of seeing the canal 
 of Languedoc, and of acquiring a knowledge of inland navi 
 gation, that would be useful thereafter, and it would enable 
 him to visit the commercial ports on the Mediterranean, and 
 there see the practical effect of the recent regulations of com 
 merce with the United States. He seems to have travelled 
 with a disposition to observe and to inquire into every thing 
 that might be useful to himself or his country ; and the re 
 marks he then made were so impressed on his mind, that they 
 readily suggested themselves and gave a zest to his conver 
 sation, throughout all his subsequent life. He left Paris in 
 the beginning of March. He passed through Champagne, 
 Burgundy, Dauphine, Languedoc, and the north of Italy .-^ 
 He also visited Marseilles, Nantes, and Bordeaux. He says, 
 it was his practice, whenever he visited any town, to see all 
 that was curious to the traveller in a single day. But that 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 259 
 
 he was never wearied with rambling through the fields and 
 farms, examining the culture and the cultivators with a de 
 gree of curiosity which made some suppose him a fool, and 
 others, that he was a great deal wiser than he was. 
 
 At Nismes, he was gratified with a sight of the Maison 
 quarree, the model of which had previously so delighted him ; 
 and he writes of it, to a female correspondent, in a strain of 
 enthusiasm. In the notes he made on his journey, he wisely 
 omitted the common-place statistics which may be found in 
 books, and noticed only those things which were new to him, or 
 which conveyed some information, or hint that might be after 
 wards useful. The price of labour, the diet of the labourers, 
 the mode of husbandry, as well as articles of culture, and their 
 price, seemed to be general objects of inquiry. In a letter to 
 his friend, La Fayette, dated at Nice, he earnestly recommends 
 the marquis to make a similar journey. "It will," he says, " be 
 a great comfort for you to know, from your own inspection, the 
 condition of all the provinces of your own country, and it 
 will be interesting to them, at some future day, to be known 
 to you. This is, perhaps, the only moment of your life in 
 which you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most 
 effectually, you must be absolutely incognito : you must ferret 
 the people out of their hovels as I have done ; look into their 
 kettles; eat their bread; loll on their beds, under pretence of 
 resting yourself; but, in fact, to find if they are soft ; you will 
 feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this investigation, 
 and a sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able to apply 
 your knowledge to the softening of their beds, or the throw 
 ing a morsel of meat into their kettle of vegetables." 
 
 It would seem from the preceding passage, that his thirst 
 for knowledge, and the interest he took in the condition of 
 the people he visited, prevailed over the attentions and re 
 spect he was likely to have received in every part of France 
 at that day, as the public minister of the United States. 
 
 s2 
 
260 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 While he was at Nismes, he had a singular interview with 
 an individual, who had written him a letter from Montpellicr 
 in the preceding October, saying that he was a foreigner, 
 and having important intelligence to communicate, desired 
 that Mr. Jefferson would indicate a safe channel of communi 
 cation. His request being complied with, Mr. Jefferson soon 
 afterwards received from him a letter, the material parts of 
 which were as follows : 
 
 * I am a native of Brazil you arc not ignorant of the fright 
 ful slavery under which my country groans. This continu 
 ally becomes more insupportable, since the epoch of your 
 glorious Independence ; for the cruel Portuguese omit 
 nothing which can render our condition more wretched, from 
 an apprehension that we may follow your example. The 
 conviction that these usurpers against the laws of nature and 
 humanity only meditate new oppressions, has decided us to 
 follow the guiding light which you have held out to us, to 
 break our chains, to revive our almost expiring liberty, which 
 is nearly overwhelmed by that force which is the sole founda 
 tion of the authority that Europeans exercise over America. 
 But it is necessary that some power should extend assistance 
 to the Brazilians, since Spain would certainly unite herself 
 with Portugal ; and in spite of our advantages for defence, 
 we could not make it effectual, or at least, it would be im 
 prudent to hazard the attempt, without some assurance of 
 success. In this state of affairs, sir, we can with propriety 
 look only to the United States ; not only because we are fol 
 lowing her example, but moreover, because nature, in making 
 us inhabitants of the same continent, has, in some sort, united 
 us in the bonds of a common patriotism. On our part, we 
 are prepared to furnish the necessary supplies of money, and 
 at all times, to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to our be 
 nefactors. I have thus, sir, laid before you a summary of my 
 views. It is in discharge of this commission that I have come 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2G1 
 
 to France, since I could not effect it in America, without ex 
 citing suspicion. It now remains for you to decide whether 
 those views can be accomplished. Should you desire to con 
 sult your nation on them, it is in my power to give you all 
 the information you may require." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson having intended by this time to try the 
 waters of Aix for his wrist, wrote to his unknowns correspon 
 dent that he would meet him at Nismes. They there accord 
 ingly met, and the Brazilian gave him detailed information 
 of the state of his country : its military strength and resources ; 
 the different classes of its population, its mines, its agricul 
 ture. Mr. Jefferson replied to him with proper caution ; 
 stated that he had no authority whatever to treat on such a 
 subject, but that, as an individual, he could give his opinion 
 that the United States were not in a condition to engage in 
 a war ; though our citizens, who arc free to enter any service 
 they please, might perhaps be tempted to embark in their 
 cause. It deserves notice, that nearly about the time that 
 Mr. Jefferson received the first communication from this per 
 son, he was waited on by a Mexican, with similar views, as 
 to the emancipation of his country from Spain. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson says that he used still more caution with this 
 last than with the Brazilian, in consequence of having ob 
 served that he was intimate at the Spanish ambassador s, and 
 that he was then at Paris, employed by Spain to settle her 
 
 boundaries with France on the Pyrenees. 
 
 * 
 
 It seems highly probable that both these individuals were 
 agents of their respective governments, or perhaps of Spain i 
 alone, who wished thus to ascertain the part which our go 
 vernment was likely to take, if their American colonies should 
 be tempted to follow our example; or she might have sought 
 a pretext for avowing, both to us and to other nations, the 
 jealousy of the United States which she undoubtedly felt, 
 and for refusing to them the navigation of the Mississippi ; 
 or it might have been the device of some petty intriguer of 
 
262 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 any nation, who aimed in this way to create dissensions be 
 tween those governments and ours. 
 
 He returned to Paris on the llth of June, and although 
 the waters of Aix were of no service to his wrist, yet, he was 
 amply rewarded for the trouble of his journey, by the plea 
 sure and information it afforded him. He said that he had 
 never passed three months and a half so delightfully. 
 
 While the new constitution which the states found it neces 
 sary to form, from the utter insufficiency of the existing con 
 federacy, was under discussion, he communicated his sen 
 timents very freely to Mr. Madison, and they in general, 
 strongly manifest his confidence in the capacity of the people 
 for self-government, and his jealousy of their delegates. 
 These sentiments seem to have determined his approval, or 
 condemnation of each particular provision, whether it was 
 new in its character, or had the sanction of established 
 usage. 
 
 Thus he was decidedly in favour of separating the execu 
 tive, legislative, and judiciary powers. The negative pro 
 posed to be given on the legislative acts of the several states, 
 he said, prima fade, he did not like. " It fails in an essen 
 tial character ; the hole and the patch should be commen 
 surate. But this proposes to mend a small hole by covering 
 the whole garment. Not more than one out of a hundred 
 state acts concern the confederacy. This proposition then, 
 in order to give them one degree of power which they ought 
 to have, gives them ninety-nine more which they ought 
 not to have, upon a presumption that they will not exercise 
 the ninety-nine. But upon every act there will be a pre 
 liminary question : does this act concern the confederacy ? 
 And was there ever a proposition so plain as to pass Con 
 gress without debate? Their decisions are almost always 
 wise ; they are like pure metal ; but you know of how much 
 dross this is the result." 
 
 This check to the power of the state governments is said 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263 
 
 to have received the support of some of the ablest statesmen 
 in the convention, and was doubtless suggested to them 
 by the violent opposition which the proposed constitution 
 already encountered in most of the states, and the hostility 
 that might be anticipated to all the measures of the federal 
 government. Yet, we can scarcely now doubt that such 
 a check would have been inconvenient and Vexatious in 
 practice, unless indeed it had been a dead letter, and that 
 it would have had the effect either of bringing the states 
 under complete subjection to the general government, or 
 of producing irritation and bickerings between the two, 
 which, if they had not endangered their union, would have 
 more than compensated any advantage of giving greater 
 congruity to the system. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson suggests, as a better mode of effecting the 
 same object, that there should be an appeal from the state 
 judicature to the federal, where the constitution controlled 
 the question, and that principle finally prevailed. 
 
 It had been proposed to him to join Mr. Carmichael at 
 Madrid, for the purpose of endeavouring to procure the 
 assent of the Spanish government to the navigation of the 
 Mississippi. Mr. Short had also urged his appointment as 
 minister to Holland, for the purpose of negotiating a loan 
 there; but both these offices. he unhesitatingly declined 
 from considerations of prudence : the first, from the proba 
 bility of failure, and the fear of exciting the jealousy of Mr. 
 Carmichael : the last, because it was " a business which 
 would be the most disagreeable to him of all others," and 
 for which he was " the most unfit person living," as he did 
 not understand bargaining, nor possessed the dexterity re 
 quisite for the purpose. 
 
 In this letter, he expresses to Mr. Madison some fears 
 that the same divisions which he had witnessed in Congress, 
 as to other foreign ministers, would exist in his own case ; 
 
2G4 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and the danger was the greater, from the fact, that there 
 generally being but seven or eight states present, one or 
 two votes might be sufficient to reject him. He, therefore, 
 requests Mr. Madison to give him the earliest notice of 
 such a result, or of its probability, that he might make 
 preparations for it : as, whenever he left the place, " it would 
 be necessary for him to begin his arrangements six months 
 before his departure ; and these once fairly begun, and 
 under way, and his mind set homewards, a change of pur 
 pose could hardly take place." 
 
 In his solicitude to extend the commerce of the United 
 States, he was naturally actuated by his wish to counteract 
 the policy of England, as well as to benefit his own country. 
 He exerted himself to change the depot of rice from Cowes, 
 in the Isle of Wight, to Honfleur, on the Seine ; and he 
 hoped to get it received at the latter place, so as to " draw 
 that branch of commerce from England." When in Italy, 
 he put matters into a train to induce the government there 
 "to draw their tobaccos directly from the United States, 
 and not, as heretofore, from Great Britain." 
 
 In his letter to Mr. Adams, of July 1, 1787, adverting 
 to the successor of the Count de Vcrgennes, Monsieur dc 
 Montmorin, he remarks, " I have reasons to hope good 
 dispositions in the new ministry towards our commerce with 
 this country. Besides endeavouring, on all occasions, to 
 multiply the points of contact and connexion with this 
 country, which I consider as our surest main stay under 
 every event, I have had it much at heart to remove from 
 between us every subject of misunderstanding or irritation. 
 Our debts to the king, the officers, and the farmers, arc 
 of this description. The having complied with no part of 
 our engagements in these draws on us a great deal of cen 
 sure, and occasioned a language in the Assemblee dcs No- 
 tables very likely to produce dissatisfaction between us." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 265 
 
 On this account, he urged Mr. Adams to endeavour to effect 
 a loan in Holland, by which the debt to France would be 
 paid off. The debt, at that time, due from the United 
 States to the French officers bore an interest of only two 
 thousand guineas; and " this," he says, " makes more noise 
 against us than all our other debts put together." 
 
 At this time, he had the satisfaction of ineeting his 
 daughter Maria, who came by way of London, and was 
 then about nine years of age. His youngest, Lucy, died 
 at Eppington, in Virginia, the year preceding. 
 
 He lost no time in bringing our commercial relations 
 with France to the notice of the Count de Montmorin, and 
 in a memoir, written for the occasion, endeavoured to im 
 press on his mind the following recommendations of a trade 
 with America, compared with that of other nations : that 
 merchandise from them takes employment from the poor 
 of France ; ours gives it : theirs is brought in the last stage 
 of manufacture ; ours in the first : we bring our tobaccos 
 to be manufactured into snuff; our flax and hemp into linen 
 and cordage ; our furs into hats ; skins into saddlery, shoes 
 and clothing : we take nothing till it has received the last 
 hand. In a few days afterwards, he addressed a letter to 
 him on the subject of tobacco, in which he reiterates the 
 advantage it would prove to the commerce between the 
 two countries, if the trade in that commodity were free, on 
 the payment of an impost. He adds these general reasons 
 in favour of an unrestricted commerce : " nature, too, has 
 conveniently assorted our wants, and our superfluities to 
 each other. Each nation has exactly to spare the articles 
 which the other wants. We have a surplus of rice, tobacco, 
 furs, peltry, potash, lamp oils, timber, which France wants : 
 she has a surplus of wines, brandies, esculent oils, fruits 
 and manufactures of all kinds, which we want. The govern 
 ments have nothing to do, but not to hinder their merchants 
 
266 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 from making the exchange. The difference of language, 
 laws, and customs, will be some obstacle for a time ; but 
 the interest of the merchants will surmount them." 
 
 He again shows how deeply he was impressed with the 
 mischiefs of contracting debt, and of indulging in unwar 
 rantable expenses, to which the southern portion of his 
 countrymen were particularly exposed, both from their agri 
 cultural pursuits, and their being slave-holders. He feared 
 that this propensity would perpetuate their dependence on 
 British merchants ; weaken their sense of honour and justice ; 
 and justly expose the nation, then about to form its cha 
 racter in the world, to those taunts and censures of the 
 English people, which so greatly annoyed him. To one 
 correspondent, Mr. Henry Skipwith, who married a sister 
 of Mrs. Jefferson, he says, all my letters are filled with 
 details of our extravagance. From these accounts I look 
 back to the time of the war, as a time of happiness and 
 enjoyment, when, amidst the privation of many things not 
 essential to happiness, we could not run in debt, because 
 nobody would trust us ; when we practised of necessity the 
 maxim of buying nothing but what we had money in our 
 pockets to pay for ; a maxim which, of all others, lays the 
 broadest foundation for happiness*." " The eternal and 
 bitter strictures on our conduct, which teem in every London 
 paper, and are copied from them into others, fill me with 
 anxiety on this subject." 
 
 He wrote to William Dray ton, Esq., of South Carolina, 
 the result of his inquiries in Italy about the cultivation of 
 rice, and he proceeds to consider in detail the several objects 
 of culture which are probably suited to the climate of that 
 
 * It is a subject of melancholy reflection, that neither Mr. Jefferson 
 nor his correspondent were ahle to profit by these wise maxims. They 
 both left large estates so encumbered with debt as to afford little or no 
 provision for their families. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267 
 
 state and Georgia. These are the vine, almond, caper, fig 1 , 
 mulberry, and olive; of these, he unhesitatingly rejects the 
 vine,, the culture of which he regards as not desirable in 
 lands capable of producing anything else. " It is a species 
 of gambling, and of desperate gambling too, wherein, 
 whether you make much or nothing, you are equally ruined. 
 The middling crop alone is the saving point, and that the 
 seasons seldom hit. Accordingly we see much wretchedness 
 among this class of cultivators. Wine, too, is so cheap in 
 those countries, that a labourer with us, employed in the 
 culture of any other article, may exchange it for wine, more 
 and better than he could raise himself. It is a resource for 
 a country, the w r hole of whose good soil is otherwise em 
 ployed, and which still has some barren spots, and a surplus 
 of population to employ on them. There the vine is good, 
 because it is something in the place of nothing. It may be 
 come a resource to us at a still earlier period ; when the 
 increase of population shall increase our productions beyond 
 the demand for them, both at home and abroad. Instead of 
 going on to make a useless surplus of them, we may employ 
 our supernumerary hands on the vine." 
 
 He is in favour both of the fig and the mulberry, and yet 
 more of the olive, which he regards as " the second most 
 precious gift of heaven to man," if not the first. " Perhaps," 
 he says, " it may claim a preference even to bread; because 
 there is such an infinitude of vegetables, which it renders a 
 proper and comfortable nourishment : " and he adds, " if 
 the memory of those persons is held in great respect in 
 South Carolina, who introduced there the culture of rice, 
 a plant which sows life and death with almost equal hand, 
 what obligations would be due to him who should introduce 
 the olive-tree, and set the example of its culture?" 
 
 But notwithstanding these various recommendations, the 
 culture of this useful plant has made but little progress in 
 
268 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 our country as yet ; nor is it likely to do so, as long as 
 animal food, of which it supplies the place, has its abun 
 dance and cheapness. It may be questioned, whether two 
 pounds of bacon, or even of butter, cannot be produced with 
 more ease than one pound of oil, in those parts of our 
 country in which the olive can grow. 
 
 His opinion of the power of coercion on the states which 
 the articles of confederation conferred on Congress, differed 
 very widely from that of some who profess to be his disciples ; 
 and the discrepancy is the greater, as he was then in favour 
 of a smaller enlargement of the powers of the confederation 
 than actually took place. He thus writes to Colonel Ed 
 ward Carrington, of Virginia, on the 4th of August, 1787. 
 
 " My general plan would be to make the states one, as to 
 everything connected with foreign nations, and several, as to 
 everything purely domestic. But with all the imperfections 
 of our present government, it is, without comparison, the 
 best existing, or that ever did exist. Its greatest defect is 
 the imperfect manner in which matters of commerce have 
 been provided for. It has been so often said as to be gene 
 rally believed, that Congress have no power by the confede 
 ration to enforce anything; for example, contributions of 
 money. It was not necessary to give them that power ex 
 pressly ; they have it by the law of nature. When two 
 parties make a compact, there results to each a power of com 
 pelling the other to execute it. Compulsion was never so 
 easy as in our case, where a single frigate would soon levy 
 on the commerce of any state the deficiency of its contribu 
 tions ; nor more safe than in the hands of Congress, which 
 has always shown that it would wait, as it ought to do, to 
 the last extremities, before it would execute any of the 
 powers that are disagreeable." 
 
 He seemed to feel particular solicitude for the education 
 of his nephew Peter Carr, son of Dabncy Carr, then at the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 269 
 
 college of William and Mary ; and he recommended to him 
 not only a very comprehensive course of study, but also en 
 deavoured to inspire him with good precepts of conduct. 
 But some of his notions may be regarded as peculiar, such 
 as his reasons for thinking moral philosophy not a useful 
 branch of education ; and his opinion, that the " writings 
 of Sterne form the best course of morality that ever was 
 written." 
 
 The freedom of inquiry into the truths of religion, which 
 he inculcates in his nephew, has been generally condemned. 
 For though investigation may not seem objectionable in the 
 abstract, and least of all, be feared by the sincerely religious, 
 yet the very coolness that is here recommended, implies an 
 indifference to the result, which is of itself painful to the true 
 believer. Nor is the moralist himself without his fears for 
 the consequences. 
 
 The popular religion of every country has something 
 mingled with it, which it is difficult to reconcile with reason 
 and experience ; but the whole has been impressed on the 
 tender mind of the infant as sacred truth, and the creed is 
 more or less connected with rules for his moral conduct. 
 There is, therefore, always danger that in shaking the pillars 
 of the one, we may at the same time weaken the foundations 
 of the other ; and that he who has lost his confidence in 
 opinions which lie once regarded with veneration, will feel 
 less respect for those principles of action which were inti 
 mately associated with them. A wise lawgiver, a prudent 
 instructor of youth, will leave individuals, to follow the tenets 
 in which they have been brought up, where they are not ma 
 nifestly subversive of the interests of the individual or 
 society, and be cautious of encouraging a cavilling spirit, 
 which may come in time to find arguments to release its 
 possessor from the obligations of every religious creed, and 
 everv code of morals. 
 
270 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 His advice to the same nephew on the subject of travel 
 ling is founded on good sense and acute observation on 
 human life. " Travelling," he says, " makes men wiser, 
 but less happy. When men of sober age travel, they gather 
 knowledge, which they may apply usefully for their country ; 
 but they are subject ever after to recollections mixed with 
 regret ; their affections are weakened by being extended 
 over more objects ; and they learn new habits which cannot 
 be gratified when they return home. Young men who travel 
 are exposed to all those inconveniences in a higher degree ; 
 to others still more serious ; and do not acquire that wisdom 
 for which a previous foundation is requisite, by repeated 
 and just observations at home. The glare of pomp and 
 pleasure is analogous to the motion of the blood ; it absorbs 
 all their affection and attention ; they are torn from it as 
 from the only good in this world, and return to their home 
 as to a place of exile and condemnation. Their eyes are 
 for ever turned back to the object they have lost, and its re 
 collection poisons the residue of their lives. Their first and 
 most delicate passions are hackneyed on unworthy objects 
 here, and they carry home the dregs, insufficient to make 
 themselves or anybody else happy. Add to this that a 
 habit of idleness, an inability to apply themselves to busi 
 ness, is acquired, and renders them useless to themselves 
 and their country." 
 
 The preceding remarks arc, however, more particularly 
 applicable to the traveller from this country to the luxurious 
 regions of Europe. The taste for their more pungent and 
 diversified enjoyments weakens the relish for the simpler 
 pleasures of their native land. Yet there is occasionally 
 much to outweigh these disadvantages. Nothing so effectu 
 ally rids one of narrow local prejudices as visiting other 
 countries, and familiarizing himself to modes of thinking 
 and acting different from his own. It moreover often 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 271 
 
 teaches him to prize his own country the more for the com 
 parison ; and his affection for it may be increased, not only 
 by absence itself, but by those frequent assaults on his 
 national pride which every traveller abroad is sure to experi 
 ence. By this process many a malcontent has returned home 
 a zealous and approving patriot. Perhaps the best way for 
 us to secure the benefits of travel and avoid its evils, is to 
 remain long enough for its pleasures to lose the zest of no 
 velty, but not long enough to let our relish for its modes of 
 life acquire the force of habit. 
 
 A letter to Dr. Gilmer, a much respected neighbour, and 
 a well-educated physician, remarkable for his companionable 
 qualities, shows that his long estrangement from the practice 
 of the law had not made him forget its principles. A gen 
 tleman of the name of Harmer had devised a considerable 
 landed estate to Dr. Gilmer, and the question, which was a 
 nice one, was, whether the words conveyed only a life estate, 
 or an absolute property. Mr. Jefferson pronounced in 
 favour of the latter construction, and that proved the final 
 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States many 
 years afterwards. 
 
 While Houdon was employed about the statue of Wash 
 ington, the old question whether the costume should be 
 ancient or modern arose ; and the general having signi 
 fied that he approved the modern dress, Mr. Jefferson wrote 
 to him in August, and stated that West, Copley, Trumbull, 
 and Brown, as well as himself, also preferred it. " I think," 
 said he, " a modern in an antique dress, is just as much an 
 object of ridicule as a Hercules or Marius with a periwig or 
 chajjeau bras." 
 
 But the opposite opinion will not be found so unreason 
 able or absurd as it may at first sight appear. The objec 
 tion to the modern dress is, that its forms are constantly 
 changing, and after a few years, a dress which may be asso- 
 
272 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ciatcd with rank and dignity, may become, by intervening 
 changes of the fashion, supremely quaint and ridiculous, and 
 be so far utterly inconsistent with the sentiments of respect 
 and veneration which it is the object of the statuary to in 
 spire. It must be recollected, that a work of marble is 
 meant for the eyes not of contemporaries merely, but for 
 those of succeeding ages a far greater number and if a 
 representation of an individual in the dress which he actually 
 wore may give those who have seen the original a juster 
 idea of him than one in a foreign dress, yet the same repre 
 sentation is likely to give the greater number who have 
 never seen him a more mistaken notion of him, thus pre 
 sented to them in a grotesque costume, than an antique 
 dress in which the eye. having always been familiar with it, 
 finds nothing ludicrous or contemptible. In a word, it seems 
 better that a few should see a small unimportant incon 
 gruity between the statue and the original, than that a much 
 larger number should be made to see that which conflicts 
 with all ideas of moral grandeur and dignity. 
 
 The antique dress has this intrinsic advantage over the 
 modern, that it approaches nearer to the simplicity of na 
 ture, so that however it may deviate from the prevailing 
 fashion, it never shocks those to whom it may be new, as 
 wild or uncouth. It is on this account, principally, that it is 
 preferable to a modern costume. But even if it deviated 
 as much from simplicity, if it were equally fantastic and 
 bizarre, it would still have this advantage over a modern 
 dress, that all eyes have been more or less familiarized to it, 
 which is not the case with the ever-changing fashions of the 
 day; and by force of very natural associations, the ancient 
 costume is intimately connected in our minds with the beau 
 ideal both of the physical and moral man *. 
 
 Chantrey has made a happy compromise between these two styles 
 of dress in his statue of Washington in Boston ; for while he would not 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273 
 
 His views of the great events which were then passing in 
 France were very correctly detailed to his correspondents, 
 and the reflections and anticipations they suggested were 
 in general justified by the event. After noticing the good 
 of which the assembly of Notables had been productive, he 
 adds*, "Notwithstanding all this, the discovery of the 
 abominable abuses of public money by the late Comptroller 
 General, some new expenses of the court, not of a piece with 
 the projects of reformation, and the imposition of new taxes, 
 have in the course of a few weeks raised a spirit of discon 
 tent in this nation, so great and so general, as to threaten 
 serious consequences. The parliaments in general, and 
 particularly that of Paris, put themselves at the head of this 
 effervescence, and direct its object to the calling the states 
 general, who have not been assembled since 1714. The 
 object is to fix a constitution, and to limit expenses. The 
 king has been obliged to hold a bed of justice to enforce the 
 registering the new taxes : the parliament, on their side, 
 propose to issue a prohibition against their execution. 
 Very possibly this may bring on their exile. The mild 
 and patriotic character of the new ministry is the principal 
 dependence against this extremity." The parliament, as 
 he feared, were exiled the next day to Troyes, seventy miles 
 from Paris. 
 
 Speaking of the prospect of a war in Europe, which then 
 appeared probable, and of its seeming benefits to us as a 
 neutral nation, he makes the following reflections, which 
 have well accorded with the subsequent experience of the 
 United States. " The wealth acquired by speculation and 
 plunder is fugacious in its nature, and fills society with the 
 
 venture to represent the loader of the American armies in a Grecian or 
 Roman costume, on the very spot where he first assumed the command, 
 yet he has given to him a dress which is without particularity, and holds 
 a middle place between the modern and antique. 
 
 * Jeff. Mem. Vol. II. p. 222. 
 
 VOf.. I. T 
 
274 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 spirit of gambling. The moderate and sure income of 
 industry begets permanent improvement, quiet life, and 
 orderly conduct, both public and private. We have no oc 
 casion for more commerce than to take off our superfluous 
 produce, and the people complain that some restrictions 
 prevent this ; yet the price of articles with us, in general, 
 shows the contrary. Tobacco, indeed, is low, not because 
 we cannot carry it where we please, but because we make 
 more than the consumption requires. Upon the whole, I 
 think peace advantageous to us, necessary for Europe, and 
 desirable for humanity." 
 
 Being a close and attentive observer of those movements 
 both of the government and people of France, which por 
 tended change, but whose real consequences the most fertile 
 imagination never approached, his letters at that time give 
 not a very faint outline of the French revolution, and occa 
 sionally spirited sketches of the passing events ; though 
 he seems, in his narratives to correspondents, to have aimed 
 rather at accuracy than effect. About the last of August 
 he wrote to Mr. Adams : " I have brought together the 
 principal facts from the adjournment of the Notables to the 
 present moment, which, as you will perceive from their 
 nature, required a confidential conveyance. I have done 
 it the rather, because you will have heard many of them, 
 and seen them in the public papers ; yet, floating in the 
 mass of lies which constitute the atmosphere of London 
 and Paris, you may not have been sure of their truth, and 
 I have mentioned every truth of any consequence, to enable 
 you to stamp as false the facts pretermitted. I think that in 
 the course of three months the royal authority has lost, and 
 the rights of the nation gained, because it is defended by 
 the young and middle-aged, in opposition to the old only. 
 The first party increases and the latter diminishes daily 
 from the course of nature." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275 
 
 He had some short time before thus sketched the state 
 of things in Paris, while the contest was going on between 
 the king and the parliament about registering the edicts for 
 new taxes : " In the mean time, all tongues in Paris, (and 
 in France, it is said) have been let loose, and never was a 
 license of speaking against the government exercised in 
 London more freely or more universally. Caricatures, pla 
 cards, bon mots, have been indulged in by all ranks of 
 people, and I know of no well-attested instance of a single 
 punishment. For some time, mobs of ten, twenty, and 
 thirty thousand people, collected daily, surrounded the par 
 liament house, huzzaed the members, even entered the doors 
 and examined into their conduct, took the horses out of the 
 carriages of those who did well, and drew them home. The 
 government thought it prudent to prevent them ; drew 
 some regiments into the neighbourhood, multiplied the 
 guards, had the streets constantly patrolled by strong par 
 ties, suspended privileged places, forbade all clubs, &c. 
 The mobs have ceased : perhaps this may be partly owing 
 to the absence of parliament. The Count d Artois, sent to 
 hold a bed of justice in the Cour des Aides, was hissed and 
 hooted without reserve by the populace ; the carriage of 
 Madame de (I forget the name) in the queen s livery, was 
 stopped by the populace, under the belief that it was Ma 
 dame de Polignac, whom they would have insulted; the 
 queen, going to the theatre at Versailles with Madame de 
 Polignac, was received with a general hiss. The king, long 
 in the habit of drowning his cares in wine, plunges deeper 
 and deeper. The queen cries, but sins on. The Count 
 d Artois is detested, and Monsieur the general favourite. 
 The Archbishop of Thoulouse is made minister principal ; 
 a virtuous, patriotic, and able character." 
 
 In a letter to his old preceptor, Mr. Wythe, he thus 
 speaks of the Federal Convention in answer to that gentle- 
 
 T2 
 
276 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 man s inquiry about Ms views. " My own general idea was, 
 that the states should generally preserve their sovereignty 
 in whatever concerns themselves alone ; and that whatever 
 may concern another state, or any foreign nation, should be 
 made a part of the federal sovereignty. That the exercise 
 of the federal sovereignty should be divided among three 
 several bodies legislative, executive, and judiciary, as the 
 state sovereignties are; and that some peaceable means 
 should be contrived for the federal head to force compliance 
 on the part of the states." Knowing his correspondent s 
 classical predilections, in adverting to the recent rupture 
 between the Turks and Russians, he adds, " Constantinople 
 is the key of Asia Who shall have it ? is the question. I 
 cannot help looking forward to the re-establishment of the 
 Greeks as a people, and the language of Homer becoming 
 again a living language, as among possible events. You 
 have now with you Mr. Paradise, who can tell you how 
 easily the modern may be improved into the ancient 
 Greek." 
 
 Amidst the serious and momentous concerns on both sides 
 of the Atlantic which now engaged his attention, we may find 
 amusement in the penalty which he had to pay for his zeal 
 to convince the Count de Buffon that he had underrated the 
 animal creation on this side of the Atlantic. He had written 
 to Mr. Sullivan,* in Maine, to procure him the skin and 
 skeleton of a moose. Some time afterwards, a bill was pre 
 sented to him for payment, drawn by Mr. Sullivan, and as it 
 was accompanied by no letter, he conjectured it to be on ac 
 count of the moose, except that its amount seemed to be too 
 great for that object. 
 
 * General John Sullivan. T have had the curiosity to know how much 
 was paid for the bones of the moose, and find it to be entered in the ac 
 count of his current expenses, 46 17s. lOd. sterling, equivalent to 220 
 dollars, which was probably ten times as much as he expected. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 277 
 
 He soon afterwards, however, did receive a letter from Mr. 
 Sullivan, by which his conjecture was confirmed : and he thus 
 good-humouredly speaks of it to Colonel Smith, Mr. Adams s 
 son-in-law, who was then in London. " You ask if you shall 
 say anything to Sullivan about the bill. No, only that it is 
 paid. I have, within two or three days, received letters from 
 him, explaining the matter. It was my fault, that I had not 
 given him a rough idea of the expense I would N be willing to 
 incur for them. He had made the acquisition an object of a 
 regular campaign, and that too of a winter one. The troops 
 he employed sallied forth, as he writes me, in the month of 
 March much snow a herd attacked one killed in the 
 wilderness a road to cut twenty miles to be drawn by 
 hand from the frontiers to his house bones to be cleaned, 
 &c. &c. &c. In fine, he put himself to an infinitude of trouble, 
 more than I meant : he did it cheerfully, and I feel myself 
 really under obligations to him. That the tragedy might 
 not want a proper catastrophe, the box, bones, and all arc 
 lost : so that this chapter of Natural History will still remain 
 a blank. But I have written to him not to send me another. 
 I will leave it for my successor to fill up, whenever I shall 
 make my bow here." 
 
 It seems, however, that the skeleton of this moose, which 
 was to vindicate the insulted honour of its country, did arrive 
 in safety a few days afterwards, and was, in due form, sent 
 to the Count de Buffon. 
 
 If governments are sometimes able to conceal their pro 
 jects until they arc ripe for execution, it must be admitted, 
 on the other hand, that they are often suspected of designs 
 for which there is no foundation. It seems probable that the 
 imputation against Mr. Pitt, in the following extract of a 
 letter from Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Jay, of aiming to re-establish 
 the British dominion in America, is of this character. Know r - 
 ing the animosity then felt by England towards this country, 
 
278 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 he seemed to believe it capable of any scheme of injury, how 
 ever impolitic, extravagant, or impracticable. " The follow 
 ing solution of the British armaments is supposed, in a 
 letter of the 25th ultimo, from Colonel Blachden, of Connec 
 ticut, now at Dunkirk, to the Marquis de La Fayette. I will 
 cite it in his own words. c A gentleman who left London two 
 days ago, and came to this place to-day, informs me, that it 
 is now generally supposed, that Mr. Pitt s great secret, which 
 has puzzled the whole nation so long, and to accomplish 
 which design the whole nation is armed,, is to make a vigorous 
 effort for the recovery of America. When I recollect the 
 delay they have made in delivering the forts in America, and 
 that a little more than a year ago, one of the British ministry 
 wrote to the king a letter, in which were these remarkable 
 words, if your Majesty pleases, America may yet be yours ; 
 add to this, if it were possible for the present ministry in 
 England to effect such a matter, they would secure their 
 places and their power for a long time, and should they fail 
 in the end, they would be certain of holding them during 
 the attempt, which it is in their power to prolong as much as 
 they please ; and, at all events, they would boast of having 
 endeavoured the recovery of what a former ministry had aban 
 doned, it is possible." 
 
 " A similar surmise has come in a letter from a person in 
 Rotterdam to one at this place. I am satisfied that the king 
 of England believes the mass of our people to be tired of 
 their independence, and desirous of returning under his go 
 vernment ; and that the same opinion prevails in the minis 
 try and nation. They have hired their news-writers to re 
 peat this lie in their Gazettes so long, that they have become 
 the dupes of it themselves. But there is no occasion to 
 recur to this, in order to account for their arming. A more 
 rational purpose avowed, that purpose executed, and when 
 executed, a solemn agreement to disarm, seem to leave no 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279 
 
 doubt that the re -establishment of the stadtholder was their 
 object. Yet, it is possible that, having found this court will 
 not make war in this moment for an ally, new views may 
 arise, and they may think the moment favourable for exe 
 cuting any purposes they may have in our quarter. He, 
 therefore, earnestly recommends that the present season of 
 truce, or peace, should be used to fill our magazines with 
 arms. 
 
280 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s views of the Federal Constitution. His two principal ob 
 jections. Visits Holland. National credit in Amsterdam. Pri 
 soners in Algiers. Plan of liberating them. Expenses of American 
 ministers. Consular convention. Gordon s History of the Ameri 
 can Revolution. Some opinions in physical science faith in its im 
 provements. Silas Deane s letter-book. Claims of French officers. 
 Memoir on the admission of American fish-oil into France. Asks 
 leave to return home. Views of the future policy of the United 
 States. Progress of the French Revolution. Meeting of the states- 
 general. Scarcity of bread in Paris. Complaints of French officers 
 against the United States. 
 
 17871789. 
 
 IN September, of the present year, the convention which 
 had met in Philadelphia to form a federal constitution, ter 
 minated its labours, after a session of four months, with closed 
 doors, and submitted the constitution it had framed to the 
 people of the several states for their ratification. Mr. Jef 
 ferson seems, at an early period, to have been dissatisfied with 
 it, both on account of some of the articles it contained, and of 
 
 others it omitted. His opinions can be collected from his 
 
 A 
 
 remarks to his several correspondents. It not only gratifies 
 our curiosity to know the first impressions on this important 
 subject, of one whose opinions afterwards became the stand 
 ard of orthodoxy with the democratic party of the country, 
 but as these speculations of Mr. Jefferson have been since 
 tested by experience, they cannot but be instructive in the 
 intricate science of government, whether that experience has 
 tended to invalidate or confirm them. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 281 
 
 In November lie writes to Mr. Adams, " How do you like 
 our new constitution ? I confess there are things in it which 
 stagger all my dispositions to subscribe to what such an as- > 
 sembly has proposed. The house of federal representatives 
 will not be adequate to the management of affairs, either 
 foreign or federal. Their president seems a bad edition of a 
 Polish king. He may be elected from four years to four 
 years for life. Kcason and experience prove to us that a 
 chief magistrate so continuable is an office for life. When 
 one or two generations shall have proved that there is an 
 office for life, it becomes on every succession worthy of in 
 trigue, of bribery, force, and even of foreign interference. 
 It will be of great consequence to France and England 
 to have America governed by a Galloman or Angloman. 
 Once in office and possessing the military force of the union 
 without the aid or check of a council, he would not be easily 
 dethroned, even if the people could be induced to withdraw 
 their votes from him. I wish at the end of the four years 
 they had made him for ever ineligible a second time." 
 
 To Colonel Smith he says of the constitution, " there are 
 very good articles in it, and very bad. I do not know which 
 preponderate. What we have lately read in the history of 
 Holland, in the chapter on the stadtholder, would have suf 
 ficed to set me against a chief magistrate eligible for a long 
 duration, if I had ever been disposed towards one : and what 
 we have always read of the elections of Polish kings, would 
 have for ever excluded the idea of one continuable for life." 
 Apprehending that arguments would be drawn for this en 
 largement of the powers of the federal government gene 
 rally, and of its executive, in particular, from the recent in 
 surrection in Massachusetts, he speaks of it not only as an 
 unimportant affair, but as scarcely to be deprecated. " God 
 forbid," he exclaims, " we should ever be twenty years with 
 out such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always 
 
282 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, 
 in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. 
 If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is a le 
 thargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We 
 have had thirteen states independent for eleven years. 
 There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion 
 in a century and a half for each state. What country be 
 fore ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion ? 
 And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are 
 not warned., from time to time, that its people preserve the 
 spirit of resistance ? Let them take arms. The remedy is 
 to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What 
 signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree 
 of liberty must be refreshed, from time to time, with the 
 blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure. 
 Our convention has been too much impressed by the insur 
 rection of Massachusetts ; and on the spur of the moment, 
 they are setting up a kite to keep the hen-yard in order." 
 
 But in a letter to Mr. Madison, in December, he discloses 
 his opinions more at length. The features of the constitution 
 which he approved, were the self-acting power of the general 
 government, by which it could peaceably go on without re 
 curring to the state legislatures : the separation of the le 
 gislative, executive and judiciary powers: the powers of tax 
 ation given to the Legislature : and the election of the House 
 of Eepresentatives by the people. He doubts, however, 
 whether the members would be as well qualified for their 
 duties when chosen by the people, as if they were chosen by 
 the Legislature. He was captivated by the compromise be 
 tween the great and the small states the latter, having the 
 equality they asserted in the Senate ; the former, the pro 
 portion of influence they regarded as their right in the 
 House of Representatives. He preferred too the voting by 
 persons, instead of by states : and he approved the qualified 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283 
 
 negative given to the executive, though he would have liked 
 it still better if the Judiciary had been invested with a simi 
 lar check. 
 
 The grounds of his disapprobation were, the omission of a 
 bill of rights, providing, clearly and without the aid of so 
 phisms, for the freedom of religion, freedom of the press, se 
 curity against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, 
 trial by jury, and against all suspensions of the habeas corpus. 
 He denied the principle that all is reserved which is not 
 given to the general government ; because he thought that 
 inferences to the contrary might be drawn from the instru 
 ment itself, and because, in the articles of the old confedera 
 tion, there was such an express reservation. He also dis 
 liked the abandonment of the principle of rotation in office, 
 especially in that of the president, and infers that, in conse 
 quence of the omission, he will be elected for life. The elec 
 tion of a president of America, he thinks, will some years 
 hence be much more interesting to some nations of Europe 
 than the election of a king of Poland ever was. He presses 
 this point at great length, by arguments drawn from the ex 
 amples of the Roman Emperors, the Popes, Emperors of Ger 
 many, Kings of Poland, and Deys of the Ottoman Empire 
 and he ascribes what he regards as too liberal a grant of 
 power to the federal government, to the alarm excited by the \ 
 Massachusetts insurrection. He speaks lightly of this ; and 
 having appealed to experience, to decide whether peace is 
 best preserved by giving energy to the government, or in 
 formation to the people, he thus concludes : " This last, is 
 the most certain and the most legitimate engine of govern 
 ment. Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. 
 Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace 
 and order, and they will preserve them. And it requires no 
 very high degree of education to convince them of this. 
 They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our 
 
284 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 liberty. After all, it is my principle, that the will of the majo 
 rity should prevail. If they approve the proposed construc 
 tion in all its parts, I shall concur in it cheerfully, in hopes 
 they will amend it, whenever they shall find it works wrong." 
 
 To another friend he writes, " as to the new constitution, 
 I find myself nearly a neutral. There is a great mass of 
 good in it, in a very desirable form ; but there is also, to me, 
 a bitter pill or two." 
 
 He seems to have gradually become more in favour of it 
 as a whole, and to have looked to amendments for the pur 
 pose of incorporating with it a bill of rights, and such other 
 principles as he deemed salutary. To the re- eligibility of 
 the president, he never ceases to object, as immediately preg 
 nant with the mischief of foreign interference, and remotely 
 with a change in the form of government. He feared it 
 would, as he wrote to General Washington, make that an 
 office for life first, and then hereditary. 
 
 His fears, as to this part of the constitution, have so far 
 proved unfounded.* No president, during a period of forty- 
 four years, has been re-elected but once, and two have failed 
 of a re-election ; nor would it be now practicable for any one, 
 whatever were his services or qualifications, to be chosen 
 beyond two terms. The mischief of foreign interposition 
 has never been experienced, and it every day becomes more 
 and more impracticable. There are in this country neither 
 
 * The experience of the United States may seem to have disproved this 
 reasoning of Mr. Jefferson ; yet, if the examples of General Washington 
 and Mr. Jefferson himself had not, by their peremptorily declining re 
 election after two terms, done so much to impress on the public mind the 
 importance of narrowing the president s re-eligibility, and to give it the 
 force of usage, it is not easy to say whether the office would not have gra 
 dually become an office for life. And whilst that result could not now 
 occur, since the usage has received such confirmation, without important 
 changes in the public sentiment, yet, many believe that these changes are 
 very possible, and consequently, that the danger which Mr. Jefferson ap 
 prehended is not yet over. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 285 
 
 the inducements to interfere, nor the means of interfering 
 which existed in a country of Europe, surrounded by ambi 
 tious and rival neighbours, who were connected with it by 
 numerous ties of interest or policy, and where the votes were 
 held but by a very small proportion of the community. The 
 ineligibility is, however, still thought by many to be de 
 sirable, not merely for the reasons assigned by Mr. Jefferson, 
 but also for the sake of lesseninc: the attractions and influ- 
 
 t3 
 
 ence of that office, and thereby diminishing the party feuds, 
 intrigues and dissensions, which not only disturb the peace 
 and harmony of social intercourse, but impede or divert the 
 proper action of the government itself. 
 
 In the beginning of March, 1788, the financial concerns 
 of the United States made it necessary for Mr. Jefferson 
 to go to Holland. The impossibility of collecting from 
 the several states the requisitions of Congress, compelled 
 them to rely upon loans in Europe, for the means of paying 
 even the interest on the foreign debts. The treasury board, 
 which at that time managed the financial concerns of the 
 general government, not doubting that the loan which had 
 been authorized in Holland would be effected, had relied 
 on this resource, and had so written to the American minis 
 ters abroad. But an unexpected difficulty in negotiating 
 the loan arose from the fact that the bankers who had been 
 principally engaged in furnishing money to America, had 
 also become purchasers to a large amount of the domestic 
 debt, and insisted on the payment of the interest on this 
 debt as the condition of their taking the required loan. 
 There being no authority with the American ministers to 
 make such an agreement, and the necessity for the money 
 being urgent, Mr. Jefferson was induced to proceed to Am 
 sterdam, and to call at the Hague, for the sake of seeing 
 Mr. Adams on the subject, before his departure for America. 
 The two ministers succeeded in making a satisfactory ar- 
 
286 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 rangement with the Dutch bankers, without transcending 
 their authority or making any sacrifice, by which the means 
 of paying the interest was secured for the years 1789 and 
 1790, when it was expected that the resources of the govern 
 ment, under the new constitution, would be in operation. 
 But this arrangement was not to take effect until it was 
 ratified by Congress. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson soon afterwards wrote to the commissioners 
 of the treasury on this subject, and suggested, that if their 
 necessities should compel them to comply with the demands 
 of the bankers and pay the interest on the domestic debt 
 before they advanced a further sum, they should take mea 
 sures to prevent the recurrence of the same difficulty here 
 after. For, as he justly remarked, no monied man would 
 give 96 per cent, for the foreign debt, bearing 5 per cent, 
 interest, when he could purchase the domestic debt for 55 
 per cent., bearing 6 per cent, interest. He, therefore, re 
 commended that obstacles should be thrown in the way of 
 transferring the domestic debt to Europe ; to effect which 
 object, he suggested that the title to the debt, instead of 
 existing on the treasury books, as the foreign debt did, should 
 exist only on separate papers, by which means the European 
 holder would be compelled to confide to his American agent, 
 not merely his interest, as in case of the foreign debt, but 
 also the principal. This circumstance, he thought, would 
 put a stop to future purchases of the domestic debt in that 
 market. 
 
 In speaking of this transaction with the bankers of Am 
 sterdam, to General Washington, he says, " much conver 
 sation with the bankers, brokers, and money-holders, gave 
 me insight into the state of national credit there, which I 
 had never before been able satisfactorily to get. The Eng 
 lish credit is the first, because they never open a loan, with 
 out laying and appropriating taxes for the payment of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 287 
 
 interest, and there has never been an instance of their failing 
 one day in that payment. The emperor and empress have 
 good credit, because they use it little, and have hitherto 
 been very punctual. This country (France) is among the 
 lowest in point of credit. Our s stands in hope only. The} 
 consider us as the surest nation on earth for the repayment 
 of the capital ; but as the punctual payment of interest is 
 of absolute necessity in their arrangements, we Cannot bor 
 row but with difficulty and disadvantage. The monied 
 men, however, look towards our new government with a 
 great degree of partiality, and even anxiety. If they see 
 that we set out on the English plan, the first degree of 
 credit will be transferred to us." He then urges the advan 
 tage of transferring the French debt to Holland, by way 
 of removing the causes of bickering and irritation, " which 
 should never be permitted to subsist with a nation with 
 which it is so much our interest to be on cordial terms as 
 with France." 
 
 This business being completed, he left Amsterdam on 
 the 30th of March, and returned by a devious course, for 
 the sake of seeing some of the principal towns near his 
 route. He reached Paris on the 23rd of April, much sa 
 tisfied with having succeeded in the main object of his 
 journey. 
 
 The situation of Captain O Bryan, and the other Ameri 
 can captives at Algiers, still proved to him a subject of 
 anxiety and perplexity. While he was desirous of obtain 
 ing their release, he also wished, with the very straightened 
 means which his country then possessed, to effect it at as 
 small an expense as possible, and also to guard against 
 the exactions which the captors are always inclined to 
 make. It seems there was an order of monks, the Ma- 
 thurins, instituted for the purpose of procuring the ran 
 som of Christian captives in the Barbary states, and in a 
 
288 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 conference with the general of the order on the subject of 
 the redemption of the American prisoners, Mr. Jefferson 
 learnt that French prisoners had been redeemed at from 
 300 dollars to 400 dollars each; but the general added, 
 that he could expect to redeem the Americans at that rate 
 only, by concealing that he acted under the authority of 
 the American government. It was then necessary to ob 
 tain the sanction of Congress, and to conceal the fact from 
 the Dey of Algiers, and even to impress it on his mind that 
 the captives were abandoned to their fate. O Bryan having 
 in the mean while been informed that Mr. Jefferson had 
 received the necessary authority to obtain their release, and 
 regarding him as indifferent to their situation, addressed 
 to him, what Mr. Jefferson calls a " cruel letter." Although 
 the imputation was necessarily a painful one, Mr. Jefferson 
 compelled himself to submit to it, because, if the intentions 
 of the government in their behalf were communicated, they 
 would not be able to keep their own secret, and in that 
 case, such a price for their redemption would be demanded 
 as Congress would think they ought not to comply with, 
 lest it should have the effect of making many others of our 
 citizens the victims of piratical rapacity, and thus, humanity 
 to a few should prove cruelty to many. 
 
 He now found what has been experienced by all our 
 public ministers, that it required strict economy to bring 
 his expenses within the limits of the moderate salary allowed 
 him ; and that he must be reduced to the alternative of 
 not living in the style expected from the representative of 
 a foreign nation, or of drawing on his private funds. At 
 first, it had been the practice to pay all the expenses of our 
 ministers, and to allow them a moderate salary besides. 
 Then they were allowed a stated salary of 2500 guineas, 
 or lllll-J- dollars, besides the outfit, which comprehended 
 clothes, household furniture, a carriage and horses. And 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 289 
 
 finally, in 1784, the salaries were reduced to 9000 dollars. 
 Mr. Jefferson, not having first been appointed a resident 
 minister, did not consider he was entitled to an outfit. 
 But after he was appointed Dr. Franklin s successor, he 
 expected to receive it, or that the expenses it had been 
 intended to defray would be paid. He accordingly begun 
 to keep an account of such expenses, but finding them 
 numerous, minute, and not capable of being vouched, and 
 that, moreover, they would exceed a year s salary, he charged 
 that sum in his accounts, and presumed that Congress would 
 prefer a sum certain, and would make his case a precedent. 
 
 He represented the matter very fully to Mr. Jay and 
 Mr. Madison, in May, 1788, and relied on the general prac 
 tice of all nations, as well as its intrinsic reasonableness, 
 in support of his claim. And he expressed great anxiety 
 to have the matter settled before the new government went 
 into operation, as he did not wish to be presented to it, in 
 the first instance, in the character of a suitor. He, at the 
 same time, requested them not to press the claim, if they 
 deemed it improper, and assured them that he should be 
 satisfied with their decision. 
 
 In July, he conferred with the Count de Montmorin, 
 minister for foreign affairs, on the subject of the articles 
 which had been prepared between France and the United 
 States, to regulate the rights and duties of their respective 
 consuls, according to those changes which had been desired 
 by Congress. As some of the articles were contrary to 
 the genius of our government and civil institutions, and 
 the subject was altogether new in America, he further pro 
 posed that the consular convention should be limited to 
 a term of years. 
 
 In the same month, he received a letter from Gordon, 
 the historian of the American Revolution, asking his good 
 offices in getting his forthcoming work translated into 
 
 VOL. i. u 
 
290 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 French, and at the same time inquiring into the details of 
 the injuries he had suffered from Colonel Tarleton, during 
 his invasion in Virginia. To the latter request he answered, 
 that he had no cause to complain of Colonel Tarleton, as 
 his property had been respected by the officer who had been 
 despatched to Monticello. But he gives the details of the 
 injuries done to his property on another estate, near the 
 point of Fork, and which having taken place under the eye 
 of Lord Cornwallis, he presumes were committed with his 
 approbation. 
 
 Amidst his official duties, and his speculations on the 
 great political changes which were going on both in France 
 and America, he still took his wonted interest in physical 
 science, and with few exceptions, welcomed every novelty 
 that obtained celebrity, or exhibited ingenuity. He com 
 municated to the Rev. James Madison, then the president 
 of William and Mary college, and afterwards the bishop of 
 Virginia, all which at that time interested the savans of 
 Paris. He informs his correspondent, among other things, 
 that an Abbe there had " shaken, if not destroyed, Newton^s 
 theory of the rainbow ;" and denies the fact, that the spec 
 tator s eye is equidistant from every part of the bow, to 
 which proposition Mr. Jefferson assents. He withholds 
 his dissent from the conversion and reconversion of water 
 and air ; and he states, that in a conversation with Buffon, 
 on the present ardour of chemical inquiry, he affected to 
 regard chemistry only as cookery, and to place the toils 
 of the laboratory on a footing with those in the kitchen. 
 Mr. Jefferson s own views did more justice to that useful 
 science, which he regarded " as big with future discoveries 
 for the utility and safety of the human race ; " though 
 he little thought that its advancement would be so 
 rapid as it has since proved. The attempt of Lavoisier 
 to reform the chemical nomenclature, he thought to be 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 291 
 
 " premature." He notices the fulminating posvder, and the 
 spathic (fluoric) acid ; and mentions a report from Naples, 
 that seventeen of the lost books of Livy had been recovered 
 in an Arabic translation of them, which he hopes may be 
 true. 
 
 It may be here remarked, that the interest which Mr. Jef 
 ferson took in the advancement of science, made him some 
 what credulous as to its discoveries, its vaunted improve 
 ments, and its splendid promises of future benefit, of which 
 we have some examples in the preceding letter as in the 
 supposed refutation of the Newtonian theory of the rainbow, 
 and of the discovery of the lost books of Livy ; and in a let 
 ter to another friend about this time, he says, that he sees no 
 thing impossible in the conjecture of some American philo 
 sopher, that the Creek Indians are descended from the Car 
 thaginians, supposed to have been separated from Hanno s 
 fleet, and he expresses a desire to have their language com 
 pared with that of the Carthaginians, which was supposed to 
 be still spoken in the mountainous part of Barbary. Of the 
 same character too was his disposition to refer the irregu 
 larity of the strata of the earth to the property which rocks 
 have of growing like vegetables, rather than to explain the 
 phenomenon by subterraneous explosions or convulsions. 
 He was also, at the time he wrote his notes, evidently in 
 clined to credit the Indian tradition, that the mammoth still 
 existed in the interior of this continent; and at a much 
 later period, he was thought to have given evidence of a too 
 easy faith in supposing the existence of " a salt mountain." 
 Yet, on other occasions, he seemed to go to the other ex 
 treme, and refuse his assent to what had obtained general 
 credit. But in truth it is the same disposition of mind 
 which is too easy of belief at one time and incredulous 
 at another; both being cases of judgments formed in haste, 
 or under strong biases. And thus the theories which 
 
 u2 
 
292 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 were recommended to Mr. Jefferson s imagination by their 
 promises of utility to mankind, to which he always mani 
 fested lively sensibility, he was too much inclined to believe, 
 whilst those which were opposed to his national or personal 
 prejudices, he as readily discredited. 
 
 About this time a person called on him and stated, that 
 Silas Deane owed him one hundred and twenty guineas, 
 and being unable to obtain payment, he had laid hands 
 on his account book and letter book which he had brought 
 to Paris, to offer to the American government ; and that, if 
 it refused, he meant to offer them to the British minister. 
 Mr. Jefferson requested him to leave them twenty-four 
 hours, which he did. During this time, he took a note of 
 the dates and addresses of the letters, and had that part of 
 his accounts, which was subsequent to his arrival in Phila 
 delphia, in 1778, transcribed. He did not think them of 
 sufficient importance to give the sum demanded, without 
 authority; though he thought it would be better to pur 
 chase them, than that they should fall into the hands of the 
 British minister. The individual was told by Mr. Jefferson 
 that he would write to the government with orders on the 
 subject ; but he returned to London with them, without 
 making any engagement. 
 
 The insufficiency of our national revenue subjected, as we 
 have seen, our fiscal agents abroad to frequent embarrass 
 ment and mortification, of which fact Mr. Jefferson s corre 
 spondence affords abundant evidence. He was particularly 
 earnest in recommending to persons in authority in America, 
 to make an adequate provision for the payment of the pen 
 sions and other sums due to French officers, whose com 
 plaints, when disappointed, would be more heard than those 
 of the money-lenders, both by reason of their greater 
 numbers, and because they could less bear the incon 
 veniences of delay. But those to whom he addressed 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203 
 
 himself, had their full share of difficulties in money mat 
 ters, and his representations were of necessity without effect. 
 In this state of things, he received a letter, in September, 
 from the Marquis de llouerie, who had served in America, 
 complaining of the want of punctuality in paying the arrears 
 due to him ; and in consequence of Mr. Jefferson s having in- 
 officially consented to call the attention of the treasury-board 
 to such claims, and having further expressed his expectation, 
 that the money would probably be paid in July, he wrote 
 to demand immediately payment of the minister. To this 
 demand Mr. Jefferson replied with proper spirit, that the 
 business of paying the foreign officers constituted no part of 
 his duties ; that he had voluntarily written to the treasury- 
 board on the subject, and had stated his impressions that 
 they would give the requisite orders ; but that he had made 
 no promise, nor had a right to make any ; and that as his 
 friendly interposition was misunderstood, he desired that 
 all further correspondence between them should cease. 
 
 We are strongly impressed with the poverty of the federal 
 treasury, and the imbecility of the federal government, when 
 we recollect, that the national character was thus subjected 
 to the reproach both of bad faith and ingratitude, for an an 
 nual sum of less than ten thousand dollars. 
 
 A mercantile house of Paris, Schweighaeuser and Dobrie, 
 having had some arms of the United States attached, on the 
 ground of debt due to them, Mr. Jefferson proposed, in be 
 half of his government, that the affair should be left to 
 arbitration; but they refused his offer, by the advice of 
 their counsel, upon which the minister applied to Monsieur 
 Montmorin, and insisted that the articles should be given 
 up, on the ground that the seizure of the goods of one 
 sovereign in the dominions of another was contrary to the 
 law of nations. This order was accordingly made, after 
 which he again tendered the same proposition to the mer 
 chants, to which they finally acceded. 
 
294 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 But his most important official act this year, was an ela 
 borate memoir on the subject of the admission of American 
 whale oils into France, in which he stated, with great clear 
 ness and precision, the advantage which this measure would 
 confer on both countries ; and answered all the objections 
 which a wish on the part of France to foster her own com 
 merce and navigation, or her jealousy of Great Britain, 
 could suggest. This memoir was so far successful, that 
 the United States were relieved from the general prohi 
 bition which had been previously decreed. The paper 
 shows an acquaintance with the details of the subject which 
 he could not have been expected to possess, and although 
 the facts were, without doubt, furnished by his correspond 
 ents in New England, yet it was not the less creditable to 
 him to have given so thorough an attention to the subject, 
 and to have digested the information he received in so 
 satisfactory a way, as to have made his views at once clear 
 and convincing. 
 
 He enters into minute details and estimates for the pur 
 pose of showing that the whale fishery could not be pro 
 secuted with advantage by France, and that as she must 
 receive her chief supply of fish oil from either Great Britain 
 or the United States, every consideration of national policy 
 should induce her to prefer them to her great rival. 
 
 The circumstances which induced him to write this letter 
 to Monsieur Montmorin, he thus states in a letter to Mr. Jay, 
 of November the 19th. The English had glutted the mar 
 kets of this country with their oils: it was proposed to 
 exclude them, and an arret was drawn, with an exception 
 for us : in the last stage of the arret, the exception was 
 struck out, without my having any warning, or even sus 
 picion of this. I suspect this stroke came from the Count 
 de la Luzerne, minister of marine ; but I cannot affirm it 
 positively. As soon as I was apprized of this, which was 
 several days after it passed (because it was kept secret till 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 295 
 
 published in their seaports), I wrote to the Count de Mont- 
 morin a letter, of which the inclosed is a copy, and had con 
 ferences on the subject from time to time, with him and the 
 other ministers. I found them prepossessed by the partial 
 information of their Dunkirk fishermen; and, therefore, 
 thought it necessary to give them a view of the whole sub 
 ject in writing, which I did, in the piece of which I inclose 
 you a printed copy. 1 therein entered into more details 
 than the question between us seemed rigorously to require. 
 I was led to them by other objects. The most important 
 was, to disgust Mr. Neckar, as an economist, against their 
 new fishery, by letting him foresee its expense. The par 
 ticular manufactures suggested to them, were in consequence 
 of repeated applications from the shippers of rice and to 
 bacco : other details, which do not appear immediately per 
 tinent, were occasioned by circumstances which had arisen 
 in conversation, or an apparent necessity of giving infor 
 mation on the whole matter. At a conference, in the 
 presence of M. Lambert, on the 16th, (where I was ably 
 aided by the Marquis de La Fayette, as I have been through 
 the whole business,) it was agreed to except us from the 
 prohibition. But they will require rigorous assurance, that 
 the oils coming under our name are really of our fishery. 
 They fear we shall cover the introduction of the English 
 oils from Halifax." 
 
 In adverting to this subject, in a letter to General Wash 
 ington, soon afterwards, he says, " whenever the French shall 
 be at war with England, they must open the trade of their 
 West India Islands to us, and perhaps during the war they may 
 see some price which might make them agree to keep them 
 always open." In the meanwhile, he endeavoured to open 
 the market of France for our produce, and render its trans 
 portations a nursery to our seamen, since a maritime force 
 was the only one by which we could act on Europe : and in- 
 
296 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 asmuch as our exports are bulky, he suggests that our navi 
 gation law, if we had any, should be the reverse of that of 
 England, and instead of " confining our importations to home 
 bottoms, or those of the producing nations, we should confine 
 our exportation* to home bottoms, or to those of nations 
 having treaties with us" 
 
 In November, of this year, he asked leave of Congress to 
 return to America in the summer of the following year, partly 
 to attend to his private affairs, which could be managed by 
 no one but himself, but principally for the purpose of carry 
 ing his daughter back to her country and friends. His 
 purpose then was to return to France, after an absence of five 
 months, which would allow him three months to be at sea, 
 and two months to be at home. In favour of his application 
 he pleads that he was first appointed for two years, but had 
 been absent twice as long ; and that he had left America 
 without first going home to make any arrangements in his 
 private affairs : and on referring to all the business confided 
 to him, he shows that no part of that which was unfinished, 
 or would remain so, could suffer by his absence. He proposes 
 that Mr. Short, of whose talents and character he speaks 
 highly, should be left Charge d" Affaires in his absence. 
 
 It appears by his letter to General Washington, in De 
 cember, that he was better reconciled to the new constitu 
 tion, though he still hoped that a bill of rights would be an 
 nexed to it, and that this might be added by way of amend 
 ment, without putting all to hazard by a new convention. 
 
 He considers, that the United States will hereafter be ex 
 posed to war by " the tyranny" of those European nations 
 who have colonies in America, and who deprive us of the na 
 tural right of trading with our neighbours ; that our native 
 products would soon exceed the European demand, and that 
 we should open a market by force for the surplus, " with those 
 placed on the same continent with us, and who wish for no- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 297 
 
 thing better." It docs not appear whether his views were 
 limited to Canada and the West Indies, or were extended to 
 Spanish and Portuguese America. But there was another 
 alternative to which he might have looked forward with equal 
 confidence, which is this : whenever labour devoted to agri 
 cultural products shall find itself uncompensated, in conse 
 quence of a fall in price from a redundant supply, a part of it 
 will be diverted to the fabrication of some of those foreign 
 articles for which raw produce had been previously exchanged. 
 Mr. Jefferson lived long enough to sec much of this diver 
 sion of labour in the middle states ; but it was little to what 
 would have been seen, if our agriculturists had not found in 
 cotton a new article of profitable culture. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the progress of that Re 
 volution which already began to be manifest to the most care 
 less observer. The expedient which the administration had 
 resorted to, of consulting the principal men of the nation on 
 its difficulties, had proved altogether inadequate to the occa 
 sion. They had suggested various minor reforms and re 
 trenchments, some of which were evaded or imperfectly ex 
 ecuted, and the whole of which were insufficient to restore 
 national credit, and consequently to silence the complaints of 
 the public creditors. In the evident failure of this experi 
 ment, it was necessary to resort to some other expedient, and 
 nothing appeared capable of applying a remedy commensu 
 rate with the disease, but to call together the states-general, 
 who, in the capacity of representatives of the whole na 
 tion, and of the counsellors of the crown, might alone be able 
 to carry into effect such scheme of reform as they should 
 adopt. Besides, as nothing less than a general contribution 
 to the revenue by the nobility and clergy, as well as the tiers 
 ctat, would satisfy the nation, the support of the representa 
 tives of the people was necessary to secure the adoption of 
 this measure. Many motives concurred to make this expc- 
 
298 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 dient popular with the nation. All those who had been in 
 fluenced by their speculative views on government to wish 
 for an extension of civil liberty in France, were pleased to sec 
 an assembly about to meet, which already had some of the 
 essential features of a representative body, and which might 
 at any rate be easily improved into one. Those who admired 
 the English government saw in this assembly a future par 
 liament in embryo, and flattered themselves that, by opening 
 the purse-strings of the nation to the necessities of the go 
 vernment, they would be able to effect an extension of the 
 nation s rights. In the intercourse which had been so aug 
 mented between France and England of late years, they had 
 opportunities of seeing the advantages which Great Britain 
 derived from her navigation and commerce ; her numerous 
 colonies ; her flourishing manufactures ; and these solid bene 
 fits they would naturally ascribe to the respectability of the 
 tiers etat, the equality of civil rights, and the sacredness of pro 
 perty which there prevailed. The freedom of debate, and of the 
 press, which they also witnessed in that country, though often 
 offending the fastidiousness and loyalty of Frenchmen, had 
 much in it that was imposing to the imagination ; and assi 
 milated the English people, in many points of character, to 
 the classic models of antiquity. The love of change itself 
 will always have its influence on many, either because they 
 hope to profit by it or because it will relieve them from the 
 languor of idleness or sameness. The administration, being 
 able to devise no better expedient, and finding some change 
 indispensable, acquiesced in this measure; and either not 
 perceiving its danger, or fondly confiding in their ability to 
 overcome it, they looked forward to it with hope rather than 
 apprehension. 
 
 When Mr. Jefferson returned from his visit to Holland, 
 in April, he found Paris as he had left it, in a state of high 
 fermentation. He thought that if the Archbishop of Sens 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 299 
 
 had immediately adopted the retrenchments and plans of 
 reform which the notables had recommended, they would all 
 have been registered by the Parliament of Paris, and that 
 cause of civil commotion would not have existed. But as 
 the edicts he prepared were presented slowly, and in succes 
 sion, there was time for new claims to be set up as men s 
 minds became familiarized to the old, until they finally settled 
 down on the necessity of a fixed constitution, which would be 
 independent of the will of the monarch. It must, moreover, 
 be confessed that by the ordinary operation of the govern 
 ment, they were daily reminded of evils to which no length 
 of usage or prescription could reconcile them at the present 
 day, and which would be more felt now that their thoughts 
 had been turned to the subject of civil government, and 
 when popular rights appeared in a more attractive form, and 
 arbitrary power more odious than they had ever before been 
 exhibited to the eyes of Frenchmen. The unjust system of 
 taxation, the restraints on the freedom of conscience, and 
 of the press, the extravagance of the government, the inso 
 lence of the noblesse, the money thus hardly wrung from the 
 earning of industry and skill, lavished on worthless favourites 
 and pensioners, now seen and understood by the mass of the 
 people, rendered it impossible for the public mind to settle 
 down satisfied with the first concession, which the prudence 
 or timidity of their rulers had yielded to the demands of the 
 people. 
 
 Encouraged by the open discontents of the nation, the 
 Parliament refused to register those edicts which created 
 the most unpopular taxes, especially the stamp tax, and 
 proposed a meeting of the states-general, as alone com 
 petent to the emergency. The administration, thereupon, 
 determined upon what is called a bed of justice, in which 
 the king s presence was expected to overrule the opposition 
 of the Parliament. The edicts were duly registered, ac- 
 
300 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 cording to ancient usage ; but new difficulties then arose, 
 which frustrated their execution. The Parliament itself, 
 by way of atoning for its reluctant support of the crown, 
 sent a bold remonstrance to the king, in which they ventured 
 to deny the legality of the recent edicts, and even to declare, 
 that the states-general alone had the power of permanent 
 taxation. The provincial parliaments maintained the same 
 doctrines, and the Chamber of Accounts and Court of Aids 
 refused to enforce them. The refractory Parliament was 
 banished to Troyes, a distance of seventy miles from Paris. 
 But no longer supported by the popular voice, and their 
 merits and sacrifices being not likely to be much better 
 remembered by the people than they had been respected 
 by the government, they came to a compromise with the 
 minister, and on their consenting to continue some of the 
 former taxes, they were recalled from their exile. The king 
 met them in November, 1787, in what is called a royal 
 sitting, promised to call the states -general in 1792, and a 
 majority of them consented to register an edict for several 
 annual loans, amounting to eighty-four millions, until the 
 proposed meeting of the states-general. But the Duke of 
 Orleans, who had now sided with the popular party, having 
 entered a protest against the edict, and some of the ma 
 jority retracting their consent, the king peremptorily ordered 
 the registry, and closed the sitting. The Parliament then 
 entered a protest against the legality of the loans, which 
 had the effect of defeating them. The consequence was, 
 that two members of the Parliament were imprisoned, the 
 Duke of Orleans was exiled to his estate, and a Cour Plenierc, 
 composed of the principal persons in the kingdom, was 
 called, by the aid of which it was meant to supersede the 
 functions of the Parliament, except those that were strictly 
 judicial. This course being more fit for furthering the views 
 of the government than for fulfilling the wishes of the people, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 301 
 
 was vehemently opposed by all the Parliament, who again 
 were backed by the mass of the nation. The govern 
 ment found itself forced to give way ; and the king, by an 
 edict of July 5th, revoked the order for the Cour Pleniere, 
 and promised to call the states-general in the first of May 
 following. The archbishop, retreating from the storm in 
 September, betook himself to Italy, and Neckar was once 
 more placed at the head of the finances. Thd exultation 
 at this victory and the prospect of future benefits excited 
 the national joy to the highest pitch; and their public 
 rejoicings being interrupted by the city- guard, several suc 
 cessive rencounters ensued between the people and the mili 
 tary, in which ten or twelve of the citizens and a few of the 
 guard lost their lives. The city was then put under martial 
 law, and in a short time order was restored. 
 
 After the convocation of the states-general was determined 
 on, two most important questions arose, 1st. What pro 
 portion should the deputies of the tiers etat bear to those 
 of the nobles and clergy? And, 2ndly. Should the nobles, 
 clergy and third estate sit in several chambers, or sit and 
 vote as one body 1 The questions were referred by Neckar 
 to the Notables, who were called together a second time to 
 decide them. They met on the 9th of November, and, by 
 a large majority, recommended the forms which had been 
 observed in 1614, when the states-general met in separate 
 chambers. But the voice of the nation was so general and 
 so loud in favour of their making one body, and that the 
 tiers etat should equal the other two orders, that the latter 
 point was so determined by a declaration of December 27th. 
 A report from Neckar, about the same time, made the fol 
 lowing concessions to the popular party : 1. That the king 
 should neither lay a new tax, nor prolong an old one. 2. It 
 professed a readiness to agree upon a periodical meeting 
 of the states-general ; 3. to consult on the necessary restric- 
 
302 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tion of Lett res de Cachet; 4. to extend the liberty of the 
 press; 5. that the states should appropriate the public 
 money; 6. that ministers should be responsible for public 
 expenditures. 
 
 While the nation was in this state of feverish expectation 
 on this subject of its political rights, there was a scarcity of 
 bread in the country, owing to the destructive hail-storms 
 of the preceding summer, and a winter whose severity was 
 beyond all example. The government, with its exhausted 
 treasury, was compelled to expend large sums for the mitiga 
 tion of these distresses in Paris. It had great fires built 
 in the cross streets, at which the people warmed themselves, 
 to avoid perishing with cold. Bread was bought and dis 
 tributed daily among the labouring class. " So great," says 
 Mr. Jefferson, " was its scarcity, that from the highest to 
 the lowest citizen, the bakers were permitted to deal but 
 a scanty allowance per head, even to those who paid for it ; 
 and in cards of invitation to dine in the richest houses, the 
 guest was notified to bring his own bread." This scarcity 
 having been foreseen by the government, De Montmorin 
 had requested Mr. Jefferson to give information of it in the 
 United States, and promised that a bounty should be given 
 on their grain imported into France. 
 
 This state of things had produced some popular disturb 
 ances in the interior of the kingdom, but none in Paris, 
 where it seemed as if the attention of all classes was so 
 absorbed by the one object, the meeting of the states- general, 
 and so confidently looked to that for relief from every suffer 
 ing, that all present ills were borne in patience. Mr. Jef 
 ferson thus describes the sudden alteration of character that 
 had now taken place among the people of France, in a letter 
 to Colonel Humphreys, dated the 18th of March, 1789. 
 " The change in this country since you left it is such as you 
 can form no idea of. The frivolities of conversation have 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 303 
 
 given way entirely to politics. Men, women and children 
 talk nothing else : and all, you know, talk a great deal. 
 The press groans with daily productions, which, in point 
 of boldness, make an Englishman stare, who hitherto has 
 thought himself the boldest of men. A complete revolution 
 in this government has, within the space of two years (for 
 it began with the Notables of 1787), been effected merely 
 by the force of public opinion, aided indeed b^ the want 
 of money, which the dissipations of the court had brought 
 on. And this revolution has not cost a single life, unless 
 we charge to it a little riot lately in Bretagne, which began 
 about the price of bread, became afterwards political, and 
 ended in the loss of four or five lives." 
 
 If foreign officers sometimes had cause to complain of 
 the United States, it must also be confessed that the former 
 occasionally magnified their services, and overrated their 
 claims to remuneration. A remarkable instance of this 
 occurred in the case of a Monsieur Klein, who asked com 
 pensation for public services rendered to the United States 
 during the war, and who prevailed on Madame Neckar to 
 espouse his cause. According to Mr. Jefferson, he and two 
 other Germans, in the year 1 788, proposed to enlist a body 
 of men from among the German prisoners, taken with 
 General Burgoyne at Saratoga, on condition that Klein 
 should be lieutenant- colonel, and his two associates captains 
 in the American service : they were allowed three months 
 to do this. At the end of ten months they had enlisted 
 twenty-four men, and all of these, except five, had deserted. 
 Congress, therefore, put an end to the project in June, 1779, 
 by informing Monsieur Klein they had no further use for 
 his services, and giving him a year s pay and subsistence 
 to bring him to Europe. He, however, stayed three years 
 and a half, as he says, to solicit what was due to him ; but 
 Mr. Jefferson presumes, " in hopes of finding some opening 
 
304 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 for further employment." Madame Ncckar is further told, 
 that if he has not a certificate of what was allowed him, he 
 must have received the money, and if he has the certificate, 
 Mr. Jefferson will represent his claim, and will ensure its 
 meeting with justice; and lastly, that his object is to be 
 received into the Hospital of Invalids, and having no just 
 title to admission, wishes to found a claim on his American 
 commission and American grievances. 
 
305 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 i- 
 
 Further opinions on the Federal Constitution. Mr. Madison s arid Mr. 
 Jefferson s respective views on Declarations of Rights. Discoveries 
 and improvements in Science. Progress of the French Revolution. 
 Mr. Jeflferson submits a Bill of Rights to La Fayette. Visits Ver 
 sailles almost daily. Connexion of Lake Erie with the Ohio. 
 Views of the French Revolution. Titular distinctions in the United 
 States. The doctrine that one generation cannot bind another. Mr. 
 Madison s views on this subject. Further objections to the doctrine. 
 State of parties in Paris. His mode of passing his time there. 
 Leaves France. Stops at the Isle of Wight. Arrival at Norfolk. 
 His papers narrowly escape conflagration. Return to Monticello. 
 Reception by his slaves. Appointed Secretary of State. Marriage 
 of his eldest daughter. Sets out for New York. Interview with 
 Dr. Franklin. 
 
 17891790. 
 
 IN March of that year, about the time that the new con 
 stitution of the United States was about to be subjected to 
 the test of experiment, Mr. Jefferson gave a full exposition 
 of his views of it in a letter to Judge Hopkinson, of Pennsyl 
 vania. It seems that the judge had written to Mr. Jeffer 
 son that he was regarded as an anti-federalist, as the op- 
 posers of the constitution were now denominated. Mr. Jef 
 ferson thus states how far he agreed with the two parties : 
 " I am not a federalist, because I never submitted the whole 
 system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men what 
 ever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything 
 else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an 
 addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. 
 If I could not go to heaven withe at a party, I would not go 
 VOL. i. x 
 
306 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 there at all. Therefore I protest to you, I am not of the party 
 of federalists. But I am much farther from that of the anti- 
 federalists. I approved, from the first moment, of the great 
 mass of what is in the new constitution : the consolidation of 
 the government ; the organization into executive, legislative, 
 and judiciary ; the subdivision of the legislative ; the happy 
 compromise of interests between the great and the little 
 states, by the different manner of voting in the different 
 houses ; the voting by persons instead of states ; the quali 
 fied negative on laws given to the executive ; which, how 
 ever, I should have liked better if associated with the judi 
 ciary also, as in New York ; and the power of taxation. I 
 thought, at first, that the latter might have been limited. 
 A little reflection soon convinced me it ought not to be. 
 What I disapproved from the first moment also, was the 
 want of a bill of rights, to guard liberty against the legis 
 lative as well as executive branches of government : that 
 is to say, to secure freedom in religion ; freedom of the 
 press ; freedom from monopolies ; freedom from unlawful 
 imprisonment ; freedom from a permanent military, and a 
 trial by jury, in all cases determinable by the laws of the 
 land. I disapproved also the perpetual re-eligibility of the 
 president. To these points of disapprobation I adhere." 
 He then states, that although he had wished that the nine 
 first conventions might accept the constitution, as that num 
 ber was sufficient for it to go into operation, and the four 
 last reject it, as the means of obtaining amendments, yet 
 he rather preferred the plan pursued by Massachusetts, which 
 adopted the constitution, and at the same time recommended 
 amendments. 
 
 On the subject of the re-eligibility of the president, he 
 says : " Since the thing is established, I would wish it not to 
 be altered during the life of our great leader, whose execu- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 307 
 
 live talents are superior to those, I believe, of any man in the 
 world, and who, alone by the authority of his name, and the 
 confidence reposed in his perfect integrity, is fully qualified 
 to put the new government so under way, as to secure it 
 against the efforts of opposition. But having derived from 
 our error all the good there was in it, I hope we shall cor 
 rect it the moment we can no longer have the same name 
 at the helm." He thus notices his practice of openly avow 
 ing his sentiments, a virtue which he often carried beyond 
 the verge of prudence, and for the exercise of which he occa 
 sionally incurred the censure both of friends and enemies ; 
 from one, for the opinions themselves, and from the other, I 
 for his unguarded frankness in avowing them. " I never had 
 an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own, 
 A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured me 
 more esteem from some people, but less from myself. My 
 great wish is, to go on in a strict and silent performance of 
 my duty ; to avoid attracting notice, and to keep my name 
 out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little censure, 
 even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure 
 of much praise. The attaching circumstance of my present 
 office is, that I can do its duties unseen by those for whom 
 they are done." 
 
 We have seen that one of Mr. Jefferson s objections to 
 the new constitution was, that it was not accompanied with a 
 Declaration of Rights. Mr. Madison, though, on the whole, 
 friendly to such declarations, did not attach the same import 
 ance to them as Mr. Jefferson. His views on the subject are 
 fully disclosed in a letter to Mr. Jefferson, dated in October, 
 1788, and they are so marked by that deep sagacity and 
 dispassionate wisdom which have ever characterized his poli 
 tical speculations, that they are here given at length, with 
 the permission of the venerable author, in the following 
 
 x2 
 
308 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Extract of a letter from James Madison to Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 New York, October 17, 1788. 
 
 " Dear Sir, 
 
 " The little pamphlet herewith inclosed will give you a col 
 lective view of the alterations which have been proposed* for 
 the new Constitution. Various and numerous as they ap 
 pear, they certainly omit many of the true grounds of oppo 
 sition. The articles relating to treaties, to paper money, 
 and to contracts, created more enemies than all the errors in 
 the system, positive and negative, put together. It is true, 
 nevertheless, that not a few, particularly in Virginia, have 
 contended for the proposed alterations from the most honour 
 able and patriotic motives ; and that among the advocates 
 for the Constitution, there are some who wish for further 
 guards to public liberty and individual rights. As far as 
 these may consist of a constitutional declaration of the most 
 essential rights, it is probable they will be added ; though 
 there are many who think such addition unnecessary, and 
 not a few who think it misplaced in such a Constitution. 
 There is scarce any point on which the party in opposition 
 is so much divided, as to its importance and its propriety. 
 My own opinion has always been in favour of a bill of rights ; 
 provided it be so framed as not to imply powers not meant 
 to be included in the enumeration. At the same time, I 
 have never thought the omission a material defect, nor been 
 anxious to supply it even by subsequent amendment, for any 
 other reason than that it is anxiously desired by others. I 
 have favoured it because I supposed it might be of use, and, 
 if properly executed, could not be of disservice. I have not 
 viewed it in an important light. 
 
 * By the State Conventions, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 309 
 
 " 1. Because I conceive that in a certain degree, though 
 not in the extent argued by Mr. Wilson, the rights in 
 question are reserved by the manner in which the federal 
 powers are granted. 
 
 " 2. Because there is great reason to fear that a positive 
 declaration of some of the most essential rights could not be 
 obtained in the requisite latitude. I am sure that the rights 
 of conscience in particular, if submitted to public definition, 
 would be narrowed much more than they are likely ever to 
 be by an assumed power. One of the objections in New 
 England was, that the Constitution, by prohibiting religi 
 ous tests, opened a door for Jews, Turks, and Infidels. 
 
 " 3. Because the limited powers of the federal government, 
 and the jealousy of the subordinate governments, afford a 
 security which has not existed in the case of the state go 
 vernments, and exists in no other. 
 
 " 4. Because experience proves the inefiicacy of a bill of 
 rights on those occasions when its control is most needed. 
 Repeated violations of these parchment barriers have been 
 committed by overbearing majorities in every state. In 
 Virginia I have seen the bill of rights violated in every in 
 stance where it has been opposed to a popular current. 
 Notwithstanding the explicit provision contained in that 
 instrument for the rights of conscience, it is well known that 
 a religious establishment would have taken place in that 
 state, if the legislative majority had found, as they ex 
 pected, a majority of the people in favour of that measure; 
 and I am persuaded that if a majority of the people were 
 now of one sect, the measure would still take place, and on 
 narrower ground than was then proposed, notwithstanding 
 the additional obstacle which the law* has since created. 
 
 " Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the 
 danger of oppression. In our governments the real power 
 * The Religious Bill of Mr. Jefferson. 
 
310 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of 
 private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of 
 government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but 
 from acts in which the government is the mere instrument 
 of the major number of the constituents. This is a truth of 
 great importance, but not yet sufficiently attended to ; and 
 is probably more strongly impressed on my mind by facts, 
 and reflections suggested by them, than on yours which has 
 contemplated abuses of power issuing from a very different 
 quarter. Wherever there is an interest and power to do 
 wrong, wrong will generally be done, and not less readily 
 by a powerful and interested party, than by a powerful and 
 interested prince. The difference, so far as it relates to the 
 superiority of republics over monarchies, lies in the less 
 degree of probability that interest may prompt abuses of 
 power in the former than in the latter ; and in the security 
 in the former against an oppression of more than the 
 smaller part of the society, whereas in the former it may be 
 extended in a manner to the whole. The difference, so far 
 as it relates to the point in question the efficacy of a bill of 
 rights in controlling abuses of power lies in this, that in a 
 monarchy the latent force of the nation is superior to that 
 of the sovereign, and a solemn charter of popular rights 
 must have a great effect as a standard for trying the vali 
 dity of public acts, and a signal for rousing and uniting the 
 superior force of the community; whereas in a popular 
 government the political or physical power may be con 
 sidered as vested in the same hands, that is, in a majority 
 of the people, and consequently the tyrannical will of the 
 sovereign is not to be controlled by the dread of an appeal 
 to any other force within the community. 
 
 "What use then, it maybe asked, can a bill of rights serve 
 in popular governments ? I answer the two following, 
 which, though less essential than in other governments, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 311 
 
 sufficiently recommend the precaution. 1. The political 
 truths declared in that solemn manner acquire by degrees 
 the character of fundamental maxims of free government, 
 and as they become incorporated with the national senti 
 ment, counteract the impulses of interest and passion. 
 2. Although it be generally true, as above stated, that 
 the danger of oppression lies in the interested majorities 
 of the people rather than in usurped acts of the govern 
 ment, yet there may be occasions on which the evil may 
 spring from the latter source ; and on such, a bill of rights 
 will be a good ground for an appeal to the sense of the 
 community. Perhaps, too, there may be a certain degree 
 of danger, that a succession of artful and ambitious rulers 
 may, by gradual and well-timed advances, finally erect an 
 independent government on the subversion of liberty. 
 Should this danger exist at all, it is prudent to guard 
 against it, especially when the precaution can do no in 
 jury. At the same time I must own that I see no tendency 
 in our governments to danger on that side. 
 
 " It has been remarked that there is a tendency in all 
 governments to an augmentation of power at the expense 
 of liberty. But the remark, as usually understood, does not 
 appear to me well founded. Power, when it has attained 
 a certain degree of energy and independence, goes on gene 
 rally to further degrees. But when below that degree, the 
 direct tendency is to further degrees of relaxation, until the 
 abuses of liberty beget a sudden transition to an undue 
 degree of power. With this explanation the remark may 
 be true ; and in the latter sense only is it, in my opinion, 
 applicable to the existing governments in America. It is 
 a melancholy reflection, that liberty should be equally ex 
 posed to danger, whether the government have too much 
 or too little power ; and that the line which divides these 
 extremes should be so inaccurately defined by experience. 
 
312 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Supposing a bill of rights to be proper, the articles which 
 ought to compose it admit of much discussion. I am in 
 clined to think that absolute restrictions in cases that are 
 doubtful, or where emergencies may overrule them, ought to 
 be avoided. The restrictions, however strongly marked on 
 paper, will never be regarded when opposed to the decided 
 sense of the public ; and after repeated violations in extra 
 ordinary cases, they will lose even their ordinary efficacy. 
 Should a rebellion or insurrection alarm the people as well 
 as the government, and a suspension of the habeas corpus 
 be dictated by the alarm, no written prohibitions on earth 
 would prevent the measure. Should an army in time of 
 peace be gradually established in our neighbourhood by 
 Britain or Spain, declarations on paper would have as little 
 effect in preventing a standing force for the public safety. 
 The best security against these evils is, to remove the pre 
 text for them. With regard to monopolies, they are justly 
 classed among the greatest nuisances in government. But 
 is it clear that, as encouragements to literary works and 
 ingenious discoveries, they are not too valuable to be wholly 
 renounced ? Would it not suffice to reserve in all cases a 
 right to the public to abolish the privilege, at a price to be 
 specified in the grant of it ? Is there not also infinitely less 
 danger of this abuse in our government than in most others ? 
 Monopolies are sacrifices of the many to the few. Where 
 the power is in the few, it is natural for them to sacrifice 
 the many to their own partialities and corruptions. Where 
 the power, as with us, is in the many, not in the few, the 
 danger cannot be very great that the few will be thus 
 favoured. It is much more to be dreaded that the few will 
 be unnecessarily sacrificed to the many." 
 
 In a letter written two days afterwards to Mr. Madison, he 
 discusses the importance of a declaration of rights, to which, 
 as we have seen, Mr. Madison did not attach so much im- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 313 
 
 portancc. Wo may here remark in Mr. Jefferson an opinion 
 of the judicial functions very different from that subse 
 quently entertained by him. He then regarded the judi 
 ciary as vested with the power of checking or arresting 
 unconstitutional legislative acts, for, he says, in the " argu 
 ments in favour of a declaration of rights, you omit one 
 which has great weight with me ; the legal check which it 
 puts into the hands of the judiciary. This is a Body which, 
 if rendered independent, and kept strictly to their own 
 department, merits great confidence for their learning and in 
 tegrity. In fact, what degree of confidence would be too much 
 for a body composed of such men as Wythe, Blair, and Pen- 
 dleton ? On characters like these, the civium ardor prava 
 jubentium would make no impression. I am happy to find 
 that, on the whole, you are a friend to this amendment." 
 
 He then answers the four objections which had been 
 made to these declarations: 1st Objection. "That the 
 rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the 
 federal powers are granted." 
 
 Answer. A constitution may be so framed as to require 
 no declaration of rights. But where some important objects 
 are unnoticed, such a declaration becomes then necessary. 
 He states, that the draught which he had made of a con 
 stitution for Virginia was intended to dispense with a 
 declaration. 
 
 2nd Objection. " A positive declaration of some essential 
 rights could not be obtained in the requisite latitude." 
 
 Answer. That we may not be able to secure all, furnishes 
 no good argument against securing all that we can. 
 
 3rd Objection. " The limited powers of the general go 
 vernment, and the jealousy felt by the subordinate govern 
 ments, afford a security on this subject which exists in no 
 other instance." 
 
 Answer. This jealousy is admitted to be a valuable 
 
314 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 reliance; but those governments are only agents, and they 
 must have principles furnished them on which to ground 
 their opposition. It will also be useful to the federal govern 
 ment, as by this it may try the opposition of the subordinate 
 governments. 
 
 4th Objection. "Experience proves the inefficacy of a 
 bill of rights." 
 
 Answer. But though not absolutely efficacious under all 
 circumstances, it is always potent and rarely inefficacious. 
 " A brace the more will often keep up the building, which 
 would have fallen with that brace the less. There is a 
 remarkable difference between the inconveniences attending 
 a declaration of rights, and those attending the want of 
 them." By the first of these government may be cramped 
 in its useful exe rtions. But this evil is, he says, "short 
 lived, moderate, and reparable." But the last are "per 
 manent, afflicting, and irreparable." 
 
 The executive, he says, in our governments, is not the 
 sole, and was scarcely the principal object of his jealousy. 
 The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable dread 
 at present, and will be for many years. That of the execu 
 tive will come in its time, but it will be at a remote period- 
 " I know," he adds, " there are some among us who would 
 now establish a monarchy. But they are inconsiderable in 
 number and weight of character." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Willard, of Massachusetts, among much 
 literary and scientific intelligence of the day, he thus remarks 
 on Lavoisier s discovery and the new nomenclature of che 
 mistry. They forcibly remind us how much that useful 
 science has advanced in the intermediate time. 
 
 "The chemical dispute about the conversion and re 
 conversion of air and water continues still undecided. 
 Arguments and authorities are so balanced, that we may 
 still safely believe, as our fathers did before us, that 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 315 
 
 these principles are distinct. A schism of another kind 
 has taken place among the chemists. A particular set 
 of them here have undertaken to remodel all the terms 
 of the science, and to give to every substance a new name ; 
 the composition, and especially the termination of which 
 shall define the relation in which it stands to other sub 
 stances of the same family. But the science seems too 
 much in its infancy as yet for this reformation; because, 
 in fact, the reformation this year must be reformed again 
 the next year, and so on, changing the names of substances 
 as often as new experiments develope properties in them 
 undiscovered before. The new nomenclature has accord 
 ingly been already proved to need numerous and important 
 reformations. Probably it will not prevail. It is espoused 
 by the minority only here, and by very few indeed of the 
 foreign chemists. It is particularly rejected in England." 
 
 He then mentions Paine s iron bridge, and Rumsey s plan 
 of steam navigation. After noticing the rich and almost un 
 explored field which America presents to the mineralogist, 
 botanist and zoologist, he adds : " It is for such institutions 
 as that over which you preside so worthily, sir, to do justice 
 to our country, its productions, and its genius. It is the 
 work to which the young men whom you are forming should 
 lay their hands. We have spent the prime of our lives 
 in procuring them the precious blessing of liberty. Let 
 them spend theirs in showing that it is the great parent of 
 science and virtue ; and that a nation will be great in both, 
 always in proportion as it is free." 
 
 He had a short time before received the degree of Doctor 
 of Laws from the University of Harvard, conferred in Sep 
 tember, 178S : but he never availed himself of the title. 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1789, took place the memorable meeting 
 of the States General, a body to which the whole nation 
 looked most anxiously with eyes of hope or of fear. It con 
 sisted of about twelve hundred members, of whom a fourth 
 
316 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 were the representatives of the clergy, another fourth of the 
 nobility, and one half of the commons or the rest of the nation, 
 termed the tiers etat. The first question which presented 
 itself was, whether the clergy and nobles should sit and vote 
 in a separate chamber, or whether all the members should 
 sit and vote as a single body. As the members of the 
 tiers etat outnumbered the other two united, every one felt 
 that the decision of this question would decide whether 
 the meeting were to end in a mere political reform or 
 in a revolution. The several parties then prepared them 
 selves to defend their respective claims, but with fearful 
 odds; the smaller party being rendered yet weaker by 
 a want of unanimity among themselves, and the more nu 
 merous body being united and supported not only by the 
 dissentionists of the other orders, but by all the rest of the 
 nation. 
 
 That he might be sooner and better informed of the 
 progress of events, Mr. Jefferson went every day from Paris 
 to Versailles to attend the debates. 
 
 The Marquis La Fayette had been chosen a member by 
 the noblesse of Auvergne, who had instructed him to vote for 
 the decision by orders, and not by persons. On the 6th of 
 May Mr. Jefferson wrote him a letter, earnestly advising 
 him to disregard his instructions, and to follow his principles 
 and inclinations, by voting for the decision by persons. He 
 made strong appeals to his interest, his love of popularity, 
 and his wish to be useful ; showed that they all pointed out 
 the same course ; that if he took a contrary one he would 
 sooner or later be dropped by the noblesse, and that he 
 might then not be received by the popular party. He even 
 endeavours to reconcile this course with his instructions by 
 the following reasoning, which, it must be admitted, is by 
 no means conclusive. "Will it be impossible," he says, 
 " to persuade all parties that (as for good legislation two 
 houses are necessary) the placing the privileged classes 
 
THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 317 
 
 together in one house, and the unprivileged in another, 
 would be better for both than a scission ? I own I think it 
 would. People can never agree without some sacrifices; 
 and it appears but a moderate sacrifice in each party to meet 
 on this middle ground. The attempt to bring this about 
 might satisfy your instructions, and a failure in it would 
 justify your siding with the people, even to those who think 
 instructions are laws of conduct." La Fayette, however, 
 adhered to his instructions, and, as it appears, without any 
 immediate loss of his popularity. 
 
 While these preliminary questions were under discussion, 
 Mr. Jefferson, who was in habits of extreme intimacy with 
 La Fayette and others, suggested to Mons. St. Etienne, that 
 the king, in a seance royale, should come forward with a 
 charter of rights in his hand, to be signed by himself and 
 every member of the three orders this charter to con 
 tain the five great points which the Resultat of December 
 offered on the part of the king ; the abolition of pecuniary 
 privileges offered by the privileged orders, the assumption 
 of the national debt, and a grant of the sum of money asked 
 from the nation the States General to adjourn to the next 
 annual meeting. By this course he thought time would be 
 gained, the public mind would become better informed, and 
 " the basis of support prepared with the people themselves." 
 He apologizes for the course he had taken by "his im 
 measurable love for the French nation, and a painful anxiety 
 lest despotism, after an unaccepted offer to bind its own 
 hands, should seize on its prey with tenfold fury." 
 
 The charter of rights which the American minister thus 
 prepared for the French people, consisted of ten articles, 
 as follows : 
 
 " 1. The States General shall assemble, uncalled, on the 
 first day of November, annually, and shall remain together 
 so long as they shall sec cause. They shall regulate their 
 
318 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 own elections and proceedings, and, until they shall ordain 
 otherwise, their elections shall be in the form observed in 
 the present year, and shall be triennial. 
 
 " 2. The States General alone shall levy money on the 
 nation, and shall appropriate. 
 
 " 3. Laws shall be made by the States General only, with 
 the consent of the king. 
 
 " 4. No person shall be restrained of his liberty but by 
 regular process from a court of justice, authorized by a gene 
 ral law. (Except that a noble may be imprisoned by order 
 of a court of justice, on the prayer of twelve of his nearest 
 relations.) On complaint of an unlawful imprisonment to 
 any judge whatever, he shall have the prisoner immediately 
 brought before him, and shall discharge him, if his impri 
 sonment be unlawful. The officer in whose custody the 
 prisoner is, shall obey the orders of the judge, and both 
 judge and officer shall be responsible, civilly and criminally, 
 for a failure of duty herein. 
 
 " 5. The military shall be subordinate to the civil authority. 
 
 " 6. Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for printing 
 and publishing false facts, injurious to the party prosecuting ; 
 but they shall be under no other restraint. 
 
 " 7. All pecuniary privileges and exemptions, enjoyed by 
 any description of persons, are abolished. 
 
 " 8. All debts already contracted by the king are hereby 
 made the debts of the nation, and the faith thereof is pledged 
 for their payment in due time. 
 
 " 9. Eighty millions of livres are now granted to the king, 
 to be raised by loan, and reimbursed by the nation ; and 
 the taxes heretofore paid shall continue to be paid to the 
 end of the present year, and no longer. 
 
 "10. The States General shall now separate, and meet 
 again on the 1 st day of November next." 
 
 It does not appear that this advice resulted in any mea- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 319 
 
 sure, or was ever acted on. Supposing they had satisfied 
 the demands of the popular party, then enlarging their 
 views and rising in their demands, they were in far too libe 
 ral a spirit of concession for the government party. The 
 three orders continued to debate for several weeks the im 
 portant questions which divided them, so that they could 
 not agree even about the verification of their own powers, 
 when on the 10th the commons invited the nobles ^and clergy 
 to attend in the Hall of the States for that purpose, on that 
 day. They accordingly then proceeded to the verification, 
 and it being finished on the 15th, a motion was made that 
 they constitute themselves a national assembly, which motion 
 was adopted on the 17th. During these debates, a few of 
 the clergy joined the commons, while the nobles remained 
 unbroken. After a vain attempt, by removing the king to 
 Marly, to unite him to the party of the nobles, both they 
 and the clergy were compelled to yield, at the instance of 
 the king himself, to the popular sentiment, and to unite 
 themselves with the commons, where the three orders amal 
 gamated into one assembly, consisting of about twelve hun 
 dred members. 
 
 The particulars are all faithfully detailed by Mr. Jeffer 
 son in his letters to Mr. Jay, written every day or two im 
 mediately after the occurrences which they detail. 
 
 Mirabeau, in his debates of the national assembly, having, 
 for the purpose of casting censure on Neckar, stated that 
 Mr. Jefferson had made an offer to the French minister to 
 have corn brought over from America, which Neckar had 
 refused, Mr. Jefferson wrote to La Fayette, to contradict 
 the statement; the only foundation for it being the fact, 
 that Mr. Neckar had, the year before, asked Mr. Jefferson 
 to have it made public in the United States, that corn and 
 flour would meet with a good market in France ; which 
 information he had communicated to Mr. Jay. He requested 
 
320 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 La Fayette to make these facts known to the assembly. He 
 also gave the same explanation to Mons. Neckar. But the 
 contradiction having now transferred public censure from 
 Neckar to Mirabeau, to put a stop to it, he writes to La 
 Fayette to have his letter printed. 
 
 It seems that during the public ferment, Mr. Jefferson s 
 hotel was repeatedly robbed, in consequence of which he 
 was induced to apply to Monsieur de Montmorin for a guard. 
 
 It appears from several letters between General Wash 
 ington and Mr. Jefferson, that, at this time, it was generally 
 believed that a canal connecting Lake Erie with the river 
 Ohio would be likely to bring the trade of the western 
 country to Virginia, as the distance to the Atlantic is less 
 in that direction than any other. But by reason of the sub 
 sequent more rapid growth of New York, and of the canal 
 which has since been executed, and which the most visionary 
 projector of that day had not even conceived, trade now 
 takes a contrary course, and goes from the Ohio to Lake 
 Erie, thence down the lake, by the canal, to the Hudson, 
 instead of up Lake Erie, down the Ohio, and thence across 
 to Virginia. The time may, however, come, when raw pro 
 duce which is now transported from the Ohio to the lake, 
 by the Cleveland canal, will be transported in an opposite 
 direction. 
 
 After the several orders of the States General were amal 
 gamated into one body, and this was regarded as the con 
 stitutional representative of the nation, Mr. Jefferson evi 
 dently partook of the high hopes and the warm enthusiasm 
 which pervaded not only the mass of the French people, but 
 the friends of civil freedom everywhere. Yet his mind was 
 not without certain secret misgivings, as appears by his 
 letter to T. Paine, dated July 11, 1789. After speaking of 
 a report of a committee concerning the rights of man, the 
 nation, and the king, on which it was proposed to found the 
 new government, he thus proceeds : 
 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 321 
 
 " You see that there are the materials of a superb edifice, 
 and the hands which have prepared them are perfectly ca 
 pable of putting them together, and of filling up the work 
 of which these are only the outlines. While there are some 
 men among them of very superior abilities, the mass possess 
 such a degree of good sense as enables them to decide well. 
 I have always been afraid their numbers might lead to con 
 fusion. Twelve hundred men in one room are too many. 
 I have still that fear. Another apprehension is, that a ma 
 jority cannot be induced to adopt the trial by jury ; and I 
 consider that as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, 
 by which a government can be held to the principles of its 
 constitution." 
 
 The actual fury of the civil tempest, however, when it did 
 burst, soon outwent all his anticipations. On the very day 
 on which this letter was dated, Neckar received his dismissal, 
 and, at midnight, set out for Brussels. The Baron de Bre- 
 teuil was appointed to succeed him ; and he, as well as all 
 the other new ministers, had been known to be in favour 
 of the most arbitrary principles of government. Their 
 policy seems to have been to put down civil commotion by 
 force, for which purpose troops were marched to Paris and 
 Versailles, to the^ amount of 30,000, and placed under the 
 command of Marshal Broglio, on whose firmness and prin 
 ciples they could rely. But these measures served only to 
 hasten the catastrophe. The people began to arm in turn, 
 and in applying to the Governor of the Bastile for arms, 
 four men were killed by a discharge from that prison. On 
 this, the people assembled in great numbers, forcibly entered 
 the Bastile defended by 100 men, seized the governor and 
 lieutenant-governor, and having carried them to the place 
 of execution, cut off their heads. The next day, July the 
 15th, the Bastile was attacked and razed to the ground. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson thinks that here again the Revolution might 
 
 VOL. i. Y 
 
322 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 have been arrested, if the queen had been put into a convent, 
 and Louis been left to follow his own good feelings, and 
 the advice of his more prudent counsellors. Neckar had 
 not reached Basle before he received a letter of recall, and 
 a new administration was formed, more in accordance with 
 the popular feeling. But on the 4th of August, the Na 
 tional Assembly abolished all distinctions of rank, titles, 
 and every other feudal privilege whatever. A committee 
 was appointed to prepare a constitution, of which the Arch 
 bishop of Bordeaux was chairman. Mr. Jefferson had re 
 ceived a letter from the archbishop, inviting him to attend 
 the sittings of the committee, which, he thought, it became 
 him to decline, as interfering in the internal concerns of a 
 foreign country. 
 
 During the time of these commotions, Mr. Jefferson, feel 
 ing the liveliest interest in all that was passing around him, 
 took the utmost pains to acquire an accurate knowledge of 
 facts, and he wrote from personal information whenever he 
 could. " I went," he writes to Mr. Jay on the 19th of July, 
 " yesterday to Versailles, to satisfy myself what had passed 
 there ; for nothing can be believed but what one sees, or has 
 from an eye-witness. They believe there still, that three 
 thousand people have fallen victims to the tumults of Paris. 
 Mr. Short and myself have been every day among them, in 
 order to be sure of what was passing. We cannot find, with 
 certainty, that any body has been killed, but the three before 
 mentioned, and those who fell in the assault or defence of 
 the Bastile. How many of the garrison were killed nobody 
 pretends to have ever heard. Of the assailants, accounts 
 vary from five to six hundred. The most general belief is, 
 that there fell about thirty." 
 
 From the capture of the Bastile to the last of August there 
 was no disturbance, and in this interval Mr. Jefferson 
 seemed to have had more fears that the aristocracy would 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 323 
 
 regain the ground they had lost than that the people would 
 be led to greater excesses. He writes to Mr. Madison on 
 the 28th of August, " that enemy of the Assembly (the civil 
 and ecclesiastical aristocracy) begins to raise its head." It 
 was his opinion, that, if the Assembly should rise without 
 forming a constitution, from the delays which must necessa 
 rily attend the deliberations of twelve hundred men, the plan 
 of one would be proposed by the national militia, urged by 
 the individual members of the Assembly, signed by the 
 king, and supported by the nation, to prevail till circum 
 stances permitted its revision and more regular sanction. 
 This, he supposed " the pis alter of their affairs, and their 
 probable event, a peaceable settlement of them/ He thus 
 exults in the favourable dispositions of the Assembly towards 
 America. " Our proceedings have been viewed as a model 
 for them on every occasion ; and, though in the heat of de 
 bate men are generally disposed to contradict every autho 
 rity urged by their opponents, our s has been treated like 
 that of the bible, open to explanation, but not to question." 
 
 He then deprecates our putting the French and the Eng 
 lish nations upon the same footing, as to trade ; the one 
 being our friends and benefactors, the other our rivals and 
 enemies. He knows, he says, " but one code of morality for 
 men, whether acting singly or collectively." 
 
 In answer to Mr. Madison s inquiry, whether he would 
 accept any appointment at home, he answers " You know 
 the circumstances which led me from retirement, step by 
 step, and from one nomination to another, up to the present. 
 My object is a return to the same retirement. Whenever, 
 therefore, I quit the present, it will not be to engage in any 
 other office, and, most especially, any one which would re 
 quire a constant residence from home." 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson saw with pleasure and a degree of 
 national exultation, the abolition of titles, and the privi- 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 leges of rank in France, it was with a proportionate degree 
 of surprise and mortification that he heard of a disposition 
 to create these artificial distinctions in America. He had 
 partaken of the jealousy which was felt by his countrymen 
 against the order of Cincinnati, as an attempt to disturb 
 that equality of rights which seems essential in a popular 
 government, and he regarded the official titles which some 
 wished to annex to the functionaries under the new consti 
 tution, as of a similar character. He thus expresses his 
 sentiments on the subject to Mr. Carmichael. 
 
 " The Senate and House of Representatives differed about 
 the title of the President. The former wanted to style him, 
 ( his Highness George Washington, President of the United 
 States, and Protector of their Liberties. The latter insisted 
 and prevailed to give no title but of office, to wit : George 
 Washington, President of the United States. I hope the 
 terms of Excellency, Honour, Worship, Esquire, may for ever 
 disappear among us from that moment. I wish that of Mr. 
 would follow them. 1 He was consistent in this dislike of 
 empty titles, and when he became President, as well as at all 
 times before and after, his invitations and visiting cards 
 never had any addition to the name of " Thomas Jefferson." 
 
 Among the speculative opinions in which Mr. Jefferson 
 occasionally indulged, and on which his enemies founded their 
 charge against him of being visionary, was one which he 
 communicates to Mr. Madison, in a letter dated in Septem 
 ber, and which was probably suggested by some of the ques 
 tions of first principles which were then under discussion in 
 the National Assembly; and were in great vogue through 
 out Paris. 
 
 He insists that the use of the earth belongs to the living 
 generations, and that the dead have no more right than they 
 have power over it. In the application of this principle he 
 maintains, that no generation can pledge, or encumber the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 325 
 
 lands of a country beyond the average term of its own exist 
 ence, which term, by a reference to the annuity tables of 
 BufFon, he estimates first at 34 years, and afterwards reduces 
 to 1 9 years. By reason of this restriction, founded in nature 
 and the first principles of justice, he maintains that every 
 law, and [even constitution, naturally expires at the expira 
 tion of this term ; and that no public debt can be contracted 
 which would be rightfully binding on the nation after the 
 same lapse of time. 
 
 He thus earnestly invites Mr. Madison s attention to his 
 theory. " Turn this subject in your mind, my dear sir, and 
 particularly as to the power of contracting debts, and de- 
 vclope it. with that cogent logic which is so peculiarly your s. 
 Your station in the councils of our country, gives you an 
 opportunity of producing it to public consideration, of forc 
 ing it into discussion. At first blush, it may be laughed at, 
 as the dream of a theorist ; but examination will prove it to 
 be solid and salutary. It would furnish matter for a fine 
 preamble to our first law for appropriating the public re 
 venue; and it will exclude, at the threshold of our new 
 government, the ruinous and contagious errors of this quar 
 ter of the globe, which have armed despots with means which 
 nature does not sanction, for binding in chains their fellow- 
 men. We have already given, in example, one effectual 
 check to the dogs of war, by transferring the power of de 
 claring war from the executive to the legislative body ; from 
 those who are to spend, to those who are to pay. I should 
 be pleased to see this second obstacle held out by us also in 
 the first instance." 
 
 As the reader may be curious to see Mr. Madison s views 
 of this novel principle in legislation, an extract of his reply 
 to the preceding letter is here subjoined : and although we 
 may be disposed to question with him, both the justice and 
 the expediency of such a principle, adopted without discri- 
 
326 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 initiation, yet we cannot but yield our respect to the ever 
 active spirit of benevolence which dictated it. Mr. Jeffer 
 son s very sanguine temper was never so likely to mislead 
 Ms judgment as in schemes for the promotion of human hap 
 piness, and advancing the condition of civil society. The 
 reply is very characteristical of the cautious spirit and pro 
 found reflection of its author. 
 
 New York, February 4, 1790. 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 Your favour of January 9th, inclosing one of September 
 last, did not get to hand till a few Says ago. The idea 
 which the latter evolves is a great one, and suggests many 
 interesting reflections to legislators, particularly when con 
 tracting and providing for public debts. Whether it can be 
 received in the extent to which your reasonings carry it, is a 
 question which I ought to turn more in my thoughts than I 
 have yet been able to do, before I should be justified in 
 making up a full opinion on it. My first thoughts lead me 
 to view the doctrine as not in all respects compatible with the 
 course of human affairs. I will endeavour to sketch the 
 grounds of my scepticism. 
 
 As the earth belongs to the living, not to the dead, a 
 living generation can bind itself only : in every society the 
 will of the majority binds the whole : according to the laws 
 of mortality, a majority of those ripe for the exercise of their 
 will, do not live beyond the term of 19 years : to this term 
 then is limited the validity of every act of the society ; nor 
 can any act be continued beyond this term, without an 
 express declaration of the public will. This I understand 
 to be the outline of the argument. 
 
 The acts of a political society may be divided into three 
 classes : 
 
 1. The fundamental constitution of the government. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 327 
 
 2. Laws involving some stipulation, which renders them 
 irrevocable at the will of the legislature. 
 
 3. Laws involving no such irrevocable quality. 
 
 1 . However applicable in theory the doctrine may be to 
 a constitution, it seems liable in practice to some weighty 
 objections. 
 
 Would not a government ceasing of necessity at the end 
 of a given term, unless prolonged by some constitutional 
 act, previous to its expiration, be too subject to the casualty 
 and consequences of an interregnum ? 
 
 Would not a government so often revised, become too 
 mutable and novel to retain that share of prejudice in its 
 favour, which is a salutary aid to the most rational govern 
 ment? 
 
 Would not such a periodical revision engender pernicious 
 factions, that might not otherwise come into existence, and 
 agitate the public mind more frequently and more violently 
 than might be expedient ? 
 
 2. In the second class of acts involving stipulations, must 
 not exceptions, at least, to the doctrine be admitted ? 
 
 If the earth be the gift of nature to the living, their title 
 can extend to the earth in its natural state only. The im 
 provements made by the dead form a debt against the living, 
 who take the benefit of them. This debt cannot be other 
 wise discharged than by a proportionate obedience to the 
 will of the authors of the improvements. 
 
 But a case less liable to be controverted may perhaps be 
 stated. Debts may be incurred with a direct view to the 
 interest of the unborn, as well as of the living. Such are 
 debts for repelling a conquest, the evils of which descend 
 through many generations. Debts may be incurred prin 
 cipally for the benefit of posterity : such, perhaps, is the debt 
 incurred by the United States. In these instances, the debt 
 might not be dischargeable within the term of 19 years. 
 
328 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 There seems then to be some foundation in the nature of 
 things, in the relation which one generation bears to another, 
 for the descent of obligations from one to another. Equity 
 may require it. Mutual good may be promoted by it ; and 
 all that seems indispensable in stating the account between 
 the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the 
 latter do not exceed the advances made by the former. Few 
 of the incumbrances entailed on nations by their predecessors, 
 would bear a liquidation even on this principle. 
 
 3. Objections to the doctrine, as applied to the third class 
 of acts, must be merely practical. But in that view alone 
 they appear to be material. 
 
 Unless such temporary laws should be kept in force by 
 acts regularly anticipating their expiration, all the rights 
 depending on positive laws, that is, most of the rights of 
 property, would become absolutely defunct, and the most 
 violent struggles ensue between the parties interested in 
 reviving, and those interested in reforming the antecedent 
 state of property. Nor does it seem improbable that such 
 an event might be suffered to take place. The checks and 
 difficulties opposed to the passage of laws, which render 
 the power of repeal inferior to an opportunity to reject, as 
 a security against oppression, would have rendered the 
 latter an insecure provision against anarchy. Add to this, 
 that the very possibility of an event so hazardous to the 
 rights of property could not but depreciate its value ; that 
 the approach of the crisis would increase the effect ; that 
 the frequent return of periods, superseding all the obliga 
 tions depending on antecedent laws and usages, must, by 
 weakening the sense of them, co-operate with motives to 
 licentiousness already too powerful; and that the general 
 uncertainty and vicissitudes of such a state of things would, 
 on one side, discourage every useful effort of steady industry, 
 pursued under the sanction of existing laws, and on the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 329 
 
 other, give an immediate advantage to the more sagacious 
 over the less sagacious part of society. 
 
 I can find no relief from such embarrassments but in the 
 received doctrine Jiat a tacit assent may be given to estab 
 lished governments and laws,, and that this assent is to be 
 inferred from the omission of an express revocation. It 
 seems more practicable to remedy by well-constituted govern 
 ments, the pestilent operation of this doctrine, In the unli 
 mited sense in which it is at present received, than it is to 
 find a remedy for the evils necessarily springing from an 
 unlimited admission of the contrary doctrine. 
 
 Is it not doubtful, whether it be possible to exclude wholly 
 the idea of an implied or tacit assent, without subverting 
 the very foundation of civil society ? 
 
 On what principle is it that the voice of the majority binds 
 the minority ? 
 
 It does not result, I conceive, from a law of nature, but 
 from compact founded on utility. 
 
 A greater proportion might be required by the fundamen 
 tal constitution of society, if under any particular circum 
 stances it were judged eligible. Prior, therefore, to the esta 
 blishment of this principle, unanimity was necessary ; and rigid 
 theory accordingly presupposes the assent of every indi 
 vidual to the rule which subjects the minority to the will of 
 the majority. If this assent cannot be given tacitly, or be 
 not implied where no positive evidence forbids, no person 
 born in society could, on attaining ripe age, be bound by 
 any acts of the majority, and either an unanimous renewal 
 of every law would be necessary, as often as a new member 
 should be added to the society, or the express consent of 
 every new member be obtained to the rule by which the 
 majority decides for the whole. 
 
 If these observations be not misapplied, it follows that 
 a limitation of the validity of all acts, to the computed life 
 
330 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of a generation establishing them, is, in some cases, not re 
 quired by theory, and, in others, not consistent with prac 
 tice. They are not meant, however, to impeach either the 
 utility of the principle, as applied to the cases you have 
 particularly in view, or the general importance of it in the 
 eye of the philosophical legislator. On the contrary, it would 
 give me singular pleasure to see it first announced to the 
 world in a law of the United States, and always kept in view 
 as a salutary restraint on living generations, from unjust 
 and unnecessary burthens on their successors. This is a 
 pleasure, however, which I have no hope of enjoying. It is 
 so much easier to descry the little difficulties immediately 
 incident to every great plan, than to comprehend its general 
 and remote benefits, that further light must be added to the 
 councils of our country, before many truths which are seen 
 through the medium of philosophy, become visible to the 
 naked eye of the ordinary politician." 
 
 In addition to the preceding objections urged by Mr. 
 Madison, it may admit of a question, whether it would im 
 pose a material restriction on the power of governments to 
 contract loans for the purposes of improvident expenditure. 
 
 For supposing a loan to be contracted redeemable at the 
 end of 19 years or even a less time, the existing generation 
 at the time it became due, might find it easier to provide 
 for its payment by new loans, rather than by taxes, and 
 thus postpone the payment for a further term, and so on ad 
 infinitum ; each succeeding generation shifting off the bur 
 then of payment upon that which was to succeed. The mis 
 chief of a public debt consists in its encouraging the im 
 providence of the government, whereby it is enabled to spend 
 that portion of the national capital improductively, which 
 would otherwise have found productive employment; and 
 this mischief is the same, both in extent and duration, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 331 
 
 whether the money be borrowed for a longer or shorter time, 
 on short annuities, or perpetual ones. 
 
 Nor does the provision seem more capable of defence on 
 the ground of natural justice. For every generation is in 
 the enjoyment of the fruits of the labour expended by pre 
 ceding generations : most of the houses it inhabits have 
 been built by them roads canals public buildings, are 
 the work of their hands. Much of the furniture, plate, en 
 gines and utensils, have had the same origin; and the 
 existing generation ought not to object to take these bene 
 fits cum onere. The capital which has been procured by 
 loan, and expended, may perhaps have been as advantageous 
 to the posterity of those who contracted it as to themselves, 
 and their own enjoyments and incomes may be quite as much 
 enhanced as their burthens. We speak not merely of loans 
 contracted in defence of national rights or independence, 
 but of the mere question of pecuniary loss or gain. Thus, 
 suppose ten millions of dollars borrowed at an interest of 5 
 per cent., and employed in cutting a canal posterity would 
 thus be burthened with a perpetual tax of 500,000 dollars. 
 Suppose, however, that the canal, at the same time, yields 
 an income of 1,000,000; in that case, subsequent generations 
 would annually gain by the debt half a million beyond the 
 amount of the tax the debt had occasioned. 
 
 It is true, that all the loans contracted by government arc 
 not of this character. Many of them owe their origin to 
 purposes that do not affect posterity, and some that are not 
 even advantageous to the existing generation ; but the affairs 
 of nations do not admit of being reduced to very precise 
 rules, and we must look to their general character and ten 
 dencies. If, in many cases, both policy and justice would 
 imperiously require of us to fulfil contracts made by the past 
 generation, it affords sufficient ground for introducing the 
 general principle, though cases may occasionally occur which 
 do not fall within the reason of it. 
 
332 THE LIFE OF THOM\S JEFFERSON. 
 
 It may be further remarked, that whatever may be the 
 good or evil of the principle, we may safely pronounce, that 
 it is one on which no community will ever consent to act. 
 Men have always affected, says Sir William Blackstone, to 
 do as they please during their lives, and to restrain those 
 who are to come after them ; but the principle recommended 
 by Mr. Jefferson is in direct collision with this general pro 
 pensity. 
 
 With respect to the duration of laws, the presumption is 
 that if they were considered to be so salutary as not to 
 deserve repeal, they would be regularly re-enacted before the 
 term of their continuance expired. And as it would be fore 
 seen, that it might not always be easy to re-enact a law that 
 is salutary, from the accidental prejudices of the legislators, 
 or from the influence of private motives, or the delays incident 
 to popular assemblies, laws of this character would often be 
 re-enacted before they expired, as we occasionally see in the 
 renewal of charters some years before they terminate. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, the re-enactment did not take 
 place, other inconveniences would probably follow. It might 
 often happen, that acts deserving punishment, and formerly 
 punishable, would go unpunished ; property might pass by a 
 new rule, or would remain undisposed of, for want of a rule ; 
 and legislation, of which there is apt to be too much, might, 
 by this provision, be needlessly multiplied, and extended to 
 cases where it would not have been thought of, but for the 
 necessity of re-enactment thus created. It seems to be far 
 safer and better to leave it discretionary with the legislature 
 to give laws a temporary existence whenever it thinks proper, 
 and to make their duration in general indefinite, so that 
 they can be repealed if found inconvenient on trial, and be 
 quietly permitted to continue so long as they are not ob 
 jected to. 
 
 It must be remembered too, that the mere frequency of 
 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 333 
 
 change in the laws is itself an evil, not merely because it 
 is always more or less an inconvenience either to learn a new 
 rule, or to remain ignorant of it, but also, because the people 
 in the course of time adapt themselves to laws, where the 
 laws might not at first be adapted to them. The parts not 
 suited to the purpose of their framers become obsolete from 
 disuse, while those of a different character acquire an in 
 creased efficacy by usage ; in the same way as an old shoe is 
 easier than a new one. But the principle proposed by Mr. 
 Jefferson would greatly augment this evil of change, by 
 compelling legislation on every subject, after every term of 
 nineteen years. 
 
 In September, Mr. Jefferson proposed to Mr. Neckar to 
 draw supplies of salted provisions from America to France, 
 suggesting in favour of the measure, that it was much 
 cheaper than fresh meat, and that, by enabling the French 
 people to turn a part of their lands from pasturage to the 
 growth of corn, it would make the supply of that article more 
 abundant. He relies on the experience of America to prove 
 that salt meat, when eaten with vegetables, is as wholesome 
 as fresh. 
 
 Before he left Paris, he wrote, to Mr. Jay a long letter on 
 the state of parties, of which he makes the following enume 
 ration : 1. " The aristocrats, comprehending the higher 
 members of the clergy, military, nobility, and the parliaments 
 of the whole kingdom. This forms a head without a body. 
 2. The moderate royalists, who wish for a constitution nearly 
 similar to that of England. 3. The republicans, who are 
 willing to let their first magistracy be hereditary, but to 
 make it very subordinate to the legislature, and to have that 
 legislature consist of a single chamber. 4. The faction of 
 Orleans. The second and third descriptions are composed 
 of honest, well-meaning men, differing in opinion only, but 
 both wishing the establishment of as great a degree of liberty 
 
334 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 as can be preserved. They are considered as constituting 
 the patriotic part of the Assembly, and they are supported 
 by the soldiery of the army, the soldiery of the clergy, that 
 is to say, the Cures and monks, the dissenters, and part of 
 the nobility which is small, and the substantial Bourgeoisie 
 of the whole nation." He was of opinion that these two 
 parties would not separate, but would still more closely 
 coalesce ; and he mentions La Fayette, among other bonds 
 of union between them ; says, he left the Assembly while 
 they as yet formed but one party, that his attachment to 
 both was equal, and that he laboured incessantly to keep 
 them together. 
 
 He discusses the chances which might be brought about, 
 either by the want of bread, by a public bankruptcy, or 
 the absconding of the king from Versailles. He, however, 
 concluded that no commotion would take place ; and though 
 it should, "that the patriotic party would hold together." 
 In this case, he says, " there would be against them the 
 aristocracy and the Orleans faction. This consists, at this 
 time, of only the Catalines of the Assembly, and some of the 
 lowest descriptions of the mob." 
 
 On the 26th of September he took leave of Paris, after a 
 residence of something more than five years. He had come 
 to France with strong prepossessions in favour of its people, 
 which a more intimate acquaintance seemed to improve. 
 Their science, their literature, their cultivation of the arts, 
 their manners and modes of life, were all to his taste. There 
 was nothing but the character of the government and the 
 influence of the clergy that he seriously disapproved, and 
 these seemed about to be swept away by a political revolu 
 tion. It is not then a matter of wonder that his partiality 
 for France should have been so strong, and should have 
 influenced his tastes and opinions through the rest of his life. 
 During his residence in Paris, his manner of passing his 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 335 
 
 time exhibited the same habitual industry, regularity, and 
 attention to method, by which he had been previously cha 
 racterized. He was always a very early riser, and the whole 
 morning, until one o clock, was devoted to business, with the 
 exception of the respite afforded by the breakfast table, at 
 which he frequently lingered to enjoy the pleasures of con 
 versation. He was also fond of riding on horseback, and 
 occasionally adopted that mode of going to Versailles. In 
 his walks, he often rambled as far as seven miles into the 
 country. It was in one of these walks that he fractured his 
 wrist. 
 
 He left Havre on the 8th of October, with his two daugh 
 ters, and on the 9th he crossed over to Cowcs, to which he 
 had previously engaged a vessel to touch for him. He was 
 detained at the Isle of Wight by contrary winds till the 22nd. 
 During the ten days he was at Cowes, he visited what was 
 most remarkable in the island, especially Carisbrooke Castle, 
 where Charles the First had taken refuge in 1648. Though 
 he was entitled to no peculiar privileges here as a foreign 
 minister, yet, in consequence of a special application to Mr. 
 Pitt, from Colonel Trumbull, who had engaged the ship for 
 him in London, his baggage, by an extension of the ordinary 
 courtesy, was exempted from search by the officers of the 
 customs. His voyage across the Atlantic was again pros 
 perous, and he landed at Norfolk in thirty days after he left 
 Cowes. But at its termination, he narrowly escaped more 
 than one serious disaster. When they reached the coast, 
 a thick mist completely shrouded every landmark from their 
 view ; and after they had beaten about for three days in the 
 hope of seeing a pilot boat, the captain boldly ventured to 
 run in, and succeeded in getting within the capes just in 
 time to escape being blown off the coast, as happened to 
 several other vessels in company. A few hours too after 
 they had landed, a fire broke out in the ship, but after mak- 
 
336 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ing considerable progress, was, by the aid afforded from the 
 other ships in the harbour, extinguished, and the whole of 
 Mr. Jefferson s trunks and papers were saved. 
 
 At that time there being but few public-houses in Nor 
 folk, Mr. Jefferson and his daughters would have found a 
 difficulty in procuring accommodations, if some of the lodgers 
 in Lindsay s hotel had not voluntarily given up their rooms 
 to them. As there were no public stages, they were indebted 
 to their friends for the means of conveyance home. 
 
 He passed some days with his friend and brother-in-law, 
 Mr. Eppcs, of Chesterfield. While here, he received a letter 
 from General Washington, offering him the place of secre 
 tary of state. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson says that he received this offer with real 
 regret. His inclinations led him to return to Paris, now 
 more recommended to him than ever by the prevalence of 
 republican principles, and there await the end of the revo 
 lution, which he candidly admits, he then thought " would 
 be certainly and happily closed in less than a year." His 
 purpose then was to return home, and, bidding adieu to 
 politics, devote himself to studies more congenial to his 
 mind. In his answer to General Washington, he frankly 
 avows his preference for the situation he then held ; but, 
 at the same time, declares his readiness to acquiesce in the 
 President s final decision, which he requests him to make 
 known. 
 
 Continuing his journey from Eppington, as before, by 
 easy stages, and passing a few days with such of their friends 
 as lived on the route, they reached Monticello on the 23rd 
 of December. The scene that ensued is thus described by 
 the only survivor of the party, and on whom, with whatever 
 feelings of partiality she may have sketched the picture, we 
 may confidently rely for the truth of the resemblance. 
 
 " The negroes discovered the approach of the carriage as 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 337 
 
 soon as it reached Shadwell, and such a scene I never wit 
 nessed in my life. They collected in crowds around it, and 
 almost drew it up the mountain by hand. The shouting, 
 c., had been sufficiently obstreperous before, but the mo 
 ment the carriage arrived on the top, it reached the climax. 
 When the door of the carriage was opened, they received 
 him in their arms, and bore him into the house, crowding 
 around, and kissing his hands and feet some blubbering 
 and crying others laughing. It appeared impossible to 
 satisfy their eyes, or their anxiety to touch, and even kiss 
 the very earth that bore him. These were the first ebul 
 litions of joy for his return, after a long absence, which they 
 would of course feel ; but it is perhaps not out of place to 
 add here, that they were, at all times, very devoted in their 
 attachment to him. They believed him to be one of the 
 greatest, and they knew him to be one of the best, of men, 
 and kindest of masters. They spoke to him freely, and 
 applied confidingly to him in all their difficulties and dis 
 tresses ; and he watched over them in sickness and in health ; 
 interested himself in all their concerns ; advising them, and 
 showing esteem and confidence in the good, and indulgence 
 to all." 
 
 At Monticello he received a second letter from the Presi 
 dent, urging his acceptance, but, at the same time, leaving 
 him at liberty to " follow his own inclinations." This course, 
 he says, silenced his objections, and he accepted the appoint 
 ment. While he remained at Monticello, his eldest daughter, 
 Martha, was married to Mr. Thomas Mann Randolph, a 
 young Virginian of great promise and handsome fortune, 
 who had been educated in Edinburgh, and had seen Miss 
 Jefferson during a visit to Paris. Mr. Jefferson continued 
 at his residence until the 1st of March, 1790, when he set 
 out for New York, where the Congress was about to close 
 its second session. 
 
 VOL. i. z 
 
338 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 In passing through Philadelphia he called to see his 
 former associate Dr. Franklin, now sinking under the weight 
 of disease and old age. The venerable philosopher inquired 
 with great earnestness about the course and the fate of his 
 numerous friends in France. After awhile Mr. Jefferson 
 spoke to Franklin of his biography, which, it was said, he 
 was employed in preparing. " I cannot say much of that, 
 he replied, " but I will give you a sample of what I shall 
 leave," and he directed his little grandson, standing by his 
 bed-side, to hand him a paper from the table to which he 
 pointed. He did so, and Dr. Franklin put the paper into 
 Mr. Jefferson s hands, desiring him to read it at his leisure. 
 It was about a quire of folio paper, apparently written in 
 his own hand. On Mr. Jefferson s saying he would read 
 the paper and carefully return it, the Doctor insisted on 
 his keeping it. He died on the 17th of the following month, 
 and Mr. Jefferson understanding that he had bequeathed 
 his papers to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, im 
 mediately informed this gentleman that this paper was in 
 his possession, and that it would be delivered to his order. 
 It was afterwards delivered to him in person, at which time 
 Mr. Franklin observed that he had the original, or another 
 copy of it. It then occurred to Mr. Jefferson, for the first 
 time, that the paper was intended as a deposit in his hands. 
 
 The paper contained, Mr. Jefferson states, a narrative 
 of the negotiations between Dr. Franklin and the British 
 ministry, before the Revolution, and is thus cited by Mr. 
 Jefferson, from memory : 
 
 " The negotiation was brought about by the intervention 
 of Lord Howe and his sister, who, I believe, was called Lady 
 Howe, but I may misremember her title. Lord Howe seems 
 to have been friendly to America, and exceedingly anxious 
 to prevent a rupture. His intimacy with Dr. Franklin, and 
 his position with the ministry, induced him to undertake a 
 

 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 339 
 
 mediation between them ; in which his sister seemed to have 
 been associated. They carried from one to the other, back 
 wards and forwards, the several propositions and answers 
 which passed, and seconded with their own intercessions the 
 importance of mutual sacrifices, to preserve the peace and 
 connexion of the two countries. I remember that Lord 
 North s answers were dry, unyielding, in the spirit of uncon 
 ditional submission, and betrayed an absolute indifference 
 to the occurrence of a rupture ; and he said to the mediators 
 distinctly, at last, that a rebellion was not to be deprecated 
 on the part of Great Britain ; that the confiscations it would 
 produce would provide for many of their friends. This 
 expression was reported by the mediators to Dr. Franklin, 
 and indicated so cool and calculated a purpose in the mi 
 nistry as to render compromise hopeless, and the negotiation 
 was discontinued. Mr. Jefferson then adds, " If this is 
 not among- the papers published, we ask what has become 
 of it ? I delivered it with my own hands into those of Tem 
 ple Franklin. It certainly established views so atrocious 
 in the British government, that its suppression would to 
 them be worth a great price. But could the grandson of 
 Dr. Franklin be in such degree an accomplice in the parri 
 cide of the memory of his immortal grandfather ? The sus 
 pension for more than twenty years of the general publication 
 bequeathed and confided to him, produced for awhile hard 
 suspicions against him ; and if at last all arc not published, 
 a part of these suspicions may remain with some." 
 
 z2 
 
310 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson arrives at New York. Sketch of parties after the Revolu 
 tion. Sense of the necessity of union. Local jealousies. Federal 
 ists and anti-federalists. Partiality for the British Constitution. 
 Illusions of rank. Mr. Jefferson s sentiments. Proceedings of the 
 first Congress. Impost. Permanent seat of government. Mr. 
 Hamilton s report on public credit. Discrimination in favour of the 
 original public creditors proposed by Mr. Madison. Arguments for 
 and against it. Public opinion on the question. Assumption of 
 state debts. Mr. Jefferson s impressions of the arguments urged for 
 and against the assumption. The proposition rejected. Mr. Jeffer 
 son joins in effecting a compromise. Merits of the question. Local 
 division of the parties. 
 
 1790. 
 
 MR. JEFFERSON arrived at New York on the 21st of March, 
 and here commenced a new and important epoch of his life. 
 From this time until he retired from public affairs, in 
 March, 1809, a period of nineteen years, his history is closely 
 connected with the history of his country ; and it is empha 
 tically and completely a history of the political parties into 
 which that country has been divided.* 
 
 * In delineating the character of these parties, as the biography he has 
 undertaken requires him to do, the author is aware of the difficulty of his 
 undertaking. He knows that after the outward acts of men have been 
 fully and accurately ascertained, the views and motives of the actors, 
 which form a most important class of facts, are often shrouded in dark 
 ness and uncertainty ; and that where they admit of different interpreta 
 tions, as they often do, they will be thus differently interpreted, according 
 to the prepossessions of each individual. He is aware too that our pecu 
 liar views and feelings commonly give a colouring to our opinions of men s 
 motives, and that he cannot presume himself exempt from this bias. He 
 will, however, be on his guard against this influence, and in passing judg 
 ment on the questions which once so deeply agitated the minds of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 341 
 
 In the same degree that the private citizen takes an in 
 terest in the public concerns, and can express his opinions 
 with impunity, there will be political parties ; and whatever 
 may be the inconveniences of the civil strife they occasion 
 it must be considered as inseparably connected with civil 
 liberty. It is true, that where there is a lively sense of 
 common danger, party contentions, for a time, yield to a 
 sense of the necessity of co-operation, and to the anxiety felt 
 for the common interest. But, at all other times, questions 
 of public concern are certain to divide the citizens of free 
 countries into two angry and hostile communities. On these 
 occasions, pride, interest, vanity, resentment, gratitude 
 every passion, in short, finds room for exercise, and contri 
 butes its part to irritate and prolong the controversy. 
 
 As soon as the thirteen colonies had formed themselves 
 into one nation, having the same general interests, they fur 
 nished another example of this portion of human destiny, 
 which even the sense of common danger and the aspirations 
 after the common blessing of independence could check, but 
 were not able altogether to extinguish. Thus, in the begin 
 ning of the Revolution there was the division of whig and 
 tory, on the question of submission or resistance. Then 
 arose that of independence or qualified submission. When 
 the nation had become almost unanimous on this question, 
 parties were formed as different men were well or ill- 
 disposed towards General Washington, or as they differed 
 about the mode of conducting the war, or the agents who 
 should be employed abroad.* But after the war of the 
 
 American people, he will, besides endeavouring to do justice to all, state 
 the reasons of his opinions, that the influence of any lurking prejudice or 
 party sympathy, if it actually exist, may be more easily detected. 
 
 * There had also arisen questions about the apportionment of taxes 
 among the states ; about every state having an equal vote ; and about the 
 right to the western lands, which had all, for a time, divided Congress 
 into two great parties. 
 
342 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Revolution was at an end, and men s minds were turned to 
 the subject how they might best improve the right of self- 
 government, party spirit took another direction, and assumed 
 a new aspect. One of the first, as well as most interesting 
 occasions for a difference of opinion which presented itself, 
 was the precise character of the political connexion which 
 should exist among the several states, which had, by a joint 
 effort and a common triumph, effected a separation from 
 their European rulers. Every reflecting mind believed that 
 a confederate government of some sort was indispensable to 
 their future safety and prosperity. Such a one would learn 
 from all history that neighbouring states would be exposed 
 to perpetual disagreements and quarrels, which would soon 
 or late terminate in war, by the chances of which some of 
 the parties would be vanquished and subjugated, and when 
 the conquerors would purchase the triumphs of victory at the 
 price of burdensome taxes, military services, and finally the 
 loss of civil freedom. Nor did any one form of government 
 afford a security against such quarrels and conflicts. The 
 history of republics attested the warring propensities of our 
 nature as much as any other sort of government. It was 
 then obviously wise to form that species of political union 
 among the several states which would keep down insurrec 
 tions and civil strife, and enable them, in their common re 
 lations with foreign countries, to prosecute with more effect 
 their negotiations in peace, and their operations in war. 
 
 Besides these general speculations in favour of a political 
 union, there was another consideration which had a more 
 general and immediate operation, because it was felt as well 
 as seen. The people had practically experienced, since the 
 peace, the inconvenience of so many independent sovereign- 
 tips, in their conflicting regulations of foreign trade. The 
 benefits to be derived from the union were the greater, from 
 the fact that one division of the states was agricultural in 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 343 
 
 its pursuits, and the other commercial. We had been ac 
 customed to derive our principal manufactures from Europe, 
 and to find there a market for the redundant products of our 
 agriculture. By means of this exchange, we equally pro 
 fited by our own abundance and the cheapness of foreign 
 fabrics. Every state then, as soon as it was free to act, 
 sought to appropriate as much of this advantage to itself as 
 it could. It endeavoured to enlarge its foreign commerce, 
 and by subjecting its imports to a duty, was able to levy a 
 tax on those states which received goods through its ports. 
 In this way, New York derived revenue from a part of Con 
 necticut and Massachusetts ; Virginia, from North Carolina ; 
 South Carolina, from the same state and from Georgia. 
 Besides, if one state by an impost attempted to raise a re 
 venue, or to discourage the consumption of foreign mer 
 chandise, for the sake of fostering its own manufactures, 
 its purposes could be easily counteracted by the lower impost 
 of its neighbours, through whose ports foreign commodities 
 subjected to a higher duty would find their way to the re 
 motest corner of its territory ; and thus, while one state 
 complained of the tribute extorted from her by a neigh 
 bouring state, another felt itself no less aggrieved by the 
 underbidding policy of its rival. 
 
 With such strong inducements for a united government, 
 it is no wonder that the belief of its necessity was very pre 
 valent. But about the character of the confederacy men 
 were much divided ; and some saw, or thought they saw, in 
 too close a union, dangers as great, and consequences as 
 distasteful, as in their entire separation. It was believed by 
 many that the territorial extent of the country, and the 
 great diversity of character, habits, and pursuits, among the 
 several states, presented insuperable obstacles to a closer 
 union than already existed some states being addicted to 
 commerce, and others exclusively agricultural ; some having 
 domestic slavery entwined in their civil polity, and others 
 
344 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 free from that institution, and averse to it. With such 
 serious points of diversity, it was insisted that their affairs 
 could be well managed by no single government, and could 
 not be administered at all, but by a greater delegation of 
 power than suited the feelings and opinions of the American 
 people. Some then looked most at these apprehended con 
 sequences of a close union and a single government, while 
 others chiefly regarded the dangers arising from disunion, 
 domestic dissensions, and even war. One party accordingly 
 dreaded consolidation ; the other, anarchy and separation. 
 Each saw in the object of its dread the destruction of good 
 government, though one party looked too exclusively to its 
 characteristic of order, and the other to that of civil liberty. 
 
 Such were the feelings of the great mass of the people ; 
 and it was to their sentiments, thus differing, but all equally 
 honest, that the politicians addressed themselves. Without 
 doubt there mingled with these sentiments other feelings 
 which served to inflame the controversy. There had always 
 existed in most of the colonies a certain degree of prejudice 
 against the people of other colonies, whose manners and 
 habits were different from their own ; and those who now 
 felt this prejudice most strongly, to whatever state they be 
 longed, were more unwilling to subject themselves to the 
 control of a general government. The obvious necessity of 
 harmony in their united efforts to obtain political independ 
 ence, and the good feelings which a sense of common danger 
 and endeavours for a common good naturally inspire, sup 
 pressed these jealousies for a time among the leaders of the 
 revolution. But in those who felt a less lofty or ardent 
 patriotism, or whose jealousies were more easily excited, 
 these local antipathies and prejudices were discernible even 
 at the most critical periods of the revolution. 
 
 There was also a fear with some individuals that their 
 personal consequence would be lessened when the higher 
 attributes of sovereignty should be transferred from the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 345 
 
 separate states to a national government. They seemed to 
 feel the force of the remark made by James the First to 
 induce his nobles to remain in the country in preference 
 to coming to the metropolis, that "on their estates they 
 were like great ships in a river, while in London they were 
 the same ships in the sea." On the other hand, they who 
 were apprehensive of violence and disorder, thought they 
 saw more security against those evils in a general govern 
 ment than in one in which individual popularity or local 
 discontent would have so much more influence. Their pre 
 vious military habits too inclined some to a government in 
 which there would be more pomp, where authority would 
 command more respect, and possess a more ready means of 
 enforcing obedience. The officers and soldiers, moreover, 
 would consider their claims against the country more likely 
 to be discharged, when the government to which they were 
 preferred should be invested with the means of providing 
 for them : and the difficulty which the existing government 
 had experienced of paying the public creditors in Europe, 
 made all those who regarded either the gratitude or faith of 
 the nation also desirous of a system of government which 
 alone could be certain to raise an adequate revenue for that 
 object. 
 
 Of this description were the sentiments and motives on 
 the subject of a national government which floated in men s 
 minds for three or four years after the peace of 1783. But 
 when they had produced a general convention, for the pur 
 pose of forming a constitution, the community settled down 
 into two great parties of federalists and anti-federalists ; the 
 first believing that the most imminent danger to our peace 
 and prosperity was in disunion ; and that popular jealousy, 
 always of itself sufficiently active, would, when artfully in 
 flamed by ambitious demagogues, withhold that portion of 
 power which was essential to good order and rational safety : 
 
346 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the last believing that the danger most to be apprehended 
 was in too close a union, and that their most powerful 
 opponents wished a consolidated, and even a monarchical 
 government. 
 
 This imputation of the anti-federal party against their 
 leading adversaries, that they were desirous of paving the 
 way for a monarchy, has been strenuously denied by the 
 federalists, and it is one among those points on which the 
 two parties have most warmly disputed. Mr. Jefferson was 
 one of those who gave credit to the charge ; and in the lat 
 ter period of his life, when he considered that all his party 
 feelings had passed away, and when they unquestionably 
 must have greatly abated, he revises the evidence which he 
 had formerly collected on this subject, and rejecting that part 
 which further experience and cooler views had disapproved, 
 he still maintains that some of our principal politicians, at 
 the time the constitution was formed, gave a deliberate pre 
 ference to monarchical government. The testimony ad 
 duced by Mr. Jefferson on the subject, if credited, must be 
 deemed conclusive ; and it certainly has not that intrinsic 
 improbability which would warrant us in rejecting it, if we 
 transport ourselves back to the times of which we speak. 
 
 Men s minds have undergone a great change upon the 
 subject of government since that day. It must not be over 
 looked that the history of the world had furnished no 
 examples of popular government, except those which sug 
 gested to most men as many arguments against them as in 
 their favour. It was therefore a prevalent opinion among 
 speculative writers, particularly those of England, that no 
 government more popular than that of their own country 
 was consistent either with internal tranquillity, the supre 
 macy of the laws, or an extensive empire. The constitution 
 of that country was accordingly regarded as the best which 
 had ever existed. The writings of Montesquieu and De 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 347 
 
 Lolme, together with the ingenious and masterly eulogy 
 of Blackstone, had rendered this almost the universal opinion 
 of the scholar, the lawyer, and speculative reasoner in Eng 
 land and her dependencies, as well as the general sentiment 
 of patriotism. When then the confederate states were about 
 to enter on the experiment of a permanent constitution of 
 government, these preconceived opinions would naturally 
 exert an influence, and those who entertained them would be 
 led to inquire how far the same benefits were attainable by 
 us. They would of course know that there were no mate 
 rials in this country whereof to form either kings or nobles ; 
 since as there had always existed a perfect equality of 
 civil rights, there would be an invincible repugnance to a 
 privileged class and hereditary distinctions. Yet some may 
 have indulged the hope that the prejudices which could not 
 be instantaneously overcome might be sapped by degrees ; 
 and thus the minds of our citizens be reconciled in time to 
 that form of government and to those civil institutions which 
 they deemed essential to stability. 
 
 The prestige of rank too was somewhat greater with some 
 in this country, in consequence of our never having had a 
 nobility. Our people knowing nothing of these privileged 
 orders, except as exhibited in works of fiction, or in the 
 occasional details of a newspaper, saw them through the 
 magnifying process of the imagination, and thus conceived 
 for them a degree of homage and respect which the reality 
 would not have inspired. 
 
 But, in addition to the probability of those opinions de 
 duced from general reasoning, we have the direct evidence 
 of many facts to show that a kindred desire of the artificial 
 distinctions of rank prevailed. Of this character were the 
 fondness with which the Society of the Cincinnati clung to that 
 institution, and the reluctance with which they relinquished 
 the hereditary principle : the actual attempt to bestow a 
 
348 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 titular dignity on the office of President ; the further at 
 tempts to make a distinction between the members of the 
 Senate and of the House of Representatives, both as to 
 their daily compensation and the style of their address * : 
 the imitation of regal forms, so far as public opinion would 
 tolerate them, in the President s morning levees; in his 
 opening speeches at each session of Congress ; and in the 
 ceremonial adopted when he appeared in public ; and lastly, 
 the fact that at a ball in New York, a raised seat, obviously 
 and purposely having an analogy to a throne, was prepared 
 for the President and Mrs. Washington. Besides, the pre 
 dilections of Alexander Hamilton for a monarchical govern 
 ment were well known f . With his usual frankness he did 
 
 * Some of the journals of the day in the northern states, not satisfied 
 with bestowing the gratuitous title of " honourable" on the members of 
 the house of representatives, affected to style the members of the senate 
 " most honourable." Nay, some went so far as to extend this distinction 
 to the wives of the members, as " the most honour able Mrs. A." and "the 
 honourable Mrs. B." 
 
 t The opinions which Mr. Jefferson imputed to Mr. Hamilton have 
 been frequently called in question by some of Mr. Hamilton s admirers, 
 for the double purpose of screening him and his political adherents from 
 the popular odium attached to those sentiments, and of casting on Mr. 
 Jefferson the reproach of uttering an unfounded slander against an ad 
 versary. But they thus aim at a concealment of his opinions, which his 
 own frank and proud spirit disdained. Those opinions are well known to 
 all his associates, and they who may refuse to abide by the testimony of 
 a rival and an opponent, cannot reject that of a personal and party 
 friend, as was Mr. Gouverneur Morris. 
 
 In a letter from Mr. Morris to Mr. Walsh, of Philadelphia, in a sketch 
 of the political character of Hamilton, he says : " General Hamilton 
 hated republican government, because he confounded it with democratic 
 government ; and he detested the latter, because he believed it must end 
 in despotism, and be, in the mean time, destructive of morality." And 
 subsequently : " But although General Hamilton knew these things 
 [ that no monarchy could be established but by the mob ] from the 
 study of history, he never failed on every occasion to advocate the excel 
 lence of, and avow his attachment to, monarchical government.^ 
 
 The same gentleman writes to Mr. Aaron Ogden, December 28, 1804, 
 a few months after General Hamilton s death : "Our poor friend Hamil- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 349 
 
 not disguise them from his friends ; and it furnished a fair 
 presumption that those who admired him as a politician, 
 and supported all his measures, could not have strongly 
 objected to his principles. If they had, however they may 
 have esteemed the talents and virtues of the individual, for 
 they were many, they would have opposed those plans which 
 had an obvious tendency to favour the augmentation of 
 executive power, and which there was reason to suppose 
 constituted with him their strongest recommendation. 
 
 Such we can easily suppose to have been the views of Mr. 
 Hamilton, Mr. Adams, and a large proportion of those whose 
 opinions on government had been formed before the revo 
 lution. But the speculations on political rights, to which 
 the contest with Great Britain and the question of inde 
 pendence gave rise, greatly favoured the doctrines of political 
 equality and the hatred of power, in any form that could 
 control the public will. There are in the heart of every man 
 principles which readily prepare him for republican doctrines, 
 and, after a few years, some of the speculative politicians 
 began to think that the free, simple, and equal government, 
 which was suited to the tastes and habits of our people, was 
 also the best in theory. But they were jealous of the oppo 
 site opinion, from a consciousness of the revolution their 
 own minds had experienced, and the known prevalence of 
 the favourable opinion which was generally entertained of 
 the English government. 
 
 Thus, while the great body of the people were partial to 
 the form of government to which they had been accustomed, 
 and dreamed of no other, the leading statesmen did differ 
 
 ton bestrode his hobby to the great annoyance of his friends, and not 
 without injury to himself. More a theoretic than a practical man, he 
 was not sufficiently convinced that a system may be good in itself, and 
 bad in relation to particular circumstances. He well knew that his 
 favourite form was inadmissible, unless as the result of civil war," &c. 
 
 Life of G, Morris, Vol. III. 
 
350 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 on this point ; some preferring the republican form in theory, 
 and believing that no other would be tolerated in practice ; 
 and others regretting that they were obliged to yield so far 
 to popular prejudice as to forego the form they deemed the 
 best, but determined to avail themselves of every opportunity 
 of improving the existing government into that form. Nor 
 were they without hopes that, by siding with the general 
 government in every question of power between that and 
 the separate states, and with the executive in all questions 
 between that and the legislature, and by continually increas 
 ing the patronage of the executive by means of an army, 
 a navy, and the multiplication of civil offices, they would 
 ultimately obtain their object. 
 
 There were strong reasons why Mr. Jefferson s sentiments 
 should be of an opposite character. He had always been 
 among the foremost of his countrymen in favour of popular 
 rights; and when these became fashionable in Paris, and 
 were there recommended by wit and genius were advocated 
 by philosophers, and even by ladies, and many of the courtiers 
 all his partialities for that imposing metropolis, and its 
 gay and cultivated society, gave new force to his republican 
 zeal. When he returned to America he found its politicians 
 even then differing in their views of the incipient revolution 
 in France. Some already regarded it with distrust, and 
 prognosticated evil from the violence and excesses with 
 which it had been recently accompanied. These persons 
 were the party who were most liberally disposed towards 
 England. Mr. Jefferson s resentment towards that country, 
 which neither his mission to France nor the illiberal com 
 mercial policy of England herself had suffered him to weaken, 
 still further inclined him to take a different side from her 
 partisans, and this circumstance might have influenced his 
 course, if that had not been already decided by his attach 
 ment to liberal principles. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 351 
 
 The first Congress under the new constitution assembled 
 at New York on the 1st day of April, 1789, and continued 
 in session till the 29th of September following 1 . It is from 
 the discussions of a body thus constituted that the historian 
 can learn the form and pressure of the times, whether it 
 merely reflects the sentiments of its constituents, or, as is 
 sometimes the case, gives to them their first impulse. In 
 the deliberations of this body it is easy to see in embryo 
 those local and political divisions which have since so agitated 
 and distracted the country, and which, for good or for evil, 
 seem likely to continue to be the grounds of party distinction 
 among us. 
 
 On two of the most interesting subjects discussed, the 
 members seem to have been governed altogether by local 
 considerations : these were the impost, and the selection of 
 a spot for the permanent seat of government. In providing 
 an adequate revenue, it was admitted on all sides that no 
 mode was so eligible as by laying duties on imports ; but 
 in selecting the objects of duty, and determining its amount, 
 it was soon found that there was a conflict of interests and 
 wishes between the two great divisions of the union. The 
 northern states having already succeeded in manufacturing 
 some articles, both for themselves and the southern states, 
 would be obviously benefited by taxing similar articles im 
 ported from abroad by way of securing to themselves a 
 greater share of the home market ; while the last-mentioned 
 states being exclusively agricultural, and consequently mere 
 consumers, had as direct an interest in keeping open the 
 competition between foreign and domestic producers. This 
 collision of interests manifested itself in laying duties on 
 iron, salt, and foreign tonnage ; but in nothing was it so 
 apparent as in laying the duty on molasses, which was op 
 posed by the eastern states, not only because that commodity 
 had a more extensive consumption in those states, but also 
 
352 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 because it furnished the great material for their distilleries. 
 Notwithstanding this clashing of interests, which appears 
 to have been as plainly seen then as since, the whole subject 
 was adjusted in a liberal spirit of compromise. The southern 
 states acquiesced in a system of duties that encouraged 
 manufactures at a cost of which they pay more than their 
 just proportion, and, on the other hand, the manufacture 
 of rum was virtually taxed in the duty on molasses. The 
 other local question, which was brought forward near the 
 end of the session, called forth much more lively feeling. 
 Various spots, from the Delaware to the Potomac, were 
 proposed as the seat of the federal government. A majority 
 at length united in favour of a site on the banks of the Sus- 
 quehanna, but the bill they passed was postponed in the 
 Senate. 
 
 The subjects which farther excited the most interest and 
 debate, seemed to turn on those principles that had already 
 divided the federalists and their opponents when the con 
 stitution was under consideration. While one party was 
 disposed to carry into execution all the powers which the 
 constitution had conferred, and to make a liberal interpre 
 tation of those powers, the other construed every grant of 
 power with the utmost strictness, and were more particularly 
 jealous of the federal executive. As not one third of the 
 members had belonged to the anti-federal party, they were 
 uniformly outvoted on all these questions. If their more 
 ardent love of civil liberty, or their greater confidence in 
 popular government, made them sometimes apprehend dan 
 gers which subsequent experience has shown to be imaginary, 
 as from the establishment of federal district courts, or from 
 the authority given to the Secretary of the Treasury to pre 
 pare plans of finance, yet, in other cases, their fears of future 
 evil have not proved unfounded : and it must be confessed, 
 that the course pursued by the federal party was not ill- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 353 
 
 calculated to alarm their fears, and awaken their jealousy 
 of a too energetic government. They thought they saw, in 
 the attempt of the Senate to bestow the title of " his High 
 ness 11 on the President, a predilection for the distinctions 
 of rank ; and in their requiring that all process from the 
 federal courts should run in the name of the President, a 
 disposition to assimilate his office to that of a sovereign 
 prince. Even the difference in the pay of the s members of 
 the two houses, which the representatives, after resisting 
 finally submitted to, for one session, seemed more consistent 
 with the spirit of aristocracy than the equality of rights in 
 a republic. Although, on these questions, men were found 
 for and against them in every division of the union, yet a 
 decisive majority of their supporters were north of the Poto 
 mac. At the second session of the same Congress, which 
 commenced on the 4th of January, 1790, Mr. Hamilton, in 
 pursuance of a resolution of the preceding session, reported 
 a plan for the support of public credit, which excited a far 
 greater interest than any previous subject of discussion, and 
 which laid the foundation for a new division of parties that 
 continued throughout the first and the three succeeding 
 administrations. 
 
 This report, to which both the friends and enemies of its 
 author have concurred in giving celebrity, after insisting on 
 the advantages of public credit to every country, and espe 
 cially one so inadequately supplied with capital as this, 
 maintained that the United States were bound to provide 
 for the payment of their public debt by the strongest con 
 siderations of justice and national faith, as well as of policy; 
 and that they were as much bound to pay the interest as 
 the principal. The report, then adverting to the fact that 
 many of the holders of the evidences of the debt had pur 
 chased them for a fourth or fifth of their nominal value, 
 examined the question whether any discrimination should 
 
 VOL. [. 2 A 
 
354 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 be made between such purchasers of the debt and the origi 
 nal creditors ; and its author was clearly of opinion, that no 
 discrimination could be made without a breach of public 
 faith, and even lessening the value of the debts still remain 
 ing in the hands of the original holders. He thought, too, 
 that the debts contracted by the individual states on account 
 of the Revolution, ought to be assumed by the federal go 
 vernment. The whole of the debts which he thus proposed 
 to provide for, including arrears of interest, amounted to 
 about 80 millions of dollars. Of which, about 12 millions 
 were due in Europe, 42 millions to domestic creditors of the 
 United States, and 25 millions to the creditors of the indivi 
 dual states. The annual interest on the whole amounted to 
 about 4J millions. 
 
 Believing that this sum, in addition to the current ex 
 penses of the government, would press heavily on the 
 resources of the country, he proposed to lessen the part due 
 to the domestic creditors, by offering them a satisfactory 
 equivalent. 
 
 The equivalent to be thus offered was founded on the 
 supposed future decline of ^interest, or the profits of capital. 
 Having shown that the interest of money which was now six 
 per cent., might be reasonably expected to fall here, as it 
 had fallen in Europe, he inferred that in five years the 
 United States would probably be able to borrow at five per 
 cent., and in fifteen years more, at four per cent. In this 
 event, the government would be able to make a propor 
 tional annual saving, by paying off the debt with the money 
 obtained by a new loan. 
 
 If, however, the government should engage to forbear 
 thus to profit by the fall of interest, and to postpone the 
 redemption of its debt for a stipulated time, the creditor, 
 whose stock bearing a fixed interest, must rise in value with 
 the general fall of interest, would be proportionally bene- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 355 
 
 filed by the postponement. The secretary, therefore, pro 
 posed to stipulate for such postponement, in considera 
 tion of the creditors agreeing to take either a smaller 
 amount of principal, or a smaller rate of interest. In addi 
 tion to the relief to be thus obtained, he further proposed to 
 pay a portion of the debt in the public lands, at the moderate 
 price of 20 cents the acre ; and, to accommodate his plan to 
 the various circumstances and tempers of different classes 
 of creditors, he proposed to them several alternatives, by 
 which they might either take a part of their debt in lands, 
 or a higher present interest, subject to redemption at any 
 time, or a less interest, irredeemable for a fixed term, or be 
 paid in annuities to commence at a distant day. He further 
 proposed to make provision for such as would not accede 
 to these terms, by an interest not exceeding four per cent, 
 on the whole debt. 
 
 By way of providing the revenue which would be thus 
 required, the report recommended a tariff of duties on 
 imported wines, spirits, tea, and coffee, and an excise on 
 home-distilled spirits ; and lastly, he proposed that a sinking 
 fund to the amount of a million, annually, should be created 
 for the gradual extinction of the debt. 
 
 The house having entered on the discussion of this report 
 on the 28th of January, it appeared to call forth no material 
 opposition, except on two points : one was, the proposed 
 discrimination between the original creditors and the pur 
 chasers of the debt ; the other, .the assumption of the state 
 debts. 
 
 After much desultory debate, on the llth of February, 
 Mr. Madison proposed that where the public securities had 
 been alienated, the present holders should receive the 
 highest market price of such securities, and the residue 
 should be paid to the original proprietors. In support of his 
 motion, he maintained that the government which had failed 
 
 2A2 
 
356 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to pay its creditors, according to its most solemn engage 
 ments, was bound to compensate them for the loss they had 
 sustained by reason of such failure. That this obligation of 
 faith and justice was enhanced by the meritorious character 
 of the services rendered : that, as the certificates given to the 
 creditors were made transferable, the holder had also a 
 claim founded on this public pledge, which neither honour 
 nor policy would allow them to disregard : that while it was 
 beyond the means of the nation to satisfy both these claims, 
 it should do justice as far as it was able, and pay to the pur 
 chaser a price which would in general yield him a handsome 
 profit, and pay to the original creditors the residue, which, 
 though not sufficient to indemnify them, would make them 
 some reparation for their past privations. He said, that the 
 ordinary maxims of right did not apply to a case like the 
 present ; and that the fluctuations of stock in the examples 
 which had been relied on, to show that the government 
 ought not to interfere, never exceeded 60 or 70 per cent. ; 
 but in the present instance, they often amounted to 700 or 
 800 per cent. He denied that public credit would be inju 
 riously affected by the proposed measure, because the 
 government was not a gainer by it ; because it had provided 
 fully for its foreign debt ; and because all future loans would 
 be made on the credit of adequate funds. He referred to 
 the course pursued by the Parliament of Great Britain in 
 their settlement of the South Sea speculation, as a precedent, 
 both to show that on extraordinary occasions legislatures 
 should not be governed by technical rules, and that such a 
 course would not injure public credit : and he admitted, that 
 whatever were the claims of the original creditors on the 
 gratitude, or even justice of the nation, they could not 
 affect the rights of the holders of the certificates. 
 
 The arguments relied on by the other side were, that as 
 the government had stated upon the face of the certificates 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 357 
 
 which it had issued to its creditors, that they should be paid 
 to the bearer, and these certificates had been purchased in 
 the belief of this assurance, to refuse an exact compliance, 
 would be a breach of faith, not more dishonourable than 
 injurious in all future transactions of the state ; that such a 
 course would depreciate the value of the certificates still held 
 by the first owners, and would benefit one portion of the 
 creditors at the expense of another, which was not only more 
 numerous, but had also the merit of retaining its confidence 
 in the faith of the government. They said that the soldiers 
 and others who had sold their certificates had not asked for 
 relief, and would not accept a provision which could be made 
 only by a violation of their own contracts. That if there 
 were no other objections, the impracticability of ascertaining 
 who were the original creditors presented insuperable diffi 
 culties, as the certificates being made payable to the bearer, 
 the names inserted in them did not always show the real 
 creditor, but were sometimes those of an agent, or even of 
 the purchasing officer ; and the investigation of these facts 
 would give rise to endless litigation, perjury, and fraud . 
 would often prove fruitless ; and where it was successful, it 
 would operate with the most capricious inequalities among 
 the different purchasers. They denied the interference of 
 Parliament with the South Sea contracts was applicable to 
 the present case ; and they challenged their opponents to 
 adduce any case in which a government had annulled its 
 own solemn engagements. 
 
 In reply to this challenge, Mr. Madison cited the case of 
 the Canada bills, which having been issued by the French 
 government during the war of 1756, underwent great depre 
 ciation, and were then purchased by English merchants. 
 At the peace, in 1763, it was agreed by the English and 
 French governments that the holders should receive for 
 them only the purchase money and interest. He cited 
 
358 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 another case from Great Britain in 1713, in which those who 
 had sold government debentures at a loss, were allowed to 
 redeem them on paying the purchase money, with interest. 
 He again deprecated in this extraordinary case, " the 
 niceties of forensic reasoning ;" and in answer to the charge 
 of having appealed to the feelings in a question of right, he 
 said, " that in great and unusual questions of morality, the 
 heart is the best casuist." He admitted there would be 
 difficulties in the execution of his plan ; but they were not 
 insuperable. Tribunals might be distributed throughout 
 the union to investigate the claims, and with the aid afforded 
 by public documents, the ownership could be easily ascer 
 tained. If, however, justice should not be always done, it 
 was certain that enormous injustice would be prevented. 
 
 After a spirited debate of ten days, which called forth 
 nearly all the talents of the house, the motion was lost by 
 a vote of 36 to 13. 
 
 The great inequality of the votes given on this question 
 cannot be considered to afford the usual evidence of its 
 merits, or even of the state of public opinion concerning it. 
 The parties immediately interested in its decision were very 
 unequally matched in the means of supporting their respec 
 tive interests. On the one hand, the speculators, first then 
 known as a separate class, were possessed of wealth, intelli 
 gence, and activity, while the greater part of those who had 
 sold their certificates were ignorant, indigent, and incapable 
 of concerted action. Such as were not of this description 
 thought it became them to be merely passive, when the 
 question was whether they were to be benefited by the 
 partial annulment of their own contracts, and some even 
 doubted whether they were not bound in honour to refuse 
 the benefit, in case it were proffered them by the legislature. 
 The speculators were under no such restraints. The hope 
 of gain, which had not scrupled to take advantage of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 359 
 
 necessities of the public creditors, and to improve that 
 advantage by every device of misrepresentation, lost none 
 of its force now when they had a near prospect of realizing 
 it. They could also press their claims with more boldness, 
 because they were exhibited under the imposing forms of 
 redeeming public pledges and fulfilling private contracts. 
 They therefore exerted all their influence on the question, 
 through the public journals, by canvassing wit^h the mem 
 bers, and even, as it is said, by the more potent appeals to 
 their interests, in offering to make them partners in their 
 speculations. During the whole of the discussion the gallery 
 of the House of Representatives was thronged with this 
 class, eager to know the result of their past speculations, 
 and to regulate their future efforts. Certificates, which it 
 was proposed by funding to raise to par, had been currently 
 sold at two shillings and sixpence in the pound, some at still 
 less ; and even at the time of the debate they had not risen 
 above ten shillings. Three vessels had left New York, 
 immediately after the secretary s report, freighted with the 
 means of purchasing those evidences of the public debt in 
 the Carolinas and Georgia. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these circumstances, it is believed 
 that a large majority of the nation were in favour of some 
 form of discrimination, and had the same means of ready 
 communication between the people and their representa 
 tives then existed as at present, the public sentiment would 
 have been uttered in a voice too strong to be resisted. It 
 is true that after the house had decided against the claims 
 of the first holders, the manifestations of popular discontent 
 were not general. This, however, was partly because public 
 attention was soon engrossed by the subsequent question 
 of the assumption ; partly because the tide of public pros 
 perity, which had already begun to set in, tended as usual 
 to put the people in good humour with the government ; 
 
360 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and lastly, because the voice of complaint was drowned by 
 the plaudits bestowed by the speculators on the Secretary 
 of the Treasury, who was hailed as the first of financiers, 
 and was ever after regarded by them with the most grateful 
 and enthusiastic attachment. 
 
 The public dissatisfaction, though thus mitigated, was not 
 extinguished. It was extensive and lasting. For many 
 years afterwards the lovers of justice were every where 
 scandalized at the spectacle of a few cunning or fortunate 
 speculators drawing large incomes from the public treasury, 
 while those whose patriotic earnings they had intercepted 
 were in indigence and obscurity. Nor did the community 
 experience any general benefit from the course adopted, to 
 compensate it for the shock given to its sense of justice 
 The inordinate gains of the purchasers, by encouraging a 
 gambling spirit in the community and a laxity of morals in 
 dealing, excited for a time a deleterious influence on the 
 national character and pursuits. The wealth thus suddenly 
 acquired generally served to introduce in the community 
 premature habits of expense, or to increase the number of 
 its idle class : and if, in a few cases, it was a stimulus to 
 productive industry, it can hardly be doubted that the sum 
 of national wealth, as well as of individual comfort, would 
 have been increased, if the public bounty had been more 
 diffused throughout the community. 
 
 Now that the feelings of personal interest and party sym 
 pathy, which mingled in this discussion, have passed away, 
 it will appear to most men that as to the right of the ques 
 tion, to make all other considerations bend, as the specula 
 tors and their advocates contended, to the literal fulfilment 
 of contracts under circumstances not contemplated by the 
 parties, is to confound the best settled moral distinctions, 
 and to disregard rules of equity and principles of legislation 
 universally recognised : that the difficulty of ascertaining the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 361 
 
 original holders, presented no insuperable objection to the 
 discrimination, since the certificates issued to the soldiers, 
 comprehending the largest class, showed upon their face the 
 real owner : that the same thing may be said of those issued 
 for provisions and military supplies ; and in the small pro 
 portion of cases where such evidence was not afforded, it 
 would not have been difficult for a board of commissioners 
 to ascertain the truth, considering that none of the trans 
 actions could have been more than of ten or twelve years 
 standing : that though they had sometimes failed, that evil 
 shrunk into insignificance compared with the enormous 
 injustice which would have been prevented : and that on these 
 accounts it must be a matter of lasting regret that so many 
 of the soldiers of the revolution did not profit by the tardy 
 compensation provided for them by their country, but that 
 the crafty speculator, like the fox in the fable, was thus per 
 mitted to run off with the spoils due to valour. 
 
 The question of assuming the debt contracted by the 
 individual states, on account of the revolution, next engaged 
 the attention of the house, and on this question the house 
 being more equally divided, the debate was yet warmer and 
 more protracted. It was during the heat of the discussion 
 that Mr. Jefferson reached New York on the 20th of March, 
 and it may not be uninteresting to learn from himself his 
 views of the politics of the day, as well as his opinion of the 
 questions then agitated in Congress. In his private memo 
 randa he thus animadverts on them. 
 
 " Here, certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I 
 had ever contemplated, I the least expected. I had left 
 France in the first year of her revolution, in the fervour of 
 natural rights and zeal for reformation. My conscientious 
 devotion to these rights could not be heightened, but it had 
 been aroused and excited by daily exercise. The President 
 received me cordially, and my colleagues and the circle of 
 
362 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 principal citizens, apparently with welcome. The courtesies 
 of dinner parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived 
 among them, placed me at once in their familiar society. 
 But I cannot describe the wonder and mortification with 
 which the table conversations filled me, Politics were the 
 chief topic, and a preference of kingly over republican 
 government was evidently the favourite sentiment. An 
 apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypocrite ; and I found 
 myself, for the most part, the only advocate on the repub 
 lican side of the question, unless among the guests there 
 chanced to be some member of that party from the legisla 
 tive houses. Hamilton s financial system had then passed. 
 It had two objects : 1st. As a puzzle, to exclude popular 
 understanding and inquiry ; 2nd. As a machine for the 
 corruption of the Legislature : for he avowed the opinion, 
 that man could be governed by one of two motives only, 
 force or interest ; force, he observed, in this country was out 
 of the question, and the interests, therefore, of the members 
 must be laid hold of, to keep the Legislature in unison with 
 the executive. And with grief and shame, it must be 
 acknowledged, that his machine was not without effect ; that 
 even in this, the birth of our government, some members 
 were found sordid enough to bend their duty to their inter 
 ests, and to look after personal, rather than public good." 
 
 The arguments urged in favour of the assumption were, 
 that the states having taken up arms in a common cause, and 
 all sharing alike in the boon of Independence which their 
 common efforts had won, they were all equally bound to con 
 tribute to the expense of the war, according to their ability ; 
 and that the debts contracted in support of the war, by the 
 individual states, were as much the debts of the whole, as 
 those contracted in the name of the confederation : That 
 the creditors, in such cases, had therefore a right to look to 
 the general government for payment, and government was 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 363 
 
 under a moral obligation to pay them : that justice to the 
 several states required this course, no less than justice to the 
 creditors, as some, by being more exposed to the ravages of 
 war than others, had also made greater efforts ; and that by 
 assuming the debts of all the states, and discharging them 
 by a system of taxation which would bear equally on all, the 
 inequality would be corrected. The obligation, on the part 
 of the general government, to provide for these s debts was 
 the greater, not only because all attempts to have a settle 
 ment among the states had hitherto proved ineffectual, but 
 also, because the states had yielded up those sources of re 
 venue from which they might have provided for their pay 
 ment, and that, in fact, it would be impossible for some of 
 the states, especially Massachusetts and South Carolina, to 
 pay their creditors, now that they had, by the constitution, 
 deprived themselves of the right of laying imposts ; that the 
 course, which was thus conformable to justice, was recom 
 mended by the strongest considerations of policy ; that all 
 admitted the debts ought to be paid, and whether paid by 
 one government or the other, the money must be drawn 
 from the people ; and that taxation would be more produc 
 tive, and be more economically managed by one government 
 and one set of revenue officers than by two, and that incon 
 venient collisions between the federal government and the 
 states would thereby be avoided; that the jealousies which 
 would arise among state creditors, on finding some debts 
 provided for, while their own were overlooked, would also be 
 prevented ; that, thus attaching a numerous class of men to 
 the government by the strong ties of interest and gratitude, 
 it would derive a support which, when the extent and vehe 
 mence of the opposition it had encountered was recollected, 
 all its friends must think desirable. 
 
 To those arguments, the party opposed to the assumption 
 replied, that the distinction between the debts of the United 
 
364 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 States and of the individual states was as well settled as that 
 of the governments themselves ; that it had been recognised 
 and acted on by both classes of debtors and creditors ; that, 
 under the old confederation, Congress and the state govern 
 ments had aimed to provide for their respective creditors, 
 who had also looked only to the governments with which 
 they had contracted, and that such had been the general 
 understanding of the nation, as was evinced by the various 
 prices the debts of the states had borne on the market, 
 according to the confidence had in their respective means of 
 repayment ; that neither the state creditors nor the states 
 themselves had any right to look to the United States for 
 payment not the creditors, because they had contracted 
 solely with the individual states ; nor the slates, because they 
 having acted at their own discretion in contracting these 
 debts, it was impossible to know, until an investigation and 
 settlement took place, how far the money was expended for 
 their exclusive purposes, or in the common cause ; that, 
 hitherto, no state could obtain credit for the smallest dis 
 bursement until such investigation had taken place. 
 
 Such being the relative rights of the parties when the con 
 stitution was adopted, they said if it had been the intention 
 of its framers to alter that relation, and to make the debts 
 of the states the debts of the nation, they would have in 
 serted an express provision to that effect ; that not having 
 done so, and the general government having no powers but 
 what are expressly delegated, it might well be doubted 
 whether Congress could make the proposed assumption: 
 the most that the constitution seemed to authorize was, that 
 if after a settlement among the states, it should be found 
 that any of them had advanced more than their just pro 
 portion for general purposes, the amount of such excess 
 might be assumed by the federal government, as being then 
 a just debt of the United States. 
 
THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 365 
 
 Admitting the power to be possessed by Congress, they 
 maintained that a general assumption would be grossly un 
 just; that if the states differed as to the amount of debt 
 contracted by them on account of the war, they differed also 
 in the exertions they had made to discharge such debt, and 
 to assume the debts they now owed, indiscriminately, would 
 be to relieve those states most who least deserved it, and 
 subject those states which, like Pennsylvania and Virginia, 
 had already heavily taxed themselves, for the sake of re 
 ducing their debts, to the burthen of further taxation, for 
 the purpose of paying the debts of others: that the in 
 equality would be further increased, if some of the state 
 creditors refused to subscribe their debts according to the 
 plan of the assumption, which was the more probable, as the 
 debts of some of the states having been well funded, and 
 bearing an interest of 6 per cent., would be worth more 
 than those of the United States ; in which case such states 
 would have to bear their share of the new burthen, without 
 being relieved, like other states, from that previously ex 
 isting: they denied that the states of Massachusetts and 
 South Carolina, whose debts were largest, would be unable 
 to provide for their creditors : if, however, that were the 
 case, it must be because they had contributed more than 
 their just proportion to the common cause, which furnished 
 indeed a strong argument for a settlement by which they 
 would be relieved from such excess, but none for assuming 
 the whole amount. 
 
 They insisted that the assumption was as repugnant 
 to policy as to justice : that the debts, foreign and domestic, 
 which were contracted by the United States, and for which 
 they were bound, and had agreed to provide, were sufficient 
 to exhaust the sources of revenue from the impost ; and that 
 so large an addition to the debt as was now proposed would 
 make a resort to excises and direct taxes indispensable: 
 
366 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that the first was odious, the last inconvenient, and both 
 would be expensive in the collection ; and that therefore the 
 assumption would not be economical to the nation : nor could 
 the federal government singly draw more money from the 
 people than that government and the state governments 
 united, because the general taxes which would be productive 
 in one state might not be so in another, and because the 
 state legislatures, from their more intimate knowledge of 
 the people, and the greater confidence they possessed, might 
 draw a revenue from sources which could not be reached by 
 the federal government : that the state debts, if assumed, 
 would, like those of the United States, fall into the hands of 
 speculators, and thus the money drawn from the people 
 to pay the interest would not be kept in circulation, as now 
 in the several states, but be either sent abroad, or confined 
 to the large cities : that if the measure was likely to bring 
 strength to the federal government by adding a large class 
 of creditors to its support, it could produce this effect only 
 at the expense of the state governments, whose influence 
 and independence were equally essential in our system of 
 polity ; but that as the measure would probably be followed 
 by an excise and direct taxes, the government might lose 
 far more in popularity than they gained in power. They 
 lastly deprecated a hasty decision, urged that no state had 
 asked for the assumption, and South Carolina alone had 
 seemed to expect it ; that the state creditors had not sought 
 it ; and that a measure of so much importance had better be 
 defeated, or, at all events, delayed, than be passed by a bare 
 majority. 
 
 These arguments finally prevailed on the 10th of April, 
 by a vote of 31 to 29, notwithstanding some indications in 
 the earlier part of the debate that a majority was in favour 
 of the assumption, and although the measure was supported 
 by Mr. Hamilton s influence, and by that large proportion of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 367 
 
 the state creditors who believed that their debts would be 
 thereby greatly enhanced. 
 
 But the advocates of the assumption were not to be thus 
 driven from their purpose. On the 24th of May, Mr. Gerry, 
 of Massachusetts, renewed the proposition with the import 
 ant modification that the amount to be assumed from each 
 state should be previously settled by Congress, so as to 
 prevent the gross injustice which would have been done to 
 some of the states on the plan first proposed ; and on the 
 following day, Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, Mr. Boudinot, 
 of New Jersey, and Mr. Ames, of Massachusetts, spoke at 
 length in favour of it, and took occasion to advert to the 
 arguments formerly urged by Mr. Madison against the 
 assumption. The proposition was then rejected without a 
 count. Its friends still persevered, and finally prevailed by 
 one of "those compromises which occasionally take place in 
 legislative bodies, and by which sometimes each of two 
 excited parties being induced to recede from its wishes, a 
 course is adopted that is preferable to that proposed by 
 either, but by which, on other occasions, two measures are 
 carried when neither could pass, or perhaps ought to pass, 
 on its own merits. To which class the present compromise 
 belonged, the opinions of men have been greatly divided. 
 Mr. Jefferson had some agency in bringing about this com 
 promise, of which he thus speaks : 
 
 " This game* was over, and another was on the carpet 
 at the moment of my arrival ; and to this I was most igno- 
 rantly and innocently made to hold the candle. This fiscal 
 manoeuvre is well known by the name of the Assumption. 
 Independently of the debts of Congress, the states had 
 during the war contracted separate and heavy debts ; and 
 Massachusetts particularly, in an absurd attempt, absurdly 
 conducted, on the British post of Penobscot ; and the more 
 * The funding of the debt. 
 
368 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 debt Hamilton could rake up, the more plunder for his mei- 
 cenarics. This money, whether wisely or foolishly spent, 
 was pretended to have been spent for general purposes, and 
 ought, therefore, to be paid from the general purse. But 
 it was objected, that nobody knew what these debts were, 
 what their amount, or what their proofs. No matter; we 
 will guess them to be twenty millions. But of these twenty 
 millions, we do not know how much should be reimbursed 
 to one state, or how much to another. No matter ; we will 
 guess. And so another scramble was set on foot among the 
 several states, and some got much, some little, some nothing. 
 But the main object was obtained, the phalanx of the trea 
 sury was reinforced by additional recruits. 
 
 " This measure produced the most bitter and angry con 
 tests ever known in Congress, before or since the union of the 
 states. I arrived in the midst of it. But a stranger to the 
 ground, a stranger to the actors on it, so long absent as to 
 have lost all familiarity with the subject, and as yet unaware 
 of its object, I took no concern in it. The great and trying 
 question, however, was lost in the House of Representatives. 
 So high were the feuds excited by this subject, that on its 
 rejection business was suspended. Congress met and ad 
 journed from day to day without doing anything ; the parties 
 being too much out of temper to do business together. The 
 eastern members particularly, who, with Smith, from Soutli 
 Carolina, were the principal gamblers in these scenes, 
 threatened a secession and dissolution. Hamilton was in 
 despair. As I was going to the President s one day, I met 
 him in the street. He walked me backwards and forwards 
 before the President s door for half an hour. He painted 
 pathetically the temper into which the Legislature had been 
 wrought ; the disgust of those who were called the creditor 
 states ; the danger of the secession of their members, and 
 the separation of the states. He observed, that the members 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3G9 
 
 of the administration ought to act in concert ; that though 
 this question was not of my department, yet a common duty 
 should make it a common concern ; that the president was 
 the centre on which all administrative questions ultimately 
 rested, and that all of us should rally around him, and 
 support, with joint efforts, measures approved by him ; and 
 that the question having been lost by a small majority only, 
 it was probable that an appeal from me to the judgment and 
 discretion of some of my friends might effect a change in the 
 vote, and the machine of government, now suspended, might 
 be again set into motion. 
 
 I told him that I was really a stranger to the whole sub 
 ject; that not having yet informed myself of the system of 
 finance adopted, I knew not how far this was a necessary 
 sequence ; that undoubtedly, if its rejection endangered a 
 dissolution of our union at this incipient stage, I should 
 deem that the most unfortunate of all consequences, to avert 
 which all partial and temporary evils should be yielded. 
 I proposed to him, however, to dine with me the next day, 
 and I would invite another friend or two, bring them into 
 conference together, and I thought it impossible that reason 
 able men consulting together coolly, could fail, by some 
 mutual sacrifices of opinion, to form a compromise which 
 was to save the union. The discussion took place. I could 
 take no part in it but an exhortatory one, because I was a 
 stranger to the circumstances which should govern it. But 
 it was finally agreed, that whatever importance had been 
 attached to the rejection of this proyjosition, the preservation 
 of the union, and of concord among the states, was more 
 important, and that, therefore, it would be better that the 
 vote of rejection should be rescinded, to effect which some 
 members should change their votes. But it was observed 
 that this pill would be peculiarly bitter to the southern 
 states, and that some concomitant measure should be adopted, 
 
 VOL. i. 2 B 
 
370 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to sweeten it a little to them. There had before been pro 
 positions to fix the seat of government either at Philadel 
 phia, or at Georgetown, on the Potomac ; and it was thought 
 that by giving it to Philadelphia for ten years, and to George 
 town permanently afterwards, this might, as an anodyne, 
 calm in some degree the ferment which might be excited by 
 the other measure alone. So two of the Potomac members 
 (White and Lee, but White with a revulsion of stomach 
 almost convulsive) agreed to change their votes, and Hamil 
 ton undertook to carry the other point. In doing this, the 
 influence he had established over the eastern members, with 
 the agency of Robert Morris with those of the middle states, 
 effected his side of the engagement ; and so the assumption 
 was passed, and twenty millions of stock divided among 
 favoured states, and thrown in as a pabulum to the stock 
 jobbing herd. This added to the number of votaries to the 
 treasury, and made its chief the master of every vote in the 
 Legislature which might give to the government the direc 
 tion suited to his political views." 
 
 However equitable may appear the claims of the creditor 
 states, or of the creditors themselves in the abstract, it must 
 be admitted that a singular spectacle was exhibited, when 
 a nation already so burdened with debt as to propose terms 
 of compromise to its creditors, and to urge its necessities on 
 those creditors as a reason why they should accept the prof 
 fered terms, was seen voluntarily to impose on itself the 
 burden of new debts : and however just and urgent may 
 have been the claims of such states as Massachusetts or 
 South Carolina to be relieved from a part of the debt they 
 had incurred in the common cause, it can scarcely be doubted 
 that no assumption would have been made without a pre 
 vious settlement, and still less one large enough to cover 
 the whole state debts, if in addition to the influence of pri 
 vate interests, which is so efficient in all legislation affecting 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 371 
 
 them, it had not been believed that the extension of the 
 public debt would prove a cement to the union, and give 
 an accession of strength to the government. On these two 
 motives it may be remarked, that our sympathy in behalf 
 of the creditors is very much weakened, when we recollect 
 that much of the debt which would be enhanced in value by 
 the assumption was not in the hands of the original creditors, 
 but in those who had speculated on their necessities ; and 
 that as to the cementing effect of the debt, it seems to have 
 been much overrated. Those persons who were likely to 
 be public creditors belong to a class who have other motives 
 for supporting the government : and if they have a farther 
 and peculiar interest in upholding its measures, that inte 
 rest is as obvious to others as themselves, and a knowledge 
 of the fact tends to lessen the weight of their support. Many 
 a fundholder, who, if there had been no public debt, might 
 have proved a valuable auxiliary of the government, has 
 had his interest more than counterbalanced by the popular 
 belief that his efforts were dictated by his interests. Besides, 
 if the government gained one way by the assumption, it lost 
 by another, as the excise, an unpopular tax, and most un 
 popular where the new administration most wanted friends, 
 would not have been necessary but for the assumption. 
 
 On this question, before the compromise, the three New 
 England States, New Jersey, and South Carolina were 
 warmly and unanimously in its favour, whilst Virginia, North 
 Carolina, and Georgia were as decidedly opposed to it, and 
 the other states were either divided or comparatively in 
 different. 
 
 2 B2 
 
372 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s party attachments. Injurious effects of the assumption. 
 Leading measures of Congress. Discriminating duties. Commer 
 cial retaliation proposed. Closed doors of the Senate. Navigation 
 of the Mississippi. Diplomatic intercourse with England. Mr. Jef 
 ferson s reports on a copper coinage on weights and measures 
 the fisheries. Excise. Mr. Hamilton s report on public credit. He 
 proposes a national hank. Arguments for and against its constitu 
 tionality. Letter to the National Assembly in memory of Franklin. 
 Navigation of the Mississippi. Tonnage duty. Political sentiments 
 of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. Practice of recording con 
 versations considered. Public prosperity. Public credit. Spirit 
 of speculation its causes and effects. Discriminating duties in 
 France. French West Indies. Indian territorial rights. The sur 
 render of fugitives from justice. Deputies from St. Domingo. 
 
 17901791. 
 
 THOUGH Mr. Jefferson had been induced to give a re 
 luctant support to the favourite measures of the Secretary 
 of the Treasury and his friends, it was impossible that he 
 could long- continue to co-operate with that party, or even 
 remain neutral. All his theoretical opinions, all his na 
 tional predilections and antipathies were opposed to such 
 a result. The party of Mr. Hamilton were cordial admirers 
 of the British government, and obsequious copyists of its 
 laws and institutions. The distrust with which they had 
 just viewed the French revolution was gradually ripening 
 into aversion and horror. Mr. Jefferson was opposed to 
 them on both those particulars, and he was by temperament 
 more in favour of a cheaper and more tranquil government ; 
 one which imposed moderate restraints on individual liberty, 
 with little resort to taxation, and no resort to force. Mili 
 tary triumphs he neither coveted for himself, nor beheld 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 373 
 
 with favour in others. He looked upon them as no less 
 burdensome to the citizen than dangerous to the supremacy 
 of the laws. 
 
 In addition to these sources of division, men began already 
 to differ about the construction of the constitution, according 
 to their general tenets and principles of government : those 
 who thought the political danger most to be apprehended by 
 the United States to be that of disunion, inclining to that con 
 struction which would enlarge the powers of the federal 
 government ; and those who thought the tendency to con 
 solidation the most imminent danger, seeking to give to 
 that instrument a more strict and literal interpretation. 
 Most of the southern members belonged to this party, espe 
 cially those who had been opposed to the adoption of the 
 constitution ; and Mr. Madison, ever since the question of 
 assumption, had united with them, and had, in fact, taken 
 the lead in endeavouring to keep the new government to the 
 letter of its charter. It was not, however, until the succeed 
 ing session that this diversity became that plain and pal 
 pable line of distinction which it has remained ever since. 
 
 On the final settlement of the accounts among the states, 
 the predicted injustice and inexpediency of the assumption 
 were fully verified. Had there been no assumption, the 
 sum of 8,047,390 dollars was due to the states of Massachu 
 setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and South Carolina, from 
 the other states. In the very lucid exposition of the finances 
 of the United States, given by Mr. Gallatin some years 
 afterwards, it appears that the whole amount assumed on ac 
 count of the state debts, principal and interest, was 22,492,888 
 dollars ; and that after the assumption, the sum of 2,450,390 
 dollars was due from the states of New York, Delaware, 
 and North Carolina, to the other ten states : that if the 
 assumption had been founded on accurate data instead of 
 conjecture, it would have been necessary to assume only to 
 
374 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the amount of 11,609,259 dollars to produce the same result ; 
 and, in that case, the sum of 2,450,390 dollars would have 
 been due from the four states of New York, Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware, and Maryland, to the other nine : and " Thus," 
 as he justly remarks, " had the United States waited to as 
 sume the state debts till the accounts had been finally settled, 
 instead of assuming at random before a final settlement had 
 taken place, the very same result which now exists might 
 have been effected ; and the accounts of the Union with the 
 individual states might have been placed in the same rela 
 tive situation in which they now stand, by assuming eleven 
 millions instead of twenty-two. The additional and unne 
 cessary debt created by that fatal measure amounts there 
 fore to dollars 10,883,628AV" It was a more uncompensated 
 evil too, as the four creditor states of Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut, and South Carolina, would have re 
 ceived nearly the same amount of relief by the supposed 
 assumption of eleven millions that they did receive under 
 the actual assumption of twenty-two millions. 
 
 Two or three other incidents of this session may serve to 
 show the complexion of public sentiment, and the germ of 
 those political parties which subsequently so agitated the 
 country. One part of the plan of funding the public debt 
 was to make it unredeemable, except at the rate of one per 
 cent, annually, or two-thirds of one per cent., according to 
 the rate of interest. This feature was supported by some, 
 partly because it had been recommended by Mr. Hamilton, 
 and partly because it seemed to secure to the country 
 the supposed benefits of a national debt : and it was op 
 posed by others on these very accounts. Fortunately, this 
 part of the secretary s plan underwent a material modi 
 fication ; for had either of his propositions on this subject 
 prevailed, the public debt, instead of being now paid off, 
 would have been unextinguishable before 1890 or 1940, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 375 
 
 (according to the terms selected by the creditor), except at 
 a rate which might have enhanced the amount more than 
 50 per cent. 
 
 When the friends to the shipping interest sought to in 
 crease the duties on foreign tonnage, Mr. Madison proposed 
 to make a discrimination between those nations which had 
 commercial treaties with the United States and those which 
 had not; with the avowed intention of making^some return 
 to France for her services in the revolution, and of retaliating 
 on Great Britain for the illiberal course of her commercial 
 policy towards the United States. But the proposition was 
 earnestly resisted by Mr. Ames and Mr. Sedgwick of Mas 
 sachusetts, Mr. Fitzsimmons of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Smith 
 of South Carolina, who had been the principal supporters 
 of Mr. Hamilton s schemes of finance. Their opposition 
 may be ascribed rather to the fear that retaliation on the 
 part of Great Britain would lead to irritating collisions, and 
 to a conciliatory temper towards that country, than to aliena 
 tion towards her rival. The French revolution had indeed 
 already begun to be viewed very differently by men accord 
 ing as they had more or less confidence in the capacity of 
 mankind for self-government, and as they more affected the 
 blessings of civil liberty on the one hand, or those of peace, 
 order, and security on the other ; but it had not yet called 
 forth those passions which afterwards blazed so fiercely, and 
 which found fresh aliment for their heat and fury in every 
 domestic controversy. 
 
 Mr. Madison having failed in his first proposition, offered 
 two others, founded on the principle of reciprocity in com 
 merce. By the first of these propositions, which was levelled 
 at the restrictions on the West India trade, it was provided 
 that whenever a foreign nation prohibited American ships 
 from transporting merchandise from any of its ports to the 
 United States, their ships should be subjected to a like pro- 
 
376 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 hibition ; and should, moreover, be prohibited from trans 
 porting from the United States to such ports any products 
 of the United States. The second, which was intended to 
 countervail the British Navigation Act, provided that where 
 any nation prohibits American ships from carrying to its 
 ports any commodity, not the product of the United States, 
 the ships of such nation should be subject to a similar re 
 striction in their imports into the United States. This 
 measure met with a more favourable reception from some 
 of the members of the northern states. It was, however, 
 unpalatable to a part of the southern members, and was 
 not finally acted on. 
 
 At this session it was proposed that the senate should 
 open its doors when sitting in its legislative capacity. The 
 motion was however rejected; and although it was renewed 
 at each succeeding session, it was not adopted until Feb 
 ruary, 1794, when such had been the change of opinion in 
 the body, or rather the force of public sentiment, that but 
 eight members voted in the negative. 
 
 Two days after the adjournment of Congress on the 12th 
 of August, Mr. Jefferson accompanied the President with 
 a small party on a week s excursion to Rhode Island, and in 
 the following month he sought a respite from his official 
 duties by a visit to Monticello. He remained there until 
 the middle of November, when he repaired to Philadelphia, 
 to which place the seat of the federal government was now 
 transferred. 
 
 When, during the summer, there was a prospect of a rup 
 ture between Great Britain and Spain concerning Nootka 
 Sound, the Secretary of State wrote to our minister at Ma 
 drid, Mr. Carmichael, to press into the notice of the Spanish 
 government the claims of our citizens to the navigation of 
 the Mississippi, and the right of deposit at New Orleans. 
 The people who had even then migrated from the Atlantic 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 377 
 
 states to the West, had become extremely impatient of the 
 difficulties which Spain had thrown in the way of the navi 
 gation of the Mississippi to the ocean, and of their having 
 a depot near its mouth, without which the navigation would 
 be of little practical benefit. Mr. Jefferson conceiving that 
 if the rupture then expected between England and Spain 
 should take place, it would be a favourable moment to press 
 our claims, urged Mr. Short to sound the French govern 
 ment on the subject, and to endeavour to secure its good 
 offices. He at the same time mentioned that the Count de 
 Moustier, while minister here, had formed the project of 
 establishing a French colony on the Mississippi, which pro 
 ject, he suggests, if it had been successful, would not have 
 proved ultimately beneficial to France. He recommends 
 Mr. Short to communicate with the Marquis de la Fayctte, 
 on whose kind offices to the United States he could safely 
 count. At this time our wishes were limited to the island of 
 New Orleans, containing about 160 square miles, and lying 
 90 miles above the mouths of the Mississippi ; and even 
 this cession he was urged to propose with great caution. 
 Yet in little more than ten years from that time, Mr. Jef 
 ferson was able, by a concurrence of good fortune with states 
 manlike vigilance and promptitude, peaceably to acquire it, 
 together with a country a hundred times its value, and seve 
 ral thousand times its extent. 
 
 Another circumstance, noticed in Mr. Jefferson s official 
 correspondence at this time, marks, by the force of contrast, 
 the advancement which our country has since made in the 
 eyes of other nations, particularly of the one which has 
 always stood in the relation of either open enmity or 
 commercial rivalship. Great Britain had at this time in 
 New York an informal agent, Major Beckwith, who w r as 
 afterwards Governor of Bermuda, for the purpose of watch 
 ing the motions of Congress, and of performing the office of 
 
378 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 an informal minister, so far as concerned his own govern 
 ment. This gentleman had proposed that the nations 
 should exchange ministers, which being assented to by the 
 President, one was forthwith sent from the United States ; 
 but the ministry of Great Britain, under the influence of 
 pride or ill humour, suffered three years to elapse without 
 reciprocating this mark of national courtesy, though its ap 
 pointment of an unaccredited agent virtually acknowledged 
 the importance of having a representative in the United 
 States*. 
 
 Through Major Beckwith the British ministry talked not 
 only of a minister, but of a treaty of commerce and alliance, 
 which last was viewed by Mr. Jefferson with no favour. 
 "If the object be honourable," he remarked to Mr. Gouver- 
 neur Morris, then also an informal agent from this country 
 to Great Britain, "it is useless; if dishonourable, inadmis 
 sible. These tamperings prove they view a war as very 
 possible ; and some symptoms indicate designs against the 
 Spanish possessions adjoining us. The consequences of 
 their acquiring all the country on our frontier, from the 
 St. Croix to the St. Mary s, are too obvious to you to need 
 developement. You will readily see the dangers which 
 would then environ us. We wish you, therefore, to inti 
 mate to them that we cannot be indifferent to enterprises 
 of this kind ; that we should contemplate a change of 
 neighbours with extreme uneasiness; and that a due ba 
 lance on our borders is not less desirable to us than a ba 
 lance of power in Europe has always appeared to them. 
 
 * It has now [March, 1836] been four years since we had any minis 
 ter in Great Britain above the rank of a Charge d Affaires, and in this 
 interval she has sent a minister, Sir Charles Vaughan, of higher rank 
 than she ever sent before. It is true that the circumstances attending 
 this seeming failure in national courtesy preclude the supposition of 
 purposed disrespect : but forty years ago the explanation would hardly 
 have been deemed sufficient. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 379 
 
 We wish to be neutral, and will be so, if they will execute 
 the treaty fairly, and attempt no conquests adjoining us." 
 This communication was, however, restricted to the event 
 of a war ; but they were to be told that " in no case the 
 UnitedJ States would accept any equivalent for the western 
 posts still retained by Great Britain." 
 
 Among Mr. Jefferson s official acts this year were two 
 reports on subjects referred to him by the HOUSQ of Repre 
 sentatives. The first, dated April 14, was concerning the 
 proposals made by an individual in England to supply the 
 United States with a copper coinage. The secretary, after 
 bearing testimony to the qualifications of the undertaker, 
 thought that his proposals should be declined on the grounds 
 that " coinage being an attribute of sovereignty," should 
 not be submitted to another sovereign ; that to exercise it 
 in a foreign country would be on many accounts incon 
 venient, and was without example ; and he recommended 
 that a mint, whenever established, should be established at 
 home. 
 
 The other report, on the subject of weights and measures, 
 was sent in on the 17th of December. It recommended the 
 pendulum in the latitude of 45 north as the standard of 
 lineal and other measures, and rainwater at a given tempe 
 rature as the standard of weight ; and it further recom 
 mended a system of decimal divisions both for measures and 
 weights. Both reports were written with his accustomed 
 perspicuity, neatness, and good sense. The one on coinage 
 was virtually adopted ; the other appears never to have 
 been acted on. The difficulty on this subject has always 
 been not so much in devising a uniform system of weights 
 and measures as of carrying it into execution, opposed as it 
 is by the inveteracy of popular and familiar habits. The 
 want of legislative provision concerning it has been long 
 felt, and though the subject has been frequently brought to 
 
380 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the notice of Congress, especially in the very full and able 
 report of Mr. Adams when Secretary of State, no reform 
 has yet been attempted. Probably the inherent practical 
 difficulties in introducing a system of uniformity have been 
 so satisfactorily shown by Mr. Adams, that Congress, deem 
 ing that object unattainable, has become indifferent to a 
 minor reformation. 
 
 He also made inquiries concerning the fisheries of the 
 United States, in consequence of a reference by the House 
 of Representatives of a memorial on the subject from the 
 legislature of Massachusetts. These inquiries were directed 
 to the number of vessels fitted out each year for the cod 
 fishery ; their tonnage ; the number of seamen employed ; 
 the quantity of fish taken, distinguishing the superior from 
 the inferior quality; the quantity exported, and to what 
 places ; the average prices at the places exported. Similar 
 inquiries were directed as to the whale fishery, all of which 
 information was digested into a report on the meeting of 
 Congress. 
 
 He wrote a circular letter to our consuls and vice-consuls, 
 pointing out their duties; the information expected from 
 them ; and the course of conduct to be observed by them in 
 their communications with foreign governments. 
 
 By letters received from Mr. Gouverneur Morris, during 
 the summer, it plainly appeared that the British ministry 
 were not then disposed to settle matters amicably with us, 
 as the principal inducement of their late friendly overtures, 
 the prospect of a rupture with Spain, had now ceased. He 
 was therefore requested by Mr. Jefferson, in a letter of the 
 17th of December, to discontinue his applications on the 
 subject. 
 
 The first occasion on which there was an exhibition of 
 party feeling in Congress, was that of an excise, or a duty 
 on home-distilled spirits. This had been one of the modes 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 381 
 
 of revenue originally proposed by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, and the necessity of a species of tax which was 
 supposed to be expensive in the collection, and known to be 
 odious, constituted one of the arguments against the as 
 sumption of the state debts. After there appeared to be a 
 majority opposed to that measure at the last session, the 
 bill laying an excise was, on the 2nd of June, rejected in 
 the House of Representatives by 35 votes to 23, apparently 
 on the ground that other taxes, more free from objection, 
 might be substituted in its place. 
 
 But the house having, at the close of the session, required 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to report such further provi 
 sion as he should think necessary for the support of public 
 credit, he accordingly, on the 13th of December, sent in a 
 long and elaborate report, renewing his recommendation of 
 an excise, and further recommending the establishment of 
 a national bank. The excise was strongly opposed by a 
 part of those who objected to it at the preceding session, 
 but it finally passed by a large majority 35 to 21 from a 
 conviction that a further revenue was necessary, since the state 
 debts had been added to those of the United States, and Con 
 gress possessed no more eligible means of supplying it. 
 
 The bill to establish a national bank, which the Senate 
 had passed on the 20th of January, with only five dissenti 
 ents, afforded the next occasion for party excitement. The 
 secretary in his first report had stated that he meant to 
 submit the plan of such an institution ; and the scheme was 
 not viewed favourably from the first by the minority in 
 Congress, because it obviously tended to benefit the moneyed 
 interest, and to bring an accession of strength to the govern 
 ment, and because such were believed to be its main objects ; 
 but the bill encountered no serious opposition till after its 
 third reading, when, on a motion to recommit it, commenced 
 a debate which continued for eight days. 
 
382 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 As men are still divided about the constitutionality of a 
 bank of the United States, it may not be uninteresting to 
 see by what arguments its establishment was first assailed 
 and defended. 
 
 The opponents of the measure began with reminding its 
 friends that the government of the United States was one 
 of a peculiar character : that it could act only within the 
 limits expressly prescribed by the constitution ; that Con 
 gress must therefore look into that instrument for the 
 evidences of any power it would exercise, and if it cannot 
 there be found, it does not exist. They then proceeded to 
 examine in detail those parts of the constitution from which 
 it had been or might be claimed. " 
 
 They said it could not be deduced from the clause which 
 authorizes Congress to lay taxes to pay the debts of the 
 nation, and to provide for the common defence and general 
 welfare, for this clause did not give a general authority to 
 Congress to further those objects, but only so far as it could 
 be done by laying taxes, and it therefore could have no 
 application to this bill, which imposed no tax whatever. 
 To consider the words " general welfare" as giving any 
 power of themselves would be inconsistent with the ordinary 
 rules of interpretation, would render the enumeration of 
 particular powers nugatory, and have the effect of annulling 
 the powers reserved to the state governments. 
 
 That the power in question could not be derived from the 
 clause which authorizes Congress to borrow money, as no 
 money is borrowed by the bill; that the power to borrow 
 money is merely the power to obtain it on loan from those 
 who are both able and willing to lend; and to say that the 
 power to borrow involves the power to create the ability to 
 lend, with those who have the will, is as forced a construction 
 as it would be to say that the clause gives the power to 
 compel the will where the ability exists. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 383 
 
 Nor can the power be derived from the authority given 
 to Congress to regulate commerce, as the bill proposes no 
 regulation of trade, but merely aims to provide one of the 
 materials of trade ; and indeed if the creation of a bank were 
 a regulation of commerce, then it would be forbidden by the 
 constitution, as it prohibits Congress from giving a prefer 
 ence to one port over another, which this bank would cer 
 tainly give to Philadelphia. 
 
 Nor can any argument in support of the bill be drawn 
 from the clause which authorizes Congress to pass all laws 
 that are necessary and proper for carrying the express powers 
 into effect ; for it is not enough that a measure may be 
 conducive to any of the ends proposed by the constitution ; 
 it must also be necessary that without which the end could 
 not be effected ; to give the enlarged construction contended 
 for, would be to enable Congress to exercise any legislative 
 power whatever ; and supposes that the framers of the con 
 stitution had by one clause done away with all the restric 
 tions they had been at so much pains by other clauses to 
 impose ; that by this doctrine of implication, to borrow money 
 is made the end, and the accumulation of capitals, implied as 
 the means ; accumulation is then the end, and a bank implied 
 as the means ; the bank is again the end, and a charter of 
 incorporation, a monopoly, capital punishments implied as 
 the means ; and that by thus deducing one implication from 
 another, a chain may be formed to reach every object of 
 legislation. 
 
 It was further urged, that these arguments lost none of 
 their force by the fact that the power now claimed was 
 an unimportant one, and therefore had not been thought 
 deserving of a special provision. The power to establish a 
 corporation was said to be a substantive and highly impor 
 tant power, of which the present bill afforded a strong illus 
 tration in granting a valuable monopoly ; in enabling the 
 
384 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 bank to make important by-laws ; in conferring the right 
 to purchase and hold real estate, which the United States 
 themselves could not do, without the permission of the 
 states ; and in tying up the hands of future legislatures. 
 
 In answer to the argument drawn from the establishment 
 of the bank of North America, it was said that that act was 
 clearly unauthorized by the articles of confederation, and 
 had been excused on the ground of necessity. 
 
 And lastly, it was insisted that the construction of the 
 constitution, maintained by the opposers of the bill, was 
 confirmed by the contemporaneous exposition of those who 
 defended it before the people, as well as of the conventions 
 who ratified it, and by some of the explanatory amend 
 ments ; and that to disregard an interpretation so generally 
 adopted then, would justify the predictions of the opposers 
 of the constitution, and subject some of its friends to the 
 reproach of having used one set of arguments to bring about 
 its adoption, and another in administering it after it was 
 adopted. 
 
 The advocates of the bank admitted that the powers of 
 the government were limited by the constitution ; but in 
 sisted that, in giving that instrument a proper interpreta 
 tion, such a one as would make it answer the purposes 
 intended by its framers, it must have implied as well as 
 expressed powers ; in proof of which they referred to many 
 acts already done by Congress, and for which the constitu 
 tion contained no express warrant ; that the limited charac 
 ter of the government furnished no good reason for a strict 
 rather than a liberal construction, as there might be as much 
 mischief in failing to exercise a power meant to be granted 
 as in exercising one not so intended. It was urged, that 
 the power given by the constitution to borrow would be 
 directly and greatly facilitated by the bank, and might even, 
 on the event of war, prove indispensable ; and they referred 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 385 
 
 to the case of the bank of North America, established by 
 the old Congress, as a proof of its great importance, and that 
 Congress had the power to create a bank, as it confessedly 
 possessed larger powers under the present constitution, than 
 its predecessors possessed under the articles of confederation ; 
 they insisted that the words " necessary and proper" meant, 
 that which had an obvious and direct tendency to promote 
 the end provided for by the constitution ; that this interpre 
 tation was justified by the ordinary import of the words ; by 
 the sense in which they had been already understood ; and 
 by the inexccution of some of the powers of Congress, which 
 would be the consequence of the opposite interpretation, 
 since any particular measure could seldom be indispensably 
 necessary to effect a constitutional object, but was only one 
 of several modes which were conducive to that end ; that a 
 bank would afford a direct and important aid, which nothing 
 else could supply in borrowing money whenever it should be 
 necessary; in collecting taxes at all times; in paying the 
 public creditors in the several states ; in regulating com 
 merce from state to state by regulating exchange ; and being 
 thus necessary and proper for the execution of these several 
 powers expressly granted, it had the direct sanction of the 
 constitution. They added, that as to the powers said to be 
 given to the corporation, they are such as the individuals 
 composing it already possessed ; to hold lands, lend money, 
 issue notes, &c. ; by which they were merely allowed to do, 
 in their corporate capacity, what they previously could do 
 as individuals ; and although this difference is very im 
 portant to the persons interested, and very beneficial to the 
 community, it cannot be considered as bringing any im 
 portant accession of power to the general government, or 
 taking away any from the states. 
 
 In answer to the arguments drawn from the contempo 
 raneous exposition of the constitution, they said, that in the 
 
 VOL. i. 2 c 
 
386 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 interpretation of a written constitution, the instrument itself 
 was alone to be consulted ; and that to search for the inten 
 tions of its framers from extrinsic evidence would lead to 
 endless uncertainty and dispute, and defeat the purpose of a 
 written constitution, of the truth of which the present occa 
 sion afforded an example ; as the convention refused to 
 grant to Congress the power to establish commercial corpo 
 rations, and the amendment proposed by several of the 
 states, by which Congress should be prohibited from 
 creating companies with exclusive privileges, showed that 
 they thought the power was already possessed ; that it seems 
 more fair to presume, if it had not been intended that Con 
 gress should possess the power of creating a bank, they 
 would have used negative words, than that they intended 
 the contrary by their silence, when it is recollected that the 
 same power had been exercised by the old Congress, and 
 that its constitutionality had never been called in question ; 
 that if this mode of interpretation were resorted to, it would 
 not avail the opponents of the bank, because the refusal of 
 the convention to give to Congress the power to create 
 corporations, related solely to commercial corporations, which 
 would always be impolitic ; because too, if the refusal had 
 been applied to a banking corporation, it could not appear 
 whether some members had not voted against the propo 
 sition, on the ground that the power was already possessed, 
 and that the specification of this case might be construed to 
 exclude the salutary exercise of power in analogous cases ; 
 which considerations are the more probable, as they knew 
 that Congress had created a bank under the far more limited 
 powers of the confederation ; and that this exercise of power 
 had received the silent acquiescence, or active co-operation 
 of all the states ; and lastly, because several of the states 
 had proposed, in their amendments to the constitution, that 
 Congress should be prohibited from establishing commer- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 387 
 
 cial corporations, thus plainly showing that they considered 
 the power to have been actually conferred by the constitution. 
 
 In March, 1791, Mr. Jefferson, by order of the President 
 of the United States, addressed a letter to the President of 
 the National Assembly of France, in answer to their decree 
 of the llth of June preceding, which paid the tribute of 
 their respect to the memory of Dr. Franklin. After advert 
 ing to the decree, he thus proceeds : 
 
 tf That the loss of such a citizen should be lamented by 
 us, among whom he lived, whom he so long and eminently 
 served, and who feel their country advanced and honoured 
 by his birth, life and labours, was to be expected. But it 
 remained for the National Assembly of France to set the 
 first example of the representatives of one nation, doing 
 homage, by a public act, to the private citizen of another, 
 and by withdrawing arbitrary lines of separation, to reduce 
 into one fraternity the good and the great, wherever they 
 have lived or died. 
 
 " That these separations may disappear between us in all 
 times and circumstances, and that the union of sentiment 
 which mingles our sorrows on this occasion, may continue 
 long to cement the friendship and the interests of our two 
 nations, is our constant prayer. With no one is it more 
 sincere than with him who, in being charged with the 
 honour of conveying a public sentiment, is permitted that 
 of expressing the homage of profound respect, with which he 
 is, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, 
 
 " TH. JEFFERSON/ 
 
 Mr. Carmichael was now instructed to press the surrender 
 of the port of Natchez, on the Mississippi ; to represent to 
 the Spanish government the dangers of further delay ; and 
 to demand indemnity for the seizure of an American citizen 
 in that neighbourhood, by a party of Spanish soldiers, in 
 
 2c2 
 
388 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the year 1787. Mr. Jefferson remarked, that an accident 
 at this day, like that now complained of, would put farther 
 parley beyond our power; yet to such accidents we are every 
 day exposed by the irregularities of their officers, and the 
 impatience of our citizens. Should any spark kindle these 
 dispositions of our borderers into a flame, we are involved, 
 beyond recall, by the eternal principles of justice to our 
 citizens, which we will never abandon. In such an event 
 Spain cannot possibly gain, and what may she not lose* ?" 
 
 The attention of Mr. Short was also called to the same 
 subject, and to the right of navigating the Mississippi, as 
 the wishes of France were likely to have much weight with 
 the court of Spain. 
 
 In the same month Mr. Jefferson entered into a discus 
 sion with the French minister, Mr. Otto, on the fair con 
 struction of our treaty with France, in consequence of an 
 expression of the act of Congress which laid the ton age 
 duty, " without excepting those of France/ which reserva 
 tion he shows to be in strict conformity with the treaty, and 
 with the construction which France, in her own commercial 
 regulations, had practically adopted. 
 
 * There was reason to believe that the backwardness on the part of 
 Spain to yield to the wishes and claims of our government, might be in 
 part attributed to the representations which their minister to the United 
 States, Mr. Gardoqui, made to his government, and which " tended to 
 impress the court of Madrid with the belief, that the navigation of the 
 Mississippi was only demanded, on our part, to quiet our western settlers, 
 and that it was not sincerely desired by the maritime states." In com 
 menting on this false view of the matter to Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Jeffer 
 son admits, that " there were characters whose stations entitled them to 
 credit, and who, from geographical prejudices, did not themselves wish 
 the navigation of the Mississippi to be restored to us, and who believe, 
 perhaps, as is common with mankind, that their opinion was the general 
 opinion. But the sentiments of the great mass of the union were de 
 cidedly otherwise then, and the very persons to whom Mr. Gardoqui 
 alluded, have now come over to the opinion heartily, that the navigation 
 of the Mississippi, in full and unrestrained freedom, is indispensably 
 necessary, and must be obtained by any means it may call for." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 389 
 
 The two objects of foreign policy which the administra 
 tion seemed to have most at heart at this time were, the 
 free navigation of the Mississippi, together with a place of 
 deposit near its mouth, and a navigation act. At the pre 
 ceding session of Congress, a bill formed with the view of 
 counteracting the policy of the British navigation laws had 
 been prepared by a committee, but the subject not having 
 been finally acted on, for want of time, it had been referred 
 to the Secretary of State for him to examine it, and report 
 on it at the subsequent session. During the following 
 summer, in furtherance of the same object, our ministers at 
 the courts of France Spain and Portugal, were instructed 
 to communicate with the governments of those countries, 
 and to invite their co-operation, " with a view of reducing 
 that power within safer limits, and of better securing the 
 freedom of the ocean to all the world." 
 
 In April, General Washington having determined to 
 make a tour through the southern states, addressed a letter 
 to the secretaries, Jefferson, Hamilton and Knox, informing 
 them of the time he expected to reach and to leave each 
 principal town in his route, that they might communicate 
 with him whenever occasion required it; and requesting 
 that if any question of importance occurred, they should, on 
 consultation, determine whether his personal attendance was 
 necessary, or could be dispensed with ; he promising, in the 
 first case, to return immediately, and, in the second, to 
 approve and ratify all legal and proper measures taken by 
 them. They were also requested to invite the Vice Presi 
 dent to their consultations. 
 
 Some occasion for consultation having occurred during 
 the President s absence, Mr. Jefferson accordingly invited 
 Mr. Adams, together with the Secretaries of the Treasury 
 and War and the Attorney- General, to dinner, for the pur 
 pose of conferring on the subject. A conversation took 
 
390 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 place on this occasion, which seems to have made a very 
 strong impression on Mr. Jefferson s mind, and of which he 
 gives the following account, " for the truth of which," he 
 says, " I attest the God who made me." 
 
 " After the cloth was removed, and our question argued 
 and dismissed, conversation began on other matters, and by 
 some circumstance was led to the British constitution, on 
 which Mr. Adams observed, Purge that constitution of its 
 corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of repre 
 sentation, and it would be the most perfect constitution ever 
 devised by the wit of man. Hamilton paused, and said, 
 * Purge it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch 
 equality of representation, and it would become an imprac 
 ticable government : as it stands at present, with all its sup 
 posed defects, it is the most perfect government which ever 
 existed. And this was assuredly the exact line which sepa 
 rated the political creeds of these two gentlemen. The one 
 was for two hereditary branches and an honest elective one : 
 the other, for an hereditary king, with a house of lords and 
 commons corrupted to his will, and standing between him 
 and the people. Hamilton was indeed a singular character. 
 Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honour 
 able in all private transactions, amiable in society, and duly 
 valuing virtue in private life, yet so bewitched and perverted 
 by the British example, as to be under thorough conviction 
 that corruption was essential to the government of a nation. 
 Mr. Adams had originally been a republican. The glare 
 of royalty and nobility, during his mission to England, had 
 made him believe their fascination a necessary ingredient 
 in government; and Shay s rebellion, not sufficiently under 
 stood where he then was, seemed to prove that the absence 
 of want and oppression was not a sufficient guarantee of 
 order. His book on the American constitution having made 
 known his political bias, ho was taken up by the monarchical 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 391 
 
 federalists in his absence, and, on his return to the United 
 States, he was by them made to believe that the gene 
 ral disposition of our citizens was favourable to monar 
 chy. He here wrote his Davila as a supplement to the 
 former work, and his election to the Presidency confirmed 
 him in his errors. Innumerable addresses, too, artfully and 
 industriously poured in upon him, deceived him into a con 
 fidence that he was on the pinnacle of popularity, when the 
 gulf was yawning at his feet which was to swallow up him 
 and his deceivers. For when General Washington was with 
 drawn, these enercjumeni of royalism, kept in check hitherto 
 by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his patriotism, and 
 the authority of his name, now mounted on the car of state, 
 and, free from control, like Phaeton on that of the sun, drove 
 headlong and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor 
 regarding any thing but the objects they were driving at, 
 until displaying these fully, the eyes of the nation were 
 opened, and a general disbandment of them from the public 
 councils took place." 
 
 It was no doubt under the influence of this and similar 
 conversations that he wrote what is contained in the fol 
 lowing 
 
 Extract of a letter to Mr. Short, dated July 28, 1791. 
 
 " Paine s pamphlet has been published and read with 
 
 general applause here. 1 " The Tory paper, Fenno s, 
 
 rarely admits any thing which defends the present form of 
 government in opposition to his desire of subverting it, to 
 make way for a king, lords, and commons. There are high 
 names* here in favour of this doctrine, but these publications 
 
 * The letter here refers to the following note, in cipher : " Adams, Jay, 
 Hamilton, Knox, and many of the Cincinnati. The second says nothing: 
 the third is open. Both are dangerous. They pant after union with 
 England, as the power which is to support their projects, and are most 
 determined Antigallicans. It is prognosticated that our republic is to 
 
392 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 have drawn forth, pretty generally, expressions of the pub 
 lic sentiment on this subject, and I thank God they are, to 
 a man, firm as a rock in their republicanism." 
 
 A few months afterwards, August the 13th, as appears by 
 extracts from his diary, appended to his correspondence, 
 Mr. Jefferson had a conversation with Colonel Hamilton, 
 in which he mentioned to Hamilton " a letter received from 
 Mr. Adams, disavowing Publicola, and denying that he ever 
 entertained a wish to bring this country under an hereditary 
 executive, or introduce an hereditary branch of legislature, 
 &c. Alexander Hamilton then, after having condemned 
 Mr. Adams s writings, and most particularly Davila, as tend 
 ing to weaken the present government, declared in substance 
 as follows : I own it is my own opinion, though I do not 
 publish it in Dan or Beersheba, that the present government 
 is not that which will answer the ends of society, by giving 
 stability and protection to its rights, and that it will pro 
 bably be found expedient to go into the British form. How 
 ever, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for 
 giving it a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. 
 The success, indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, 
 and, therefore, at present, success seems more probable than 
 it had done heretofore, and there are still other and other 
 stages of improvement which, if the present does not succeed, 
 may be tried, and ought to be tried, before we give up the 
 republican form altogether; for that mind must be really 
 depraved, which would not prefer the equality of political 
 rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if it 
 can be obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever 
 by his writings disturbs the present order of things, is really 
 blamable, however pure his intentions may be, and he was 
 
 end with the President s life, but I believe they will find themselves all 
 head and no body." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 393 
 
 sure Mr. Adams s were pure. This is the substance of a 
 declaration made in much more lengthy terms, and which 
 seemed to be more formal than usual for a private conversa 
 tion between two, and as if intended to qualify some less 
 guarded expression which had been dropped on former oc 
 casions. Thomas Jefferson has committed it to writing in 
 the moment of A. Hamilton s leaving the room." 
 
 There are persons who have censured Mr, Jefferson for 
 thus committing private conversations to paper, and for pre 
 serving them, so as to give them the very probable chance 
 of publicity ; since every one is in the habit of expressing 
 himself on these occasions, not only with more freedom than 
 he would when writing for the public, but also more loosely 
 and inaccurately; and, therefore, opinions which he may 
 never have intended to pass beyond the pale of his intimate 
 and confidential friends, are published to the world ; and 
 opinions, moreover, are given as his, which he might not 
 have deliberately entertained. There is no one who is not 
 more guarded in writing than in conversation ; in preparing 
 a paper for publication, than one intended only for the eye 
 of a friend ; in framing a deposition, than in making a less 
 solemn statement ; yet the ethics, they say, which would jus 
 tify the act in question, would confound these distinctions. 
 
 But, on the other hand, it may be said that the speculative 
 opinion^ of politicians and statesmen stand upon a different 
 footing from those of ordinary men. The public has a right 
 to know the sentiments of him whom they entrust with poli 
 tical power ; for whatever confidence they may have in his 
 integrity, they are aware that he may, under an unconscious 
 bias, favour his own opinions in doubtful cases. Nor can 
 any man s mere integrity be as good a security for his doing 
 right, as the same integrity coupled with his interest ; for 
 in the first case he is exposed to temptations, from which 
 in the last he is exempt. These considerations are at once 
 
394 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 so obvious and so cogent, that the people always insist on 
 knowing the political opinions of their agents, and these 
 profess always to declare them. In the case of those public 
 functionaries, indeed, who do not receive their appointment 
 immediately from the people, there is often more uncertainty 
 in their sentiments ; but, according to the theory of our 
 government, where all power flows from the people, and is 
 intended to be exercised for their benefit, the right appears 
 to be the same. It would follow then that the people may 
 justly claim to be informed of the acts or speeches of suck 
 civil officers, so far as the same can convey information of 
 their political sentiments. 
 
 Upon the whole, this seems to be one of those delicate 
 but not uncommon questions among casuists, in which the 
 arguments on both sides are so strong that it cannot always 
 be decided in one way; but it may be sometimes right and 
 sometimes wrong to treasure up and to communicate the dis 
 closures of private intercourse. Thus we would say, that the 
 rule ought not to be the same for an officer possessing large 
 discretionary powers, and a mere subordinate; for a case 
 in which there had been an express injunction of secrecy, 
 and where there had been no such precaution; for one in 
 which the publication was immediate, and another where it 
 had been postponed, until, by the death of the actors, or 
 other circumstances, the communication could no longer be 
 personally injurious ; or where the sentiments uttered cast 
 an imputation on the moral character, and one where they 
 could have no such effect ; or, lastly, where the publication 
 was essential to the vindication of the publisher, and where 
 it was altogether gratuitous. 
 
 Now all these distinctions serve to justify Mr. Jefferson, 
 the last especially. He had been long charged by his ene 
 mies with imputing to a political rival opinions and designs 
 which he knew were distasteful to the American people, and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 395 
 
 were at the same time unfounded, with a view of injuring 
 that rival in the public estimation. He had been accused 
 of a systematic opposition to a wise and patriotic adminis 
 tration from selfish and illiberal motives, under the pretext 
 that their measures were intended to prepare the people for 
 a government of greater power and splendour. It is clear 
 then that he had a direct interest in showing that his pre 
 vious accusations were not false, nor his suspicions ground 
 less, by exhibiting the private unreserved declarations of 
 the individuals themselves. It has been further objected 
 that Mr. Jefferson s testimony is that of an interested wit 
 ness ; but this circumstance can only affect the weight of his 
 testimony, not the right to adduce it, and obtain for it as 
 much as it is fairly worth in his own defence. 
 
 But he may be justified on still broader ground. Let it 
 be granted, that the conversation, as detailed by Mr. Jef 
 ferson, actually took place : if he conceived the sentiments 
 then expressed to be dangerous in a man of Colonel Hamil 
 ton s talents, station, and popularity, was he not justified as 
 a true patriot and an honest man, in opposing his further 
 acquisition of power, in endeavouring to prevent his event 
 ual attainment of the presidency, and in suspecting the 
 object and tendency of his favourite measures ? Every 
 candid mind will answer in the affirmative. It would natu 
 rally seem to him that he might, not merely for his own 
 justification, but also to prevent mischief to his country, 
 avail himself of such evidence as he could obtain, without 
 an immoral or dishonourable act, for establishing the truth ; 
 and divulge that which the people had a right to know, 
 which Colonel Hamilton himself was under a moral obliga 
 tion to disclose, and was in fact at no pains to conceal. It 
 may be further remarked, that as to the political senti 
 ments of such men as Alexander Hamilton, historical truth 
 has its claims, and that one who had such opportunities of 
 
396 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 knowing them as Mr. Jefferson, would perhaps have been 
 unfaithful to posterity not to have shed on them all the 
 light that he could. 
 
 In May, a consul was appointed to the new emperor of 
 Morocco; his father and predecessor having, of all the 
 Barbary powers, shown the most friendly disposition towards 
 the United States. Mr. Barclay of Virginia, who received 
 the appointment, was authorized to make presents to the 
 persons about the emperor, to the amount of 10,000 dollars. 
 
 Whatever dissatisfaction Mr. Jefferson may have felt at 
 some of the measures pursued by the majority in Congress, 
 it did not make him insensible to the prosperous state of 
 the nation at that period, nor to the benign agency of the 
 newly adopted government in producing so happy a result. 
 He thus writes to Mr. Fulwar Skipwith, American consul in 
 France : " In general our affairs are proceeding in a train 
 of unparalleled prosperity. This arises from the real im 
 provement of our government ; from the unbounded con 
 fidence reposed in it by the people ; their zeal to support it, 
 and their conviction that a solid union is the best rock of 
 their safety ; from the favourable seasons which, for some 
 years past, have co-operated with a fertile soil and genial 
 climate, to increase the productions of agriculture ; and 
 from the growth of industry, economy, and domestic manu 
 factures. So that, I believe, I may say with truth, that 
 there is not a nation under the sun enjoying more present 
 prosperity, nor with more in prospect." 
 
 To Colonel Humphreys he, about the same time, thus 
 bears testimony to the state of the public credit: " Our bank 
 was filled with subscriptions the moment it was opened. 
 Eight millions were the whole permitted to be subscribed, 
 of which two millions were deposited in cash, the residue to 
 be public paper. Every other symptom is equally favour 
 able to public credit." This sudden influx of good fortune 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 397 
 
 was attended with its usual abuse, a disposition to exchange 
 the regular pursuits of industry for adventurous traffic, and 
 whatever business held out the temptations of a lottery. 
 Mr. Jefferson tells Mr. Gouverneur Morris, in August of 
 this year : " Our public credit is good, but the abundance of 
 paper has produced a spirit of gambling in the funds which 
 has laid up our ships at the wharves, as too slow instru 
 ments of profit, and has even disarmed the hand of the 
 tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will 
 cure itself: I wish it may : but I have rarely seen a gamester 
 cured, even by the disasters of his vocation." 
 
 The effect of the speculations in the funds on the habits 
 and character of the people, especially in the cities and 
 towns, was greater than can well be imagined by one who 
 was not an eye witness. The claims on the government 
 which had currently sold in the market for three or four 
 shillings in the pound, and occasionally for even less, rose, 
 after the debt was funded, first to par, and then to 25 per 
 cent, above it. The fortunes which had been suddenly made 
 by this extraordinary increase of price dazzled the imagi 
 nations of men, and seduced numbers from their ordinary 
 pursuits to engage in the business of speculation ; and as 
 the wild lands of the country bore a very low price in the 
 market, from the facility with which they were obtained in 
 many of the states, they also furnished a ready means on 
 which this gambling spirit could exercise itself. The field 
 was the greater, as in some of the states which had the 
 largest portions of vacant territory, by an imperfection in 
 their system of land laws, the same land may have been 
 comprehended in several different grants, and in these 
 grants the state governments were not considered as gua 
 ranteeing the land to the patentee. They merely gave him 
 authority to possess himself of such unoccupied land as 
 he could find, for which authority, or " warrant," he paid 
 
398 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 some trifling sum about two cents an acre ; and the duty of 
 finding land which had no previous owner, on which he could 
 make his location, and of having a survey of the land, so as 
 to afford the material facts for his patent or grant, devolved 
 wholly on the holder of the warrant. Under this vicious 
 system, so fruitful of inaccuracy, and so encouraging to fraud, 
 the market was glutted with wild lands; much of which 
 being embraced in several different patents, could not be 
 obtained but by a long and expensive course of litigation, 
 and much too was utterly worthless when obtained. The 
 spirit of speculation which was thus engendered, not only 
 lessened the sum of useful industry and profitable enter 
 prise, but greatly weakened the sense of justice and private 
 integrity; and the tendency of these sudden acquisitions 
 of wealth, by speculations, whether fair or fraudulent, and 
 the hopes they would naturally excite in others, begat a 
 taste for luxury and expense that greatly counteracted the 
 extraordinary sources of prosperity which the nation then 
 enjoyed. 
 
 One of the measures taken by the National Assembly of 
 France to encourage their navigation gave great cause of 
 complaint to the United States. This was a discriminating 
 duty of 62 1 livres per hogshead between their ships and 
 ours, by the operation of which, our vessels must necessarily 
 be excluded from their ports ; and the measure was the more 
 objectionable, as the whole shipping of France being inade 
 quate to the wants of her foreign commerce, and this dis 
 crimination giving their vessels a monopoly of the commerce 
 with the United States, a void would be left in other branches 
 of their trade, which would be filled by the English, Dutch 
 and Swedes, so that the policy would have the effect of in 
 juring us without benefiting themselves. The illiberality 
 and impolicy of this course were pointed out by Mr. Jeffer 
 son to Mr. Short. It seems to have been meant as a reta- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 399 
 
 liation on our tonnage duty on foreign vessels ; but this 
 was represented by Mr. Jefferson as merely equivalent to 
 certain port charges in France, under the specific forms of 
 fees for anchorage, buoys and beacons, or of fees to mea 
 surers, weighers and gangers. 
 
 In speaking of the French West Indies, he requests 
 Mr. Short, while he disclaims all views of conquest on the 
 part of the United States, to intimate with Caution and 
 delicacy, the natural claim which every nation seems to have 
 to trade with its neighbours. "In casting our eyes over 
 the earth," he writes, "we see no instance of a nation for 
 bidden as we are, by foreign powers, to deal with neigh 
 bours, and obliged by them to carry into another hemisphere 
 the mutual supplies necessary to relieve mutual wants. This 
 is not merely a question between the foreign power and our 
 neighbour. We are interested in it equally with the latter, 
 and nothing but moderation, at least, with respect to us, can 
 render us indifferent to its continuance." He thus concludes 
 his remarks : " In policy, if not in justice, they should be 
 disposed to avoid oppression, which falling on us as well as 
 on their colonies, might tempt us to act together." This 
 part of the letter was suggested, as he says in a note which 
 presented it to the consideration of General Washington, 
 by the "ill humour into which the French colonies were 
 getting ; and the little dependence on the troops sent thither, 
 may produce a hesitation in the National Assembly as to 
 the conditions they will impose in their constitution. In a 
 moment of hesitation small matters may influence their 
 decision. They may see the impolicy of insisting on par 
 ticular conditions, which, operating as grievances on us, 
 might produce a concert of action." The President seems 
 to have consented to the suggestions, especially as Mr. Short 
 was to exercise his discretion, how he should make them 
 known, and whether he should communicate them or not. 
 
400 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 In a letter to General Knox, the Secretary of War, which 
 noticed the claim of the South Carolina Yazoo company, 
 Mr. Jefferson thus speaks of the territorial rights of the 
 Indians : " I am of opinion that government should firmly 
 maintain this ground : that the Indians have a right to the 
 occupation of their lands, independent of the states within 
 whose chartered lines they happen to be ; that until they 
 cede them by treaty, or other transaction equivalent to a 
 treaty, no act of a state can give a right to such lands ; 
 that neither under the present constitution, nor the ancient 
 confederation, had any state or person a right to treat with 
 the Indians, without the consent of the general government ; 
 that that consent has never been given to any treaty for 
 the cession of the lands in question ; that the government is 
 determined to exert all its energy for the patronage and 
 protection of the rights of the Indians, and the preservation 
 of peace between the United States and them ; and that if 
 any settlements are made on lands not ceded by them, 
 without the previous consent of the United States, the govern 
 ment will think itself bound, not only to declare to the 
 Indians that such settlements are without the authority or 
 protection of the United States, but to remove them also by 
 the public force." 
 
 These doctrines are repugnant not only to the claims set 
 up by the state of Georgia to the Indian lands within its 
 limits, but also to the doctrines of exclusive sovereignty 
 which have been asserted by South Carolina, and which, it 
 deserves to be remarked, Mr. Jefferson s authority is mainly 
 relied upon to support. But an abstract doctrine will ap 
 pear very different to most men when it is resorted to for 
 the purpose of upholding the claims of a private company, 
 which originated in corruption, and when it is asserted by a 
 sovereign state, whose citizens know themselves injured, 
 and believe themselves oppressed ; and the argument which 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 401 
 
 seems very satisfactory, when used to disappoint the rapacity 
 of those who had succeeded in buying up the majority in a 
 state legislature, appears quite illogical when urged against 
 Kentucky for resisting an unconstitutional law, or South 
 Carolina for vindicating the supposed rights and interests 
 of all the southern states ; so true is it that, even in ques 
 tions purely speculative, circumstances which,, in the eye of 
 reason, cannot affect the argument, do often Entirely con 
 trol our decisions. 
 
 Governor Pinckney, of South Carolina, had this summer 
 proposed that our government should, by a compact with 
 the Governor of Florida, agree that each party should sur 
 render to the other all fugitives from justice. Mr. Jeffer 
 son, while he admits that the perpetrators of acknowledged 
 crime ought to be surrendered, suggests the difficulty of 
 drawing the line between offences of that character, and 
 those which are "rendered criminal by tyrannical laws 
 only ;" and expressing his doubts whether the Legislature 
 of the United States would sanction a convention for this 
 subject, he thought that we ought not to give the Governor 
 of Florida grounds to expect that we would deliver up fugi 
 tives from his government. 
 
 It may be here remarked, that at every step in the earlier 
 part of our history, as on the pi^sent occasion, we meet with 
 some obstacle or difficulty which has since disappeared, and 
 which has yielded either to our growing power, or improve 
 ment in legislation, or to some fortunate incident. By the 
 subsequent acquisition of Louisiana and Florida, those coun 
 tries can no longer afford an asylum to our runaway slaves, 
 which was the chief evil against which the proposition of 
 Governor Pinckney meant to guard. 
 
 In consequence of the insurrection of the blacks in St. 
 Domingo, the Assembly of that colony sent a deputy to the 
 United States to obtain the aid of military stores and pro- 
 
 VOL. i. 2 D 
 
402 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 visions, and which Mr. Ternant, the French minister, suc 
 ceeded in obtaining of the secretaries of the treasury and 
 war ; the president and secretary of state being then in 
 Virginia. Before these supplies arrived, the Colonial 
 Assembly sent two other deputies with yet larger demands. 
 They applied to Mr. Jefferson, with the consent of Mr. 
 Ternant, and proposed that the required supplies should be 
 furnished, either on account of the money which we owed to 
 France, or of the bills of exchange which they were autho 
 rized to draw on France ; or, lastly, that we should guarantee 
 their bills, so that they could dispose of them to merchants, 
 and make the purchase for themselves. They were told 
 that the two last were beyond the power of the executive, 
 and that the first could be done only with the consent of the 
 minister of France. This consent having been obtained, 
 a small supply was afforded. 
 
 It seems that the application was an object of jealousy 
 of the French minister and consul-general, who considered 
 it as indicating a desire of independence on the part of the 
 colony. Mr. Jefferson states to Mr. Short that this would 
 be neither desirable nor attainable on their parts, and that 
 it would be repugnant to the interests of the United States ; 
 and he suggests, as a probability, that if the colonies should 
 become disgusted either with France or the United States, 
 they might put themselves under the protection of Great 
 Britain. 
 
403 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Third session of the first Congress. The commerce of the United States 
 with France and England compared. St. Glair s defeat. Appor 
 tionment bill. Mr. Jefferson advises the President to negative it. 
 Conversation with the President on his proposed retirement. Causes 
 of the public discontents. The power to promote the general wel 
 fare. Collision between Jefferson and Hamilton. Official corre 
 spondence with Mr. Hammond, the British minister Pagan s case 
 tampering with the Creek Indians complaints of each govern 
 ment. Mr. Jefferson s answer to Mr. Hammond s charges. The 
 Post-office. Surrendering of foreign fugitives. Relative powers of 
 the legislative and executive branches. Negotiation with Algiers. 
 Paul Jones. 
 
 17911792. 
 
 CONGRESS met on the 24th of October, according to ad 
 journment, and proceeded to carry into execution other 
 important powers on which they had not previously acted, 
 or acted only by resolution ; as in establishing the post-office 
 and post-roads, establishing a mint and regulating the coins, 
 and providing a uniform militia system throughout the 
 United States. 
 
 In December, Mr. Jefferson laid before the President a 
 comparative table of the extent and value of the commerce 
 of the United States with France and England, which he 
 had prepared with unwearied industry. His motive is thus 
 stated in his note * to the President : " As the conditions 
 of our commerce with the French and British dominions 
 are important, and a moment seems to be approaching when 
 it may be useful that both should be accurately understood, 
 I have thrown a representation of them into the form of a 
 
 * Jeff. Cor. Ill, p. 142. 
 
 2D2 
 
404 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFEHSON. 
 
 table, showing at one view how the principal articles inter 
 esting to our agriculture and navigation stand in the Euro 
 pean and American dominions of these two powers." 
 
 According to this table, the trade in wheat, flour, rice, 
 and other grain, salted fish, beef and pork, whale oil, tar, 
 pitch, and turpentine, are on a more favourable footing in 
 France than in Great Britain, in which some of them are 
 even prohibited ; while indigo is the only article which is 
 subjected to a higher duty than in Great Britain. But, not 
 withstanding this difference of encouragement, the exports 
 are five times as great to England as to France, and the 
 imports are nine times as great. 
 
 The French shipping employed in the trade is but half of 
 the American, which is 19,000 tons. But the British ship 
 ping is three times as much as the American ; the latter, 
 however, is 39,000 tons. 
 
 In the West Indies the trade with the French colonies is 
 more extensive, and the footing not materially different. 
 With both nations it is subject to general prohibitions, which 
 are occasionally removed. Our exports to the French islands 
 amounted to 3,284,656 dollars ; to the English, 2,357,583 
 dollars. The imports from the French islands are 1,913,212 
 dollars; from the English, 1,319,954 dollars. Our tonnage 
 in the French trade is 97,236 tons, and with the English 
 the trade is prohibited. The French tonnage employed in 
 the trade is 3,959 tons, and the English is 107,959 tons. 
 
 From this comparison it was manifect that in considering 
 the united interests both of our agriculture, commerce, and 
 navigation, that of England was most profitable, by being 
 the most extensive, but that with France most deserved en 
 couragement, as it was far the most beneficial for its extent, 
 by affording more employment to our shipping. 
 
 The whole tonnage in the trade with Great Britain amounted 
 to 2G6,124 tons, while the whole in the French trade was 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 405 
 
 less than half, 130/201 tons. But of the trade to the British 
 islands they had more than five-sixths, or in the proportion 
 of 226,953 tons to 9,171 tons ; and of the French trade we 
 had eight-ninths, or 116,409 to 13,792; and our tonnage in 
 the French trade was more than three times as great as it 
 was in the British. 
 
 It is well worth remark that cotton is not mentioned among 
 our staples, though in less than ten years from that time 
 it constituted the most valuable of our exports, and in thirty 
 years was worth more than all the rest put together. 
 
 Tobacco, wood, pot, and pearl ash, flax seed, in the Eu 
 ropean trade, and Indian corn, salted pork, horses and mules, 
 live provisions, tar, pitch, and turpentine, in the West In 
 dies, are on the same footing with both nations. 
 
 At the close of the year, the government received infor 
 mation of General St. Glair s defeat by the Miami Indians, 
 on the 4th of November, with the loss of upwards of 600 
 men. This battle was gained by an inferior force on the 
 part of the red men, and accorded with the ordinary result 
 in their first conflicts with the whites, until dear-bought 
 experience has taught them that nothing less than a corre 
 spondent vigilance can protect them against a surprise, which 
 the Indian warrior surpasses all others both in contriving 
 and improving to the best advantage. The battle ground 
 was on the western border of what is now the populous state 
 of Ohio, but was then not even a territorial government. 
 
 A bill for a new apportionment of representatives, under 
 the late census, afforded the first occasion for the President 
 to exercise his negative on an act of the two houses of Con 
 gress. This bill had fixed the ratio of inhabitants at 30,000, 
 and, instead of applying this number to the population of 
 each state separately, it divided the whole population by the 
 number 30,000, and then distributed the quotient 120 among 
 the states according to their relative population : by which 
 
406 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 process some of the states had a greater number of repre 
 sentatives than they were entitled to on the assumed ratio. 
 In other words, there was inequality by this process as well 
 as the other : it merely fell on different states, and happened 
 to be less than by the other rule. 
 
 This subject had afforded occasion for warm debate, as 
 it involved the question of the relative weight of the states. 
 Various ratios had been proposed without success ; and the 
 question was not settled until after a conference of the two 
 houses. When the bill was submitted to the President, his 
 cabinet were as usual divided about it Mr. Jefferson and 
 Mr. Randolph thinking the law to violate the meaning of 
 the constitution, and Mr. Hamilton and General Knox doubt 
 ing about it, but advising the consent. The arguments of 
 the former prevailed, and the bill was returned with the 
 President s reasons ; in consequence of which another bill 
 was introduced, raising the ratio to 33,000, and assigning to 
 each state its number of representatives, without regard to 
 the fractions, as had been originally proposed in the Senate, 
 and it thus finally passed both houses. 
 
 It appears from Mr. Jefferson s diary that on the last of 
 February, 1792, he had a conversation with the President 
 on the subject of the post-office, of which he remarked, that, 
 since it appeared by the bill recently passed that it was 
 not regarded as a revenue law, but one for the general ac 
 commodation of the citizens, he thought it appertained to 
 the State Department : that it would be proper it should 
 be so regarded for another reason, on account of the great 
 influence and patronage already attached to the Treasury 
 Department, which threatened to be too great for that of the 
 President himself: that he could have no personal motive 
 for this suggestion, as he had determined on withdrawing 
 from public life whenever the President retired. Some in 
 terruptions to the conversation taking place, General Wash- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 407 
 
 ington asked him to breakfast the next morning : He at 
 tended accordingly, and they having retired to his room, 
 Mr. Jefferson unfolded his plan for the post-office, to which 
 General Washington having given " such an approbation 
 of it as he usually permitted himself on any first suggestion," 
 and desiring it to be committed to writing, he, during that 
 pause of conversation which follows a business closed, said, 
 in an affectionate tone, that he felt much concern at the in 
 timation Mr. Jefferson had given of retiring when he did : 
 that, as to himself, many motives obliged him to withdraw : 
 that he had, through the war and at its close, uniformly 
 declared his resolution to retire, and never to act in any 
 public office : that he had retired : that the new government, 
 however, being found evidently too inefficacious, and his aid 
 being supposed of some consequence towards bringing the 
 people to acquiesce in a government of sufficient efficacy, he 
 had consented to come into the convention, and afterwards, 
 from the same motives, to take a part in the new govern 
 ment : that were he to continue longer, it might give room 
 to say that, having tasted the sweets of office, he could not 
 do without them : that he really felt himself growing old ; 
 his health less firm ; his memory, always bad, becoming 
 worse; and perhaps his other mental faculties showing a 
 decay of which he himself was insensible : that in addition 
 to this apprehension, he found his activity lessened ; busi 
 ness, therefore, more irksome ; and his desire for tranquillity 
 and retirement irresistible : that, obliged as he was, from 
 these considerations, to retire, he should consider it as un 
 fortunate if that should bring on the retirement of the great 
 officers of the government, as it might produce a shock on 
 the public mind of dangerous consequence. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson replied that no man had ever been less de 
 sirous of public office than himself; that the circumstance 
 of a perilous war, which had put the services of all in requi- 
 
408 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sition, had induced him to undertake the government of 
 Virginia : that he had, both before and after that period, 
 refused repeated appointments of Congress to that sort of 
 office, which of all others would have been most agreeable 
 to him : that at the end of two years he resigned the govern 
 ment of Virginia, with the intention of never again engag 
 ing in public life; that a domestic loss, however, made ab 
 sence and change appear expedient, and he had therefore 
 accepted a foreign mission for two years ; at the close of 
 which, Dr. Franklin, having left France, had accepted the 
 appointment to supply his place ; and though he had con 
 tinued in it three or four years, it was always under the ex 
 pectation of remaining only a year or two longer : the revo 
 lution in France then coming on, he had become so interested 
 in that great event, that when be brought his family home, 
 he had expected to return and await the close of the revo 
 lution, as the term of his public life : that on his return to 
 America he found himself appointed to his present office, 
 while it was known that he had accepted it with reluctance, 
 and only under a belief that he could be more serviceable 
 in America than in France, and with a firm resolution to 
 indulge his wish for retirement at " no very distant day :" 
 that when, therefore, by an expression in a letter from Gene 
 ral Washington of April 1st, 1791, he discovered his inten 
 tion to retire ere long, his own mind was immediately decided 
 to make that the epoch of withdrawing from labours of which 
 he was heartily tired : that he did not think his colleagues 
 in the administration had any thought of retiring; on the 
 contrary, that at " a late meeting of the trustees of the sink 
 ing fund, the Secretary of the Treasury had developed the 
 plan he intended to pursue, and that it embraced years in 
 view." 
 
 General Washington then remarked, that he considered 
 the Department of State as of much more importance than 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 409 
 
 that of the Treasury, which was limited to the single object 
 of revenue, and that the retirement of the Secretary of State 
 would be more noticed : that though the government had 
 set out with " a pretty general good will of the public, yet 
 that symptoms of discontent had lately manifested them 
 selves far beyond expectation, and to what height they might 
 rise, in case of too great a change in the administration, 
 could not be foreseen." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson then remarked that, in his opinion, there 
 was but a single source of these discontents. That they 
 originated in the Treasury Department : that a system had 
 been there contrived for deluging the states with paper money, 
 instead of gold and silver ; and for withdrawing our citizens 
 from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, buildings, and 
 other branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves in 
 a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which 
 had introduced its poison even into the government. It 
 was a well-known fact, he said, that particular members of 
 the legislature, while the laws alluded to were on the carpet, 
 had " feathered their nests with the paper, had then voted 
 for the laws, and had since lent all their efforts to the esta 
 blishment and enlargement of the system ; that they " had 
 chained it about our necks" for a great length of time, and 
 in order to preserve their power, had aided in making such 
 legislative constructions of the constitution as made it a 
 very different thing from what the people believed it to be 
 when they adopted it : that they had now brought forward 
 a proposition, the decision of which would determine whether 
 we lived under a limited or unlimited government. 
 
 In answer to the President s inquiry, Mr. Jefferson said 
 that he alluded to Mr. Hamilton s late report on manufac 
 tures, which, " under colour of giving bounties for the encou 
 ragement of particular manufactures, meant to establish the 
 doctrine that the power to collect taxes to provide for the 
 
410 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 general welfare of the United States, permitted Congress to 
 take every thing under their management which they should 
 deem for the public welfare, and which is susceptible of the 
 application of money; consequently, that the subsequent 
 enumeration of their powers was not the description to which 
 resort must be had, and did not at all constitute their au 
 thority :" that this was a different question from that of the 
 bank, which was thought an incident to an enumerated 
 power : that therefore the decision on this new proposition 
 was looked to with great anxiety : that he hoped it would 
 be rejected, and if it should be, it would show that things 
 were returning into their true channel : that at any rate he 
 " looked forward to the increased representation in the legis 
 lature, which would soon take place, for keeping the general 
 constitution on its true ground, and for removing much of 
 the discontent which had shown itself." In his note of this 
 conversation, made the following day, Mr. Jefferson remarks 
 that he had stated it nearly as much at length as it really 
 was ; preserving the expressions themselves where he could 
 recollect them, and always faithfully their substance. 
 
 If the preceding note shows that Mr. Jefferson and Colo 
 nel Hamilton differed widely about the construction of the 
 constitution and the administration of the government, a 
 note which the former made in his diary, about ten days 
 afterwards, shows that it amounted, as a difference of opinion 
 too often does, to personal distrust and ill-will. He states 
 that, about the latter end of the preceding November, 
 Colonel Hamilton had induced the French minister, Ternant, 
 to enter into a discussion with Mr. Jefferson towards a com 
 mercial treaty, though he had received no instructions from 
 his government on the subject, and further prevailed on the 
 President to join in the proposal, to which Mr. Jefferson 
 objected, as it would be binding on us and not on them ; but 
 that he finally acquiesced, and prepared the project of a 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 411 
 
 treaty, which rated the duties as they then stood. To this 
 plan Hamilton objected, and prepared a higher tariff of du 
 ties. Mr. Jefferson supposed that this course was adopted 
 with the French minister in order that Hammond, the Bri 
 tish minister, who in like manner had no power to form a 
 treaty, might be enabled to have a similar discussion. Re 
 garding this as a snare, he opposed it warmly, and succeeded 
 in resisting it, against the wish both of Hamilton and the 
 President. " His scheme evidently was," says Mr. Jefferson, 
 " to get us engaged first with Ternant, merely that he might 
 have a pretext to engage us on the same ground with Ham 
 mond, taking care at the same time, by an extravagant tariff, 
 to render it impossible we should come to any conclusion 
 with Ternant ; probably meaning at the same time to pro 
 pose terms so favourable to Great Britain as would attach 
 us to that country by treaty." On one of those occasions 
 he had asserted that our commerce with Great Britain and 
 her colonies was on a much more favourable footing than 
 with France and her colonies, and it was this assertion which 
 suggested to Mr. Jefferson to prepare the comparative view 
 which has been noticed. He at the same time expresses 
 his opinion that Hamilton communicated to Hammond all 
 the views of our cabinet, and " knew from him in return the 
 views of the British court." He then mentions two facts 
 that he thinks prove this confidential intercourse, and al 
 though they form some presumptive evidence that these 
 gentlemen thus acted in concert, yet they will hardly be 
 considered as amounting to proof of a gross violation of pro 
 priety, not to say of fidelity, on the part of one whose cha 
 racter has always been deemed fair and honourable, even by 
 those who deprecated his politics. 
 
 These criminations and suspicions which our leading poli 
 ticians of both parties entertained of their opponents, are 
 regarded with no pleasure, whether they are credited or not. 
 
412 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 If we assent to them, we think worse of the party accused; 
 and if we discredit them, we think worse of the accuser. In 
 either case they tend to weaken our confidence in the purity 
 and integrity of our public men, and make us consider all 
 professions of patriotism as hollow and interested. Even 
 where they are neither implicitly received nor rejected, they 
 leave the mind in a comfortless state of doubt and uncer 
 tainty, not only as to the characters of individuals, but also 
 as to the truth of history. At the same time we may draw 
 from them this salutary lesson, that where we see illiberal 
 jealousies and unfounded suspicions attach to those in whom 
 our own confidence is unshaken, we may learn to question the 
 correctness of those sentiments of distrust with which our 
 party or ourselves chance to view our political adversaries. 
 The great parties in the United States had abundant op 
 portunities of applying this test of their own accuracy in 
 judging of public men ; for the leaders of both were unhesi 
 tatingly accused, and by many believed too, to sacrifice the 
 interest of their own country to that of another of England 
 or France especially ; and that confidence in their upright 
 ness, which treats the accusations made against one party as 
 groundless, in spite of wide-spread suspicions and plausible 
 shows of evidence, should be sufficient in the scales of even- 
 handed justice, to ensure the acquittal of the other; for in 
 both there has been the same presumptive evidence of guilt, 
 and the same countervailing testimony of innocence. 
 
 It must also be admitted that, after giving all due credit 
 to the patriotism and fidelity of public men, it does happen 
 that in the violent collisions of personal and party strife, the 
 desire of humbling our adversaries and effecting our own 
 triumph may sometimes make us overlook the public in 
 terest, and under false semblances of right, sacrifice the 
 interests of our country to that of some other. Thus, one 
 party believing they saw the dearest political interests of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 413 
 
 United States connected with the success of France, and the 
 other seeing in the same success nothing but danger to the 
 authority of law and order, persuaded themselves that, pro 
 vided this great object of their wishes were attained, minor 
 considerations should be overlooked. Upon this principle 
 Mr. Hamilton may have been willing to cede some small 
 advantage of trade or privilege, to the paramount benefit of 
 an alliance with Great Britain; just as his political oppo 
 nents were willing to sacrifice the profits of neutrality to the 
 interests of France, which they honestly believed to be the 
 interests of civil freedom. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Mr. Jeiferson s time and 
 thoughts were engrossed by these party and personal con 
 tests. He was now called upon to vindicate the rights and 
 dignity of his country in a long and laborious correspond 
 ence, first with the minister of Great Britain, and then with 
 that of France, and which continued to occupy him during 
 the whole time he remained in office. Distinguished for 
 ability as the diplomatic correspondence of this country 
 generally has been, there is no part of it that has been so 
 extolled, both for style and argument, or has given such 
 satisfaction to all parties as that which was carried on by 
 Mr. Jefferson with Mr. Hammond and Mr. Genet. 
 
 Great Britain had at length decided on sending a minis 
 ter to the United States, and Mr. Hammond, the gentle 
 man who filled this station, had arrived in August, 1791. One 
 of his first official acts was to complain of a recent decision 
 by the supreme court of judicature of Massachusetts, in the 
 case of Thomas Pagan, a British subject, who had been the 
 agent for a privateer. 
 
 This privateer had, at the close of the war, captured an 
 American vessel, which had been adjudged a lawful prize in 
 one of the courts of vice-admiralty. After the peace, Pagan 
 had been sued in Massachusetts for the value of this vessel. 
 
414 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 While the question of prize or no prize was depending be 
 fore the lords of appeals in England, a judgment had been 
 obtained here, and on an execution against Pagan, he was 
 put in prison, where he was then confined. In answer to 
 this application, Mr. Jefferson informed Mr. Hammond that 
 the supreme court of the United States was open to an ap 
 plication for a writ of error in behalf of Mr. Pagan, to revise 
 the judgment of the court of Massachusetts, and that on 
 such application the court would do what was right. On 
 further inquiry it appeared that Pagan had not taken the 
 legal steps to obtain a writ of error, and it was the opinion 
 of the attorney-general that the merits of the case were 
 against him, if he had. Accordingly, in April following, 
 Mr. Jefferson stated these facts to Mr. Hammond, sent him 
 a copy of the attorney-general s opinion, and expressed the 
 hope that he was satisfied with the course of the govern 
 ment, as evincing " the most scrupulous disposition to pa 
 tronise and effectuate Pagan s right, had right been on his 
 side." 
 
 In Mr. Jefferson s answer to Mr. Hammond in the pre 
 ceding case, the old subject of a commercial treaty was again 
 pressed on his notice; and Mr. Hammond having imme 
 diately declared that he was fully authorized to enter into a 
 negotiation, Mr. Jefferson replied, on the 13th December, 
 that he was " ready to receive a communication of Mr. Ham 
 mond s full powers, and proceed immediately to their object." 
 
 Our government had received information that a Mr. 
 Bowles had recently arrived from England in the country 
 of the Creek Indians, whom he had endeavoured to excite 
 to war against the United States, and that he pretended 
 to be employed by the British government. On the 12th 
 December, 1791, Mr. Jefferson mentioned this affair to 
 Mr. Hammond, and at the same time informed him that 
 Bowles s pretensions were not credited by the American 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 415 
 
 government. On the 29th March, 1792, Mr. Hammond 
 informed Mr. Jefferson that Bowles was an unauthorized 
 impostor. The latter remarked in his reply, that "the 
 promptitude of the disavowal of what their candour had 
 forbidden them to credit, was a new proof of their friendly 
 dispositions, and a fresh incitement to both parties to cherish 
 corresponding sentiments." 
 
 But it was not long before the discussions between these 
 ministers were directed to matters of far greater import 
 ance, and which, for the sake of presenting the reader with 
 a connected view of it, will now be continued into the follow 
 ing year. 
 
 It happened in this diplomatic discussion, as in most others, 
 that each party urged causes of complaint against the other, 
 and was of course called upon to perform the office of defence 
 as well as of crimination. 
 
 The grounds of complaint on the part of the United States 
 were the following : that fortifications within our territory 
 had not been given up, in conformity with the general stipu 
 lation in the 7th article of the treaty of peace these posts 
 were partly on the great lakes, and partly on Champlain and 
 the St. Lawrence, and in the latter end of 1791 were eight 
 in number ; that British officers had exercised a jurisdiction 
 over the country and its inhabitants in the neighbourhood 
 of these forts, that they had excluded American citizens 
 from the navigation of the rivers and lakes which constitute 
 the stipulated boundary between the two countries, by 
 reason of which the United States lost not only the benefit 
 of the fur trade with the Indians, but the means of preserv 
 ing peace with some of the tribes. 
 
 They complained also that many negroes, the property of 
 citizens of the United States, had been carried off, in con 
 travention of the same article. That the river St. Croix, 
 the stipulated boundary between the United States and 
 
416 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Canada, is not that which the British have contended for, 
 there being two rivers of that name. 
 
 On the part of Great Britain it was insisted that the 
 treaty stipulations contained in the 4th, 5th, and 6th articles 
 of the same treaty had not been complied with by the United 
 States. 
 
 These articles stipulated that creditors in either nation 
 should meet with no legal impediments to the recovery of 
 their debts ; that Congress should recommend to the legis 
 latures of the several states, to make restitution of all pro 
 perty of British subjects which had been confiscated during 
 the war ; that there should be no future confiscations, and 
 no persecutions against persons for having borne arms dur 
 ing the late war ; none of which stipulations, it was as 
 serted, had been fully complied with. 
 
 In December, 1791, Mr. Jefferson stated to Mr. Hammond 
 the grounds of complaint on the part of the United States, 
 specifying the forts which were retained, and the negroes 
 that had been carried off by the British forces, contrary to 
 the 7th article of the treaty of peace. 
 
 In March following, Mr. Hammond, who had previously 
 justified this non-execution of the treaty on the part of 
 Great Britain by the failure of the United States, specifies 
 the following cases of infractions of the 4th, 5th and 6th ar 
 ticles of the treaty : 
 
 That the states had not repealed the laws against those 
 who had an interest in confiscated lands, which had been 
 passed before the pacification. 
 
 That they had enacted laws, since that time, in contraven 
 tion of the treaty. 
 
 That British creditors had been obstructed in the recovery 
 of their debts, by regulations which enabled creditors 
 to tender property in discharge of those debts ; by paper 
 money, which had been made a legal tender, at its nominal 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 417 
 
 value ; and by the decision in some of the states, that sub 
 jects of Great Britain, being aliens, could not hold real 
 estate : that in some of the state courts decisions had taken 
 place which reduced the amount of British debts, in viola 
 tion of the terms of the original contracts, and some had 
 positively refused to take cognizance of suits instituted for 
 the recovery of those debts. Facts were cited by the minis 
 ter in proof of all these charges. 
 
 The laws enacted since the treaty in violation of it, were 
 such as related to the estates of the loyalists, or such as 
 obstructed the recovery of debts due to British subjects; of 
 which he mentions various examples by the laws of the 
 several states. 
 
 On the 29th of May, 1792, Mr. Jefferson gave a full and 
 elaborate answer to all the infractions of the treaty alleged 
 by Mr. Hammond, which he considers under the three heads 
 of 1. Exile and Confiscation. 2. Debts. 3. Interest on 
 those debts. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson shows that Mr. Hammond had given a force 
 to the word "recommend" used in the treaty which did not 
 belong to it, when he considers that it implies a power of en 
 forcing it, and in proof of this he refers to the understanding 
 of the negotiators ; to the sense of the British ministry ; and 
 of members of both houses of parliament : that according to 
 this obvious and admitted sense, Congress had fairly com 
 plied with the stipulation ; and that all of the states, except 
 one, had complied with the recommendation. He examined 
 in detail the legislative acts of the several states, and showed 
 that wherever they concerned confiscations, they were all 
 passed before the pacification. 
 
 In answer to the complaint that the British government 
 had been compelled to pay four millions sterling to the 
 loyalists, by way of indemnity, Mr. Jefferson stated that no 
 indemnification had been expected from us by Mr. Oswald; 
 
 VOL.1. 2.E 
 
418 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 but that on the contrary, we had a claim of indemnification 
 to a much larger amount. He intimates that the sum paid 
 was, as it had appeared in America, not merely for losses, 
 but for services, and on other considerations : that we have 
 borne our own losses, and that Great Britain was the gainer 
 by choosing the alternative of indemnifying her own sufferers, 
 rather than ours. 
 
 On the subject of debts, he notices the negroes who were 
 carried away, and urged that on the fulfilment of this article 
 depended the means of paying the debts : that the forts 
 which were to have been delivered up with all convenient 
 speed, might easily have been surrendered by the end of 
 May, 1783; yet no order had ever been given in England 
 for their evacuation. The effect of this delay was, first, to 
 cut us off from the fur trade ; and, secondly, it excluded us 
 from all friendly connection with the north-western Indians^ 
 by reason whereof we were involved in constant and expen 
 sive wars, and which nothing but our possession of the forts 
 would terminate. The treaty was therefore violated in 
 England before it was known in America, and that, too, in 
 stipulations so essential, that without them it would never 
 have been concluded. The United States, then, had their 
 election to consider the treaty dissolved, or to compensate 
 itself by withholding execution of equivalent articles. 
 
 He reviews the proceedings in some of the states which 
 threw impediments in the way of recovering British debts, 
 and shows that they were justified by the previous infrac 
 tions of Great Britain ; and that some of them expressly 
 assigned these infractions as the ground of their procedures : 
 he alleges that they admit of a yet further defence, which he 
 makes for the three species of injury to creditors complained 
 of under this head. These were, 1 . Delay of judgment. 
 2. Liberating the body of the debtor on the delivery of pro 
 perty. 3. Admitting executions to be discharged in paper 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 419 
 
 money ; to all of which expedients they were justified by the 
 peculiar difficulties of their situation. 
 
 He insists that although the treaty was first broken by 
 Great Britain, and she was bound to comply with her en 
 gagements before she exacted compliance of the United 
 States ; yet on the British minister s declaring to Mr. Adams 
 that " whenever America shall manifest a real intention to 
 fulfil her part of the treaty, Great Britain would co-operate 
 for carrying every article into real and complete effect," 
 Congress immediately wrote, in May, 1786, to the gover 
 nors of the states, to know how far they had complied with 
 the proclamation of January, 1784, and the recommendation 
 accompanying it; and they addressed a circular to the seve 
 ral states, earnestly urging them by the strongest consider 
 ations of duty and policy to an exact compliance with the 
 treaty : that nine of the states immediately complied with 
 the request : of the rest, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
 Georgia had no law existing conflicting with the treaty; 
 and though South Carolina had a law which subjected all 
 persons to certain conditions of recovery and payment, it 
 made no distinction between aliens and citizens. 
 
 He vindicates the judicatures of the states from the sweep 
 ing charge made against them by Mr. Hammond, and rests 
 his vindication on certificates from eminent citizens, (sena 
 tors and representatives of those states.) He alleges that 
 the courts are open and accessible to British creditors in all 
 the states, who are in the constant practice of sueing for, and 
 recovering, those debts. 
 
 In reply to the contrast which Mr. Hammond draws 
 between the courts of Great Britain and the United States, 
 several cases are cited to show that our citizens have cause 
 of complaint on this head. "These cases," he adds, " ap 
 pear strong. If your judges have done wrong in them, we 
 expect redress: if right, we expect explanations. * 
 
 2E2 
 
420 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The subject of interest he discusses with the accuracy and 
 laborious research of a practised jurist. 
 
 In the first place, he maintains that the administration of 
 justice is a branch of the sovereignty over a country, and no 
 foreign power can pretend to share in its jurisdiction. 
 The errors of the highest courts must therefore be sub 
 mitted to, as to one of the inconveniences flowing from the 
 imperfection of our faculties, unless the error be so clear 
 and palpable as to indicate intentional wrong. 
 
 He shows that the refusal to pay interest rests upon rea 
 sons which not only indicate the integrity of the judges, but 
 even their legal science, if that were necessary. The nature 
 of interest is then thoroughly examined, the principles upon 
 which it has been allowed or refused, and the diversity of 
 those principles. He avers that the states have been uniform 
 in the allowance of interest before and since the war, but not 
 for that claimed during the war, except in Massachusetts and 
 in Pennsylvania, where the creditor or his agent was in the 
 country : And that in 1790, the Circuit Court of the United 
 States determined that interest should be allowed even 
 during the war. 
 
 On the 2nd of June Mr. Hammond acknowledged the re 
 ceipt of the preceding letter, and suggested that from the mat 
 ter being so various and extensive, much time must elapse 
 before he could reply to it. In the mean while he remarks, 
 that some of the principles advanced do not appear to 
 him relevant to the subject under discussion, and that the 
 difference between them, as to positive facts, is so great, that 
 he should feel it a duty to his character to corroborate them 
 by additional testimony, and thus remove the imputation of 
 either negligence or intentional misrepresentation. 
 
 The correspondence on this subject then remained sus 
 pended until June 19, J 793, when Mr. Jefferson wrote to 
 Mr. Hammond to inquire when he might expect an answer 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 421 
 
 from him, remarking that " the interest the United States 
 had in the western posts, the blood and treasure which their 
 detention cost us daily, cannot but produce a correspondent 
 anxiety" on the part of the United States. 
 
 On the following day, Mr. Hammond replied, that Mr. 
 Jefferson s letter had been forwarded to his government, 
 soon after he received it, and he had since been informed 
 that it would be immediately taken into consideration; but 
 he presumed, the important events which had since occurred 
 in Europe, had so engrossed the attention of his majesty s 
 ministers, as to have diverted them from objects deemed less 
 urgent. He promises to give the earliest notice of his ma 
 jesty s pleasure, especially, as he is now prepared with 
 evidence to substantiate most of the principal facts formerly 
 stated by him. 
 
 He adverts to the expression in Mr. Jefferson s letter, 
 concerning " the blood and treasure," which the detention 
 of the posts cost the United States, remarking, that he could 
 not easily conjecture the motives in which this declaration 
 had originated ; adds, that he would not imagine the expres 
 sion meant to insinuate, that the GovernoK of Canada had 
 departed from the strict neutrality his government had pro 
 fessed between the United States and the Indians ; and 
 concludes that he feels as much anxiety to see the treaty 
 of peace carried into full execution, as the United States can 
 be, as he is constantly receiving assurances from British cre 
 ditors, that they are unable to procure legal redress in any 
 of the courts, in one or two of the southern states. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, on the 19th of November, renewed his 
 inquiry whether the government of the United States could 
 then receive an answer to his letter of the 29th of May, 
 1792, on the unexecuted articles of the treaty ; to which 
 inquiry Mr. Hammond replied, that the causes of delay 
 already mentioned by him, still continued ; and this closed 
 the correspondence concerning the treaty of peace. 
 
422 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The post-office being now established and regulated by 
 law, Mr. Jefferson, considering it as an appendage to the 
 Department of State, wrote, on the 28th of March, with 
 the President s consent, to Mr. Pickering, the postmaster- 
 general, to know if the post, which was then carried at the 
 rate of fifty miles a day, could not be expedited to one hun 
 dred miles*. 
 
 In consequence of the suggestion of the preceding year 
 from Governor Pinckney of South Carolina, the plan of a 
 convention with Spain was prepared by Mr. Jefferson, by 
 which each nation was to surrender up to the other its 
 fugitives from justice, and the same was transmitted to 
 Messrs. Carmichael and Short, at that time joint commis 
 sioners to Spain. 
 
 According to this convention, persons charged with mur 
 der not amounting to treason in one country, and fleeing to 
 the other, might, by order of a court, be given up. Debtors 
 fleeing in the same way might be sued in the country in 
 which they were found, and the same advantage was 
 given to the representatives of the creditor against the re 
 presentatives of the debtor: but in all cases of debt, the 
 person of the debtor was not to be liable to imprison 
 ment. 
 
 To this document he subjoins some general considera 
 tions, which recommended that such conventions should 
 confine themselves to the limited objects provided for in the 
 
 * This rate, which was then the ultimatum aimed at, and the practi 
 cability of which was then doubted, would now be regarded as insuffer 
 ably slow on the great post roads. According to the proposed rate, the 
 mail would require about six days to travel from Boston to Richmond, 
 but it now travels the same distance in less than three days. On some 
 of the post routes the mail is now transported by steam more than 250 
 miles in twenty-four hours, which is at five times its rate of transportation 
 at that time. 
 
 It is by such comparisons as these, that we can be made sensible of the 
 prodigious improvement which our country has experienced, from the 
 united effect of its own energies and the spirit of the age. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 423 
 
 above projet, and which indicate an equal attention to the 
 duties of prudence and humanity. 
 
 On the 31st of March, the question of the right of repre 
 sentatives to call directly on the heads of departments for 
 information, instead of asking it through the President, was 
 discussed in the cabinet, in consequence of an application 
 from a committee of the house to the Secretary of War, for 
 papers relative to the late unfortunate expedition under 
 General St. Clair. It was then unanimously agreed in the 
 cabinet : 1. That the house was an inquest, and might in 
 stitute inquiries. 2. That it might call for papers gene 
 rally. 3. That the executive ought to communicate such 
 papers as the public good would permit, and only such. 
 4. That neither a committee nor the house had a right to 
 call on the head of a department, who and whose papers 
 were under the President alone ; but that the application 
 should be made through the President. 
 
 To this last point Hamilton dissented, so far as concerned 
 his own department, which was made especially subject to 
 Congress in some respects, but he thought that he was not 
 obliged to produce all the papers called for. The impres 
 sion made upon Mr. Jefferson s mind was, " that he endea 
 voured to place himself subject to the house, when the 
 executive should propose what he did not like, and subject 
 to the executive, when the house should propose anything 
 disagreeable." 
 
 The difficulty, on the present occasion, was removed by 
 Mr. Jefferson s speaking separately with the members of the 
 committee, and persuading them to adopt the course of in 
 structing their chairman to move the house to address the 
 President ; which request was complied with, as there were 
 no papers which they desired to withhold. 
 
 The government had now determined to redeem our cap 
 tive citizens at Algiers, and to make peace with that power, 
 
424 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 by paying an annual tribute. The Senate approved of this 
 course, but they wished the President to make the treaty, 
 and either to take the money it would require from the trea 
 sury, or open a loan for it. They were unwilling to consult 
 the representatives on the subject, lest it should establish 
 an inconvenient precedent, and enable the house to share in 
 the treaty making power, which the constitution had con 
 fided to the President and Senate. They feared, moreover, 
 that if a particular sum were voted by the house, it would 
 not be a secret. The President did not come into their 
 views. But he agreed to enter into a provisional treaty, 
 not to be binding until ratified here. Mr. Jefferson, with 
 his habitual vigilance in behalf of the popular branch, hav 
 ing suggested that the president should withhold his seal 
 from the treaty, after the Senate had advised its ratification, 
 until the two houses voted the money, General Washington 
 inquired whether a treaty stipulating the payment of money, 
 and ratified by him, with the advice of the Senate, would not 
 be obligatory on the representatives. Mr. Jefferson an 
 swered that it would, and that it would be the duty of the 
 representatives to provide the money, but they might decline 
 to do what was their duty, and thus he might be involved in 
 embarrassment with a foreign government. It was possible, 
 too, he added, to conceive a treaty, which they were not 
 bound to provide for. 
 
 The President then remarked, that "he did not like throw 
 ing too much into democratic hands, for that if they did not 
 do what the constitution called on them to do, the govern 
 ment would be at an end, and must then assume another 
 form. He stopped here ; and Mr. Jefferson remarks : " I 
 kept silence, to see whether he would say anything more in 
 the same line, or add any qualifying expression to soften what 
 he had said ; but he did neither." Whatever might be the 
 species of other form to which General Washington here 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 425 
 
 alluded, it appears from the same testimony his own de- 
 c laration at the time that he did not wish it, as he was un 
 willing, by increasing the power of the democratic branch* 
 to increase the danger to which he believed the constitution 
 was most exposed. 
 
 The course recommended on this occasion seems to be 
 dictated by prudence, and, as he remarks, there appeared 
 to be as much reason for consulting the representatives 
 about a treaty, when their aid was necessary to carry it into 
 operation, as of consulting the Senate, because their concur 
 rence was necessary to its ratification ; and the executive 
 were then regularly in the practice of doing this. 
 
 The celebrated Paul Jones was appointed a commissioner 
 for treating with the Dey of Algiers, on the subject of peace 
 and the ransoming of American captives ; and he w r as in 
 formed of the appointment by Mr. Jefferson, on the 1st of 
 June. The captives were thirteen in number, and Jones 
 was limited to the sum of 27,000 dollars for their redemp 
 tion, including all incidental charges. Among these cap 
 tives was the well-known Commodore O Bryan, who was 
 afterwards employed by the government in its negotiations 
 with Algiers. When the ransom of these captives was first 
 talked of, it was supposed it could be effected for about 200 
 dollars each ; but it had now increased to ten times that 
 amount. The government had been anxious to establish 
 the rate of ransom as low as possible, lest these piratical 
 states should be tempted to go in quest of American cap 
 tives in preference to those of other countries ; and thus its 
 regard to the interests of our seamen, generally, compelled 
 it to take a course, which subjected it to the imputation of 
 cold indifference to that portion of them who were already 
 in captivity. The annual tribute for which the consul was 
 authorized to stipulate, as the price of peace, was limited to 
 25,000 dollars. 
 
 This letter, however, never reached its address. It was 
 
426 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sent by Mr. Pinckney, recently appointed minister to Great 
 Britain, and he did not arrive in England until the last of 
 July, some days after Jones s death*. He died at Paris, on 
 the 18th of July, 1792, in abject poverty, and Mr. Gouver- 
 neur Morris, the American minister, whom he sent for in his 
 last moments, made his will. A pompous funeral having 
 been proposed to Mr. Morris by some Americans at Paris, 
 and he having resisted the application on account of the 
 expense, which he considered he had no right to impose on 
 his government, he was censured at home for this seeming 
 indifference to the memory of one who had rendered eminent 
 public service to the United States f. 
 
 As the mint which had been established at the late session 
 of Congress, was considered at that day to be within the 
 province of the state department, Mr. Jefferson took steps to 
 provide the necessary artists and workmen from Europe, 
 through Mr. Pinkney. 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson had taken the precaution to request Mr. Pinckney to 
 confide the papers and commission for " Admiral Jones" to Mr. Thomas 
 Barclay, then consul at Morocco, in case Jones should be prevented from 
 acting, by death or other cause ; and the business assigned to him was 
 finally transacted by Barclay. 
 
 t Mr. Morris thus notices the censure in a letter to a friend in Ame 
 rica: "It is somewhat singular that he who detested the French Revo 
 lution and all those concerned in it, should have been followed to the 
 grave by a deputation from the National Assembly ; and that I should 
 read in your Gazettes something like a very severe reflection on me for 
 not paying him due respect ; I, who, during his life, rendered him all 
 possible service, and possessed his confidence to the last, so that he 
 wished to name me with you for executor. Life of G. Morris, I. 377. 
 
 Tf, however, the fact be truly stated by Dodsley s Annual Register, in 
 its obituary notice of Paul Jones, that " Colonel Blackden was obliged to 
 raise a small sum, by way of subscription, in order to bury him, 1 the 
 censure would not seem to be altogether unmerited. He who had done 
 more than any other individual to sustain the honour of the American 
 flag at sea, and whose services had been deemed, by an unanimous vote 
 of Congress, (Oct. 16, 1787,) "worthy of a gold medal," though he were 
 suffered to live in penury, might at least have been buried at the public 
 expense. 
 
427 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson addresses a long letter to the President. His views of the 
 state of parties. His various arguments why the President should 
 serve a second terra. Conversation between them on the subject of 
 this letter. Their respective opinions on the Assumption, Bank, 
 and Excise. Further conversation the supposed predilections for 
 Monarchy influence of the Treasury Department. Commissioners 
 from Spain. Discussion in the Cabinet. Disagreement as to 
 Foreign Connexions. Relations with France. Party Dissensions. 
 References to the Secretary of the Treasury his plan of reducing 
 the Public Debt proposes to pay the debt to the Bank in advance. 
 Further Assumption of State Debts. Mr. Giles s Resolutions against 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. Proceedings thereon. Views of the 
 two Parties. Conversation with the President on his Levees. Right 
 of the United States to cede Territory, discussed in the Cabinet. 
 
 17921793. 
 
 CONGRESS had adjourned on the 8th of May, and the Pre 
 sident having soon after left Philadelphia for Mount Vernon, 
 Mr. Jefferson addressed to him a long letter, in which his 
 consent to a re-election was strongly urged. As this letter, 
 never before published, is a refutation of the charge so often 
 reiterated by his enemies, of comprehending General Wash 
 ington in his suspicions and criminations of the federalists, 
 is highly honourable both to his frankness and patriotism, 
 and breathes an eloquent earnestness, which only strong 
 feeling could have inspired, it is here given entire. 
 
 "Philadelphia, May 23, 1792. 
 "Dear Sir, 
 
 "I have determined to make the subject of a letter what 
 has for some time past been a subject of inquietude to my 
 mind, without having found a good occasion of disburthen- 
 
428 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ing itself to you in conversation, during the busy scenes 
 which occupied you here. Perhaps, too, you may be able^ 
 in your present situation, or on the road, to give it more 
 time and reflection than you could do here at any moment. 
 
 " When you first mentioned to me your purpose of retiring 
 from the government, though I felt all the magnitude of the 
 event, I was, in a considerable degree, silent. I knew, that 
 to such a mind as yours, persuasion was idle and imperti 
 nent ; that, before forming your decision, you had weighed 
 all the reasons for and against the measure; had made up 
 your mind on a full view of them, and that there could be 
 little hope of changing the result. Pursuing my reflections, 
 too, I knew we were some day to try to walk alone, and if the 
 essay should be made while you should be alive and looking 
 on, we should derive confidence from that circumstance, and 
 resource if it failed. The public mind, too, was then calm 
 and content, and, therefore, in a favourable state for making 
 the experiment. Had no change of circumstances super 
 vened, I should not, with any hope of success, have now 
 ventured to propose to you a change of purpose. But the 
 public mind is no longer so confident and serene ; and that 
 from causes in which you are no ways personally mixed. 
 Though these causes have been hackneyed in the public 
 papers in detail, it may not be amiss, in order to elucidate 
 the effect they are capable of producing, to take a view of 
 them in the mass ; giving to each the form, real or imagi 
 nary, under which they have presented it. 
 
 " It has been urged then, that a public debt, greater than 
 we can possibly pay before other causes of adding new debt 
 to it will occur, has been artificially created, by adding 
 together the whole amount of the debtor and creditor sides 
 of the accounts, instead of taking only their balances, which 
 could have been paid off in a short time. That this accumu 
 lation of debt has taken for ever out of our power those easy 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 429 
 
 sources of revenue, which, applied to the ordinary necessities 
 and exigencies of government, would have answered them 
 habitually, and covered us from habitual murmurings against 
 taxes and tax-gatherers, reserving extraordinary calls for 
 those extraordinary occasions which would animate the 
 people to meet them : that though the calls for money have 
 been no greater than we must generally expect for the 
 same, or equivalent exigencies, yet we are already obliged 
 to strain the impost till it produces clamour, and will produce 
 evasion and war on our cities to collect it ; and even to resort 
 to an excise law, of odious character with the people, partial 
 in its operation, unproductive, unless enforced by arbitrary 
 and vexatious means, and committing the authority of the 
 government in parts where resistance is most probable, and 
 coercion least practicable. They cite propositions in Con 
 gress, and suspect other projects on foot, still to increase the 
 mass of debt. They say that by borrowing, at two -thirds 
 of the interest, we might have paid off the principal in 
 two-thirds of the time ; but that from this we arc precluded 
 by its being made irredeemable but in small portions and 
 long terms ; that this irredeemable quality was given it for 
 the avowed purpose of inviting its transfer to foreign coun 
 tries. They predict that this transfer of the principal, when 
 completed, will occasion an exportation of three millions of 
 dollars annually for the interest a drain of coin, of which, 
 as there has been no example, no calculation can be made of 
 its consequences ; that the banishment of our coin will be com 
 pleted by the creation often millions of paper money, in the 
 form of bank bills, now issuing into circulation. They think 
 the ten or twelve per cent, annual profit, paid to the lenders of 
 this paper medium, taken out of the pockets of the people, who 
 would have had, without interest, the coin it is banishing; 
 that all the capital employed in paper speculation, is barren 
 and useless ; producing, like that on a gaming-table, no 
 
430 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 accession to itself; and is withdrawn from commerce and 
 agriculture, where it would have produced addition to the 
 common mass ; that it nourishes in our citizens habits of vice 
 and idleness, instead of industry and morality ; that it has 
 furnished effectual means of corrupting such portion of the 
 legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters, 
 whichever way it is directed; that the corrupt squadron, 
 deciding the voice of the legislature, have manifested their 
 dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed by the con 
 stitution on the general legislature ; limitations on the faith 
 of which the states acceded to the instrument ; that the ulti 
 mate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change 
 from the present republican form of government to that of a 
 monarchy, of which the English constitution is to be the 
 model ; that this was contemplated in the convention is no 
 secret, because its partisans made none of it. To effect it then 
 was impracticable, but they are still eager after their object, 
 and are predisposing every thing for its ultimate attainment. 
 So many of them have got into the legislature, that, aided 
 by the corrupt squadron of paper dealers, who are at their 
 devotion, they make a majority in both houses. The repub 
 lican party, w r ho wish to preserve the government in its present 
 form, are fewer in number they are fewer even when joined 
 by the two or three, or half dozen anti-federalists, who, though 
 they dare not avow it, are still opposed to any general 
 government, but being less so to a republican than to a mo 
 narchical one, they naturally join those whom they think 
 pursuing the lesser evil. 
 
 " Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures 
 before mentioned, none is so affecting and fatal to every 
 honest hope, as the corruption of the legislature : as it was 
 the earliest of these measures, it became the instrument for 
 producing the rest, and will be the instrument for producing 
 in future a king, lords, and commons, or whatever else those 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 431 
 
 who direct it may choose. Withdrawn such a distance from 
 the eye of their constituents, and those so dispersed as to be 
 inaccessible to public information, and particularly to that 
 of the conduct of their own representatives, they will form 
 the most corrupt government on earth, if the means of the 
 corruption be not prevented. The only hope of safety hangs 
 now on the numerous representation which is to come for 
 ward the ensuing year. Some of the new members will pro 
 bably be, in principle or interest, with the present majority; 
 but it is expected that the great mass will form an accession 
 to the republican party. They will not be able to undo all 
 which the two preceding legislatures, and especially the 
 first, have done. Public faith and right will oppose this. 
 But some parts of the system may be rightfully reformed; a 
 liberation from the rest unremittingly pursued, as fast as 
 right will permit, and the door shut in future against similar 
 commitments of the nation. Should the next legislature 
 take this course, it will draw upon them the whole monar 
 chical and paper interest. But the latter, I think, will not 
 go all lengths with the former ; because creditors will never, 
 of their own accord, fly off entirely from their debtors. 
 Therefore, this is the alternative least likely to produce con 
 vulsion. But, should the majority of the new members be 
 still in the same principles with the present, and show that 
 we have nothing to expect but a continuance of the same 
 practices, it is not easy to conjecture what would be the 
 result, nor what means would be resorted to, for correction 
 of the evils. True wisdom would direct that they should be 
 temperate and peaceable ; but the division of sentiment and 
 interest happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that 
 no mortal can say that what is most wise and temperate 
 would prevail against what is more easy and obvious. 
 
 " I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than 
 the breaking of the Union into two or more parts ; yet, 
 
432 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 
 
 when we view the mass which opposed the original coales 
 cence ; when we consider that it lay chiefly in the Southern 
 quarter; that the legislature have availed themselves of 
 no occasion of allaying it, but, on the contrary, whenever 
 Northern and Southern prejudices have come into conflict, 
 the latter have been sacrificed, and the former soothed ; that 
 the owners of the debt are in the Southern, and the holders of 
 it in the Northern division ; that the anti-federal champions 
 are now strengthened in argument by the fulfilment of their 
 predictions ; that this has been brought about by the monar 
 chical federalists themselves, who, having been for the new 
 government merely as a stepping-stone to monarchy, have 
 themselves adopted the very construction of the constitution, 
 of which, when advocating its acceptance before the tribunal 
 of the people, they declared it unsusceptible ; that the repub 
 lican federalists, who espoused the same government for its 
 intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons that which 
 they denied as prophecy having become true history : who 
 can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small 
 number which was wanting to place the majority on the 
 other side ? And this is the event at which I tremble, and 
 to prevent which, I consider your continuance at the head 
 of affairs as of the last importance. The confidence of the 
 whole nation is centred in you. You being at the helm 
 will be more than an answer to every argument which can 
 be used to alarm and lead the people, in any quarter, into 
 violence or secession. North and South will hang together, 
 if they have you to hang on : and if the first corrective of 
 a numerous representation should fail in its effect, your pre 
 sence will give time for trying others not inconsistent with 
 the union and peace of the states. 
 
 " I am perfectly aware of the oppression under which your 
 present office lays your mind, and of the ardour with which 
 you pant for retirement to domestic life ; but there is some- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 433 
 
 limes an eminence of character on which society has such 
 peculiar claims, as to control the predilections of the indi 
 vidual for a particular walk of happiness, and restrain him 
 to that alone arising from the present and future benedic 
 tions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, and 
 the law imposed on you by Providence in forming your cha 
 racter, and fashioning the events on which it was to operate ; 
 and it is to motives like these, and not to personal anxieties 
 of mine or others, who have no right to call on you for sacri 
 fices, that I appeal from your former determination, and 
 urge a revisal of it, on the ground of change in the aspect 
 of things. Should an honest majority result from the new 
 and enlarged representation : should those acquiesce whose 
 principles or interests they may control, your wishes for 
 retirement would be gratified with less danger, as soon as 
 that shall be manifest, without awaiting the completion of 
 the second period of four years. One or two sessions will 
 determine the crisis, and I cannot but hope that you can 
 resolve to add one or two more to the many years you have 
 already sacrificed to the good of mankind. 
 
 " The fear of suspicion that any selfish motive of continu 
 ance in office may enter into this solicitation, on my part, 
 obliges me to declare that no such motive exists. It is a 
 thing of mere indifference to the public, whether I retain or 
 relinquish my purpose of closing my tour with the first peri 
 odical renovation of the government. I know my own measure 
 too well to suppose that my services contribute any thing 
 to the public confidence, or the public utility. Multitudes 
 can fill the office in which you have been pleased to place 
 me, as much to their advantage and satisfaction. I, there 
 fore, have no motive to consult but my own inclination, 
 which is bent irresistibly on the tranquil enjoyment of my 
 family, my farm, and my books. I should repose among 
 them, it is true, in far greater security, if I were to know 
 
 VOL. i. 2 F 
 
434 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 that you remained at the watch, and I hope it will be so. 
 To the inducements urged from a view of our domestic affairs, 
 I will add a bare mention of what need only be mentioned, 
 that weighty motives for your continuance are to be found 
 in our foreign affairs. I think it probable that both the 
 Spanish and English negotiations, if not complete before 
 your purpose is known, will be suspended from the moment 
 it is known ; and that the latter nation will then use double 
 diligence in fomenting the Indian war. With my wishes for 
 the future, I shall at the same time express my gratitude for 
 the past at least my portion of it ; and beg permission to fol 
 low you, whether in public or private life, with those sentiments 
 of sincere attachment and respect with which I am unalterably, 
 " Dear sir, your affectionate friend and humble servant, 
 
 " THOMAS JEFFERSON." 
 
 The President having left Mount Vernon before Mr. Jef 
 ferson s letter of the 23rd of May reached that place, it had 
 followed him to Philadelphia. He mentioned the fact to 
 Mr. Jefferson, and proposed to have a conversation with him 
 on the subject of his retirement ; and one accordingly took 
 place, early in July. He there went over the same ground 
 as at their conference in February, relative to his motives, 
 first, for accepting the office of president, and then for con 
 tinuing in it, and to his anxiety to withdraw from public 
 life; said, however, that he would conquer his desire for 
 retirement, if he believed the apprehensions of danger were 
 well founded ; but that he thought the " suspicions against 
 a particular party had been carried a great deal too far ; 
 there might be desires, but he did not believe there were 
 designs to change the form of government into a monarchy ; 
 that there might be a few who wished it in the higher walks 
 of life, particularly in the great cities ; but that the main 
 body of the people in the Eastern states were as steadily 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 435 
 
 for republicanism as in the Southern :" that " the pieces 
 lately published, and particularly in Freneau s paper, seemed 
 to have in view the exciting opposition to the government," 
 and that it had been successful in Pennsylvania, as to the 
 excise laws : " that they tended to produce a separation of 
 the Union, the most dreadful of all calamities, and that what 
 ever tended to produce anarchy, tended, of course, to pro 
 duce a resort to monarchical government. He considered 
 those papers as attacking him directly, for he must be a fool 
 indeed to swallow the little sugar-plums here and there 
 thrown out to him : that in condemning the administration, 
 they condemned him, for, if they thought the measures pur 
 sued contrary to his sentiments, they must conceive him 
 too careless to attend to them, or too stupid to understand 
 them ; that though, he had signed many acts which he did 
 not approve in all their parts, he had never put his name 
 to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible : 
 that, as to the bank, which had been the object of so much 
 complaint, until there was some infallible criterion of reason, 
 a difference of opinion must be tolerated." He added that, 
 from what he had heard and seen in his late journey, he did 
 not believe the discontents extended far from the seat of 
 government ; but he wished to be better informed on this 
 head, as if they were more extensive than he supposed, the 
 desire for him to remain at the head of the government 
 might not be general. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s observations tended principally to enforce 
 the topics of his letter. He said that the two great com 
 plaints were, that the national debt was unnecessarily in 
 creased, and that it had furnished the means of corrupting 
 both branches of the legislature, as it was notorious to all 
 that there was a considerable squadron in both, whose votes 
 were devoted to the paper and stock-jobbing interest : that, 
 on examining their f votes, they would be found in favour of 
 
 2 F 2 
 
436 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 every treasury measure, and as most of these measures had 
 been carried by small majorities, they had been carried by 
 these very votes : that, therefore, it was a just cause of uneasi 
 ness when we thus saw members legislating for their own in 
 terests, in opposition to those of the people. On the subject 
 of the corruption he was silent, but he defended the assump 
 tion, and argued that it had not increased the public debt, for 
 that all of it was honest debt. He regarded the excise law as 
 one of the best which could be passed, as nobody would pay 
 the tax who did not choose to pay it. Mr. Jefferson replied 
 that the objection to the increase of the debt by the assump 
 tion, was, that it "increased the debt of the general govern 
 ment, and carried it beyond the possibility of payment : that 
 if the balances had been settled, and the debtor states di 
 rected to pay their deficiencies to the creditor states, they 
 would have done it easily, by resources of taxation in their 
 power, and acceptable to the people by a direct tax in the 
 South and an excise in the North : " to which General Wash 
 ington replied, that the money would still be paidby the people. 
 Whatever may be thought of the course of policy which 
 had been pursued, and which it is probable men will approve 
 or condemn, according as they think our complex system 
 of government most inclines to consolidation or disunion, 
 we can now perceive errors in the reasoning of both parties 
 on this occasion. Thus, while General Washington justly 
 insisted that the money was paid by the people, whether it 
 was levied by the states or the general government; and 
 that it made no difference to the national wealth whether it 
 was paid one way or the other ; yet there might be a great 
 difference in the means they severally possessed of raising 
 money by taxes, and the people might have endured a degree 
 of taxation from the legislatures of their respective states, 
 which their representatives in Congress could not have en 
 forced, and would not have ventured on. So, although Mr. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 437 
 
 Jefferson was clearly right in maintaining that the public 
 debt would have been sooner paid off, yet time has shown 
 that he was mistaken in supposing its iinal redemption im 
 possible, since it is now discharged, though it was subse 
 quently increased nearly twenty millions of dollars by the 
 purchase of Louisiana and Florida, and seventy millions by 
 the war with England. If Mr. Jefferson had not added to 
 it by the Louisiana purchase, it would have been reduced 
 more than half, during his own administration. 
 
 That the assumption of the debt brought an accession 
 of strength to the administration among the members of 
 Congress thcre seems no room to doubt, but whether the 
 government could not have got along without this temporary 
 support, may be fairly questioned; and still more, whether 
 the government did not lose by the discontent it immediately 
 produced, and the subsequent complaint of the excise, more 
 than it gained by the support of the fundholdcrs ; especially 
 as this class would have sided with the government, if not 
 before, certainly after the funding of the debt of the whole 
 confederacy, and the establishment of the bank. 
 
 It may also be safely inferred that parties supporting and 
 opposing the leading measures of the administration, would 
 have arisen under any course that could have been pursued ; 
 and it is difficult to say whether they would have been more 
 or less injurious than those which really existed. In this 
 uncertainty of the remote tendency of measures it is the safest 
 for men, in public as well as private life, to do nothing which 
 violates the principles of justice, truth, fair dealing, and 
 iidelity to engagements, and to trust that these virtues will 
 be in the main most productive of benefit to nations, as well 
 as to individuals. 
 
 On the 9th of September, Mr. Jefferson wrote another 
 letter to the President, then at Mount Vernon, on subjects 
 altogether personal to himself. He first speaks of his own 
 
438 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 " interference with the concerns of the legislature for the 
 first time," and says he was " duped into it by the Secretary 
 of the Treasury, and made a tool for forwarding his schemes, 
 not then sufficiently understood " by him ; that of all the 
 errors of his political life, this had occasioned him the deepest 
 regret ; and that it had ever been his purpose to explain 
 this to General Washington, when, " from being actors on 
 the scene, they should become uninterested spectators only." 
 
 He thus proceeds to defend himself against some anony 
 mous attacks in the newspapers, which he attributed to 
 Hamilton : 
 
 " He charges me 1. With having written letters from 
 Europe to my friends to oppose the present constitution, 
 while depending. 2. With a desire of not paying the public 
 debt, 3. With setting up a paper to decry and slander the 
 government. 
 
 " The first charge is most false. I approved as much of 
 the constitution as most persons, and more of it was disap 
 proved by my accuser than by me, and of its parts most 
 vitally republican. My objection to the constitution was 
 the want of a bill of rights Colonel Hamilton s, that it 
 wanted a king and house of lords. The sense of America 
 has approved my objection, and added the bill of rights, and 
 not the king and lords. I wanted the presidential term 
 longer and not renewable : my country thought otherwise 
 and I have acquiesced." As to the public debt, he emphati 
 cally denies the charge, says he wishes " the debt paid off 
 to-morrow : Colonel Hamilton, never ; but always to remain 
 in existence for him to manage and corrupt the legislature." 
 
 He next defends himself for giving Freneau, the poet, an 
 appointment in his office : says he could safely declare that 
 his expectations looked only to the chastisement of the aris- 
 tocratical and monarchical writers, and not to any criticisms 
 on the proceedings of the government : that Hamilton could 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 439 
 
 see no motive for any appointment but that of making a con 
 venient partisan, but that the President knew that talents 
 and science were with him a sufficient recommendation. Fre- 
 neau, as a man of genius, found a preference with him. 
 
 " Freneau and Fenno," he adds, " are rivals for the public 
 favour : the one courts them by flattery, the other by cen 
 sure ; and I believe it will be admitted that the one has been 
 as servile as the other severe. But is not the dignity, and 
 even decency of government committed, when one of its 
 ministers enlists himself as an anonymous writer or para- 
 graphist, for either the one or the other of them ? And 
 where the press is free, no one ever will. If virtuous, he 
 need not fear the fair operation of attack and defence. Na 
 ture has given to man no other means of sifting the truth,, 
 either in religion, law, or politics. I think it as honourable 
 to the government neither to know nor to notice sycophants 
 or censors, as it would be undignified and criminal to pam 
 per the former and persecute the latter." 
 
 Few acts of Mr. Jefferson have been a more frequent theme 
 of party obloquy than his employment of this editor, as a 
 clerk in the state department ; and as the paper openly and 
 warmly condemned some of the leading measures of the 
 administration while he was a member of it, on the ground 
 of their anti-republican tendency, he has been charged not 
 only with a want of courtesy to his associates, but with a 
 breach of moral duty, in thus giving the paper his counte 
 nance and support. But against no aspersion of his enemies 
 is his vindication more easy. On the public measures thus 
 condemned, his opinions were known, in the cabinet and out 
 of it, to be diametrically opposite to those of Mr. Hamilton, 
 their chief adviser ; and while the press was made to assail 
 him, his opinions and motives, he surely had a right to use 
 the same weapon in their defence. But further : according 
 to his views of the interests of the country, and of the object 
 
440 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and tendency of Hamilton s policy, it was not only his right, 
 but his duty, to endeavour to operate upon public opinion, 
 which was to be the final arbiter between. In availing him 
 self of this auxiliary, he seems never to have transcended the 
 bounds of legitimate warfare. He practised no concealment 
 either of his principles or of his patronage of Frencau; he 
 betrayed no confidence ; he countenanced no doctrines in 
 that paper which he did not maintain every where "else. It 
 does not appear that he ever wrote for the paper, for that 
 did not accord with his notions either of prudence or pro 
 priety ; but had he done so, he might have defended him 
 self by the example of his political antagonists. It must 
 also be recollected that the political principles and measures 
 of Hamilton and his adherents were the chief objects of at 
 tack in the National Gazette, while the President, who was 
 never confounded with them, was always treated with deco 
 rum and respect. In every aspect, then, the charge appears 
 to be frivolous or unfounded*. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson records another conversation which he held 
 with General Washington, at Mount Vernon, on the 1st of 
 October, on his return to Philadelphia from Monticello. 
 The President expressed his regret at Mr. Jefferson s inten 
 tion of withdrawing from public life, especially so long as 
 he himself continued in office ; he remarked, that he was yet 
 undecided whether to retire in March or not. That he 
 earnestly wished to retire. That he was happy at home ; 
 and his presence was more than ever necessary, by the state 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson had yet a further ground of vindication, had he needed 
 it, though he never deigned to make use of it ; and this was the fact, 
 that the National Gazette was not set up by him, but by Mr. Madison 
 and General Henry Lee, then Governor of Virginia, and afterwards so 
 warm a federal partisan, for the double purpose of assisting Freneau, 
 who had been their fellow collegian at Princeton, and of affording the 
 public an opportunity of hearing the arguments of both the parties that 
 then divided the country. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 441 
 
 of Major Washington s health. That he did not conceive 
 his immediate agency necessary ; that there were others who 
 would do the business as well, or better ; yet if his aid was 
 thought necessary, he would make the sacrifice. That he 
 reserved himself for a future decision, and had requested Mr. 
 Lear to discover whether any other person was desired. 
 This gentleman had informed him it was the universal wish 
 that he should continue ; and he believed that those who 
 expressed a doubt of his continuance, did it in the language 
 of apprehension, and not of desire. But this was only from 
 the North; it might be very different in the South. Mr. 
 Jefferson told him that as far as he knew, there was but one 
 voice there, which was for his continuance. That as to him 
 self, he had ever preferred the pursuits of private life. He 
 then explained the circumstances which had first called him 
 into public life, and had afterwards kept him there. That 
 as to General Washington, his presence was important, as 
 he alone possessed the general confidence, and the longer he 
 remained, the stronger would become the habits of the 
 people in obedience to the laws and attachment to the go 
 vernment : that every other person would be regarded 
 merely as the head of a party. The President then ex 
 pressed regret at the difference between Mr. Jefferson and 
 Colonel Hamilton, which he had not thought amounted to a 
 personal difference, and wished he could be a mediator be 
 tween them : said that he was desirous of preserving the 
 check of Mr. Jefferson s opinions, in the administration, 
 in order to keep things in their proper channel : and that as 
 to the scheme of transforming this government into a mo 
 narchy, he did not believe there were ten men in the United 
 States, worthy of notice, who entertained such a thought. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson replied, that there "were more than he 
 imagined." He recalled to his memory a dispute, at his own 
 table, between General Schuylcr on one side, and Mr. 
 
442 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Pinekney and Mr. Jefferson on the other, wherein the former 
 maintained the opinion, that hereditary descent was "as 
 likely to produce good magistrates as election."* He said 
 that there was a numerous sect who had monarchy in con 
 templation, and the Secretary of the Treasury was one of 
 them, of which he adduced evidence from his own declara 
 tions. That when we reflected that he had endeavoured in 
 the convention to make an English constitution, and failing 
 in that, when we saw all his measures tending to the same 
 thing, it was natural to be jealous, particularly when we 
 witnessed his influence in the legislature. That so long as 
 the three great branches of power remained independent, 
 there was no danger ; but he could not but be uneasy, when 
 he saw that the executive had swallowed up the legislative 
 branch. 
 
 To this the President rejoined, that an interested spirit 
 in the legislature could not be avoided in any government, 
 unless particular classes were excluded. Mr. Jefferson dis 
 tinguished between the accidental schemes of self-interest 
 and a regular system of forming a corps, who should be 
 steadily under the orders of the treasury. General Wash 
 ington then adverting to the funding system, said that 
 experience alone could determine which opinion concerning 
 it was right. That for himself, he had seen our affairs des 
 perate and our credit lost, and that it was suddenly raised 
 to the highest pitch. Mr. Jefferson said that nothing more 
 was necessary to establish our credit than an efficient go- 
 
 * This discussion is mentioned by Mr. Jefferson in a letter to Mr. 
 Madison, of June 10, 1792, in which lie remarks, that " he was not sorry 
 to perceive that General Washington attended to the conversation, as it 
 would corroborate the designs imputed to the leading federalists." 
 
 It was probably on this occasion that Mr. Jefferson, by way of throw 
 ing ridicule on the proposition maintained by General Schuyler, men 
 tioned some college in Germany, in which there was an hereditary Pro 
 fessor of Mathematics. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 443 
 
 vernment, and an honest one, which would lay taxes for 
 paying our debts, and then apply them. The President 
 concluded by another exhortation to Mr. Jefferson, not to 
 decide too positively on retirement. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson made a visit to Monticello in the autumn, 
 
 and one of the first official acts after he returned to Phila- 
 
 v 
 
 delphia, was to complain to the Spanish government through 
 our ministers, that the Creek Indians on our southern 
 border, within the limits of Florida, had been incited to 
 hostilities by the Baron de Carondelet, Governor of Loui 
 siana, and had been liberally furnished by him with arms and 
 ammunition. They were urged not only to punish this act 
 of aggression, but also to propose mutual stipulations, that 
 neither Spain nor the United States should have agents 
 among the savages inhabiting the territory of either. 
 
 Soon after these instructions were written, two commis 
 sioners arrived from Spain, Messrs. Vier and Jaudenes, for 
 the purpose of interposing in behalf of the Creeks, whom, it 
 had been alleged, the United States had threatened with 
 destruction during the current year. They proposed that 
 the interests of both nations in this matter should be 
 discussed in the negotiations about to be opened at Madrid. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson answered this letter on the 1st of Novem 
 ber. He denied that any such menaces of destruction had 
 been thrown out against the Creeks, but stated that the 
 
 S 
 
 United States had been most perseveringly anxious to pre 
 serve peace with them, and had even from this desire of 
 peace, forborne to mark the boundary between them and us, 
 to which they had fairly and freely assented, in the hope 
 that they would relinquish their subsequent opposition to it. 
 He agreed that the relative interests of the two nations 
 with the Creeks, was a proper subject of discussion at 
 Madrid. The ground upon which these commissioners pre 
 tended a right to interfere in this matter, was that of un- 
 
444 THE LIFE CF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 settled boundary between Spain and the United States, but 
 they disclaimed all right of affording protection to Indian 
 tribes within the territory admitted to be ours. 
 
 It seems that when this subject was discussed in the 
 cabinet on the last day of October, as to the course to be 
 taken by the executive, both with Congress and Spain, Mr. 
 Jefferson proposed that the letter from the Spanish com 
 missioners should be communicated to Congress, as it might 
 influence them in deciding whether it would be prudent to 
 declare war, against any, and which of the Indians to the 
 South ; and he thought that in assenting to the proposition 
 of those commissioners, to refer the subject to the nego 
 tiators at Madrid, w r e should further continue the suspension 
 of Indian hostilities, reserve our rights of boundary, and 
 avoid a rupture with Spain. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton was opposed to any measures which 
 would be likely to involve us in w r ar, for which we were so 
 little prepared, and which would so impede our career of 
 prosperity. He was for every thing which would procras 
 tinate the event; but he regarded it as ultimately inevitable, 
 from the jealousy of the Spanish government. He thought 
 that we should prepare ourselves then for the rupture, by 
 providing an ally. That of the only two nations which 
 could serve us in this character France and England 
 France was too intimately connected with Spain to separate 
 on our account; nor could her situation allow her to assist 
 us much. That we must, therefore, look to England, and 
 that she might be induced to enter into a defensive treaty 
 of alliance with us, first, from the desire of breaking up our 
 former connexions : secondly, for a continuance of the com 
 merce of the two countries in its present state for ten years : 
 thirdly, for an admission to some navigable part of the Mis 
 sissippi, by some line drawn from the Lake of the Woods, 
 in which case, the navigation of that river, being a joint pos- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 445 
 
 session, we might unite in measures to secure it. He was, 
 therefore, for sounding the British government immediately 
 on these points. 
 
 Mr. Randolph opposed such an alliance, and concurred in 
 Mr. Jefferson s views. The President, who seems to have 
 held the balance between his rival ministers, M ith a firm 
 and impartial hand, said, that the remedy suggested by 
 Colonel Hamilton would be worse than the disease ; and 
 stated some of the disagreeable consequences of making such 
 an overture. 
 
 Congress met on the 5th of November, 1792; and the 
 President, in his opening speech, was silent on our foreign 
 relations ; for the administration had been for some time at 
 a loss what course it became the United States to pursue, in 
 the distracted state of French affairs. On the 14th of Oc 
 tober, Mr. Jefferson had written to Gouvcrneur Morris, that 
 as the late constitution of France was suspended, and a new 
 convention called, our government could not continue the 
 payment of our debt to that nation, because there was no 
 person authorized to receive it, and give a satisfactory ac 
 quittal : and on the 7th of November, he was also told, 
 that as his situation in Paris must have been delicate and 
 difficult, "whenever the scene became personally dangerous, 
 it was proper he should abandon it, submitting it to himself 
 to judge of the danger, and of the place of retirement." He 
 was also told, that it accorded with our principles to acknow 
 ledge any government, " which was formed by the will of the 
 nation substantially declared." With such a government 
 every kind of business may be done. But there were some 
 matters which might be transacted with a government de 
 facto, such as reforming restrictions in trade. Mr. Ternant 
 was informed about the same time, that with every dispo 
 sition on our part to assist the French colonies, we could not 
 
446 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 continue to furnish them with supplies, without the sanction 
 of the French government, it affording reasonable ground 
 of presumption, that they proposed to relieve them in some 
 other way, if they refused to express their approbation of 
 this mode. It was, however, added, that the 40,000 dollars 
 wanted for the month of December, would be advanced. On 
 this subject, there appears to have been the usual difference 
 of opinion, between Jefferson and Hamilton. While the 
 former admitted, that the National Assembly, since the de 
 thronement of the king, was not an integral legislature, and 
 therefore not competent to give a legitimate discharge of our 
 payments, he maintained that the National Convention, re 
 cently called, was such a body. On this point Hamilton 
 doubted ; and also, whether, if the king should be re esta 
 blished, he might not properly disallow subsequent payments. 
 The other members, including General Knox, concurred with 
 Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards, December the 27th, the Presi 
 dent remarked to Mr. Jefferson, that he thought it was time 
 to endeavour to effect a stricter connexion with France, and 
 that Gouverneur Morris should be written to on the subject. 
 Adverting then to the causes of dissatisfaction with Great 
 Britain and Spain, he observed, that there was no nation on 
 whom we could rely at all times, but France, and that we 
 ought to prepare in time, in case of a rupture with the other 
 two. Mr. Jefferson expresses himself as highly pleased with 
 these remarks. They conformed " to the doctrine which had 
 been his polar star/ 1 before the success of the French arms. 
 He then suggested, that we ought to go on with our pay 
 ments of the French debt, to the National Convention, or to 
 any government they should establish; and he suggested, 
 that the money borrowed in Amsterdam, to pay off the 
 French debt, which was now about to be diverted by Con- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 447 
 
 gross to the payment of the debt due to the bank, was 
 " a trick to serve the bank under great existing embarrass 
 ment." 
 
 In his answer to Mr. Pinckney, asking instructions how to 
 conduct himself as to the French revolution, Mr. Jefferson 
 says, he took occasion to lay down " the catholic principles 
 of republicanism ; that every people may establish what form 
 of government they please, and change it as they please." 
 His motive was to extract the President s opinion on the 
 point which divided Hamilton and himself, as to the suspen 
 sion of payments to France ; and if favourable, to place 
 the principles on record in the letter book of the office. He, 
 therefore, sent his letter to Pinckney to the President, who 
 returned his approbation in writing. 
 
 The debates in Congress, at this period, show that the 
 two great parties had become more widely separated, and 
 that increasing differences of political sentiment, together 
 with personal rivalry, had now ripened into acrimonious 
 hostility. 
 
 One of the occasions of party controversy at that time, 
 was afforded by the practice of referring every measure at 
 all connected with the finances of the country, to the Secre 
 tary of the Treasury, which practice was resisted by most of 
 the republican party, as transferring to the executive de 
 partment what properly belonged to the legislative ; and 
 which, implying either incapacity or unwillingness in the 
 House to perform its appropriate duty, was derogatory to its 
 dignity and to a course of independent legislation. If a part 
 of this opposition may be regarded as applying personally 
 to Mr. Hamilton, yet when it is recollected that he was the 
 known advocate of a government with strong executive 
 powers, and that his talents, virtues, and recent schemes of 
 policy, gave him unbounded influence with his party, it is 
 not to be wondered, that those who entertained different 
 
448 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 political principles, manifested impatience at seeing him thus 
 permitted to originate and direct the chief measures of the 
 government. If they sometimes exposed themselves to the 
 imputation of illiberal jealousy of the man, rather than hos 
 tility to his acts, their adversaries were no less obnoxious to 
 the charge of an indiscriminating and obsequious deference 
 to his plans ; and presuming the general practice in legisla- 
 lative bodies, and in Congress itself, since that time, to be 
 right, the democratic party must be admitted to have had 
 juster views of their own duty and self-respect than their 
 opponents, by whose votes every scheme of funding the 
 public debt, of providing money by taxes or loans, and of 
 disbursing it was devolved on this officer; and to whom the 
 merits even of private claims were generally submitted, 
 before they received the definitive action of Congress. 
 Whatever may be the influence of committees in legislative 
 bodies and it has always been deemed considerable that 
 influence was bestowed in a mass on Mr. Hamilton, who 
 might be regarded as the standing committee of the House, 
 on every question which concerned the public treasury. 
 
 An occasion was soon presented of renewing this subject 
 of irritation. On the 19th of November, Mr. Fitzsimmons 
 in committee of the whole offered resolutions, which pro 
 posed " a reduction of the public debt, so far as it was then 
 redeemable;" and required the Secretary of the Treasury to 
 report a plan for that purpose. After some general objec 
 tions to acting on the resolution, until the House obtained 
 fuller information of the state of the finances than it then 
 possessed, the debate turned altogether on the proposed 
 reference, which was assailed and defended on the usual 
 grounds. The motion was finally carried on the 21st, by 32 
 votes to 25 ; nearly every vote, south of Pennsylvania, voting 
 in the negative. 
 
 On the following day, the secretary was called on in like 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 449 
 
 manner, to prepare a plan for paying to the bank the two 
 millions which the government owed it for the stock it had 
 subscribed, and which by the charter was to be paid in ten 
 annual instalments. It seems that the southern members 
 forebore to renew a fruitless opposition to the reference on 
 this occasion, as the motion was adopted without debate. 
 
 At the end of a week, the secretary made a report, embrac 
 ing both subjects. On that of redeeming a part of the debt, 
 he proposed several plans ; and after discussing their several 
 merits, he decided in favour of the one which had recourse 
 to loans, on the credit of short annuities, by which about six 
 and a half millions would be paid off in ten years ; and to 
 effect this, he proposed a tax, either on riding horses or car 
 riages. For the " reimbursement" of the bank, he merely 
 recommended that power be given to negotiate a loan for 
 two millions ; the dividends on the shares held by the go 
 vernment to be pledged for the interest ; and as the govern 
 ment paid six per cent, to the bank, he relied on the saving 
 that would be effected by borrowing at a lower rate of in 
 terest. 
 
 The administration party soon after proposed the further 
 assumption of the state debts to the amount of the balances 
 which, on a final settlement, should be found due to them. 
 This measure subsequently underwent an animated and pro 
 tracted discussion, during the whole of which it was strenu 
 ously resisted by the opposition ; whilst its friends, conscious 
 of their strength and emboldened by success, proceeded by 
 amendments to mould it more to their purposes, and to make 
 it still more objectionable to their adversaries. They thus 
 too defeated an amendment, by which their opponents, for 
 preventing the same course of speculation and fraud as had 
 previously taken place, proposed to prohibit all transfers of 
 certificates made between the first of January and the first 
 of June. On the 25th of January, the question was taken 
 
 VOL. i. 2 G 
 
450 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 on the passage of the bill, and the House being equally 
 divided, it was passed by the vote of the speaker. It was, 
 however, contrary to all expectation, rejected by the Senate, 
 by the influence, according to Mr. Jefferson, of General 
 Washington, or Mr. Langdon of New Hampshire, who with 
 his colleague, as well as the members from Vermont, voted 
 on this occasion with the southern members. 
 
 On the 20th of December, the bill which had been pre 
 viously reported by a select committee for repaying the two 
 millions due to the bank, was debated, and a motion to strike 
 out the first section, which authorized a loan to the same 
 amount, having been rejected by a large majority, Mr. Ma 
 dison moved to insert 200,000 dollars the amount then 
 payable by the charter instead of two millions ; and the 
 motion was supported by 27 ayes to 26 noes ; but the 
 speaker then voting in the negative the motion was lost. 
 After this victory of the friends of the bank, so near a de 
 feat, the subject slept until the end of the session, when the 
 majority, either doubtful of their strength, or of the policy 
 of using it, abandoned the measure they had at first so 
 earnestly pressed; and the same motion, to strike out the 
 first section, which on the 26th of December had received 
 but 17 votes, was passed on the 27th of February, without a 
 dissentient ! 
 
 During the next four weeks, the principal subjects of con 
 troversy between the parties were the bill for the assump 
 tion, which received the support of South Carolina as well 
 as of the northern states, and a bill for reducing the military 
 establishment, which was brought forward by the opposition, 
 with a view of rendering farther taxation unnecessary. But 
 on the 23d of January, a subject was presented to the notice 
 of the House which not only excited the liveliest interest at 
 that time, but engrossed the attention of the conflicting 
 parties for the remainder of the session. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 451 
 
 This was a scries of resolutions, offered by Mr. Giles, the 
 object of which was generally understood to be, to inculpate 
 the Secretary of the Treasury. They called on the President 
 for copies of the authorities, under which the loans autho 
 rized in August, 1790, had been made, and the application 
 of the money directed ; together with the names of the 
 persons to whom and by whom the money had been paid. 
 They required the Secretary of the Treasury to exhibit state 
 ments of the half-monthly balances between the United 
 States and the bank, of the several sums which had been 
 paid into the sinking fund, of the sources whence derived 
 and their application, and of the balance of the unapplied 
 revenue for the year 1792, specifying the several places of 
 deposit, and amounts deposited. 
 
 While the wish to obtain information of the state of the 
 finances was the avowed object of the mover of the reso 
 lutions, he did not hesitate to impute to the Secretary of the 
 Treasury inaccuracy as well as obscurity in his reports, and 
 he exhibited some estimates, founded partly on conjecture 
 and partly on the secretary s reports, to show that a large ba 
 lance was unaccounted for. He alleged that Congress had 
 been legislating in the dark concerning their fiscal affairs ; in 
 proof of which, he stated that 500,000 dollars had been bor 
 rowed of the bank when that institution had public money 
 on deposit to a larger amount, and that the House had 
 recently been near authorizing a further loan of two mil 
 lions, without the information which would enable them to 
 judge whether such loan was necessary. 
 
 The resolutions were adopted without further debate ; 
 and twelve days afterwards (Feb. 4) the secretary made a 
 partial report, which principally responded to the last reso 
 lution, respecting the revenue of the preceding year ; and he 
 showed that, whatever deviation may have taken place from 
 the letter of the law in his fiscal transactions, or however he 
 
454 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 been established beyond question, it may be presumed, that 
 those members of the minority who refused to vote for the 
 resolutions, were influenced by the consideration that the 
 public generally had regarded them as a charge on the 
 secretary s integrity ; and that, as a vote of censure would 
 be used by his enemies and be regarded by the public as 
 confirming that charge, the punishment seemed dispropor 
 tionate to the offence of too free an exercise of his discre 
 tionary powers; especially, when Congress itself had, by its 
 previous unbounded confidence in the wisdom of his mea 
 sures, and unhesitating adoption of them, done so much to 
 invite it. It seems probable, too, that the secretary having 
 proved himself innocent of the more serious part of the 
 charge, the common re- action in favour of those who have 
 been unjustly accused took place, and inclined men to ac 
 quit him altogether. 
 
 The debate was conducted with ability on both sides, and 
 of those who will be at the trouble to read it, many may now, 
 as many then did, incline to dissent from the decision of the 
 House. Both in Congress and out of it, the opinion that 
 favour to the bank had been at the bottom of all the irregu 
 larities complained of was very prevalent, from the fact, 
 that it was assisted by the sums unwarrantably drawn from 
 Europe, at the very times when it most needed assistance ; 
 from the sensibility which was manifested by the friends of 
 the secretary and the bank, whenever this coincidence was 
 alluded to ; and from the proposition to pay to the bank two 
 millions ten years before the whole was payable. 
 
 A few days afterwards, March 2nd, Mr. Jefferson thus 
 comments in his diary on the fate of Mr. Giles s resolutions : 
 " He, (Mr. Giles,) and one or two others, were sanguine 
 enough to believe that the palpableness of these resolutions 
 rendered it impossible the House could reject them. Those 
 who knew the composition of the House: 1. Of bank di- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 455 
 
 rectors ; 2. holders of bank stock ; 3. stock-jobbers ; 4. blind 
 devotees ; 5. ignorant persons, who did not comprehend 
 them ; G. lazy and good-humoured persons, who compre 
 hended and acknowledged them, yet were too lazy to examine., 
 or unwilling to pronounce censure ; the persons who knew 
 these characters foresaw, that the three first descriptions 
 making one-third of the House, the three latter would make 
 one-half of the residue ; and of course, that they would be 
 rejected by a majority of two to one. But they thought, 
 that even this rejection would do good, by showing the pub 
 lic the desperate and abandoned dispositions with which 
 their affairs were conducted. The resolutions were proposed, 
 and nothing spared to present them in the fulness of demon 
 stration. There were not more than three or four who voted 
 otherwise than had been expected." 
 
 The journals of the day show that the two parties, through 
 out the community as well as in Congress, had now become 
 widely separated in their theoretic views of government, as 
 well as in their feelings towards the French revolution, and 
 far more bitter in their mutual recriminations. The repub 
 licans were regarded by their federal opponents as churlish 
 and discontented ; envious of superior merit ; jealous of the 
 general government, not merely for the powers conferred 
 on it by the constitution, but also for its acknowledged 
 benefits and its splendid success, before which the inferior 
 lustre of the states had disappeared ; and, under the delusive 
 theories of revolutionary France, entertaining notions of 
 civil liberty inconsistent with law and order. They, on the 
 other hand, charged the leaders of the federal party with 
 hostility to the French revolution, because it had taught the 
 great mass of the people to feel and to know their rights 
 That, anxious for a more energetic government than we yet 
 possessed, and above all, for one which could bestow the 
 privileges and distinctions for which they panted, they lost 
 
456 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 no opportunity of increasing the power of the general go 
 vernment at the expense of that of the states, and of con 
 centrating the power thus usurped in the federal executive, 
 for the purpose of raising up a moneyed aristocracy, and 
 of preparing the public mind for the meditated change. 
 For proof of these dispositions and schemes, they referred 
 not only to the funding system, the assumption, and the 
 bank, but to an aristocratic Senate, which had closed its 
 doors to the eyes and ears of its constituents ; to the attempt 
 to place the head of the President on the national coin ; to 
 his morning levees, his opening speeches, echoed by each 
 branch of the legislature, and to the birth-night balls, all 
 of which they regarded as shadows in advance of approaching 
 royalty. 
 
 If some of these practices do not seem to warrant the 
 inferences drawn from them, yet we cannot admit that the 
 suspicions they produced were altogether unfounded, without 
 at the same time passing sentence of condemnation on the 
 prudence of those who thus excited republican jealousy, 
 quickened into preternatural activity as it was at that period 
 by the French revolution, for objects so truly insignificant. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, as we have seen, had long ago intimated 
 to the President his intention of retiring from office, and 
 many circumstances had of late contributed to confirm him 
 in his purpose. The frequent collisions with the Secretary 
 of the Treasury, which he could not avoid without a sur 
 render of his principles, were painful to one of his temper. 
 He saw too, that the President, as the two great parties be 
 came more widely separated, inclined more to the politics 
 of his adversary ; and he keenly felt the vituperation of the 
 federal prints. 
 
 The effect of these annoying circumstances was further 
 aided by the unalloyed pleasures he promised himself in 
 the society of his children and grandchildren, and in making 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 457 
 
 improvements at Monticello. He had, therefore, as far back 
 as September, been decided on retiring at the end of the 
 approaching session of Congress. But his party friends 
 strenuously opposed this step, and he finally yielded to their 
 wishes. With what feelings he did so, may be gathered 
 from the following extract of a letter from him to his daughter, 
 Mrs. Randolph, dated Jan. 26, 1793 : 
 
 " I have for some time past been under an agitation of 
 mind, which I scarcely ever experienced before, produced 
 by a check in my purpose of returning home at the close 
 of the session in Congress. My operations at Monticello 
 had also been made to bear upon that point of time. My 
 mind was fixed on it with a fondness which was extreme ; 
 the purpose firmly declared to the President, when I became 
 assailed from all quarters with a variety of objections. Among 
 these it was urged, that my retirement, when I had been 
 attacked in the public papers, would injure me in the eyes 
 of the public, who would suppose I either withdrew from 
 investigation, or because I had not tone of mind sufficient 
 to meet slander. The only reward I ever wished on my 
 retirement was, to carry with me nothing like disapprobation 
 of the public. These representations have, for some time 
 past, shaken a determination which I had thought the whole 
 world could not have shaken. I have not yet finally made 
 up my mind on the subject, nor changed my declaration to 
 the President ; but having perfect reliance on the disinte 
 rested friendship of some of those who have counselled and 
 urged it strongly, believing that they can see and judge 
 better a question between the public and myself than I can, 
 I feel a possibility that I may be detained here into the 
 summer." 
 
 In February, 1793, Mr. Jefferson held a long conversation 
 with the President on the subject of his retirement from the 
 office of Secretary of State, either in the summer or autumn 
 
456 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 no opportunity of increasing the power of the general go 
 vernment at the expense of that of the states, and of con 
 centrating the power thus usurped in the federal executive, 
 for the purpose of raising up a moneyed aristocracy, and 
 of preparing the public mind for the meditated change. 
 For proof of these dispositions and schemes, they referred 
 not only to the funding system, the assumption, and the 
 bank, but to an aristocratic Senate, which had closed its 
 doors to the eyes and cars of its constituents ; to the attempt 
 to place the head of the President on the national coin ; to 
 his morning levees, his opening speeches, echoed by each 
 branch of the legislature, and to the birth-night balls, all 
 of which they regarded as shadows in advance of approaching 
 royalty. 
 
 If some of these practices do not seem to warrant the 
 inferences drawn from them, yet we cannot admit that the 
 suspicions they produced were altogether unfounded, without 
 at the same time passing sentence of condemnation on the 
 prudence of those who thus excited republican jealousy, 
 quickened into preternatural activity as it was at that period 
 by the French revolution, for objects so truly insignificant. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, as we have seen, had long ago intimated 
 to the President his intention of retiring from office, and 
 many circumstances had of late contributed to confirm him 
 in his purpose. The frequent collisions with the Secretary 
 of the Treasury, which he could not avoid without a sur 
 render of his principles, were painful to one of his temper. 
 He saw too, that the President, as the two great parties be 
 came more widely separated, inclined more to the politics 
 of his adversary ; and he keenly felt the vituperation of the 
 federal prints. 
 
 The effect of these annoying circumstances was further 
 aided by the unalloyed pleasures he promised himself in 
 the society of his children and grandchildren, and in making 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 457 
 
 improvements at Monticcllo. He had, therefore, as far back 
 as September, been decided on retiring at the end of the 
 approaching session of Congress. But his party friends 
 strenuously opposed this step, and he finally yielded to their 
 wishes. With what feelings he did so, may be gathered 
 from the following extract of a letter from him to his daughter, 
 Mrs. Randolph, dated Jan. 26, 1793 : 
 
 " I have for some time y>ast been under an agitation of 
 mind, which I scarcely ever experienced before, produced 
 by a check in my purpose of returning home at the close 
 of the session in Congress. My operations at Monticello 
 had also been made to bear upon that point of time. My 
 mind was fixed on it with a fondness which was extreme ; 
 the purpose firmly declared to the President, when I became 
 assailed from all quarters with a variety of objections. Among 
 these it was urged, that my retirement, when I had been 
 attacked in the public papers, would injure me in the eyes 
 of the public, who would suppose I either withdrew from 
 investigation, or because I had not tone of mind sufficient 
 to meet slander. The only reward I ever wished on my 
 retirement was, to carry with me nothing like disapprobation 
 of the public. These representations have, for some time 
 past, shaken a determination which I had thought the whole 
 world could not have shaken. I have not yet finally made 
 up my mind on the subject, nor changed my declaration to 
 the President ; but having perfect reliance on the disinte 
 rested friendship of some of those who have counselled and 
 urged it strongly, believing that they can sec and judge 
 better a question between the public and myself than I can, 
 I feel a possibility that I may be detained here into the 
 summer." 
 
 In February, 1793, Mr. Jefferson held a long conversation 
 with the President on the subject of his retirement from the 
 office of Secretary of State, either in the summer or autumn 
 
458 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 of the present year, when he told the President, that as the 
 bill for foreign intercourse would probably be rejected, and 
 he should consequently be relieved from the embarrass 
 ments it was likely to cause him, he had no objection to con 
 tinue in the office a while longer, provided no other arrange 
 ments had been already made. 
 
 The President replied, that so far from having made any, 
 he had not even mentioned the subject to any one, until 
 a few days before, when, having heard that Mr. Jefferson 
 had given up his house in Philadelphia, he had spoken of 
 it to Mr. Randolph. He expressed his satisfaction at this 
 change of purpose, and his apprehensions that Mr. Jeffer 
 son s retirement would prove a new source of uneasiness 
 with the public. He added, that he had that day learnt 
 from General Lee of the discontent prevailing in Virginia, 
 of which he previously had no conception : and he expressed 
 his wish that Hamilton and he could coalesce in the mea 
 sures of the government. That he had mentioned the same 
 thing to Hamilton, who readily acceded to it, and thought 
 such a coalition would meet the public approbation. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson rejoined, that his concurrence was less im 
 portant than the President imagined ; " that he kept him 
 self aloof from all cabals and correspondence on the subject 
 of the government ;" that as to a coalition, if by that it was 
 meant that either was to sacrifice his opinions it was impos 
 sible. They had both, no doubt, formed their conclusions 
 after mature consideration ; and principles, thus adopted, 
 could not be given up. His wish was " to see both Houses 
 of Congress cleansed of all persons interested in the bank 
 or public stocks ;" and that a pure legislature being ob 
 tained, he should always be ready to acquiesce in their de 
 terminations, even if contrary to his own opinions ; for that 
 he subscribed to the principle, " that the will of the majority, 
 honestly expressed, should give law." He imputed the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 459 
 
 discontents in the South to the belief that their interests 
 were sacrificed to those of the Eastern states, by reason of 
 a corrupt squadron of voters at the command of the treasury, 
 whereby measures were carried which would have been 
 otherwise rejected, of which an instance was furnished by 
 the late assumption bill, that had been carried by the 
 speaker s vote. 
 
 "The President then spoke of his remaining in office 
 another term ; he expressed the wretchedness of his existence 
 while in office ; dwelt on the late attacks on him for levees, 
 &c. ; explained how he had been led into them by the persons 
 he consulted at New York ; and that if he could but know 
 what the sense of the public was, he would most cheerfully 
 conform to it." 
 
 It appears from an anecdote which Mr. Jefferson relates, 
 on the authority of Tobias Lear, the President s secretary, 
 that General Washington had yielded a slow assent to the 
 introduction of levees, and that it was finally left to Colonel 
 Humphreys and others to settle the forms. " Accordingly, 
 an antechamber and presence room were provided, and when 
 those who were to pay their court were assembled, the Pre 
 sident set out preceded by Humphreys. After passing 
 through the antechamber, the door of the inner room was 
 thrown open, and Humphreys entered first, calling out with 
 a loud voice, The President of the United States. The 
 President was so much disconcerted by the silly parade, that 
 he did not recover himself the whole time of the levee ; and 
 when the company was gone, he said to Humphreys, Well, 
 you have taken me in once, but by G you shall never take 
 me in a second time. " 
 
 In a cabinet consultation on the 25th, concerning a treaty 
 with the Indians, when the right of the United States to 
 cede any territory which they had previously acquired to 
 the Indians was discussed, Mr. Jefferson considered that our 
 
460 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 "right of pre-emption to the Indian lands did not amount to 
 dominion or jurisdiction, but was merely in the nature of a 
 remainder, after the extinguishment of a present right, which 
 gave us no present right whatever, except that of preventing 
 other nations from taking possession and so defeating our 
 expectancy;" that the Indians had the full, undivided, and 
 independent sovereignty as long as they chose to keep it, 
 and this might be for ever ; that as fast as we extend our 
 rights by purchase from them, so fast we extend the limits 
 of our society ; that the executive, with either or both 
 branches of the legislature, could not alien any part of our 
 territory ; that by the law of nations it was settled, that the 
 amity and indivisibility of the society was so fundamental, 
 that it could not be dismembered by the constituted autho 
 rities, except where their power was despotic, or was ex 
 pressly delegated, and as our government had no claim on 
 either of these grounds, it could not alienate any portion of 
 territory once consolidated with us. But that as we had a 
 right to sell and settle lands once comprehended within our 
 lines, so we might forbear to exercise this right, until some 
 future day ; and this he was willing to do on the present 
 occasion. 
 
 Hamilton and Randolph thought that we might cede to 
 Indians though not to others, because the cession only 
 restored the land to those from whom we bought it. 
 
461 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Questions arising on the War between France and England. Views of 
 the Cabinet. Mr. Jefferson s argument that the United States were 
 not absolved from their treaties with France by its Revolution it 
 prevails with the President. His letters to Mr. Madison and Mr. 
 Monroe on the neutrality of the United States. Arrival of Citizen 
 Genet, the French Minister his reception. Rights of France under 
 the Treaty of Commerce. Mr. Jefferson s correspondence with the 
 French Minister. Genet s intemperate and offensive .course his 
 recall the popular feeling in his favour. 
 
 1793. 
 
 THE 3rd of March, 1793, completed the constitutional term 
 of the second Congress, as well as closed its session ; and, 
 on the following day, General Washington entered on his 
 second presidential term, to which he was again elected by 
 an unanimous vote. Mr. Adams, having the next highest 
 number of votes, was elected vice -President ; but the states 
 of New York, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia gave 
 their votes to Mr. Clinton of New York. Mr. Jefferson 
 received the four votes of Kentucky ; and without doubt he 
 would have received those of Virginia, if her electors had 
 been permitted by the constitution to vote for two of her 
 citizens, as president and vice-president. 
 
 Early in April, the executive received the intelligence 
 that France had declared war against England ; and the 
 President, who was then at Mount Vernon, hastened his 
 return to Philadelphia, and the day after he arrived there. 
 he submitted to each member of his cabinet a series of pro 
 positions in writing, respecting the course it would be 
 
462 THE LTFK OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 proper for the United States to pursue towards the belli 
 gerents, of which he requested their consideration, prepa 
 ratory to a cabinet consultation the next day. 
 
 The questions thus propounded were, in substance, whether 
 a proclamation should issue for the purpose of preventing 
 American citizens taking sides with the belligerents ? 
 Should it contain a declaration of neutrality ? Should a 
 minister from the French republic be received, and if so, 
 absolutely, or with qualifications ? Were the former treaties 
 with France still binding on the United States, or might 
 they be suspended ? Would it be a breach of neutrality to 
 consider these treaties still in operation ? Is the guarantee 
 in the treaty of alliance applicable to an offensive, as well as 
 a defensive war ? What is the effect of such guarantee ? 
 Do the treaties prevent the ships of war of the enemies of 
 France from coining into the ports of the United States for 
 the purpose of convoy, or impose greater restraints upon 
 them than upon French ships of war ? Should the future 
 regent of France send a minister, ought he to be received ? 
 Ought Congress to be called? 
 
 On the following day, the 19th, these questions were fully 
 discussed in the cabinet ; and while, as to a part of them, 
 there was entire unanimity, on the others the members were 
 utterly at variance; and their several opinions but too 
 plainly took their hue from the parties to which the members 
 respectively belonged. All the cabinet agreed that a pro 
 clamation, enjoining on the citizens of the United States the 
 duties of neutrality, should be issued by the President ; that 
 a minister from France should be received, and that the 
 occasion did not require an extraordinary meeting of Con 
 gress. They differed, however, as to the manner in which 
 the minister should be received; Mr. Jefferson, and Mr. 
 Randolph the Attorney- General, thought that the relations 
 between the two nations were unchanged by the revolution ; 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 463 
 
 while Colonel Hamilton and General Knox maintained that 
 a nation had no right, by changing its political institutions, 
 to involve other nations unconditionally in the consequences 
 of those changes ; and that, therefore, the minister ought to 
 be received with qualifications.* They further denied that 
 the revolution could be regarded as the unequivocal act of 
 the nation, and referred to the enormities perpetrated at 
 Paris as evidence that it was the act of a faction, which 
 might be as speedily destroyed as it had been created. 
 They regarded the guarantee of the French West Indies, as 
 pregnant with serious danger to the United States; and, 
 therefore, thought we should reserve for future decision, 
 whether those treaties ought not to be suspended. They 
 also considered that the treaty of alliance being defensive, 
 the guarantee did not apply to a war in which France was 
 the aggressor. 
 
 On the main question whether the treaties with France 
 were now binding on the United States, the members of the 
 cabinet, by the request of the President, defended their 
 respective opinions in writing ; and as the paper drawn by 
 Mr. Jefferson is not only a most able vindication of the 
 soundness of his views, both as a jurist and a statesman, but 
 also discloses in substance the reasoning of his rival, it is 
 here given at length, with the exception of his references to 
 writers on national law. 
 
 * It appears from a letter written by Colonel Hamilton to Mr. Jay, on 
 the 9th of April, 1 793, that he then doubted whether a minister ought to 
 be received at all. "When we last conversed together on the subject," 
 he says, " we were both of opinion that the minister expected from France 
 should be received. Subsequent ciicumstances have, perhaps, induced 
 an additional embarrassment on this point, and render it advisable to re 
 consider the opinion generally, and to raise this further question 
 whether he ought to be received absolutely, or with qualifications? " 
 He goes on to argue these questions, without coming to a decision whether 
 a minister should be received or not. Jay s Life, I. 298. 
 
464 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Opinion of Thomas Jefferson on a Question submitted by the 
 President to his Cabinet on the 19th of April, 1793. 
 
 "I proceed, in compliance with the requisition of the 
 President, to give an opinion in writing on the general ques 
 tion whether the United States have a right to renounce 
 their treaties with France, or to hold them suspended till the 
 government of that country shall be established ? 
 
 " In the consultation at the President s, on the 19th inst., 
 the Secretary of the Treasury took the following positions 
 and consequences: France was a monarchy when w r e en 
 tered into treaties with it ; but it has now declared itself a 
 republic, and is preparing a republican form of government. 
 As it may issue in a republic or a military despotism, or in 
 something else which may possibly render our alliance with 
 it dangerous to ourselves, we have a right of election to re 
 nounce the treaty altogether, or to declare it suspended till 
 their government shall be settled in the form it is ultimately 
 to take ; and then we may judge whether we will call the 
 treaties into operation again, or declare them for ever null. 
 Having that right of election now, if we receive their 
 minister without any qualifications, it will amount to an act 
 of election to continue the treaties ; and if the change they 
 are undergoing should issue in a form which should bring 
 danger on us, we shall not be free to renounce them. To 
 elect to continue them is equivalent to the making a new 
 treaty at this time in the same form, that is to say, with a 
 clause of guarantee ; but to make a treaty with a clause of 
 guarantee, during a war, is a departure from neutrality, 
 and would make us associates in the w r ar. To renounce or 
 suspend the treaties, therefore, is a necessary act of neu 
 trality. 
 
 (i If I do not subscribe to the soundness of this reasoning, 
 I do most fully to its ingenuity. I shall now lay down the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 405 
 
 principles which, according to my understanding, govern the 
 case. 
 
 " I consider the people who constitute a society or nation, 
 as the source of all authority in that nation, as free to 
 transact their common concerns by any agents they think 
 proper, to change these agents individually, or the 
 organization of them in form or function, whenever they 
 please ; that all the acts done by those agents under the 
 authority of the nation, are the acts of the nation, are obli 
 gatory on them, and enure to their use, and can in no wise 
 be annulled or affected by any change in the form of the 
 government or of the persons administering it. Conse 
 quently, the treaties between the United States and France 
 were not treaties between the United States and Louis 
 Capet, but between the two nations of America and France ; 
 and the nations remaining in existence, though both of them 
 have since changed their forms of government, the treaties 
 are not annulled by these changes. 
 
 " The law of nations, by which this question is to be de 
 termined, is composed of three branches : 1. The moral law 
 of our nature. 2. The usages of nations. 3. Their special 
 conventions. The first of these only concerns this question ; 
 that is to say, the moral law to which man has been sub 
 jected by his Creator, and of which his feelings, or con 
 science, as it is sometimes called, are the evidence with which 
 his Creator has furnished him. The moral duties which 
 exist between individual and individual, in a state of nature, 
 accompany them into a state of society, and the aggregate 
 of the duties of all the individuals composing the society 
 constitutes the duties of that society towards any other ; so 
 that between society and society the same moral duties exist 
 as did between the individuals composing them while in an 
 unassociated state ; their Maker not having released them 
 from those duties, on their forming themselves into a nation. 
 
 VOL. i. 2 H 
 
466 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Compacts between nation and nation are obligatory on them 
 by the same moral law which obliges individuals to observe 
 their compacts. 
 
 There are circumstances, however, which sometimes ex 
 cuse the non-performance of contracts between man and 
 man : so are there also between nation and nation. When 
 performance, for instance, becomes impossible, non-perform 
 ance is not immoral. So if performance becomes self-destruc 
 tive to the party, the law of self-preservation overrules the 
 laws of obligation to others. For the reality of these prin 
 ciples I appeal to the fountains of evidence, the head and 
 heart of every rational and honest man. It is there nature 
 has written her moral laws, and there every man may read 
 them for himself. He will never read there the permission 
 to annul his obligations for a time, or for ever, whenever 
 they become dangerous, useless, or disagreeable. Cer 
 tainly not, when merely useless or disagreeable, as seems 
 to be said in an authority which has been quoted. Vattel, 
 II. 197. And though he may under certain degrees of 
 danger, yet the danger must be imminent, and the degree 
 great. Of these it is true that nations are to be judges for 
 themselves, since no one nation has a right to sit in judg 
 ment over another. But the tribunal of our consciences 
 remains, and that also of the opinion of the world. These 
 will revise the sentence we pass in our own case, and as we 
 respect these, we must see that, in judging ourselves, we 
 have honestly done the part of impartial and rigorous judges. 
 
 " But reason, which gives this right of self-liberation from 
 a contract in certain cases, has subjected it to certain just 
 limitations. 
 
 " 1 . The danger which absolves us must be great, inevi 
 table, and imminent. Is such the character of that now 
 apprehended from our treaties with France ? What is that 
 danger ? 1. Is it that if their government issues in a mili- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 467 
 
 tary despotism, an alliance with them may taint us with 
 despotic principles ? But their government, when we allied 
 ourselves to it, was a perfect despotism, civil and military. 
 Yet the treaties were made in that very state of things, and 
 therefore that danger can furnish no just cause. 2. Is it 
 that their government may issue in a republic, and too much 
 strengthen our republican principles ? But this is the hope 
 of a great mass of our constituents, and not their dread. 
 They do not look with longing to the happy mean of a 
 limited monarchy. 3. But, says the doctrine I am com 
 bating, the change the French are undergoing may pos 
 sibly end in something we know not what, and bring on us 
 danger we know not whence in short, it may end in a raw- 
 head and bloody-bones in the dark. Very well. Let th 
 raw-head and bloody-bones come ; then we shall be justified 
 in making our peace with him, by renouncing our ancient 
 friends and his enemies. For observe, it is not the possibility 
 of dancjer which absolves a party from his contract ; for 
 that possibility always exists, and in every case. It existed 
 in the present one, at the moment of making the contract 
 If possibilities would avoid contracts, there never would be 
 a valid contract : for possibilities hang over every thing. Ob 
 ligation is not suspended till the danger is become real, and 
 the moment of it so imminent, that we can no longer avoid 
 decision without for ever losing the opportunity to do it. But 
 can a danger which has not yet taken its shape, which does 
 not yet exist, and never may exist, which cannot therefore 
 be defined can such a danger, I ask, be so imminent that, 
 if we fail to pronounce on it in this moment, we can never 
 have an opportunity of doing it ? 
 
 " 4. The danger apprehended is it that, the treaties 
 remaining valid, the clause guaranteeing their West India 
 islands will engage us in the war ? But does the guarantee 
 engage us to enter into the war in any event ? Are we to 
 
 2 H2 
 
468 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 enter into it before we are called on by our allies ? Have 
 we been called on by them ? Can they call on us before 
 their islands arc invaded, or imminently threatened? If 
 they can save themselves, have they any right to call on us ? 
 Arc we obliged to go to war at once, without trying peaceable 
 negotiations with their enemy ? If all these questions be 
 against us, there are still others behind. Are we in a con 
 dition to go to war ? Can we be expected before we are in 
 condition ? Will the islands be lost if we do not save them ? 
 Have we the means of saving them ? If we cannot save 
 them, are we bound to go to war for a desperate object ? 
 Many, if not most of these questions offer grounds of doubt, 
 whether the clause of guarantee will draw us into the war. 
 Consequently, if this be the danger apprehended, it is not 
 yet certain enough to authorize us in sound morality to 
 declare, at this moment, the treaties null. 
 
 " 5. Is the danger apprehended from the 17th article of 
 the treaty of commerce, which admits French ships of war 
 and privateers to come and go freely with prizes made on 
 their enemies, while their enemies are not to have the same 
 privilege with prizes made on the French? But Holland 
 and Prussia have approved of this article of our treaty with 
 France, by subscribing to an express salvo of it in our treaties 
 with them, [viz. Dutch treaty, vi. Convention, art. v. Prussian 
 treaty, xix.] And England, in her last treaty with France, 
 (art. 40,) has entered into the same stipulations verbatim, 
 and placed us in her ports on the same footing in which 
 she is in ours, in case of a war of either of us with France. 
 If we are engaged in such a war, England must receive 
 prizes made on us by the French, and exclude those made 
 on the French by us. Nay, further, in this very article of 
 her treaty with France is a salvo of any similar article in 
 any anterior treaty of either party ; and ours with France 
 being anterior, this salvo confirms it expressly. Neither of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 469 
 
 those three powers then has a right to complain of this 
 article in our treaty. 
 
 " 6. Is the danger apprehended from the 22nd article of 
 our treaty of commerce, which prohibits the enemies of 
 France from fitting out privateers in our ports, or selling 
 their prizes here ? But we are free to refuse the same thing 
 to France, there being no stipulation to the contrary, and 
 we ought to refuse it on principles of fair neutrality. _ 
 
 " 7. But the reception of a minister from the republic of 
 France, without qualifications, it is thought, will bring us 
 into danger ; because this, it is said, will determine the con 
 tinuance of the treaty, and take from us the right of self- 
 liberation, when at any time hereafter our safety would re 
 quire us to use it. The reception of a minister at all, (in fa 
 vour of which Colonel Hamilton has given his opinion, though 
 reluctantly, as he confessed,) is an acknowledgment of the 
 legitimacy of their government : and if the qualifications 
 meditated are to deny that legitimacy, it will be a curious 
 compound which is to admit and deny the same thing. But 
 1 deny that reception of a minister has any thing to do with 
 the treaties. There is not a word, in either of them, about 
 sending ministers. This has been done between us, under 
 the common usage of nations, and can have no effect either 
 to continue or annul the treaties. 
 
 " But how can any act of election have the effect to con 
 tinue the treaty which is acknowledged to be going on still ? 
 for it was not pretended the treaty was void, but only void 
 able, if we chose to consider it so. To make it void would 
 require an act of election ; but to let it go on requires only 
 that we should do nothing, and doing nothing can hardly 
 be an infraction of peace or neutrality. 
 
 " But 1 go farther, and deny that the most explicit decla 
 ration, made at this moment, that we acknowledge the obli 
 gation of the treaties, could take from us the right of non- 
 
470 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 compliance at any future time, when compliance would in 
 volve us in great and inevitable danger. 
 
 "I conclude, then, that few of those sources threaten any 
 danger at all ; and from none of them is it inevitable : and, 
 consequently, none of them gives us the right, at this moment, 
 of releasing ourselves from our treaties. 
 
 "II. A second limitation on our right of releasing our 
 selves is, that we are to do it from so much of the treaties 
 only as is bringing great and inevitable danger on us, and 
 not from the residue, allowing to the other party a right at 
 the same time to determine whether, on our non-compliance 
 with that part, they will declare the whole void. This right 
 they would have, but we should not. Vattel, II. 202. The 
 only part of the treaty which can lead us into danger is the 
 clause of guarantee. That clause is all then we could sus 
 pend in any case, and the residue will remain or not, at the 
 will of the other party. 
 
 "III. A third limitation is, that where a party, from 
 necessity or danger, withholds compliance with any part of 
 a treaty, it is bound to make compensation, where the nature 
 of the case admits, and does not dispense with it. Fattel, 
 II. 324. Wolf, 270. 443. If actual circumstances excuse 
 us from entering into the war, under the clause of guarantee, 
 it will be a question whether they excuse us from compen 
 sation. Our weight in the war admits of an estimate, and 
 that estimate would form the measure of compensation. 
 
 "If in withholding a compliance with any part of the 
 treaties, we do it without just cause or compensation, we 
 give to France a cause of war, and so become associated in 
 it on the other side. An injured friend is the bitterest of 
 foes, and France has not discovered either timidity or over 
 much forbearance on the late occasions. Is this the position 
 we wish to take for our constituents ? It certainly is not 
 the one they would take for themselves." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 471 
 
 [Mr. Jefferson next proceeds to show that the passage of 
 Vattel, that when one of the parties to a treaty of alliance 
 changes its form of government in such a manner as to 
 "render the alliance useless, dangerous, or disagreeable to 
 the other, it is free to renounce the alliance," which had 
 been relied on as authority for the doctrine he was com 
 bating, is not sustained by the other principal writers on 
 the law of nature and nations, (Grotius, Puffendorf, and 
 Wolf,) and is not consistent either with reason, with the 
 general tenor of his work, or with his expressed opinions on 
 other occasions; and having shown the discrepancy by a 
 minute comparison of Vattel with the other authorities, and 
 with himself, he goes on to say : ] 
 
 " After evidence so copious and explicit of the respect of 
 this author for the sanctity of treaties, we should hardly have 
 expected that his authority would have been resorted to for a 
 wanton invalidation of them, whenever they should become 
 merely useless or disagreeable. We should hardly have ex 
 pected that, rejecting all the rest of his book, this scrap 
 would have been cvlled, and made the hook whereon to hang 
 such a chain of immoral consequences. Had the passage 
 accidentally met our eye, we should have imagined it had 
 fallen from the author s pen under some momentary view, 
 not sufficiently developed to found a conjecture what he 
 meant ; and we may certainly affirm that a fragment like 
 this cannot weigh against the authority of all other writers, 
 against the uniform and systematic doctrine of the very 
 work from which it is torn, against the moral feelings and 
 the reason of all honest men. If the terms of the fragment 
 are not misunderstood, they are in full contradiction to all 
 the written and unwritten evidences of morality : if they are 
 misunderstood, they are no longer a foundation for the doc 
 trines which have been built on them. 
 
 " But even had this doctrine been as true as it is mani 
 festly false, it would have been asked, to whom is it that the 
 
472 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 treaties with France have been disagreeable? How will it 
 be proved that they are useless ? 
 
 " The conclusion of the sentence, [from Vattel, II. 197,] 
 suggests a reflection too strong to be suppressed : for the 
 party may say with truth, that it would not. have allied itself 
 with this nation, if it had been under the present form of its 
 government. The republic of the United States allied itself 
 with France when under a despotic government. She changes 
 her government, declares it shall be a republic, prepares 
 a form of republic extremely free, and, in the meantime, is 
 governing herself as such. And it is proposed that America 
 shall declare the treaties void, because < it may say with 
 truth that it would not have allied itself with that nation 
 if it had been under the present form of its government ! 
 Who is the American, who can say with truth, that he would 
 not have allied himself with France if she had been a repub 
 lic, or that a republic of any form would be as disagreeable 
 as her ancient despotism ? 
 
 " Upon the whole I conclude, that the treaties are still 
 binding, notwithstanding the change of government in 
 France ; that no part of them but the clause of guarantee 
 holds out danger, even at a distance ; and consequently, 
 
 " That a liberation from no other part could be proposed 
 in any case : that if that clause may ever bring danger, it is 
 neither extreme, nor imminent, nor even probable : that the 
 authority for renouncing a treaty, when useless or disagree 
 able, is either misunderstood, or in opposition to itself, to all 
 other writers, and to every moral feeling : that were it not 
 so, these treaties are in fact neither useless nor disagreeable : 
 
 " That the receiving a minister from France at this time 
 is an act of insignificance with respect to the treaties, 
 amounting neither to an admission nor denial of them, for 
 asmuch as he comes not under any stipulation in them : 
 
 " That were it an explicit admission, or were an express 
 declaration of their obligation now to be made, it would not 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 473 
 
 take from us that right which exists at all times of liberat 
 ing ourselves when an adherence to the treaties would be 
 ruinous or destructive to the society. 
 
 " And that the not renouncing the treaties now is so far 
 from being a breach of neutrality, that the doing it would 
 be the breach, by giving just cause of war to France. 
 
 " TH. JEFFERSON. 
 
 "April 28, 1793." 
 
 The President, who continued to hold the scales between 
 his rival secretaries with a steady and impartial hand, 
 yielded to the masterly reasoning of Mr. Jefferson, and de 
 cided that the treaties with France remained in full force, 
 and that the minister from the French republic should be 
 received without any qualifications. 
 
 The papers drawn on this occasion, by Hamilton and 
 Jefferson respectively, indicate the difference with which the 
 French revolution began now to be viewed by the political 
 parties of the United States, and had already been viewed 
 for some time by their leaders. As that mighty event in 
 volved, in its progress, more important consequences to 
 other nations, it was the object of increasing interest to the 
 citizens of the United States, until it eventually became the 
 main pivot of their civil dissensions. The cautious, and 
 perhaps necessary policy pursued by the government to 
 wards the belligerents was not in unison with popular 
 sentiment. The good feeling which existed towards the 
 French nation, for their important aid in the American 
 revolution, would of itself have created a strong party in 
 their favour in any contest in which they had been engaged ; 
 but when that contest was a struggle for civil freedom, as 
 ours had been, and when our example and success had so 
 much agency, it was believed, in bringing about the revo 
 lution in France, we cannot wonder that, in the strong 
 
474 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sympathy excited in their behalf, the cold dictates of pru 
 dence were forgotten ; and that neutrality and impartiality 
 were regarded by many as little better than treason to the 
 cause of civil liberty. The proclamation was, therefore, not 
 cordially received by the people, and their discontents were 
 soon openly manifested. 
 
 While Mr. Jefferson partook largely of the popular sym 
 pathy for France, he concurred with the rest of the cabinet 
 in the policy of neutrality, as appears by all his letters 
 to his most confidential friends. The following extracts 
 clearly show his sentiments on both points. 
 
 Extract of a letter to Mr. Madison, dated April 28, 1793. 
 
 -" Would you suppose it possible that it should have 
 
 been seriously proposed to declare our treaties with France 
 void, on the authority of an ill-understood scrap in Vattel, II. 
 197, (toutefois si cesf) and that it should be necessary to 
 discuss it ? .... Cases are now arising which will embar 
 rass us a little till the line of neutrality be fairly understood 
 by ourselves and the belligerent parties. A French priva 
 teer is now bringing here, as we are told, prizes, which left 
 this but two or three days before. Shall we permit her to 
 sell them ? The treaty does not say we shall, and it says 
 we shall not permit the like to England. Shall we permit 
 France to fit oat privateers here ? The treaty does not 
 stipulate that we shall, though it says that we shall not per 
 mit England to do it. I fear that fair neutrality will prove 
 a disagreeable pill to our friends, though necessary to keep us 
 out of the calamities of war" 
 
 Extract of a letter to Mr. Munroe, dated May 5, 1 793. 
 " The war between France and England seems to be pro 
 ducing an effect not contemplated. All the old spirit of 
 1776 is rekindling. The newspapers, from Boston to 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 475 
 
 Charleston, prove this, and even the monocrat papers are 
 obliged to publish the most furious philippics against Eng 
 land. A French frigate took an English prize off the capes 
 of Delaware the other day, and sent her up here. Upon 
 her coming into sight, thousands and thousands of the 
 yeomanry of the city crowded and covered the wharves. 
 Never before was such a crowd seen there ; and when the 
 British colours were seen reversed, and the French flying 
 above them, they burst into peals of exultation. Iiuish we 
 may be able to repress the spirit of the people within the 
 limits of a fair neutrality .... If we preserve even a 
 sneaking neutrality, we shall be indebted for it to the Pre 
 sident, and not to his counsellors." 
 
 In another letter to Mr. Madison, dated May 13, 1793, 
 after condemning the indecision of one of the cabinet, who 
 was commonly ranked with the republican party, he remarks, 
 " If anything prevents its being a mere English neutrality, 
 it will be that the penchant of the President is not that way, 
 and above all, the ardent spirit of our constituents." 
 
 It may be here remarked, that not only the preceding let- 
 ters, but the whole tenor of Mr. Jefferson s correspondence, 
 shows that he always separated General Washington from 
 the party who have sought to appropriate him to them 
 selves ; and that, in fact, he considered the President as 
 belonging to neither party, though he sometimes gave his 
 assent and approbation to measures which Mr. Jefferson 
 regarded as of very injurious tendency. 
 
 The connexion of our party dissensions with the cause of 
 France was strengthened, and its violence, increased by the 
 arrival of a minister from that country, soon after the pro 
 clamation of neutrality. Citizen Genet, as the envoy from 
 the new republic was styled, landed at Charleston on the 
 8th of April. He was most cordially received there, and in 
 
476 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 every other town in his progress to the scat of government. 
 Writing and speaking the English language with great 
 readiness, and an enthusiast in the new-born spirit of civil 
 liberty, he was well qualified to cherish and increase the* 
 popular feeling in favour of France. But he was not con 
 tent with mere expressions of personal favours and national 
 sympathy. He endeavoured to turn these sentiments to 
 the advantage of his country, and began by encouraging the 
 equipment of French cruisers in the port of Charleston, 
 which he furnished with commissions. He reached Phila 
 delphia about the middle of May, and he was there met by 
 popular greetings not inferior to those which had welcomed 
 his arrival in Charleston. Even before his introduction to 
 the President, he received and answered several addresses 
 from the societies and private citizens of Philadelphia. 
 
 The privateers which Citizen Genet had commissioned, 
 and the captures they had made, soon furnished ground for 
 remonstrance to the British minister. He also complained 
 of the capture of the Grange by the Ambuscade frigate 
 within the capes of the Delaware, and demanded a restitu 
 tion of the prizes thus illegally made. 
 
 When the cabinet were called upon to consult on the 
 course to be pursued as to these measures, there was found 
 to be the same contrariety of sentiment as before; one part 
 taking sides against France 011 all doubtful questions, and 
 the other inclining in its favour. Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Ran 
 dolph maintained that, whether the captures were valid or 
 otherwise, the property ought not to be restored; for if 
 it were contrary to law, the courts being open to the 
 aggrieved parties, the executive should not interfere. But 
 if they were legally made, and the only just cause of com 
 plaint consisted in their being brought into the United 
 States, then this was an injury of which the United States 
 were exclusively the judges; and if in the exercise of their 
 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JKFFERSON. 477 
 
 discretion they should decide on restoring the property, that 
 could be done only by way of reprisal, which being a harsh 
 and violent course, and always deemed an act of war, ought 
 not to be done without a previous demand and refusal of 
 satisfaction. They further maintained that thk disavowal 
 of these acts on the part of the United States, and the steps 
 taken by the government to prevent their recurrence, ought 
 to exempt them from all imputation of having had any share 
 in the acts complained of, and proved their disposition to 
 adhere strictly to the duties of neutrality. 
 
 On the other hand, Colonel Hamilton and General Knox 
 insisted, that for a neutral nation to suffer itself to become 
 the instrument of injury to one of the belligerents, is to 
 violate its duties of neutrality ; and of this character was 
 our permission to French cruisers first to bring their prizes 
 into American ports, and there to dispose of them. They 
 urged that, although the captures were legal as between 
 the parties, they were not so as it regarded the United 
 States, who had a right to reparation, and might insist by 
 virtue of this right on the restitution of the property. Nor 
 could the captors justly complain that they were compelled 
 to restore property, of which they had acquired possession 
 only by violating the rights of the United States. They 
 regarded the question as one to be settled by the govern 
 ment alone, and not by the courts, and that the government 
 had the right, and was bound in duty to itself and other 
 nations to [restore property captured under those circum 
 stances*. 
 
 On the points on which his cabinet were divided, the 
 President took time to deliberate ; but on those in which 
 they were agreed, he requested Mr. Jefferson to communicate 
 them to the minister of France and Great Britain. In the 
 
 * Marshall s Washington, vol. v. chap. 6. 
 
478 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 discharge of that duty, Mr. Jefferson was involved in a long 
 correspondence with the French minister, in which he asserted 
 the rights of his country with a degree of ability, and in a 
 tone of moderation, dignity, and firmness, which won for him 
 the approbation of all parties. 
 
 Although the intense interest which this correspondence 
 once excited has long since passed away, an abstract of it 
 may be of use, not only to show something of the spirit of 
 the times, but also to afford a lesson of an evil to which 
 popular governments are peculiarly exposed. For in the 
 greater violence of their civil dissensions, if one of their great 
 parties is led, either by national sympathy or by their op 
 position to a rival party, to become the advocates or apolo 
 gists of a foreign nation, in its controversies with their own 
 government, the latter is sure to be injured in its rights, or 
 dignity, and commonly in both ; and although, after a tem 
 porary endurance, they were both well maintained on the 
 present occasion, yet it must be considered as partly owing 
 to the exceeding indiscretion of Mr. Genet that the popular 
 feeling in favour of France had not greatly embarrassed the 
 United States, and eventually compelled them to exchange 
 a safe and profitable neutrality for a most expensive and 
 injurious war. 
 
 In communicating to Mr. Ternant, the predecessor of Mr. 
 Genet, the course which the American government had pre 
 scribed for itself, Mr. Jefferson informed him of the specific 
 grounds of complaint which had been urged by the British 
 minister. These were 1. That a French agent in the 
 United States was at that time buying up arms, with the 
 intention of exporting them to France. 2. That the French 
 consul at Charleston had condemned a British vessel cap 
 tured by a French cruiser, as lawful prize. 3. That a ves 
 sel had been fitted out as a cruiser in Charleston, manned 
 with citizens of the United States, and furnished with a com- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 479 
 
 mission to cruise against nations at peace with the United 
 States ; and 4. That a British ship, La Grange, had been 
 taken by a French frigate within the capes of the Delaware ; 
 and although this act, being clearly illegal, could give no 
 title to the captured property, and the laws of the country 
 were competent to afford redress, yet as between France and 
 the United States, such an act, he was told, could not be 
 viewed with indifference. The first ground of complaint was 
 admitted not to violate the rights of neutrality, and that the 
 United States would not therefore take steps to prevent it, 
 but that both belligerents might exercise the same right. 
 The other cases were all treated as inconsistent with the 
 sovereignty of the United States. 
 
 On the 27th of May, Mr. Genet, who had reached Phila 
 delphia, in the meantime, replied to this note from Mr. Jef 
 ferson. He denied any knowledge of the purchase of arms 
 in the United States, and suggested that the complaint was 
 to be made the pretext for English cruisers to " subject 
 American vessels, even under the shadow of their modest 
 neutrality, to arbitrary visits and detentions." 
 
 He insisted on the right of French cruisers to bring their 
 prizes into American ports under the treaty below of 1778. 
 
 He admitted the facts stated in the third ground of com 
 plaint, but insisted that such equipment violated no existing 
 law. 
 
 He acquiesced in the opinion of the attorney -general, that 
 the capture of the La Grange was illegal, and stated that 
 he had ordered her to be restored. 
 
 On the 5th of June Mr. Jefferson replied, and again in 
 sisted that the arming and equipping of vessels in the United 
 States was incompatible with their territorial sovereignty, 
 and that the assertion of this right of sovereignty by a neutral 
 nation became a duty, whenever it was violated to the injury 
 of a belligerent. 
 
480 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Three days afterwards, Mr. Genet replies, that the doctrine 
 asserted was " contrary to the principles of natural right ; 
 to the usages of nations ; to the connexions which unite the 
 two countries, and even to the President s proclamation." 
 After some arguments to support his position, drawn from 
 the privileges stipulated by the treaty, he says, that from 
 motives of conciliation he had instructed the French consuls, 
 not to grant commissions but to those captains who should 
 bind themselves by oath and security " to respect the ter 
 ritory of the United States, and the political opinions of 
 their President, until the representatives of their sovereign shall 
 have confirmed or rejected them." He then in a very decla 
 matory style insists on the right of the consuls to issue such 
 commissions ; says, " that every obstruction by the govern 
 ment of the United States to the cruising of French vessels, 
 must be an attempt on the rights of man, upon which repose 
 the independence and the laws of the United States ; a 
 violation of the ties which unite the people of France and 
 of America ; and even a manifest contradiction of the sys 
 tem of neutrality of the President :" and after bestowing a 
 warm eulogy on the people of America and their attachment 
 to France, he expresses the wish that the federal government 
 " would give to the world the example of a true neutrality, 
 which does not consist in the cowardly abandonment of their 
 friends in the moment when danger menaces them, but in 
 adhering strictly, if they could do no better, to the obliga 
 tions they have contracted with them." 
 
 A short time before, two American citizens, who had entered 
 the French privateer Citizen Genet, had been arrested and 
 sent to prison. The French minister lost no time in ap 
 plying for their release, as " they had acquired the right of 
 French citizens, if they had lost that of American citizens." 
 To this application Mr. Jefferson replied, that they were in 
 the custody of the law, and that the government had no 
 right to interfere. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 481 
 
 On the 14th of June, Mr. Genet complained that the 
 sale of vessels, taken by a French cruiser, had been stopped 
 at Philadelphia by officers of the United States, and that 
 they had prevented a French vessel, commissioned by the 
 republic of France, from leaving the port of New York, and 
 he asks for restitution, damages, and interest. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson replied on the 17th. He said that the 
 seizure had been made in New York by order of the govern 
 ment; that the vessel and the parties concerned in the 
 enterprise would be delivered up to the tribunals of the 
 country, for them to decide whether the act was legal or 
 punishable. 
 
 He then maintains at some length the opinion formerly 
 expressed, that such arming and equipping of vessels in the 
 United States, to cruise against nations with whom they 
 were at peace, was inconsistent with natural law, with the 
 usage of nations, the treaty stipulations between the two 
 countries, and with the President s proclamation. He adds, 
 in conclusion, that in the first attempts to make these equip 
 ments, the President, wishing to involve as few as possible 
 in the censures of the law, had singled out American citizens 
 for prosecution ; but that, li tiding the same illegal course 
 persevered in, he had now directed legal proceedings against 
 citizens and aliens indiscriminately ; they being equally 
 amenable to laws of the United States while within their 
 territory. 
 
 To this temperate logic, Mr. Genet answers in the lan 
 guage of passionate complaint and crimination. "Let us 
 not," said he, " lower ourselves to the level of ancient politics, 
 by diplomatic subtleties." He tells Mr. Jefferson that his 
 reasonings are " extremely ingenious ; " but that they rest 
 on a basis which he could not admit. " You oppose to my 
 complaints, to my just reclamations, upon the footing of 
 right, the private or public opinions of the President of the 
 
 VOL. i. 2 i 
 
482 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 United States ; and this 36gis not appearing to you suffi 
 cient, you bring forward aphorisms of Vattel, to justify, or 
 excuse, infractions committed on positive treaties." He then 
 contrasts the narrow, selfish policy of the United States with 
 the generous friendship of France, and adds, " It is not thus 
 that the American people wish we should be treated. I 
 cannot suppose, and I wish to believe, that measures of this 
 nature were not conceived in the heart of General Washing 
 ton of that celebrated hero of liberty. I can attribute 
 them only to extraneous impressions, over which time and 
 truth will triumph." With the show of earnest entreaty, 
 but really in a tone of arrogant disrespect, he presses the 
 release of the " brave individuals " who had enlisted under 
 the French banner. 
 
 The debt due from the United States to France, and then 
 amounting to about 2,300,000 dollars, also formed a topic of 
 correspondence and complaint with Mr. Genet. 
 
 On the 22nd of May, Mr. Genet had proposed that the 
 United States should pay the future instalments of the debt, on 
 condition that France should receive it in American produce. 
 
 On the llth of June, Mr. Jefferson informed Mr. Genet 
 that the resources of the United States did not allow them 
 to do this, and he sent the minister the report which had 
 been made by the Secretary of the Treasury on the propo 
 sition. 
 
 In Mr. Genet s reply of the 14th, he commences with the 
 following puerility : " It is the character of the elevated minds 
 of freemen, not to expose themselves twice to a refusal." 
 Adverting to the reasons assigned by the Secretary of the 
 Treasury, he says, " Without entering into the financial 
 reason which operates this refusal; without endeavouring to 
 prove to you that it tends to accomplish the infernal system 
 of the King of England, and of the other kings his accom 
 plices, to destroy, by famine, the French republicans and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 483 
 
 liberty, I attend, on the present occasion, only to the calls 
 of my country." He then states, that he was authorized to 
 assign the debt due from America to France, in payment of 
 the supplies received from American merchants and farmers ; 
 and he, therefore, requested that the President would direct 
 the Secretary of the Treasury to adjust with him imme 
 diately the amount of the debt due to France. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, on the 19th of June, briefly replied, that 
 the instalment of principal and interest still due to France 
 should be settled, and that it would give the government 
 pleasure if the means of making the settlement should 
 be obtained here at the moment ; but it was suggested that 
 the mode proposed in Mr. Genet s letter might deserve 
 further consideration, both as to its propriety and practica 
 bility before it was decided on ; the government confidently 
 trusting that "what was of mutual concern, would not be 
 done but with mutual concert." It was plainly intimated 
 that the minister s proposition was on many accounts objec 
 tionable. 
 
 In the course of this month several notes passed between 
 the Secretary of State and the French minister, setting forth 
 mutual complaints ; the American minister alleging that 
 vessels had been taken within the jurisdiction of the United 
 States; and the French minister complaining that British 
 vessels had been permitted to arm in the United States ; 
 but as these complaints come within the description of the 
 cases already mentioned, they need not be particularly 
 noticed. One case, however, deserves to be distinguished 
 from the rest, not only as an important fact in the history 
 of this singular diplomacy, but to remove misapprehension 
 as to the part which Mr. Jefferon bore in it. 
 
 A French frigate having captured and sent into Phila 
 delphia an English brig called the Little Sarah, she was 
 equipped, manned, and commissioned as a privateer by 
 
 2 i2 
 
484 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Mr. Genet, under the name of the Little Democrat. Early 
 in July, the Governor of Pennsylvania learning that this 
 vessel was about to sail on a cruise, sent his secretary, 
 Mr. Dallas, to Mr. Genet, to request he would detain her 
 a few days, until the President, then on a visit to Mount 
 Vernon, returned to Philadelphia. He peremptorily re 
 fused compliance; warned Mr. Dallas that an attempt to 
 use force w r ould be repelled by force ; indulged in passion 
 ate and offensive complaints against the executive, and even 
 threatened to appeal to the people. On being informed of 
 these facts, Governor Mifnin, in conformity with the request 
 which the President had addressed to the executive autho 
 rities of all the states, ordered out a body of militia for the 
 seizure of the privateer. 
 
 In the meanwhile Mr. Jefferson, unwilling to see the two 
 nations brought into open collision by the rashness of one 
 man, made a second attempt at conciliation by calling on 
 Mr. Genet, and renewing Mr. Dallas s request. He also 
 was refused, and Mr. Genet accompanied his refusal with 
 the same intemperate language, and the same indication 
 that an attempt to detain the privateer by force would be 
 repelled by force. He at the same time assured Mr. Jeffer 
 son that the vessel was not ready to sail. Mr. Jefferson 
 having communicated this assurance to Governor Mifflin, 
 and his own confidence in it, the governor countermanded 
 the order to the militia, and requested the advice of the 
 heads of departments. 
 
 On a consultation by the three secretaries, (for the attorney- 
 general was also in Virginia,) Colonel Hamilton and Gene 
 ral Knox were in favour of employing force, if necessary, to 
 prevent the privateer from sailing ; but Mr. Jefferson think 
 ing the measure impolitic and unnecessary, his colleagues 
 acquiesced in his opinion. 
 
 On the llth of July, the President arrived, and learning 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 485 
 
 the facts of the case, and that the Little Democrat had fallen 
 down the river to Chester, called a cabinet council early the 
 next day. It was then decided to detain all vessels of any 
 of the belligerents which had been armed in the United 
 States, together with their prizes, until the questions 
 thereon arising could be referred to persons learned in the 
 law. Mr. Jefferson officially informed Mr. Genet of this 
 decision of the President, and of his expectation that the 
 Little Democrat and other vessels specially designated 
 would not depart until his ultimate determination should be 
 made known. The minister had assured Mr. Jefferson on 
 the llth, that the Little Democrat would not sail before the 
 President s decision concerning her should be made ; but in 
 disregard of what might be interpreted an indirect assur 
 ance that he would abide by that determination, and in con 
 tempt of the President s request, she, three or four days 
 afterwards, put to sea, and continued as a cruiser on the 
 American coasts *. 
 
 * This case is so narrated in Marshall s Life of Washington as to 
 leave an impression, that Mr. Genet s defiance of the public authorities 
 received Mr. Jefferson s favour, if not co-operation ; and the effect is pro 
 duced partly by omissions, and partly by what can rarely be charged 
 against that work, inaccuracy in the statement of facts. I am far from 
 saying that injustice was intended. My thorough knowledge of the dis 
 tinguished author precludes that supposition ; but he was known to have 
 strong party feelings, and even his mind was not always able to resist 
 their biases either towards his political friends or opponents. "Whoever 
 will carefully examine the original sources of his materials may see, that 
 while he is, in the main, scrupulously correct as to facts, they are often 
 so stated as to mislead, because he exhibits them in the same partial 
 light in which he himself had viewed them. We have an instance of 
 this on the present occasion. Thus, though Mr. Jefferson "had retired, 
 indisposed, to his seat in the country," when the President wished to con 
 sult him on the case of the Little Democrat, yet he attended the cabinet 
 consultation the next day, and wrote the communication which the 
 author states in the impersonal form. He also wrote the letter to the 
 
486 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 In a letter of the 9th of July, the same day that he had 
 answered Mr. Jefferson s inquiries concerning the Little 
 Democrat, Mr. Genet formally mentioned the " revolting 
 treatment" which American vessels experienced from En 
 glish ships of war. He refers to his former information on 
 this point, in addition to which he notices some new cases, 
 and he asks to be informed of " the measures" the " Presi 
 dent has taken or proposes to take, to cause the flag of the 
 United States to be respected." He adds, that as the En 
 glish will probably continue to capture French citizens and 
 property from American vessels without " embarrassing them 
 selves with the philosophical principles proclaimed by the 
 President," it was necessary that the French people should 
 take measures to defend themselves from the injurious conse 
 quences of their engagements with the United States ; add- 
 
 judges of the supreme court, which is noticed in the first edition of 
 the Life of Washington. That letter, however, was not written until 
 the 18th. 
 
 Nor is it correct to say, that the Little Democrat sailed " before the 
 power of the government could be interposed," as the President reached 
 Philadelphia on the 1 1th, and she did not go to sea until four or five days 
 afterwards. 
 
 " Coercive measures were suspended," not as is intimated on account 
 of Genet s assurances through Mr. Jefferson, that the privateer " would 
 not sail before the President s decision respecting her should be made ;" 
 but from the forbearance of the government. This appears from the fol 
 lowing passage in the official letter to Gouverneur Morris which asked 
 for Mr. Genet s recall. " If our citizens have not been shedding each 
 other s blood, it is not owing to the moderation of Mr. Genet, but to the 
 forbearance of our government. It is well knoivn that if the authority 
 of the laws had been resorted to, to stop the Little Democrat, its officers 
 and agents were to have been resisted by the crew of the vessel, consist 
 ing partly of American citizens? 
 
 This letter, which received the sanction of the President both at the 
 time it was written, and when it was a few months afterwards communi 
 cated by him to Congress, claims a merit for the government for not 
 employing force, which is as inconsistent with either of the reasons as 
 signed by Judge Marshall, as they are with each other. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 487 
 
 ing, that the American people ought not to require France to 
 submit to injustice from the English, which they themselves 
 have not the means of preventing. 
 
 On the 24th, Mr, Jefferson replied to Mr. Genet s letter 
 of the 9th, that by the law of nations, the goods of a friend 
 found in the vessel of an enemy are free, while the goods of 
 an enemy found in the vessel of a friend are lawful prize. 
 That it was upon this principle, he presumed, that British 
 vessels had taken the property of French citizens from 
 American vessels, and he knew not on what principle it could 
 be reclaimed. He admits that the contrary rule would be 
 more convenient to commerce ; and that, therefore, it had 
 been expressly stipulated by some nations in their treaties, 
 and the United States had thus modified the rule in their 
 treaties with France, the Netherlands, and Prussia ; but that 
 she had no such stipulation with England. Nor was France 
 likely to suffer by the rule, for though she loses her goods 
 in our vessels when found therein by England, Spain, Por 
 tugal, or Austria, yet she gains our goods when found in the 
 vessels of England, Spain, Portugal, Austria, the United 
 Netherlands, or Prussia ; and that America had more goods 
 afloat in the vessels of these six nations, than France had 
 afloat in our vessels. 
 
 On the 25th of July, Mr. Genet renewed his complaints 
 in a yet more lofty and offensive style. " On all the seas," he 
 remarks, " an audacious piracy pursues, even in your vessels, 
 French property, and also that of the Americans when des 
 tined for our ports. Your political rights arc counted for 
 nothing : in vain do the principles of neutrality establish 
 that friendly vessels make friendly goods ; in vain, sir, does 
 the President of the United States endeavour, in his procla 
 mation, to reclaim the observance of this maxim ; in vain 
 does the desire of preserving peace lead to sacrifice the 
 interests of France to that of the moment ; in vain does the 
 
4S8 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 thirst of riches preponderate over honour in the political 
 balance of America : all this management, all this conde 
 scension,, all this humility, end in nothing ; our enemies 
 laugh at it ; and the French, too confident, are punished for 
 having believed that the American nation had a flag, that 
 they had some respect for their laws, some conviction of their 
 strength, and entertained some sentiment of their dignity. 
 It is not possible for me, sir, to paint to you all my sensibility 
 at this scandal, which tends to the diminution of your com 
 merce, to the oppression of ours, and to the debasement and 
 vilification of republics." 
 
 To this effusion of insolence and bad taste no reply was 
 made. The self-respect of the government decided on taking 
 a more appropriate notice of it. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson wrote on the 7th of August to Mr. Genet, 
 and after reminding him that French vessels were armed in 
 our ports ; that they had remained there after he had re 
 quested their departure, or had left the ports only to cruise 
 on our coasts, and to return with their prizes ; that the Little 
 Democrat had been since armed in Philadelphia, and had 
 actually sailed on a cruise, although Mr. Genet had been 
 specially requested to detain such vessels and their prizes 
 until the government had determined on the measures to 
 be taken ; that the United States was bound by its as 
 surances to make compensation for all prizes since the 5th 
 of June, by vessels fitted out of our ports ; that the French 
 minister would be expected to cause restitution of all such 
 prizes brought into American ports; and that the indemni 
 fication which the United States were bound to give for the 
 prizes not so restored was expected to be reimbursed by 
 France ; that the government would take efficacious mea 
 sures to prevent the fitting out such privateers for the future ; 
 would not afford any vessels so fitted out an asylum, and 
 would cause restitution for such other prizes as they might 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 489 
 
 bring in in a tone of temperate decision the letter thus 
 concludes : " It would have be<m but proper respect to the 
 authority of the country, had that been consulted before 
 these armaments were undertaken. It would have been 
 satisfactory, however, if their sense of them, when declared, 
 had been duly acquiesced in. Reparation of the injury, to 
 which the United States have been made so involuntarily 
 instrumental, is all which now remains, and in this your 
 compliance cannot but be expected." 
 
 The forbearance of the government had now reached its 
 utmost limit, and on the 16th inst. the Secretary of State 
 wrote to Mr. Gouverneur Morris, then minister to France, 
 to explain the course of our government towards the belli 
 gerents, to complain of Mr. Genet s conduct, and to request 
 his recall. Referring to a former letter, Mr. Jefferson says, 
 " Mr. Genet had then been but a little time with us ; and 
 but a little more was necessary to develope in him a cha 
 racter and conduct so unexpected and so extraordinary, as 
 to place us in the most distressing dilemma, between our 
 regard for his nation, which is constant and sincere, and a 
 regard for our laws, the authority of which must be main 
 tained; for the peace of our country, which the executive 
 magistrate is charged to preserve ; for its honour, offended 
 in the person of that magistrate ; and for its character, 
 grossly traduced in the conversations and letters of this 
 gentleman. In the course of these transactions, it has been 
 a great comfort to us to believe, that none of them were 
 within the intentions or expectations of his employers. These 
 had been too recently expressed in acts which nothing could 
 discolour ; in the acts of the executive council; in the letters 
 and decrees of the National Assembly, and in the general 
 demeanour of the nation towards us, to ascribe to them things 
 of so contrary a character. Our first duty, therefore, was 
 to draw a strong line between their intentions and the pro- 
 
490 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ceedings of their minister ; our second, to lay those proceed 
 ings faithfully before them." 
 
 A full detail of all which had taken place between Mr. 
 Genet and the government was then given ; and the atten 
 tion of Mr. Morris was particularly called to all the offensive 
 and indecorous language which Genet had used in his cor 
 respondence, on which the secretary remarks, " We draw a 
 veil over the sensations which these expressions excite. No 
 words can render them ; but they will not escape the sen 
 sibility of a friendly and magnanimous nation, who will not 
 do injustice. We see in them neither the portrait of our 
 selves, nor the pencil of our friends ; but an attempt to em 
 broil both ; to add still another nation to the enemies of his 
 country, and to draw on both a reproach, which, it is to be 
 hoped, will never stain the history of either. His immediate 
 recall is, therefore, requested, as his continuance is incon 
 sistent with order, peace, respect, and that friendly corre 
 spondence which we hope will ever subsist between the two 
 nations." 
 
 This letter, a copy of which was sent to Mr. Genet, was 
 replied to by him at great length on the 18th of September, 
 in his usual tone of offensive declamation, but as by an acci 
 dental miscarriage, his letter was not received until the 2nd 
 of December, it is unnecessary further to notice its contents, 
 except that, in addition to a long catalogue of injuries which 
 he states to have received from the President, he indulges 
 in reproaches against Mr. Jefferson himself, whose official 
 course he affects to regard as inconsistent with his first pro 
 fessions of friendship. 
 
 From the time that Mr. Genet s recall was requested until 
 December, when Mr. Jefferson resigned, their correspondence 
 was kept up on various occasions of business; but if part of 
 it exhibited some of the same extraordinary features as that 
 which preceded it, it was less arrogant and offensive, except 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 491 
 
 that on some objection being made to the commission of a 
 French consul, because it was not addressed to the President 
 of the United States, Mr, Genet undertook to question the 
 propriety of the objection. He was however told that no 
 foreign agent could be allowed to question tha s t whatever 
 the President officially communicates, " expresses the will 
 of the nation ;" that no discussion could be entered into with 
 him on this subject; and that, as he had questioned the 
 authority of the President, and had not addressed to him 
 certain consular commissions, they were returned to him, 
 and that no exequatur would be issued so long as the requi 
 site form was not strictly complied with. 
 
 The whole of Mr. Genet s conduct, during the few months 
 he acted as the minister of France, was characterized by 
 the same vehement zeal in behalf of the cause of the revolu 
 tion ; the same contempt of the forms of diplomatic inter 
 course : the same fervid appeals to the popular enthusiasm ; 
 and the same manifest disposition to flatter the people of 
 the United States, and to insult its government. If a part 
 of the extravagance into which he was betrayed is to be 
 placed to the account of his own irritable temper, a part also 
 must be ascribed to the spirit of the times, which courted 
 innovation in government,, religion, morals, and manners ; 
 and in its aspirations after a new and improved order of 
 things, regarded and spoke of ancient usages and forms 
 with sovereign contempt. It is likely that many of the 
 expressions that appear to us as the grossest violations of 
 the courtesy of civilized nations, and which the self-respect 
 of no independent people would tolerate, seemed to his dis 
 tempered mind as merely the language of republican frank 
 ness, stript of aristocratic varnish ; and the asperities of 
 which he could not have softened without incurring the re 
 proach of the courtly sins of servility and dissimulation. He 
 was, without doubt, farther induced by the very cordial re- 
 
492 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ception he met with from the nation at large, and the tone 
 of the most popular journals, to believe that he would be 
 supported by public opinion, in his controversy with the 
 government ; and, consequently, that he would ultimately 
 triumph either in involving the United States in a war with 
 Great Britain, or in making their neutrality still more ad 
 vantageous to the cause of France. 
 
 To conclude the episode of Mr. Genet s diplomacy the 
 representations of the American government respecting the 
 minister produced their intended effect in France. His 
 conduct was there unhesitatingly condemned ; and it appears, 
 on the authority of Mr. Gouverneur Morris, that a plan was 
 immediately formed to despatch four commissioners to the 
 United States, who, besides repairing the breach which the 
 minister had made in the good understanding between the 
 two governments, were to send him home a prisoner, to re 
 ceive the punishment due to his misconduct. But in the 
 sudden vicissitudes of parties, which at that time succeeded 
 each other like the actors of a play, this plan was forgotten, 
 or disregarded, and Mr. Genet remained, and permanently 
 settled, in the United States. 
 
4S3 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 State of parties as to the French Revolution. The Proclamation of 
 Neutrality how viewed hy the two parties by Mr. Hamilton and 
 Mr. Madison. Mr. Jefferson s letters to Mr. Madison and Mr. Mun- 
 roe. Cabinet consultations concerning Genet. The order of the 
 British government relative to neutrals the correspondence relative 
 to it Impressment of American seamen. French decrees relative 
 to neutrals. Discussions in the cabinet Proclamation of neutrality 
 Fortifications Military Academy. Communications to Congress 
 on the foreign relations of the United States. Mr. Jefferson s report 
 on commercial restrictions. His resignation and return to Monticello. 
 
 1793. 
 
 IT may well be supposed that Mr. Genet, after full allow 
 ance is made for his own defects of temper and judgment, 
 would not have ventured thus to insult the chief magistrate 
 of the country, and such a chief magistrate too, if he had 
 not received the countenance of many American citizens. The 
 journalists of the day, which, though commonly exhibiting 
 public opinion under exaggerated forms, are still its best 
 mirrors, show that, however the supporters of the adminis 
 tration and the more sober-minded of all parties may have 
 been offended by the tone of disrespect and defiance mani 
 fested in his official communications, the enthusiastic favour 
 then felt for his nation made not a small portion of the 
 American people view his conduct with indulgence, and even 
 approbation. Considering France as the party aggrieved, 
 they regarded the haughty and insulting expressions of her 
 minister as just retaliations for the wrongs which had pro 
 voked them ; and although impartial history must unhesi- 
 
494 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tatingly pass a sentence of condemnation on Mr. Genet and 
 his apologists,, yet we cannot correctly appreciate the con 
 duct of the latter without carrying ourselves back to those 
 times of passion and moral frenzy, and viewing things in 
 the aspects under which they then presented themselves to 
 the living actors. 
 
 The warm friends of civil liberty in every country saw in 
 the French revolution an enlightened, refined, brave, and 
 powerful nation, struggling to add the blessings of free 
 government to its other advantages, and they naturally 
 wished it success. But the American votary of freedom had 
 a further cause for his good wishes. France had assisted 
 the United States in achieving their independence, and it 
 was in affording that very assistance, as all believed, that 
 she had caught the contagious love of liberty which now 
 pervaded all ranks of her people. His zeal then, in behalf 
 of France, received a new impulse from the sentiments of 
 gratitude and national pride. 
 
 The subsequent course of events contributed still further 
 to increase this interest ; for the enthusiasm with which the 
 doctrines of the natural liberty and equality of man had been 
 received in France, having spread, by the force of sympathy, 
 over the greater part of Europe, its most powerful princes, 
 alarmed for the stability of their power, determined to carry 
 on a crusade against the French republic, and to re-establish 
 the monarchy by force. And though France, in her avowed 
 principles of proselytism, was as obnoxious, perhaps, as her 
 enemies to the reproach of intermeddling in the concerns of 
 other nations, yet after the struggle had begun, the American 
 people regarded it as a contest between tyranny and the 
 right of self-government, in which it did not become them 
 to be passive spectators; and the bolder and more sanguine 
 portion of the party wished their country, in support of its 
 most cherished principles, to exchange a cold and heartless 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 495 
 
 neutrality for a zealous and efficient co-operation. If we 
 now admit, as well we may, and as then appeared to the 
 more considerate of all parties, that by making common 
 cause with France we should have injured ourselves far 
 more than we could benefit our ally, yet such ealculations 
 of prudence were little likely to weigh against the stronger 
 motives of sympathy for France, and of resentment against 
 her enemies ; and, however we may condemn the policy of 
 the course they would have pursued, we cannot but respect 
 the disinterested generosity which disdained to calculate its 
 cost and its danger. 
 
 In the first years of the French revolution, that event held 
 no place in the party warfare of the United States. It is 
 true that it soon began to be viewed very differently by dif 
 ferent men, according as they more or less affected popular 
 government, and as they were the disciples of Burke on the 
 one hand, or of Paine, Mackintosh, and Priestley on the other ; 
 but it did not mingle in their open dissensions, which were 
 confined to the distribution of power between the federal 
 government and the states, the funding system, the assump 
 tion, the bank, excise, and the introduction of certain regal 
 forms and court pageantry *. But after the rupture between 
 
 * It may seem to readers of the present day that this affectation of Eu 
 ropean forms could scarcely deserve to be mentioned among the grounds 
 of party animosity ; but in truth both parties contributed to give them a 
 factitious importance ; the one regarding all badges of rank and privilege 
 with superstitious horror; and the other with childish predilection. As 
 a mode of giving dignity to the government it was in false taste, and no 
 less discordant with the spirit of the age than with the condition, manners, 
 and temper of the American people. But the folly required no severer 
 castigation than ridicule ; and it may be doubted whether Judge Burke s 
 grave denunciation of the Cincinnati, ushered in with the war-cry of 
 "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion," would have equalled in effect Dr. 
 Franklin s inimitable irony on the same subject, had it been then pub 
 lished. It was in this spirit that Mr. Grayson, one of the senators from 
 Virginia, suggested, when it had been seriously proposed by his colleague 
 to give titles to the two highest offices of the government, that the 
 
496 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 France and England, the cause of the revolution visibly 
 entered into the contests between the federalists and repub 
 licans, gradually occupied a larger and larger share, until 
 it became, for a time, the main pivot on which they turned. 
 
 The proclamation of neutrality presented the first occa 
 sion for this change to manifest itself. It was issued on the 
 22nd of April, and after premising that both " duty and 
 interest" required the United States to pursue a "friendly 
 and impartial conduct " towards the belligerent powers, it 
 declared them also disposed to observe such conduct ; ad 
 monished American citizens to avoid all acts tending to 
 contravene that disposition ; and declared that, in case of 
 any violation of the law of nations abroad, by engaging in 
 hostilities, or carrying contraband of war, they would not 
 receive the protection of their government ; and for viola 
 tions at home be liable to public prosecution. 
 
 This measure of the administration was not well received 
 by the warm friends of France. Many, as has been men 
 tioned, would have been quite willing to make common 
 cause with that nation; and those whose zeal did not so 
 far outweigh the dictates of prudence, considered that, if 
 policy imperiously required the United States to show no 
 more favour to an ally and friend than to a recent enemy 
 and present rival, at least some softening should be given 
 to so ungracious a purpose by the manner of executing it ; 
 and that our language might have indicated to France, that 
 if we were not in a condition to reciprocate her former good 
 offices, she, at all events, had our good wishes. It was 
 further objected, that as, by the federal constitution, the 
 power of making war is vested in the legislature, that branch 
 of the government has the exclusive right to pass judgment 
 on the causes of war, and on the effect of the guarantee of 
 
 President should he styled " His Limpid Highness," and the Vice-Pre 
 sident, " His Superfluous Excellency." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 497 
 
 French colonies in the West Indies ; and, consequently, that 
 the executive had no authority to prejudge that question, 
 and to pronounce that the United States stood in the re 
 lation of impartial neutrality towards the belligerents. 
 
 The federalists on the other hand insisted that we were 
 under no obligation by treaty to take sides with France, as 
 the guarantee applied only to the case of defensive war, 
 and not to one like the present, in which France was 
 the aggressor. As to the obligations of gratitude, they 
 maintained that nations were not to be governed by 
 the same rules as individuals; that though this were 
 not the case, France had, in assisting America, sought to 
 advance her own interest, and to weaken a formidable rival ; 
 and further, that so far as the sentiment was applicable at 
 all, it was due not to the French nation, but to the monarch 
 they had lately put to death : that the United States being 
 now at peace, and having, on every ground, a right to re 
 main so, it was the duty of the government to proclaim the 
 fact to the world, as the likeliest means of removing false 
 impressions from the minds of our citizens, of preventing 
 the unfounded hopes of one belligerent, and of quieting the 
 suspicions of the rest. 
 
 On this question Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Madison, who 
 had co-operated so cordially and so efficiently in recom 
 mending the federal constitution to their fellow citizens, 
 were found on opposite sides in construing that instrument, 
 as indeed they had been almost from the time that it went 
 into operation. They supported their respective opinions 
 in the public journals*, with their wonted ability. Mr. Ha- 
 
 * Mr. Hamilton wrote under the signature of PACIFICUS ; Mr. Madi 
 son, under that of HELVIDIUS. The numbers of Pacificus were best 
 fitted to make an impression on the mass of the nation, for whom they 
 were intended. But if the arguments of Helvidius were often too re 
 fined for popular apprehension, they were also more likely to convince 
 or satisfy the mind of the discriminating and honest expounder of the 
 constitution. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 K 
 
498 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 milton maintained that the proclamation, as a declaration of 
 neutrality, was authorized by the constitution, and recon- 
 cileable with the French treaty no less than it was recom 
 mended by prudence and propriety. Mr. Madison, in a 
 professed reply, confined himself to the constitutional doc 
 trines of his adversary. He admitted the propriety of a 
 proclamation for the purpose of enjoining on American 
 citizens the duties of peace, until Congress thought proper 
 to change their pacific relations; but denied that it was 
 competent for the President to judge of the causes of war, 
 and thus to pronounce that the United States were de jure 
 in a state of neutrality : and while he regrets that the pro 
 clamation should have spoken of the " duty and interest of 
 the United States," in relation to the war, he questions 
 whether even these terms, exceptionable as they were, fairly 
 warrant the meaning given to that paper by its expounder. 
 The proclamation, however, continued to be regarded 
 by both parties as a declaration of neutrality, and as such 
 it was condemned by those whose feelings or constitutional 
 doctrines it opposed ; but it was approved by a far greater 
 number, partly from the President s weight and influence, 
 and partly because the best interests of the United States 
 recommended a state of neutrality and peace. And though 
 we admit, as most of our approved jurists will, that Mr. 
 Madison s reasoning best accords with the just theory of 
 our government, yet it is not seen that the error it exposed 
 could produce any serious mischief. A proclamation, in 
 which the President gives to his fellow-citizens an opinion 
 on a matter which he cannot solely decide, must be held far 
 less to interfere with the power of Congress to make war, or 
 to give to foreign nations a pledge of peace, than a recom 
 mendation in a message, which is not only authorized by the 
 constitution, but has never been regarded, in practice, as im 
 pairing the free and independent agency of the legislature. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 499 
 
 The part which Mr. Jefferson took in the cabinet relative 
 to Genet, and his private opinion of that minister s conduct, 
 and the proclamation of neutrality, are fully disclosed in his 
 diary, and in the letters written to his confidential friends 
 at this time. Thus, in a letter to Mr. Madison, dated 
 July 8th, 1793, after noticing the papers signed " Pacificus," 
 and entreating Mr. Madison to take up his pen and answer 
 " Hamilton s heresies," he thus speaks of Genet: 
 
 " Never, in my opinion, was so calamitous an appointment 
 made as that of the present minister of France here. Hot 
 headed, all imagination, no judgment, passionate, disrespect 
 ful, and even indecent towards the president in his written, 
 as well as his verbal communications before Congress or the 
 public, they will excite indignation. He renders my position 
 immensely difficult. He does me justice personally; and 
 giving him time to vent himself, and become more cool, I am 
 on a footing to advise him freely, and he respects it ; but he 
 will break out again on the very first occasion, so that he is 
 incapable of correcting himself. To complete our misfor 
 tune, we have no channel through which we can correct the 
 irritating representations he may make." 
 
 Extract of a letter to James Munroe, dated July 14, 1793. 
 
 The proclamation of neutrality was opposed 1. 
 
 Because the executive has no power to declare neutrality. 
 2. As such a declaration would be premature, and would 
 lose us the benefits for which it might be bestowed. It was 
 urged that there was a strong impression on the minds of 
 many that they were free to join in the hostilities, on the 
 side of France : others were unapprized of the dangers they 
 would be exposed to in carrying contraband goods ; and it 
 was therefore agreed a proclamation should issue, declaring 
 that we were in a state of peace with all parties ; admonish 
 ing the people to do nothing contravening it, and putting 
 them on their guard as to contraband. On this ground, it 
 
 2 K 2 
 
500 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 was accepted or acquiesced in by all. The public, however, 
 soon took it up as a declaration of neutrality, and it came to 
 be considered at length as such." 
 
 After speaking of the embarrassments arising from the 
 arming of French vessels, he adds : " I fear the disgust of 
 France is inevitable. We shall be to blame in part, but the 
 new minister much more so. His conduct is indefensible by 
 the most furious jacobin. I only wish our countrymen may 
 distinguish between him and his nation." . . . . " Hamilton, 
 sensible of the advantage they have got, is urging a full 
 appeal by the government to the people. Such an explosion 
 would manifestly endanger a dissolution of the friendship 
 between the two nations, and ought therefore to be depre 
 cated by every friend to our liberty ; and none but an enemy 
 to it would wish to avail himself of the indiscretions of an 
 individual to compromit two nations esteeming each other 
 ardently. It will prove that the agents of the two people 
 are either great bunglers or great rascals, when they cannot 
 preserve that peace which is the universal wish of both. 
 
 " The situation of the St. Domingo fugitives, (aristocrats 
 as they are,) calls aloud for pity and charity. Never was so 
 deep a tragedy presented to the feelings of men. I deny 
 the power of the general government to apply money to 
 such a purpose, but I deny it with a bleeding heart. It 
 belongs to the state governments. Pray urge ours to be 
 liberal." He then ventures on a prophecy, which recent 
 events seem likely to realize much sooner than could have 
 been then expected : " I become daily more and more con 
 vinced that all the West India islands will remain in the 
 hands of the people of colour, and a total expulsion of the 
 whites, sooner, or later, take place." 
 
 Extract of a letter to James Madison, dated August 11, 1793. 
 " I believe it will be true wisdom in the republican 
 
 party to approve unequivocally of a state of neutrality ; to 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 501 
 
 avoid little cavils about who should declare it ; to abandon 
 Genet entirely, with expressions of strong friendship and 
 adherence to his nation, and confidence that he has acted 
 against their sense. In this way we shall keep the people 
 on our side, by keeping ourselves in the right. They made 
 the establishment of the democratic society here the ground 
 for sounding the alarm that this society, (which they con 
 sidered as the antifederal and discontented faction,) was put 
 into motion by Mr. Genet, and would by their correspond 
 ing societies, in all the states, draw the mass of the people, 
 by dint of misinformation, into their vortex, and overset the 
 government. The President was strongly impressed by this 
 picture, drawn by Hamilton, in three speeches of three- 
 quarters of an hour s length each. I opposed it totally ; told 
 the President plainly, in their presence, that the intention 
 was to dismount him from being the head of the nation, and 
 make him the head of a party : that this would be the effect 
 of making him, in an appeal to the people, declare war 
 
 against the republican party. R , according to his 
 
 half-way system between wrong and right, urged the putting 
 off the appeal. The President came into his idea, or rather 
 concluded that the question on it might be put off indefi 
 nitely, to be governed by events. If the demonstrations of 
 popular adherence to him become as general and as warm 
 as I believe they will, I think he will never again bring on 
 the question : if there is an appearance of their supporting 
 Genet, he will probably make the appeal. -is the 
 poorest creature I ever saw, having no colour of his own,, 
 and reflecting that nearest to him. When he is with me. 
 he is a whig ; when with Hamilton, he is a tory ; when he is 
 with the President, he is what he thinks will please him.* 
 .... The President always acquiesces in the majority. 
 
 * The individual here alluded to was characterized by that great master 
 of bitter sarcasm, John Randolph, as " the chameleon on the aspen always 
 rembling, always changing. He had, however, many private virtues. 
 
502 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 " You ask the sense of France with regard to the defen 
 sive quality of the guarantee. I know it no otherwise than 
 from Genet. His doctrine is, that without waiting to be 
 called on without waiting till the islands were attacked, 
 the moment France was engaged in a war, it was our duty to 
 fly to arms as a nation, and the duty of every one to do it 
 as an individual. He insisted much on Henfield s* counsel 
 (who were engaged and paid by him,) defending Henfield 
 on this ground, but they had more sense." 
 
 Extract of a letter to James Madison, dated Sept. 1, 1793. 
 
 "His [Genet s] conduct has given room for the 
 
 enemies of liberty and of France to come forward in a state 
 of acrimony against that nation which they never would 
 [otherwise] have dared to have done. The disapprobation 
 of the agent mingles with the reprehension of his nation, 
 and gives a toleration to that which it never had before. 
 He has still some defenders in Freneau and Greenleaf s 
 paper. Who they are, I know not, for even Hutcheson and 
 Dallas give him up.". . . ."You will see much said and 
 gainsayed about Genet s threat to appeal to the people. f I 
 can assure you it is a fact." 
 
 * Henfield was an American citizen, who having entered on board a 
 French privateer, then fitting out of Charleston, was, by the advice of the 
 attorney-general, arrested, and prosecuted in the federal court of Penn 
 sylvania. He was acquitted by the jury on the ground that he was not 
 aware of the unlawfulness of his undertaking. 
 
 t Mr. Genet, as we have seen, uttered this insolent threat when Mr. 
 Dallas applied to him to detain the Little Democrat. The fact having 
 soon obtained publicity, the federal prints were not slow in profiting by 
 it to arouse the indignation of the people ; and their opponents, with that 
 perversion of judgment, as well as of right feeling, into which party zeal 
 so often betrays its votaries, ventured to deny the fact, and to justify it, 
 even if it were true. It was soon established beyond question, by the 
 certificate of Mr. King and Mr. Jay, on information derived partly from 
 Mr. Jefferson himself. A majority promptly resented the insult to its 
 chief magistrate ; and in this way the misjudging zeal of the French 
 minister injured the cause of his own country, and the party in America 
 who befriended it. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 503 
 
 It appears from the preceding extracts that Mr. Jefferson, 
 with all his partiality for France, and his lively hopes of the 
 final triumph of civil liberty in that country, steered clear of 
 the errors of many of his party in wishing the United 
 States to engage in the war, and in apologising fjor the mis 
 conduct of Genet ; and that he endeavoured to impress his 
 own just views of the true interests of his country on the 
 minds of his most intimate friends. It further appears from 
 his diary, that in the cabinet he laboured to distinguish 
 between Mr. Genet and his nation, and to defend the rights 
 and dignity of the United States against the arrogant pre 
 tensions of the minister, without suffering them to interrupt 
 the harmony between the two nations : while his great rival 
 and antagonist was desirous of so using them as to alienate 
 the Americans from their attachment to France and her 
 cause, partly from the apprehended evils of French influ 
 ence, and partly to favour that close connexion with Great 
 Britain, which was so propitious to his views of policy at 
 home. 
 
 At a cabinet consultation which took place early in Au 
 gust, concerning the course proper to be pursued towards 
 Mr. Genet, it was unanimously agreed to send to the Ameri 
 can minister at Paris a full statement of Genet s conduct, 
 to be communicated to the French government, and accom 
 panied with a request for his recall. Mr. Jefferson wished 
 the request to be expressed " with great delicacy," but the 
 others were " for peremptory terms." It was also agreed to 
 send Genet a copy of the letter to Mr. Morris ; but Mr. Jef 
 ferson objected to this, because he thought " it would ren 
 der him extremely active in his plans, and endanger con 
 fusion." It was also proposed by Colonel Hamilton that 
 the whole correspondence and proceedings with Genet should 
 be published by way of appeal to the people : but this ques 
 tion, after some opposition on the part of Mr. Randolph, was 
 adjourned to the following day. The discussion was then 
 
504 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 renewed, -when Colonel Hamilton, in again pressing the 
 appeal, laid great stress on the necessity of counteracting 
 the Democratic Society, which had been recently established 
 in Philadelphia, and which it was apprehended, would, in 
 imitation of the Jacobin clubs of France, extend its con 
 nexions to every part of the country. Mr. Jefferson opposed 
 the appeal. He maintained that the Democratic Societies 
 of Pennsylvania afforded no good cause of alarm ; they were 
 chiefly intended to influence the approaching election of 
 governor in that state ; and if left alone they would die of 
 themselves, but if opposed, they would acquire importance. 
 He urged that, by the appeal, the President would " assume 
 the station of the head of a party, instead of the head of the 
 nation ;" that the cabinet, though agreed as to the facts, 
 were not agreed as to the character of some of their decisions ; 
 that these differences would be extended to the public, and 
 to Congress; that Genet would appeal also, and it would 
 become a contest between him and the President. He lastly 
 insisted that the measure would be as mischievous abroad 
 as at home ; that friendly nations settle little differences in 
 private, and " never appeal to the world, but when they 
 appeal to the sword ;" that there was no evidence that Genet 
 acted here in pursuance of what her enemies alleged to be 
 the settled system of her government ; that our countenance 
 to that imputation would be considered unfriendly towards 
 France, and, producing a correspondent feeling on her part, 
 would at least induce her to retract her offer of a commercial 
 treaty*. 
 
 The President was inclined to make the appeal, but find 
 ing his cabinet equally divided on the question, he deter 
 mined to make no decision respecting it at that time, but 
 to be governed by subsequent events. 
 
 The yellow fever, which visited Philadelphia this year, for 
 
 * This offer had been communicated by Mr. Genet, in a letter to the 
 Secretary of State, dated Sept. 30, 1793. Waits Stale Papers, I, p. 410. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 505 
 
 some time suspended the consultations of the cabinet; for 
 the pestilence being believed to be infectious, all the chief 
 officers of the government had, in the interval, fled from the 
 city*, and did not reassemble until the beginning of Novem 
 ber. They then met in Germantown, near Philadelphia, and 
 there remained until the end of the month. 
 
 At the first conference of the cabinet in Germantown, on 
 the 8th of November, the President, while the answer to one 
 of Genet s letters was under consideration, took occasion to 
 animadvert on his extraordinary conduct, and to remark 
 that he meant to submit the question whether he should not 
 be ordered away. Hamilton and Knox were decidedly in 
 favour of his dismission. The latter had indeed proposed 
 it at a conference in August. Randolph urged considerations 
 of policy against it, and the decision was suspended. 
 
 The subject was resumed at a meeting on the 18th, and 
 the r envoi of Genet was proposed by the President himself. 
 Mr. Jefferson urged in opposition, that " France was the 
 only nation on earth sincerely our friend ;" that the measure 
 was a harsh one, and, in every precedent produced, had 
 been followed by war. That from the time the despatches 
 
 * The disease, now first designated the yellow fever, began early in 
 August, and terminated early in November. In that time there were 
 4044 deaths, which, after deducting the average number in ordinary 
 years, makes the number of victims to the pestilence about 3800. In 
 the second week in October, when the disease was at its height, the 
 number of deaths exceeded 700. The population of Philadelphia was 
 then about 50,000, of whom one-third were computed to have left the city. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson was the last of the cabinet who left the city, except 
 Colonel Hamilton, who was attacked by the fever. He writes to a friend, 
 early in September, " I would really go away, because I think there is 
 rational danger, but that I had before announced that I should not go 
 till the beginning of October, and I do not like to exhibit the appearance 
 of panic. Besides, I think there might be serious ills proceed from there 
 not being a single member of the administration in place." But the ma 
 lignity of the disease increasing, he also lied ; not, however, as appears 
 from his last letter, dated Sept. 17th, " until he had cleared his letter 
 files," and left not a single correspondent unanswered. 
 
506 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to Mr. Morris had left the United States, (84 days,) they 
 might hourly look for his recall : that before the measure 
 could be finally disposed of. it would be within a few days 
 of the meeting of the new Congress, and though they were 
 probably now with the administration, this measure might 
 carry a portion of them over to Genet s side ; and that he 
 might not obey the order. The President then asked 
 Mr. Jefferson what he would do if Genet should send his 
 threatened accusation to the executive, to be communicated 
 to Congress ; to which he replied, that he would not com 
 municate it, but either put it in the newspapers, or send it 
 back to the minister. The cabinet being also divided on 
 this question, the President left it undecided, according to 
 what seems to have been his practice, in such cases, when 
 ever a decision was not urgently required. 
 
 If the war in which France was involved gave rise to em 
 barrassing questions between that nation and the United 
 States, it also greatly added to the long list of mutual com 
 plaints which previously existed between them and Great 
 Britain. 
 
 On the part of that nation it was contended that the 
 French were allowed to do certain acts which were incon 
 sistent with the neutral position of the United States, many 
 of which have been already adverted to, in noticing the occa 
 sions of complaint against Mr. Genet. The United States, 
 on the other hand, complained that they were not allowed 
 to exercise the rights to which neutrals were entitled under 
 the laws of nations. 
 
 Of this character they held the British order in council 
 of the 8th of June, 1793, which, under the title of " Additional 
 instructions to British ships of war," authorized them to stop 
 all vessels loaded with grain, and bound for France ; and to 
 send them into the most convenient port, in order that their 
 cargoes might be purchased by the government ; to seize 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 507 
 
 all ships attempting to enter ports declared to be blockaded, 
 except Danish and Swedish vessels, which were to be seized 
 only on a second attempt. And it further provided, that 
 any vessel which appeared from their papers bound to a 
 blockaded port, should be admonished to proceeo^ to other 
 ports ; but if they continued their course with a view of enter 
 ing the blockaded port, they should be liable to condemna 
 tion, as should also all those vessels which had sailed for a 
 port declared blockaded, after the declaration had been 
 known in the country from which they sailed. 
 
 On the 7th of September, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. 
 Pinckney, the American minister, to enter into explanations 
 with the British government on the subject of this order, 
 which he considers as clearly violating the law of nations, 
 and to endeavour to obtain a revocation of it, as well as in 
 demnification for our citizens who had suffered under it. 
 Adverting then to their backwardness in answering any ap 
 plications from the United States, Mr, Jefferson remarks : 
 " It may become unavoidable in certain cases, where an an 
 swer of some sort is necessary, to consider their silence as an 
 answer perhaps this is their intention still, however, de 
 sirous of furnishing no colour of offence, we do not wish you 
 to name to them any term for giving an answer." The 
 minister was also required to ask an explanation of the dis 
 tinction in favour of Danish and Swedish vessels. 
 
 On the 12th of the same month, Mr. Hammond sent to 
 Mr. Jefferson a copy of the same " Additional instruction, 5 
 or order in council, with some remarks in its justification, 
 as that, according to the " most modern writers" on the law 
 of nations, all provisions are contraband " where the depriv 
 ing an enemy of these supplies is one of the means intended 
 to be employed for reducing him to reasonable terms of 
 peace ;" that the actual situation of France, and her avowed 
 principles of hostility against all the governments of Europe, 
 
508 THE L1FK OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 made the principle particularly applicable to the present 
 case ; and especially as the trade was then carried on by the 
 ruling powers of France ; that the order in council, instead of 
 declaring all provisions contraband, as the preceding con 
 siderations would have warranted, extends only to corn ; and 
 even in intercepting this, secures to the neutral owner full 
 indemnification. He also explains the discrimination in 
 favour of Denmark and Sweden, by referring it to the trea 
 ties between those powers and Great Britain. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson replied to Mr. Hammond on the 22nd of 
 September, and after adverting in strong terms to the serious 
 bearing the British order had on the agriculture and com 
 merce of the United States, he says that the principle which 
 declares provisions contraband in the case stated by Mr. 
 Hammond, " or in any case but that of a place actually block 
 aded," is " entirely new ;" but that the American minister 
 at London having been instructed to make a proper repre 
 sentation on the subject, he declined a discussion of it at that 
 time. He refers to the right claimed by Great Britain to 
 refuse to the United States what was yielded to the other 
 neutral powers by treaty, and says he does not contest it, as 
 a reciprocal right resulted to the United States. 
 
 The same subject had given rise to a correspondence 
 between Mr. Pinckney and Lord Grenville, in which the 
 ministers of the two countries asserted the same doctrine 
 and arguments as their respective colleagues urged in the 
 United States. 
 
 To this cause of irritation was added that of impressment, 
 of which there had been occasions of complaint before the 
 present war, but which that event had greatly multiplied- 
 In Mr. Jefferson s despatch to Mr. Pinckney, of October 12, 
 1792, he mentions a case in which the commander of a 
 British ship had taken sailors from a vessel belonging to 
 Virginia, while off the coast of Africa. He remarks, " So 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 509 
 
 many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite 
 necessary that their governments should explain themselves 
 on the subject; and be led to disavow and punish such con 
 duct. I leave to your discretion to endeavour to obtain this 
 satisfaction by such friendly discussions as mays be most 
 likely to produce the desired effect, and secure to our com 
 merce that protection against British violence, which it has 
 never required from any other nation. No law forbids the 
 seaman of any country to engage in time of peace, on board 
 a foreign vessel : no law authorizes such seaman to break 
 his contract, nor the armed vessels of his nation to interfere 
 for his rescue." 
 
 In the instructions given to Mr. Pinckney, when setting 
 out on his mission, Mr. Jefferson had thus called his especial 
 attention to this subject : " The peculiar custom in England 
 of impressing seamen on every appearance of war. will 
 expose our seamen to peculiar oppressions and vexations 
 These will require your most active exertions and protec 
 tion, which we know cannot be effectual without incurring 
 considerable expense ; and as no law has yet provided for 
 this, we think it fairer to take the risk of it on the execu 
 tive than to leave it on your shoulders.". ..." It will be 
 expedient that you take proper opportunities, in the mean 
 time, of conferring with the minister on the subject, in 
 order to form some arrangement for the protection of our 
 seamen on these occasions. We entirely reject the mode 
 which was the subject of a conversation between Mr. Morris 
 and him, which was that our seamen should always carry 
 about them certificates of their citizenship. This is a con 
 dition never to be submitted to by any nation ; one with 
 which seamen would never have the precaution to comply. 
 The casualties of their calling would expose them to the 
 constant destruction or loss of this paper evidence ; and thus 
 the British government would be armed with legal authority 
 
510 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to impress the whole of our seamen. The simplest rule will 
 be, that the vessel being American, shall be evidence that 
 all on board her are such. If they apprehend that our 
 vessels might thus become asylums for the fugitives of their 
 own nation from impress-gangs, the number of men to be 
 protected by a vessel may be limited by her tonnage, and 
 one or two officers only be permitted to enter the vessel, in 
 order to examine the numbers on board ; but no press-gang 
 should be allowed ever to go on board an American vessel, 
 till after it shall be found that there are more than their 
 stipulated number on board ; nor till after the master shall 
 have refused to deliver the supernumeraries (to be named 
 by himself,) to the press officer who has come on board for 
 that purpose ; and even then, the American consul should 
 be called in." 
 
 The subject was again pressed on the minister s notice in 
 Mr. Jefferson s letter of March 16, 1793, and referring to 
 the ground on which the British minister sought to justify 
 the practice to Mr. Pinckney, he remarks, that, while he 
 " regarded so minutely the inconveniences to themselves 
 which may result from a due regulation of this practice, it 
 was just he should regard our inconveniences also, from the 
 want of it." 
 
 In another letter to Mr. Pinckney of June 14, 1793, Mr. 
 Jefferson refers to his correspondence with the English and 
 French ministers, to show the principles of impartial neu 
 trality on which the government meant to proceed. He 
 defends the course taken by the executive as to the prizes 
 made by the Citizen Genet, and excuses the blank commis 
 sions delivered to Mr. Genet by his government, and issued 
 by him in the United States, as according to the settled 
 usage of France, and perhaps of other nations. He then 
 takes occasion to notice the impatience manifested by Mr. 
 Hammond, when he does not receive an immediate answer 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 511 
 
 to his communications, and adds, "You know best how far 
 your applications meet with such early attentions, and 
 whether you may with propriety claim a return of them : 
 you can best judge of an intimation, that where despatch is 
 not reciprocal, it may be expedient and justifiable i^hat delay 
 should be so." 
 
 The French government had also invaded the rights of 
 the neutral flag, and indeed seemed* to have set the ex 
 ample. On the 9th of May, 1793, the National Convention 
 issued a decree, authorizing their armed vessels to seize 
 and carry into port all neutral vessels laden with provisions 
 and bound to an enemy s port, or having on board merchan 
 dise belonging to an enemy. Such merchandise was 
 declared lawful prize ; but provisions, when the property of 
 neutrals, were to be paid for at the price they would have 
 brought in the port to which they were bound. Neutral 
 vessels were to be immediately released, after the provisions 
 were landed ; and to receive their stipulated freight, as well 
 as compensation for detention. 
 
 This decree being in direct violation of the treaty with 
 the United States, it became the immediate subject of re 
 monstrance on the part of Mr. Gouverneur Morris ;f and 
 the convention, on the 23rd of May, decreed that the vessels 
 of the United States, conformably to the treaty of 1778, were 
 not comprehended in the decree of the 9th. With that 
 fluctuation in their councils, which was so characteristic of 
 the times, the decree of the 23rd was revoked five days after- 
 vards ; but, on a second remonstrance from Mr. Morris, was 
 
 * I use the word " seemed," because the French deny that they were 
 the first to invade the rights of neutrals, and justify the decree of the 9th 
 >f May, by the special provisions respecting neutrals in the treaties made 
 >y Great Britain with Russia on the 25th of March, 1793. See Debretfs 
 State Papers, Vol. I. p. 3. 
 
 ! Life of G. Morris, Vol. II. p. 319. 
 
512 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 renewed on the 1st of July. It was, however, again revoked 
 on the 27th of that month, and thus the original decree of 
 the 9th of May remained in full force against all neutrals. 
 
 It seems reasonable to infer that this decree had sug 
 gested the British order of the 8th of June, yet it is remark 
 able that it is not mentioned or alluded to either by Lord 
 Grenville in his correspondence with Mr. Pinckney, or by Mr. 
 Hammond in his with Mr. Jefferson, and that it is not 
 noticed in the debates in parliament or journals of that 
 period. As we cannot suppose it unknown to the British 
 ministry, it seems probable that they preferred resting the 
 justification of a principle, which was likely to prove so 
 much more advantageous to them than to their enemy, on 
 the permanent ground of the law of nations, rather than on 
 the French decree, which might be revoked at any time. 
 
 Mr. Morris, who had duly informed his government of 
 these measures of the French republic, writes to Mr. Jeffer 
 son, on the 22nd of September, that he understood the 
 decree of the 27th of July was to be repealed ; and that, in 
 the meantime, " it had not been transmitted to the tribunals" 
 " We shall see in effect, he adds, that this decree can do 
 very little harm, because the fleets of the country are con 
 fined by those of the enemy, and the privateers by a decree 
 of the convention."* 
 
 Again adverting to this subject, on the 10th of October, 
 he remarks : " The conduct of the convention, respecting our 
 treaty, will have formed a useful reinforcement to those who 
 would preserve our constitution. My efforts to support the 
 treaty have been constant and persevering, although in my 
 private judgment, the breach of it, on the part of our allies, 
 by releasing us from the obligations it has imposed, could 
 not but be useful, under the present circumstances. 1 
 
 * Life of G. Morris, TI. p. 354. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 513 
 
 On the 14th of October, the minister of foreign affairs, in 
 answer to the complaints of Mr. Morris, excuses the course 
 pursued by France towards neutrals, as a mode of necessary 
 retaliation on their enemies ; and says it would continue as 
 long as those enemies resorted to unlawful measures against 
 France. He remarks that the decree of the 9th of May was 
 conditional*, while the correspondent measures f of the 
 combined powers were positive; and that it was in their 
 power to put a period to the execution of the French decree 
 by permitting neutral nations to trade with France. 
 
 When the dispatches from Mr. Morris, communicating the 
 preceding intelligence, reached the United States, the ad 
 ministration then first distinctly learnt J that it was the 
 settled policy of the French government to disregard the 
 provisions of the treaty with the United States, and to jus 
 tify themselves under the plea of self-defence. The subject 
 was therefore formally communicated to Congress by the 
 President immediately after they assembled. 
 
 The French decree was certainly indefensible, as it vio 
 lated an express provision of the treaty of 1778, of which 
 France had actually availed herself by making prizes of 
 American merchandise taken in British vessels. But, be 
 sides that it provided a more complete indemnification to 
 
 * The condition here referred to appears in no notice of it that I have 
 met with. If it existed at all, it must have been in the form of a pream 
 ble, or perhaps in the declarations of those members of the convention 
 who were its advocates in debate. 
 
 } All those measures, except the treaty between Great Britain and 
 
 Russia, appear to have been subsequent to the French decree ; yet Mr. 
 
 Morris, in his dispatches of Feb. 13, 1793, says, "It is not improbable 
 
 i hat our vessels, bringing provisions to France, may be captured and 
 
 aken into England, the cargoes paid for by the government." 
 
 $ The decrees of the 9th of May, and that of the 23d, exempting the 
 Jnited States from its operation, were first communicated to the Ame- 
 ican government by Mr. Genet on the 27th of September, 1793, and 
 ithout any notice of the subsequent re-enactments of it. Wait s State 
 Capers. Vol. I. p. 421. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 L 
 
514 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 neutrals than the British order, a decree which had been 
 repeatedly suspended, and which France had such slender 
 means of enforcing, was naturally regarded very differently 
 by the American government and people from one which 
 was put into efficient operation to vex their commerce and 
 sailors in every sea*. 
 
 While the yellow fever was at its height, the President 
 had consulted the members of his cabinet on the propriety 
 of convening Congress at some other place than Philadel 
 phia. Mr. Jefferson wrote to him on the 15th of September, 
 that he thought he had not the power under the constitu 
 tion to convene them at any other place than that to which 
 they had adjourned themselves. Fortunately, however, the 
 disappearance of the disease made the decision unnecessary, 
 and the cabinet re-assembled in November, when the near 
 approach of the meeting of Congress presented, as usual, 
 for the deliberations of the cabinet, the interesting subject 
 of the President s communication to that body. 
 
 Among the topics in the speech which afforded occasion 
 for difference in the cabinet, the most important was the 
 proclamation of neutrality. At the consultation held on the 
 
 * When we consider the difference of injury received from the two 
 nations, which amounted almost to that between impotent threats and 
 blows frequent and severe, it seems hardly fair to attribute the greater 
 sensibility shown to the measures of Great Britain, to the undue for 
 bearance of the administration and people towards France ; yet such is 
 the implied censure in the following passage in Marshall s Life of Wash 
 ington : 
 
 "The earnestness, as well as force with which the argument against 
 this measure was pressed on the British cabinet, and the extreme irrita 
 tion it produced on the public mind, contrasted with the silence of the 
 executive respecting a much more exceptionable decree of the National 
 Convention, and the composure of the people of the United States under 
 that decree, exhibits a striking proof of the difference with which not 
 only tne people, but an administration which the frenzy of the day 
 accused of partiality to England, contemplated at that time the mea 
 sures of the two nations." Vol. V. note xi. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 515 
 
 18th of November, Colonel Hamilton maintained that the 
 President had a right to declare his opinion to our citizens 
 and to the world ; that it was not our interest, and we were 
 under no obligation, to join in the war ; that foreign nations 
 had considered it as a declaration of neutrality^ future as 
 well as present ; and to say now that it was not meant to 
 give that assurance, would be a deception on them. He 
 was therefore in favour of the " President s using such ex 
 pressions as should neither affirm his right to make such a 
 declaration, nor yield it." Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Randolph 
 denied the right of the President to declare anything as to 
 the future, on the question of war or peace ; or that such 
 had been the intention of the proclamation ; and they in 
 sisted that Hamilton s interpretation of it would make it 
 determine the question of guarantee, to which the President 
 was incompetent. Mr. Jefferson went farther, and denied 
 he meant to declare that neutrality would be our interest ; 
 on the contrary, he wished foreign nations to be doubtful on 
 this point, that they might " come and bid for our neu 
 trality." The President disclaimed any intention of looking 
 beyond the next meeting of Congress, or any object beyond 
 keeping the people in peace. He justified himself for 
 using the term "neutrality" in his answers to the public 
 addresses which the occasion had called forth, on the ground 
 that he had submitted the first of them to his cabinet, and 
 the term had not been objected to. 
 
 The discussion was renewed three days afterwards, when, 
 as had been previously arranged, paragraphs for the Pre 
 sident s speech, prepared by Colonel Hamilton and Mr. 
 Randolph respectively, were submitted to the cabinet, and 
 when the same grounds were taken by the several members 
 as before. It was even maintained by Hamilton that the 
 President and senate might, under the treaty-making power, 
 make a treaty of neutrality which should take from Congress 
 
516 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the right to declare war ; and that under the form of treaty, 
 they might exercise any power whatever, even those exclu 
 sively assigned to the House of Representatives. Mr. Jef 
 ferson, on the other hand, insisted that " in giving to the 
 President and senate a power to make treaties, the consti 
 tution meant only to authorize them to carry into effect, by 
 way of treaty, any powers they might constitutionally exer 
 cise." He adds, " I was sensible of the weak points in this 
 position, but there were still weaker in the other hypo- 
 theis ; and if it be impossible to discover a rational mea- 
 sute of authority to have been given by this clause, I would 
 rather suppose that the cases which my hypothesis would 
 leave unprovided, were not thought of by the convention,, or 
 if thought of, could not be agreed on, or were thought of 
 and deemed unnecessary to be invested in the government. 
 Of this last description, were treaties of neutrality, treaties 
 offensive and defensive, &c. In every event, I would rather 
 construe so narrowly as to oblige the nation to amend, and 
 thus declare what powers they would agree to yield, than 
 too broadly, and indeed so broadly as to enable the execu 
 tive and senate to do things which the constitution forbids." 
 .... In conclusion, he was in favour of Randolph s way of 
 explaining the proclamation, though "it gave to that in 
 strument more objects than he had contemplated ;" General 
 Knox was in favour of Hamilton s ; and the President, re 
 peating his former declarations, but expressing an unwilling 
 ness to make a public disclaimer, which perhaps was un 
 necessary, came to no decision between the two draughts. 
 
 At two subsequent meetings they discussed the propriety 
 of recommending the fortification of the principal harbours 
 and the establishment of a military academy. Mr. Jefferson 
 opposed the first on the ground of expediency, and the last 
 as not within the specific powers assigned to Congress*. 
 
 * Yet when it is considered that the military science, which so prodi- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 517 
 
 The President agreed with him as to the fortifications ; but 
 all the other members of the cabinet being in favour of the 
 military academy, he said that " if the measure was doubtful, 
 he was so impressed with its necessity that he would refer 
 it to Congress, and let them decide for themselves " on its 
 constitutionality. 
 
 At the last of these meetings, the draught of a message 
 to Congress on the subject of France and England, prepared 
 by Mr. Jefferson, was submitted to the cabinet. It was not 
 relished by Colonel Hamilton, who said that " the contrast 
 drawn between the conduct of France and England amounted 
 to a declaration of war." He considered the favourable dis. 
 positions of the people of America towards that country a 
 serious calamity, and that it ought not to be nourished by 
 the executive ; that the offer of commercial advantages was 
 the offspring of circumstances which would not last, and that 
 he could prove that " Great Britain showed us more favours 
 than France." Many expressions in the draught were changed 
 to make it more to his taste. He also wished the commu 
 nication to be secret, at least, as to the subject of complaints 
 which were still pending. On this and the other points he 
 was supported by Knox, and opposed by Jefferson and in 
 part by Randolph. The President, however, decided without 
 reserve, thai the whole should be communicated in a public 
 message, though as to the documents respecting the provision 
 
 giously augments the physical force of man, is essential to the national 
 defence; that an adequate supply of officers instructed in its precepts 
 can be furnished in no way so effectually as by an institution devoted 
 exclusively to their instruction ; that if we have no such institutions at 
 home we must be dependent on foreign countries for the first class of 
 engineers and strategists ; and when it is further considered that the 
 duty of raising and disciplining armies, erecting fortifications and the 
 like, is expressly assigned to the general government, it would seem 
 that Congress may establish military schools, under its power of pass 
 ing " all laws necessary and proper" for executing the powers expressly 
 given. 
 
518 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 order of the 5th of June, Mr. Jefferson stood alone. This, 
 he remarks, was the first instance of the President s deciding 
 on the opinion of one against that of three others. 
 
 Congress met on the 2nd of December, and on the follow 
 ing day the President addressed the two Houses, in the se 
 nate chamber. Two days afterwards he sent them a message* 
 on the foreign relations of the United States, in which he 
 communicated to them the decree of the 9th of May, in con 
 travention of the treaty of 1778, and the recent enforcement 
 of it, which should be immediately made the subject of repre 
 sentations to the French government; gave a summary of 
 the conduct of Genet, and the measures taken by the execu 
 tive ; the provision order of the British government, and its 
 continued failure to execute the treaty of peace. Each of 
 these subjects was accompanied with the appropriate docu 
 ments, the most important of which have been already re 
 ferred to. As important negotiations with Spain were now 
 depending, he informed them they would be the subject of 
 a subsequent confidential communication. This was accord 
 ingly made on the 16th. It regarded all the points of dis 
 pute between the two nations, whether relating to boundary, 
 commerce, the navigation of the Mississippi, the surrender 
 of fugitives from justice, or their mutual complaints of ex 
 citing Indian hostilities, and interfering with Indian bound 
 aries, all set forth in numerous documents and a voluminous 
 correspondence, in which Mr. Jefferson, as secretary of state, 
 bore a principal part, and exhibited his wonted diligence 
 accuracy, and ability as a diplomatistf. In another message 
 were communicated the papers and correspondence relative 
 to the Barbary powers. 
 
 On the same day, Mr. Jefferson made a report^ to the 
 
 * Wait s State Papers, Vol. I. 
 t See Waifs State Papers, Vol. X. p. 114 to 254. 
 | Ibid. Vol. I. p. 422. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 519 
 
 House of Representatives on the privileges and restrictions 
 on the commerce of the United States in foreign countries, 
 in conformity with a resolution of that body on the 23rd of 
 February, 1791. After stating the amount of the annual 
 exports of the United States in their principal staple pro 
 ducts, to Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, the United 
 Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden, respectively ; the im 
 ports from each of those countries ; the American tonnage 
 employed in the commerce with each ; and a detailed notice 
 of the restrictions on that commerce, the report proceeds 
 to consider how those restrictions " may be best removed, mo 
 dified, or counteracted." Of the two modes, by treaty, and 
 by our own legislative measures, the first is deemed most 
 eligible on many accounts ; but where that is unattainable 
 he recommends a resort to the other. The protection to be 
 thus afforded to the commerce of the United States is still 
 more important to their navigation, which is so essential to 
 the national defence. With a view to these objects, he 
 recommends a series of legislative measures which should 
 retaliate on other nations the precise restrictions imposed 
 by them on American commerce or navigation. 
 
 This report, and a letter to the Spanish commissioners on 
 the 21st of December, and another report of the 30th, trans 
 mitting a decree of the National Convention in favour of 
 American commerce, were his last official acts as Secretary 
 of State ; for the time had now arrived when he was to exe 
 cute his long-intended purpose of withdrawing from public- 
 life. 
 
 Though Mr. Jefferson s resignation of his office had been 
 from time to time postponed, his purpose of resigning had 
 never wavered, and it required all the efforts of his adherents 
 and friends to induce him even to suspend it. One of the 
 principal arguments they had relied upon, was, that to re 
 tire when his character was assailed in the newspapers, would 
 
520 THE LIVE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 be likely to injure him in the public esteem. Mr. Madison 
 wrote to him in May to dissuade him from his purpose, and 
 delicately alludes to the effect it might have on his reputa 
 tion as a public man, by the following remarks : " You 
 must not make your final exit from public life, till it shall 
 be marked with justifying circumstances, which all good 
 citizens will respect, and to which your friends can ap 
 peal." To this part of the letter Mr. Jefferson, on the 9th 
 of June, replies in a tone of remonstrance and almost of im 
 patience, unwonted with him, and especially in his inter 
 course with Mr. Madison : 
 
 " To my fellow citizens the debt of service has been 
 
 fully and faithfully paid. I acknowledge that such a debt 
 exists that a tour of duty, in whatever line it can be most 
 useful to his country, is due from every individual. It is 
 not easy, perhaps, to say of what length his tour should be, 
 but we may safely say of what length it should not be ; not 
 of our whole life, for instance, for that would be to be born a 
 slave ; nor even of a very large part of it. I have now been 
 in the public service four- and- twenty years ; one half of 
 which has been spent in total occupation with their affairs, 
 and absence from my own. I have served my term. No 
 positive engagement, by word or deed, binds me to their 
 further service. No commitment of their interests in any 
 enterprise by me, requires that I should see them through 
 it. I am pledged by no act which gives any tribunal a call 
 upon me, before I withdraw. Even my enemies do not pre 
 tend this. I stand clear then of public right, in all points. 
 My friends I have not committed. No circumstances have 
 attended my passage from office to office, which could lead 
 them or others into deception as to the time I might remain ; 
 and particularly, they and all have known with what reluct 
 ance I engaged, and have continued, in the present one, and 
 of my uniform determination to retire from it at an early 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 521 
 
 day. If the public lias no claim on me, and my friends no 
 thing to justify, the decision will rest on my own feelings 
 alone. There has been a time when these were different 
 from what they arc now ; when perhaps the esteem of the 
 world was of higher value, in my eye, than everything in it ; 
 but age, experience, reflection, preserving to that only its 
 due value, have set a higher on tranquillity. The motion 
 of my blood no longer keeps time with the turmoil of the 
 world. It leads me to seek happiness in the lap and the 
 love of my family ; in the society of my neighbours and my 
 books ; in the wholesome occupations of my farm and my 
 affairs ; in an interest or affection in every bud that opens, 
 in every breath that blows around me ; in an entire freedom 
 of rest or motion, of thought or incogitancy owing account 
 to myself alone of my hours and actions. What must be the 
 principle of that calculation which should balance against 
 these circumstances of my present existence ? Worn down 
 with labours from morning till night, and day to day ; know 
 ing them as fruitless to others as they are vexatious to my 
 self; committed singly in desperate and eternal contest 
 against a host who are systematically undermining the pub 
 lic liberty and prosperity ; even the rare hours of relaxation 
 sacrificed to the society of persons in the same intentions, of 
 whose hatred I am conscious even in those moments of con 
 viviality, when the heart most wishes to open itself to the 
 effusions of friendship and confidence ; cut off from my family 
 and friends ; my affairs abandoned to chaos and derange 
 ment. In short, giving everything I love in exchange for 
 everything I hate ; and all this, without a single gratifica 
 tion in possession or prospect in present enjoyment or fu 
 ture wish. Indeed, my dear friend, duty being out of the 
 question, inclination cuts off all argument, and so never let 
 there be more between you and me on this subject." 
 
 Thus determined to withdraw from a situation so irksome, 
 
522 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 he wrote on the 31st of July to the President, that the 
 motives which in February had induced him to suspend his 
 resignation no longer continuing, he should resign at the 
 end of the current quarter. But on the 6th of August, the 
 President called on him at his house on the Schuylkill, when 
 the preceding letter gave rise to a long conversation on the 
 views of parties, on Mr. Jefferson s resignation and that of 
 Colonel Hamilton, which he himself had lately made known, 
 and on the appointment of his successor in the state depart 
 ment; when on the President s expressing a particular 
 desire that Mr. Jefferson would continue in office to the end 
 of the year, he took time to consider of it, and, on the llth 
 of August, wrote him a card to announce his change of pur 
 pose, in compliance with the President s wishes. 
 His letter of resignation is in the following words : 
 
 " Philadelphia, December 31, 1793. 
 " Sir, 
 
 " Having had the honour of communicating to you, in my 
 letter of the last of July, my purpose of retiring from the 
 office of Secretary of State, at the end of the month of 
 September, you were pleased, for particular reasons, to wish 
 its postponement to the close of the year. That term being 
 now arrived, and my propensity to retirement becoming daily 
 more and more irresistible, I now take the liberty of resign 
 ing the office into your hands. Be pleased to accept my 
 sincere thanks for all the indulgences which you have been 
 so good as to exercise towards me in the discharge of its 
 duties. Conscious that my need of them has been great, I 
 have still ever found them greater, without any other claim 
 on my part than a firm support of what has appeared to be 
 right, and a thorough disdain of all means which were not 
 as open and honourable as their object was pure. I carry 
 into my retirement a lively sense of your goodness, and shall 
 continue gratefully to remember it. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 523 
 
 " With my serious prayers for your life, health, and tran 
 quillity, I pray you to accept the homage of the great and 
 constant respect and attachment with which I have the 
 honour to be 
 
 "Tn. JEFFERSON." 
 
 He soon after set out for Monticello, where he hoped to 
 find that peace of mind which public employment had long 
 since ceased to afford him. 
 
524 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson s motives for retiring from public life. His continued con 
 nexion with the Republican Party. Description of Monticello. Mr. 
 Madison s Commercial Restrictions arguments for and against 
 them in Congress. State of parties on this Question. A naval 
 force provided. British Order in Council of the 5th of November. 
 The Measures in Congress to which it gave rise. The Chief Justice 
 sent as Minister to England. Each party accuses the other of 
 foreign attachments. Arrangement of each under different classes 
 of citizens. 
 
 1794. 
 
 THUS Mr. Jefferson, after having been actively engaged in 
 the affairs of his country at home and abroad, for twenty- 
 five years, had now, at the age of fifty, returned to private 
 life, for which he had qualities and resources that peculiarly 
 fitted him, and for which too he had always expressed a 
 strong predilection. Here he would find leisure to gratify 
 his lively relish for letters ; to make observations in physics 
 and natural history ; and, in the society of his daughters and 
 grandchildren, cultivate the domestic affections. With these 
 sources of happiness, which were more fondly desired from 
 their having been hitherto enjoyed only at brief intervals, 
 and his rare cheerfulness of temper, he would probably have 
 been content to pass the remainder of his life at Monticello 
 with as little of repining or chagrin as ever attended the 
 premature retirement of a statesman. 
 
 His motives for withdrawing from public affairs have 
 been, as usual, variously interpreted by his friends and his 
 enemies. The former alleged that, dissatisfied with some 
 parts of the policy of the administration, discouraged by 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 525 
 
 his failure to defeat the most pernicious of Hamilton s mea 
 sures, and harassed by the labours of incessant controversy 
 n the cabinet and out of it, he had determined to bid a final 
 adieu to a life of vexation and disappointment ; and that 
 since it was not allowed him to serve his country by his 
 counsels, he had sought peace in unambitious and philoso 
 phical retirement. But his political adversaries denied that 
 private life was his ultimate object. They insisted, on the 
 contrary, that it was used as a more effectual means for the 
 furtherance of his ambitious views ; that in the attitude in 
 which he had been recently placed of defending the execu 
 tive and of opposing Genet, he was in danger of losing the 
 confidence and affections of the party to whom he had 
 hitherto looked for support ; and there could be no better 
 time for him to retreat from so delicate a position than when 
 his late official support of the administration had softened 
 his opponents, and even won from them a certain degree 
 of favour, without sensibly diminishing the confidence and 
 adherence of his own party ; and that he now withdrew from 
 public affairs in the full expectation of being a candidate 
 for the presidency, on the retirement of General Wash 
 ington. 
 
 It is not always practicable to fathom men s motives, for 
 they are sometimes not known or not distinctly avowed to 
 themselves. Mr. Jefferson s own declarations, repeatedly 
 made with every appearance of sincerity, and consistently 
 with his frequent refusals of public office and resignations 
 after he had accepted, all concur to assure us that he would 
 have contentedly remained a private individual at Monti - 
 cello. It is not, however, to be supposed that he felt indif 
 ferent to the great events which were then passing in 
 Europe, and still less to the political contests of the day in 
 his own country ; nor with his views, would such apathy , 
 have been creditable to his patriotism or love of civil liberty. 
 
526 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 He meant no doubt in his retirement to keep a watchful 
 eye on the proceedings both of Congress and the adminis 
 tration, and to avail himself of his popularity in the nation, 
 to counteract by his counsels the anti-republican tendencies 
 of the men in power, and of the English party generally. 
 Whether there mingled with these feelings the ambition of 
 attaining the chief power himself cannot now be known. 
 But it is reasonable to suppose that he was not exempt from 
 the desire of self-aggrandizement, if it could be attained 
 without undue sacrifices. With ambition thus tempered 
 and regulated, whether it was disguised from him or not, it 
 seems unfair to charge him with affecting the virtues of 
 humility, and with pretending to disclaim and despise what 
 he secretly coveted, and sedulously sought to attain. 
 
 But whatever may have been his views in retiring, he was 
 destined not long to remain in a state of quiet neutrality. 
 The unanimous voice of his party soon proclaimed him the 
 man of their choice to succeed General Washington ; and as 
 it is not known that he made any very earnest opposition to 
 their wishes, it may be presumed that he contented himself 
 with a passive acquiescence. The part which he did take, 
 after it was distinctly ascertained that he was to be the can 
 didate of the democratic party, cannot now be easily trace. 
 There is little evidence of it to be found in his correspond 
 ence ; and there probably never existed any other, except 
 in the conversations and suggestions which passed between 
 him and his numerous visiters, and from them were diffused 
 throughout Virginia, and even the Union. Of these, there 
 remains no memorial save what may still linger in the faded 
 recollections of his surviving fellow labourers. It is certain 
 that Monticello was, in this and the two succeeding years, 
 the head-quarters of those opposed to the federal policy, and 
 that few measures of the republican party in Congress were 
 undertaken without its advice or concurrence. He even had 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 527 
 
 an agency in directing the attacks of the opposition journals ; 
 and manuscript draughts of bills, resolutions, and reports 
 prepared by him about that period, are yet exhibited by 
 those who are curious in autographs, or in the political his 
 tory of the times. Some of the members of Congress from 
 Virginia, Kentucky, and the southern states, were his inti 
 mate friends ; and with a part of these he communicated 
 not only by letter, but also by a personal intercourse during 
 the summer on their visits to the watering-places in the 
 mountains of Virginia. Among his most frequent visiters 
 were Mr. Madison, Mr. Munroe, and Mr. Giles. 
 
 It would seem that no course could have been more pru 
 dent, if political advancement had been Mr. Jefferson s ob 
 ject, than that which he took in withdrawing from public 
 affairs. The impression was universal that he had quitted 
 the administration because he did not cordially approve its 
 course ; and while he thus secured the confidence and favour 
 of one party, the negative character of a retreat from the 
 field of contest did not excite the hostility of the other ; and 
 the ability with which he had defended the administration 
 against the complaints of Mr. Genet, had even obtained for 
 him a portion of their esteem and respect. This minister, 
 by his intemperate zeal, had offered himself as a victim by 
 which Mr. Jefferson was able to propitiate his enemies with 
 out giving offence to his friends. 
 
 The letters of Mr. Jefferson, written about this time, all 
 speak of his having abstracted himself from politics, and 
 that he was engrossed by the appropriate pursuits of a coun 
 try gentleman in Virginia. The first which he wrote after 
 his return to Monticello was addressed to his successor, Mr. 
 Edmund Randolph, and dated Feb. 3rd, 1794. In that he 
 asserts that he read no newspapers, except those of .Rich 
 mond, and that he indulged himself in a single political topic; 
 and this was, he says, in declaring to his countrymen, " the 
 
528 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 shameless corruption of a portion of the representatives in 
 the first and second Congresses, and their implicit devotion 
 to the treasury." " I think," he adds, " I do good in this, 
 because it may produce exertions to reform the evil, on the 
 success of which the form of the government is to depend." 
 
 In another letter to Mr. Madison, dated April 3rd, he also 
 remarks : " I have never seen a Philadelphia paper since I 
 left it, till those you enclosed me; and I feel myself so 
 thoroughly weaned from the interest I took in the proceed 
 ings there, while there, that I have never had a wish to see 
 one, and believe that I shall never take another newspaper 
 of any sort. I find my mind totally absorbed in my rural 
 occupations." 
 
 Yet the rest of this very letter, which is not a short one, 
 indicates anything but indifference to what was going on 
 at the seat of government. " I have," he says, " been par 
 ticularly gratified by the receipt of the papers containing 
 yours and Smith s* discussions of your regulating proposi 
 tions. These debates had been seen here but in a very short 
 and mutilated form." He then ascribes the speech of Mr. 
 Smith to Colonel Hamilton, and used arguments to establish 
 the fact. Adverting to the rumour of a war with Great 
 Britain, he says, " Still I hope it will not come to that ; but 
 that the propositions [Mr. Madison s retaliating resolutions] 
 will be carried, and justice done to ourselves in a peaceable 
 way. As to the guarantee of the French islands, whatever 
 doubts may be entertained of the moment at which we ought 
 to interpose, yet I have no doubt that we ought to interpose 
 at a proper time, and declare both to England and France, 
 that these islands are to rest with France, and that we will 
 make a common cause with the latter for that object." 
 
 These remarks may lead us to question whether his mind 
 
 * Mr. William Smith of South Carolina. 
 
TIIR LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFKUSON, 529 
 
 was so absorbed by his new occupation as he was willing to 
 believe. The very frequent mention of his indifference to 
 politics, itself is a proof that they occupied much of his 
 thoughts : and his unwillingness to read the newspapers 
 implies a sensitiveness to the attacks of his opponents, and 
 a disgust with their ordinary topics, which is anything but 
 indifference. It would seem indeed highly improbable that 
 one whose thoughts and pursuits had been directed to public 
 concerns for almost thirty years*, during nearly the whole 
 of which time his efforts had been rewarded with popularity 
 and success, could, immediately on quitting them, abstract 
 his mind from all which had hitherto stimulated and interested 
 it. And if regret and disappointment in the past, and 
 gloomy presages of the future, prevented at first that philo 
 sophical calm which he sought, it was not long before he 
 felt an interest in public affairs of a very different character. 
 Ere two years had passed away the clouds which had lately 
 darkened his prospects had so dispersed that he once more 
 ventured on the ocean of political life ; and though he again 
 had to encounter an adverse current and a rough sea, yet 
 borne along as he was by the gale of popular favour, a mind 
 less sanguine than his might confidently hope to reach the 
 haven in which his voyage was to terminate with honour 
 and glory. 
 
 The preceding passage furnishes a further proof that he 
 has been unjustly charged by his opponents with a wish to 
 involve the country in a war with England; that he, on the 
 contrary, was really desirous to avoid that issue, and was 
 willing to encounter it, only when it was the alternative of 
 violating the obligations of public faith towards France. 
 
 When it is recollected that the United States had not the 
 
 * Though Mr. Jefferson s public life hegan in 1769, yet his interest in 
 public affairs may be dated from 17G5, when the resolutions against the 
 stamp act were debated. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 M 
 
530 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 naval power which was indispensable for making good this 
 guarantee, it must be supposed that France only promised 
 herself from it either the advantage of involving us in any 
 war in which she might be engaged with England, or that 
 the objection which England would have to such a result 
 would be a check upon her engaging in a war with France. 
 But neither of these expectations have been realized, and 
 the guarantee produced no other effect, good or bad, than 
 the advance of some supplies to the French authorities in 
 St. Domingo, in part payment of the debt which the United 
 States owed to France. 
 
 The spot to which Mr. Jefferson had retreated from the 
 labours and anxieties of public life, possessed great natural 
 beauty, and it was not more dear to his affections from early 
 associations than it was particularly suited to his taste. His 
 dwelling-house was placed on the summit of a little mountain 
 which forms part of the south-west range, and which com 
 mands a most extensive prospect of the surrounding country, 
 except in the north-east and south-west directions these 
 being the course of the range. To the east is seen a vast 
 extent of wooded champaign which, though not entirely level, 
 has that appearance when seen from this elevated spot ; and 
 where it approaches the horizon, its uniform gray tint is 
 nearly the same as a distant view of the ocean. To the 
 south-west is seen the Blue Ridge, in its nearest point about 
 twenty miles distant, but stretching away to the north-east, 
 it can be followed by the eye for more than 100 miles its 
 apparent height diminishing, and its tints fading as it grad 
 ually recedes from the view. At a short distance, (less than 
 two miles direct,) is seen the town of Charlottesville, and 
 a small piece or two of the Rivanna river exhibits its glassy 
 surface as it winds through the forest. Willis s mountain 
 is seen to lift its head alone above the immense plain to the 
 south, and its form occasionally undergoes great changes 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 531 
 
 by the varying refractions of the atmosphere. The view is 
 however recommended by magnificence rather than variety, 
 and the immense chain of the Blue Ridge is its most striking 
 feature. 
 
 The ground on the eastern edge of which the house stands 
 is a plain, made by lowering and levelling the summit of the 
 mountain, and comprehends about six acres. The mountain 
 is clothed with the trees of the original forest on every side, 
 except the south, where there is a large hanging garden. 
 
 The house is a long building of moderate elevation, with. 
 a Grecian portico in front and an octagonal cupola. The 
 road by which it is approached so winds round the moun 
 tain as to make the ascent easy. Long terraces, about six 
 feet above the ground, and forming three sides of a square, 
 serve as a promenade in good weather, and cover the offices 
 attached to the building. These terraces are terminated 
 by two small pavilions, to which the members of the family 
 retired, as places of study. 
 
 The entrance from the portico was into a saloon decorated 
 on either side with horns of elk, moose, and deer ; Mexican 
 antiquities ; Indian dresses, weapons, and ornaments, to 
 gether with three or four pieces of statuary. At the farther 
 end of this hall were glass folding- dobrs, which opened into 
 a handsome octagonal drawing-room, and through the win 
 dows at the farther or west end were seen a lawn of about 
 two acres, skirted with forest trees, native and exotic. It 
 had a neat parquet floor, the work of slaves, and the walls 
 were covered with paintings, a great proportion of which 
 were portraits of eminent statesmen and philosophers. To 
 the right was the dining-room and other apartments. To 
 the left a suite of rooms appropriated to his own use. These 
 consisted of a library, bed-room, dressing-room, and a small 
 apartment containing a work-bench, and a large assortment 
 of tools, where he used to seek exercise for his body and 
 
 2M 2 
 
532 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 recreation for his mind. In his library one saw in every 
 direction philosophical and mathematical instruments, mi- 
 neralogical specimens, and the like, which indicated the 
 varied intellectual tastes and pursuits of the proprietor. 
 
 To Mr. Tench Coxe of Philadelphia, Mr. Jefferson soon 
 after his retirement expresses great satisfaction at the suc 
 cesses of the French : " Over the foreign powers," he says, 
 tc I am convinced they will triumph completely, and I cannot 
 but hope that that triumph, and the consequent disgrace of 
 the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to 
 kindle the wrath of the people of Europe against those who 
 have dared to embroil them in such wickedness, and to 
 bring, at length, kings, nobles, and priests, to the scaffolds 
 which they have been so long deluging with human blood. 
 I am still warm, whenever I think of these scoundrels, 
 though I do it as seldom as I can, preferring infinitely to 
 contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne and po 
 tatoes." Adverting to a prospect of war, he says, "he is 
 sincerely anxious that it may be avoided, but not at the 
 expense of either our faith or honour. As to myself, he 
 remarks, " I love peace, and I am anxious that we should 
 give the world still another useful lesson, by showing them 
 other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as 
 much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer. I 
 love, therefore, Mr. Clarke s proposition of cutting off all 
 communication with the nation which has conducted itself so 
 atrociously." 
 
 The propositions of Mr. Madison, to which Mr. Jefferson 
 refers in his letter in April, were founded on his own report 
 to Congress at the beginning of the session, on the commer 
 cial relations of the United States. They were framed in 
 strict conformity with the retaliatory policy recommended 
 in the report, and were probably prepared with his concur 
 rence, as a manuscript draught of them was found among 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 533 
 
 his papers. They proposed lo lay specific duties on different 
 branches of manufactures : to lay additional tonnage duties 
 on the vessels of those nations who had no commercial treaty 
 with the United States : to reduce the duties on the vessels 
 of those who had such treaty: to retaliate all the restrictions 
 which were imposed by other nations, whether on the com 
 merce or the navigation of the United States, either by the 
 like restrictions or a tonnage duty : and lastly, to reimburse 
 the citizens of the United States for the losses they had 
 sustained by the illegal procedures of other nations, out of 
 the additional duties laid on the products and shipping of 
 such nation. 
 
 These resolutions were offered on the 3rd of January, 1794, 
 in committee of the whole on Mr. Jefferson s commercial 
 report, and they gave rise to a protracted and spirited 
 debate, in which the two great parties compared their 
 strength. The federalists endeavoured to show that the 
 commercial policy of Great Britain was more favourable to 
 the United States than was that of France, by a detailed 
 review of the trade in each of our great staples : that in the 
 articles of flour, tobacco, rice and wood, pot and pearl ash., 
 indigo, naval stores and iron, the trade with England w r as 
 on the best footing, and that it was only in the articles of 
 fish and oil that the trade with France was most advantage 
 ous; that the amount of the trade to England was nearly 
 double of that to France ; that although many of the articles 
 exported to England were not consumed there, but were re- 
 exported to other countries, yet the fact that they were first 
 sent to England proved that the English market was the 
 best. The large amount of our imports from England, of 
 which some complained, w r as also an evidence that we could 
 purchase of her better fabrics, or on cheaper terms, than 
 from other countries : that to discourage the trade with 
 Great Britain by high duties, for the sake of bringing hor 
 to the level of other nations, was to tax ourselves for the 
 
534 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 benefit of others : that as to our navigation, it was admitted 
 to be on a more favourable footing in the French than the 
 English West Indies, but that the effect had been overrated 
 by Mr. Jefferson, because he had not regarded the difference 
 of the voyage to the West Indies and to Europe, by which 
 one voyage to Europe is equal to four to the West Indies. 
 When this error was corrected, it would be found that 
 France employed but about 15,000 tons more of our ship 
 ping than Great Britain, instead of 73,000, as the Secre 
 tary of State had reported. 
 
 The resolutions were supported on the ground that most 
 of the injuries which the United States received from Great 
 Britain proceeded from her unceasing efforts to extend her 
 commerce, and could only be countervailed by an appeal to 
 the same regard to her interests. In recognising the doc 
 trines of free trade, they insisted on its exceptions, and 
 referred to the success of the navigation act of Great Britain 
 as proof of the wisdom of making such exceptions : That for 
 the United States to permit a free trade, while she acqui 
 esced in the restrictions of Great Britain, would be to give 
 to British vessels the whole of our foreign trade ; and the 
 best way for a nation to derive advantage from trade is to 
 leave it entirely free, and next to that, is to make the restric 
 tions reciprocal. That it was the disadvantage experienced 
 from the want of this reciprocity, and the effort to provide a 
 remedy for it, which first suggested the present constitution, 
 and to this remedy the people had confidently looked. The 
 injurious effect of British restrictions was shown in compar 
 ing our shipping with that of other nations employed in 
 their respective trades : thus, in the trade with the other 
 nations of Europe, the American tonnage, compared with 
 theirs, varied in the proportion of from five to twenty-six to 
 one, while it was, compared with that of Great Britain, as 
 one to three : that America, by securing the carriage of her 
 own trade, would gain the more, as her products were so 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 535 
 
 much more bulky in proportion to their value. They re 
 lied also on the balance of trade being greatly in favour of 
 Great Britain, and insisted that it was a disadvantage to 
 depend upon a single nation for articles of general and 
 extensive consumption, as it had an influence on the coun 
 cils of the dependent nation. They denied the probability 
 of retaliation by Great Britain, in consequence of the im 
 portance of the American trade to her commercial and 
 manufacturing classes. They urged that she was more 
 dependent on America than America on her, both for the 
 purchase of the raw material and the sale of manufactures, 
 and that the -West Indies were dependent on the United 
 States for the necessaries of life : that the credit afforded 
 by British capitalists to American merchants was no real 
 advantage, but was productive of much mischief, in aug 
 menting luxurious consumption, in discouraging domestic 
 manufactures, and increasing British influence; and to en 
 force these arguments, the hostile conduct of Great Britain, 
 in stimulating the hostilities both of the Algerines and In 
 dians, was referred to, and contrasted with the conduct of 
 France, which had been always friendly and generous. 
 
 It must be admitted that, as a mere question of commer 
 cial policy, the opponents of the resolutions seem to have 
 the advantage, except so far as it could be shown that Great 
 Britain sought by her commercial regulations to impose 
 restrictions on the American trade, from which other nations 
 exempted it ; for so far as she did this, a retaliation, to the 
 extent of the injury, tended to restore to each nation that 
 proportion of their mutual commerce to which each was 
 entitled, and was, to this extent, in accordance with the 
 approved principles of free trade. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that on this question the southern 
 and northern states have since changed sides, and the same 
 arguments which were then urged by the north in opposition 
 to southern policy, have been subsequently maintained by 
 
53G THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the southern states in opposition to northern policy, and 
 that some individuals who were then advocates for restric 
 tion have been since conspicuous in the defence of free 
 trade. It is also to be remarked that in the first of these 
 controversies, in 1794, the two great sections of the union 
 were placed in an unnatural position by the undue interest 
 which they severally felt of good or ill will towards the 
 French and English nations ; but in the last, they are 
 influenced by a consideration of their permanent interests 
 exclusively, the northern states being better fitted for 
 manufactures, and having a direct interest in excluding 
 foreign rivals from the whole American market, while the 
 southern states, being almost exclusively employed in the 
 pursuits of agriculture, must look to the foreign markets for 
 the sale of their redundant products ; and so far as they are 
 purchasers of manufactures, they arc benefited by the com 
 petition between foreign and American manufactures ; of 
 course they have a direct interest in keeping the foreign 
 markets, both for selling and buying, as free from restriction 
 as possible. Among the general changes of position which 
 we perceive on this question, Mr. Madison may claim to 
 have maintained the same ground always, that is, he has 
 always insisted upon the same exceptions to the rule of free 
 trade upon great considerations of national policy. 
 
 The debate continued until the 3rd of February, when the 
 1st resolution was carried by a majority of 5. The remain 
 ing resolutions were then postponed to the first Monday in 
 March. One of the professed objects of the resolutions was 
 to encourage manufactures. 
 
 At this time, in consequence of a recommendation from 
 the president, a bill had been reported for a naval force for 
 the protection of American commerce from the Algerines. 
 The force proposed was six frigates. This measure was 
 opposed by the democratic party as warmly as Mr. Madison s 
 resolutions had been opposed by the federalists. It was 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 537 
 
 resisted not only on the ordinary ground of its unfitncss for 
 the attainment of its objects, but also because a navy was 
 said to be contrary to the general policy of the United 
 States, by involving a ruinous expense ; by being incompa 
 tible with the discharge of the public debt, and by its ex 
 posing us to the hazard of collisions on the ocean with other 
 naval powers, and eventually to war ; and lastly, because it 
 would even increase our dependence., by furnishing hostages 
 as it were for our good behaviour. 
 
 As a substitute for this mode of defence, it was proposed 
 either to purchase a peace of the Algerines, or to subsidize 
 other nations to afford our commerce protection. The first 
 of these expedients, the friends of the administration 
 alleged, w r as in the present temper of Algiers impracticable, 
 and the last was at once precarious and dishonourable. 
 
 On the policy of a permanent navy, Mr. Jefferson s mind 
 seems to have fluctuated more than upon any other. In his 
 notes written during the war of the revolution, he was in 
 favour of this species of armament. At a subsequent 
 period, when he was in France, he was still friendly to the 
 same measure, and especially regarded it as the most effec 
 tual way of dealing with the Barbary powers. At this 
 period he appears to have concurred with his party in their 
 objections to it. When he was president his opposition 
 continued, but he still promptly used what naval force he 
 had at his command against Algiers. Afterwards, when 
 war was declared against Great Britain, he was opposed to 
 the creation of a naval force, alleging that it would be only 
 building ships for the British, but after their unexpected 
 success he seems to have withdrawn his objections, and at 
 least have acquiesced in the national voice, then loud in its 
 praise. There has been an entire revolution in the popular 
 sentiment on this subject, from dread and aversion to 
 enthusiastic favour. The bill was finally carried by a small 
 majority in either house. 
 
538 THE LIFE OF THOMA.S JEFFERSON. 
 
 This unfriendly disposition to Great Britain was soon to 
 receive a great accession of strength from new abuses of her 
 maritime strength. On the 6th of November was issued an 
 order in council requiring her armed ships to detain all 
 vessels carrying provisions to any French colony, or laden 
 with the produce of such colony, and to bring them into 
 port "for adjudication." 
 
 The ships of war and privateers were not slow to profit by 
 these instructions, and the admiralty courts, at least in 
 some of the islands, interpreted the order as a warrant for 
 condemning the cargoes thus detained as lawful prize. 
 
 This order, and the proceedings under it, inflamed the 
 animosity of the democratic party to the highest pitch, and 
 made a strong impression on the party which was most 
 favourably disposed to Great Britain. They regarded the 
 measure as evidence of settled hostility on the part of that 
 nation, and as too gross a violation of neutral rights to be 
 tamely borne. 
 
 In March it was proposed to raise a military force and lay 
 an embargo ; and both measures were adopted. A bill was 
 passed for fortifying some of the most important harbours ; 
 a committee reported in favour of a provisional army of 
 25,000 men, and for organizing 80,000 militia, the last of 
 which measures was adopted by the House. And on the 
 27th of the month, a motion was made for the sequestration 
 of all debts due to British subjects, by way of creating 
 a fund to indemnify American citizens for illegal captures 
 of their property on the ocean. But before any decision 
 was had on this proposition, or on Mr. Madison s resolutions, 
 it was proposed by Mr. Clarke of New Jersey, to prohibit 
 all intercourse with Great Britain, until she compensated 
 our citizens for the injuries sustained by British cruisers, 
 and surrendered the military posts on the frontiers. While 
 these different plans of vindicating the rights of the nation 
 were undecided, Congress learned through the American 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 539 
 
 minister that the orders in council of the 6th of November 
 were revoked by another order of the 8th of January, as to 
 all vessels except those which were laden with colonial pro 
 duce, and were on a voyage from the French colonies to 
 Europe ; and that the British ministry had put a narrower 
 construction on the first order than had been put upon it 
 by the courts of vice- admiralty, declaring that by ordering 
 neutral vessels to be brought into ports "for adjudication," 
 it was not intended to subject any to condemnation except 
 those which would have been otherwise liable. 
 
 Before this intelligence, war with Great Britain was 
 believed to be very probable by all parties, both because the 
 United States would not tamely submit to such a flagrant 
 violation of their neutral rights, and because they considered 
 that the order afforded unequivocal evidence that Great 
 Britain was herself inclined to war. But when subsequent 
 accounts removed the last impression from the minds of the 
 federal party, their efforts to preserve peace returned with 
 their good feelings towards England ; they looked to nego 
 tiation as the remedy for the pending evils, and opposed 
 every measure which was likely to prevent or impede its 
 success. Their opponents, though somewhat stronger in 
 the House of Representatives, did not press a decision of 
 their favourite scheme of commercial retaliation, or other 
 defensive measures, from the hope, no doubt, that the pro 
 bable alternative of war with the United States might 
 induce the British government to forbear her maritime 
 aggressions ; and they were confirmed in their purpose by 
 the intelligence received from our minister, already adverted 
 to. While therefore they were not opposed to the appoint 
 ment of an envoy, they considered that the most likely 
 means of ensuring success to the negotiation would be not 
 to relax in their preparation for war. These discussions in 
 Congress, together with the numerous captures of American 
 
540 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 vessels, produced great popular irritation, and carried public 
 sentiment, which is generally somewhat in the rear of the 
 active politicians, far beyond the spirit of the majority in Con 
 gress, when the administration came to the conclusion to send 
 a minister to England, and Mr. Jay the chief justice was 
 selected for that object. His appointment was objected to 
 by the republican party on account of his judicial office ; 
 it being urged by them that those invested with judicial 
 authority should not mingle in other concerns, and still less 
 with those of party politics, lest they should carry their 
 political feelings on the bench ; and that if the judges could 
 be rewarded with offices of greater distinction and emolu 
 ment, it would favour that spirit of dependence, against 
 which the constitution meant to guard in providing that 
 their offices should not be taken away, nor their salaries 
 diminished; and that the only effectual way of securing 
 their independence was to make them as inaccessible to the 
 hope of reward as to the fear of punishment. 
 
 The appointment of Mr. Jay, therefore, had little effect 
 in allaying the mutual irritation of the parties. It may be 
 rather said that they availed themselves of the interval to 
 prepare more vigorously to profit by the result of the mis 
 sion, for the purpose of attacking their opponents and bring 
 ing them into discredit with the people. In these party 
 contests our relations with England and France, and the 
 attachment of our citizens to those nations respectively, 
 mingled themselves in every question. While each party 
 hated one of these nations yet more than it was attached to 
 the other, it felt a lively jealousy and dread of the other s 
 attachment. The federalists persuaded themselves that the 
 excessive and blind partiality of the democratic party to 
 France, would bring this country under the influence of the 
 French government, and thus make it a servile dependant on 
 that nation. They even feared that the extravagant admi- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 541 
 
 ration of our people for France would lead them to adopt 
 all their visionary theories, their practical licentiousness, and 
 be followed by the same cruelty, profligacy, and anarchy. 
 On the other hand, their opponents regarded British influ 
 ence as established in every department of the federal go 
 vernment, and were persuaded that the leaders of the federal 
 party sought to undermine the present constitution, for the 
 sake of erecting on its ruins a monarchical government more 
 auspicious to their own love of power, more congenial to the 
 British model, the object of their admiration and regard, and 
 more opposite to that of France, which they at once feared 
 and detested. 
 
 After the lapse of forty years, when the mists of passion 
 which clouded men s understandings have cleared away, there 
 seems to have been little to justify these lively apprehensions 
 on either side, and the conduct into which either was be 
 trayed by its fears was calculated to increase the causes of 
 alarm. It might have appeared to the federal party that, 
 with all the enthusiasm which the American people mani 
 fested for the cause of the French revolution, and the admi 
 ration which that event, when regarded in its grandest fea 
 tures, excited, the same criminal excesses, the same disregard 
 of law and order could not have existence here as had taken 
 place in Paris, for there were neither the requisite materials, 
 nor motives, nor objects. There was here no ignorant mob, 
 without property, or principle, or self-respect, hating the 
 rich and ready to plunder or murder at the bidding of a 
 leader. Every one yielded obedience to the law every one 
 had something to lose almost every one was embued with 
 a respect for religion, morality, and law, which severally 
 exercised a sway over the hearts and wills of men to be no 
 where else seen ; and if there was something like approbation 
 or toleration for the crimes perpetrated in France, by those 
 who saw them through the softening medium of distance; 
 
542 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 and under the belief that these excesses were necessary acts 
 of self-defence against traitors, yet it was only in the cities 
 that even these symptoms of undue partiality appeared. 
 The great mass of the people remained unchanged. 
 
 Nor were the fears of the democratic party that their op 
 ponents were prepared to surrender their independence to 
 the British government better founded. The federalists 
 were indeed desirous of peace with England, for that was 
 evidently recommended by the interests of the United States ; 
 they admired the constitution and laws of that country, long 
 regarded as the best system of civil liberty the world had 
 seen; and they looked to her power as the most able to re 
 sist the influence of the French, who threatened to subvert 
 every thing in religion, morals, or government, which had 
 hitherto been venerable in the eyes of mankind. While 
 each thus saw in the strength of the government it approved 
 the most effectual counteraction for the dangers it appre 
 hended, it aided to increase that strength; and by thus 
 unconsciously augmenting the fears of its adversaries, created 
 new cause for its own. 
 
 The bill for non-intercourse was passed by the House of 
 Representatives, notwithstanding the mission of Mr. Jay, 
 and was lost in the Senate by the casting vote of the Vice- 
 President, Mr. Adams. 
 
 In consequence of the measures of defence in case of a 
 war, and the appropriation of a million of dollars to purchase 
 peace of Algiers, it was found necessary to increase the taxes, 
 which were opposed partly on the ground that they were 
 unconstitutional*, and partly because direct taxes were 
 deemed more equal and unexceptionable. The materials 
 of which these parties were composed may throw some light 
 
 * This objection was urged principally against the carriage tax, which 
 it was contended was a direct tax, and therefore should be apportioned 
 among the states according to representation. 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 543 
 
 on the principles which actuated them, and may not be with 
 out interest to those who from youth, or remoteness from 
 the scene of action, may not have had an opportunity of 
 judging from personal observation. 
 
 The federal party consisted 1st. Of most of the officers 
 and soldiers of the revolution, who thus arranged themselves, 
 not merely from their personal attachment to General Wash 
 ington, but because the habits of military obedience and 
 discipline incline this class of men to take sidd with those 
 who exercise power, and are the immediate preservers of 
 order. 2. All those who had speculated in the funds. They 
 were attached to the new government by the double ties of 
 gratitude for the great gains they had derived by the fund 
 ing of the debt, and by those of interest, which was so closely 
 connected with the strength of the government and the per 
 manency of the union. 3. All British merchants and agents, 
 both from national attachments and antipathies, and because 
 the democratic party wished to encourage trade with France 
 at the expense of that with England. In the southern states 
 too there was a large amount of debts still due, and the cre 
 ditors and their agents hated the party which had obstructed 
 their recovery. 4. The mercantile community, generally, 
 because they were most benefited by British capital, either 
 as agents or dealers ; and because also they, as a class, love 
 peace and order, and are disposed to support government 
 generally, and especially the course of this administration, 
 which had declared itself friendly to peace. 5. The rest of 
 the federal party consisted of those who were influenced by 
 attachment to General Washington, or dread of contamina 
 tion from French alliance, or who being of a quiet, timid, or 
 negative character, were by temperament disposed to give 
 their confidence to the government, and to look to it for 
 protection. 
 
 The republican party consisted 1. Of most of those who 
 
544 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 had been opposed to so liberal a grant of power to the gene 
 ral government at the expense of the states, and who appre 
 hended that it would finally lead to a consolidated or central 
 government, possessing undivided sovereignty. They saw, 
 or thought they saw, in the course of the administration, 
 much to realize their former apprehensions. 2. The san 
 guine and enthusiastic votaries of civil liberty, who, yielding 
 to their hopes, saw in the French revolution only the ad 
 vancement of the great cause of human happiness, and in 
 the crimes and outrages with which it was accompanied, a 
 painful but necessary and temporary remedy for the disease 
 of bad government ; and in the administration, under the 
 mask of neutrality, secret enmity to the glorious cause. 
 This class comprehended most young men ; men of letters 
 and speculative minds ; fiery tempers, impatient of control ; 
 political projectors and innovators. 3. Free-thinkers in 
 religion and morals, who from mere congeniality of sentiment 
 with the ruling party in France, sided with those who were 
 most favourable to that country. 4. All who felt animosity 
 to Great Britain, comprehending those Americans in whom 
 resentment excited by the war had not subsided, and Irish 
 emigrants, who hated the English yoke, and resented the 
 persecutions of her patriots. 5. Personal adherents to Mr. 
 Jefferson. 
 
 The first class constituted the majority of the northern 
 states ; the last the majority of the southern states. In 
 the cities, in both divisions of the Union, parties were nearly 
 balanced. The federal party could boast of the most wealth. 
 But as to talents, neither party had an acknowledged pre 
 dominance. The federalists reproached their opponents 
 with being visionary. They in turn were charged with 
 being corrupt and designing ; and if we are to trust to the 
 instinctive sagacity of an enemy in seizing on the most vul 
 nerable point of attack, we should infer that the republican 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 545 
 
 party, generally, were more deficient in judgment than 
 honest intention, and that the federalists were at once more 
 practical, more selfish, and mercenary. 
 
 In the month of April, Mr. Jefferson received a letter 
 from General Washington, which he answered in May. It 
 seems from this correspondence that every appearance of 
 friendship was still kept up between them. In a slight 
 allusion to politics, Mr. Jefferson remarks, " My opinion of 
 the British government is, that nothing will force them to 
 do justice but the loud voice of their people, and that this 
 can never be excited but by distressing their commerce. But 
 I cherish tranquillity too much to suffer political things 
 to enter my mind at all." 
 
 VOL. r. 2 N 
 
546 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Insurrection in Pennsylvania. Mr. Jefferson refuses a seat in the 
 Cabinet. Democratic Societies. The President s Speech Mr. Jef 
 ferson s strictures on it. The fitness of large States for Republican 
 Government considered. Gouverneur Morris recalled his charac 
 ter. James Munroe. Discontent of Kentucky. Direct and In 
 direct Taxes. Alexander Hamilton resigns his character. Mr. 
 Jefferson refuses to become a Candidate for the Presidency. Treaty 
 with Great Britain ratified by the Senate made public by one of 
 the Senators violent opposition to it Mr. Jefferson s views of it 
 its provisions its want of reciprocity detailed and explained. 
 
 17945. 
 
 AN event now occurred which was calculated to excite the 
 mortification and regret of the friends of the constitution, 
 and the advocates for popular government. The discontents 
 produced by the excise-law in the western part of Pennsyl 
 vania had gone on increasing, until it had broken out in 
 open resistance to the laws. The immediate occasion of 
 the popular rising was on the marshal s attempt to execute 
 process against some offenders, who had been indicted in 
 the federal court, A body of armed men fired on him, and 
 compelled him to retreat. The house of the inspector- 
 general, who superintended the excise, having been be 
 sieged, he himself was obliged to surrender, and his papers 
 were seized. The marshal was compelled to promise that 
 he would execute no more process on the west of the Al- 
 leghany ; and both he and the inspector being threatened 
 for refusing to resign, sought safety in flight. The insur 
 gents opened the mail and examined the letters it contained 
 to discover the persons who were opposed to them, and 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 547 
 
 these they immediately compelled to leave the country. 
 They called a convention, the object of which was to com 
 pel the resignation of all officers engaged in the collection 
 of the excise, and to resist the authority of the law by force, 
 until it was repealed. 
 
 On a certificate from one of the judges, as the act of Con 
 gress required, that the execution of the laws was obstructed, 
 the President, on the 7th of August, issued a proclamation 
 commanding the insurgents to disperse, and warning them 
 of the consequences of disobedience. 
 
 Having learnt from the Governor of Pennsylvania, that 
 the militia of that state would not be sufficient to put down 
 the resistance, and wishing to crush all hopes of effectual 
 opposition, he determined to require aid from other states. 
 He accordingly made a requisition of 12,000 militia of New 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. A second 
 admonitory proclamation was issued on the 28th September, 
 and other conciliatory measures were pursued without effect. 
 The call for militia was promptly met in all these states 
 except in Pennsylvania, and finally, by the efforts of Go 
 vernor Mifflin, in that. On the arrival of the government 
 forces, the insurgents dispersed, and some of the leaders 
 were seized for prosecution. The ease with which this open 
 resistance to the laws was quelled afforded matter of triumph 
 and congratulation to the friends of the administration, for 
 the prudence and humanity of their course, and of censure 
 on the part of the opposition for the vain parade and un 
 necessary expense of a force so disproportionate to the oc 
 casion. 
 
 In September, during the pendency of this commotion, 
 Mr. Jefferson received a letter from Mr. Edmund Randolph, 
 the secretary of state, by express, which found him in bed, 
 under a severe attack of rheumatism, inviting him to re- 
 
 2N2 
 
548 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 sitme a place in the public councils ; but the invitation was 
 peremptorily declined. "No circumstance," he says, "my 
 dear sir, will ever more tempt me to engage in anything 
 public. I thought myself perfectly fixed in this determi 
 nation when I left Philadelphia, but every day and hour 
 since has added to its inflexibility. It is a great pleasure 
 to me to retain the esteem and approbation of the President, 
 and this forms the only ground of any reluctance at being 
 unable to comply with every wish of his. Pray convey these 
 sentiments and a thousand more to him, which my situation 
 does not permit me to go into." 
 
 One of the instances in which our citizens manifested a 
 disposition to imitate what was French, was in the establish 
 ment of democratic societies for the purpose of guiding 
 political opinion, and even influencing the measures of the 
 government. As they were in general opposed to the ad 
 ministration, from its supposed hostility to the French revo 
 lution, they naturally condemned the excise. They had 
 indeed from the first been regarded with aversion and dis 
 trust by those who feared the introduction of the same poli 
 tical frenzy here which had prevailed in Paris, and to which 
 they were supposed to have contributed. 
 
 General Washington partaking of this opinion, thus 
 noticed these societies in his opening message to Congress : 
 " From a belief that by a more formal concert the operation 
 (of the laws) might be defeated, certain self-created societies 
 assumed the tone of condemnation ; " and in a subsequent 
 passage he says, and " when in the calm moments of reflec 
 tion, they shall have retraced the origin and progress of 
 insurrection, let them determine whether it has not been 
 fomented by combinations of men, who, careless of conse 
 quences, and disregarding the unerring truth that those 
 who rouse cannot always appease a civil convulsion, have 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 549 
 
 disseminated, from an ignorance or perversion of facts, 
 suspicions, jealousies, and accusations of the whole govern 
 ment. 1 
 
 Mr. Jefferson comments on these remarks with great seve 
 rity in a letter to Mr. Madison. He speaks of the " denunci 
 ation" as one of the most extraordinary acts of boldness of 
 which we have seen so many from the faction of monocrats ; 
 says, "it is wonderful indeed that the President should have 
 permitted himself to be the organ of such an attack on the 
 freedom of discussion, the freedom of writing, printing, and 
 publishing." He then contrasts these societies with the Cin 
 cinnati ; says that this denunciation of the societies had been 
 universally condemned, that the resistance to the excise law 
 did not amount to more than a riot, and that the law itself 
 was " an infernal one." That "the first error was to admit it 
 by the constitution ; the second, to act on that admission ; 
 the third and last will be, to make it the instrument for 
 dismembering the Union, and setting us all afloat to choose 
 what part of it we will adhere to." " The information of 
 our militia," he adds, "returned from the westward, is uni 
 form, that though the people there let them pass quietly, 
 they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear; that 
 their detestation of the excise law is universal, and has now 
 associated to it a detestation of the government; and that 
 separation, which perhaps was a very distant and proble 
 matical event, is now near, and certain, and determined in 
 the mind of every man."" 
 
 He proceeds to make further comment on the opening 
 message of the President, both for what it contained and 
 what it pretermitted ; and, writing in the freedom of confi 
 dential intercourse, is not sparing of his censure, or even 
 ridicule. But he thus consoles himself with the prospect of 
 a better state of things : " However, the time is coming 
 when we shall fetch up the leeway of our vessel. The 
 
550 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 changes in your House, I see, are going on for the better, 
 and even the Augean herd over your heads [meaning the 
 senate] are slowly purging off their impurities. Hold on 
 then, my dear friend, that we may not shipwreck in the 
 mean while. I do not see, in the minds of those with whom 
 I converse, a greater affliction than the fear of your retire 
 ment ; but this must not be, unless to a splendid and a mot e 
 efficacious post. There I should rejoice to see you ; I hope 
 I may say, I shall rejoice to see you. I have long had much 
 in my mind to say to you on that subject. But double 
 delicacies have kept me silent. I ought perhaps to say, 
 while 1 would not give up my retirement for the empire of 
 the universe, how I can justify wishing one whose happiness I 
 have so much at heart as yours, to take the front of the battle 
 which is fighting for my security. This would be easy 
 enough to be done, but not at the heel of a lengthy epistle." 
 
 It appears from the preceding letter that the force of his 
 opposition to the federal party had not abated by his retire 
 ment, and that he, in common with the rest of his political 
 associates, was disposed to consider General Washington as 
 no longer neutral between the two parties. 
 
 It would also seem from the last part of the letter that 
 there had been no arrangement at that time as to the candi 
 date whom the republican party would support for the 
 presidency. It is evident that the subject had been fre 
 quently mentioned to Mr. Jefferson, and that he had to this 
 time disclaimed all intention of being a candidate. The 
 delicacy and forbearance which were manifested on this sub 
 ject by those who first held that office, whether they be 
 regarded as expressing their real feelings, or they be sup 
 posed to have deceived themselves, (for few will regard 
 them as utterly hollow and hypocritical,) are in strong con 
 trast with the course which has since been too often pursued 
 by those who aspired to that office ; and who, instead of 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 551 
 
 positive disclaimers, have sometimes condescended to engage 
 in an open canvass. It is not easy to decide whether the 
 difference is accidental, and to be attributed to the diversi 
 ties of individual character, or is to be ascribed to a more 
 general change in the nation as to the modes of thinking 
 and acting on this subject. Do the votaries of ambition 
 and popular favour become bolder, as the power and dis 
 tinction they covet become greater, and their .competitors 
 more numerous ? Or does the sensitiveness of the people 
 themselves to egotism, the love of power, and confident 
 pretension, become blunted by habit, so as to tolerate what 
 once gave offence? Men s passions and desires undergo 
 little change ; but their manifestations of them are greatly 
 modified by circumstances. 
 
 The dread of disunion, which seems to have been so 
 strong on Mr. Jefferson s mind, in consequence of this civil 
 commotion, and the measures pursued by the government to 
 suppress it, appears never to have been general ; and all 
 local and partial symptoms of it soon passed away. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1795, Mons. D. Ivernois of 
 Geneva wrote to him to propose to transplant the college of 
 Geneva to Virginia ; to which proposal he answered that, on 
 consulting some of the members of the legislature, whilst 
 many approved of the scheme, they all agreed that it was at 
 this time impracticable, because it was disproportionate to 
 the means of the country. In this letter he questions the 
 correctness of the doctrine that small states alone are fit for 
 republican government, and thinks that it will be " exploded 
 by experience, with some other brilliant fallacies accredited 
 by Montesquieu and other political writers." He suggests 
 that, to obtain a just republic, it must be so extensive as 
 that "local egoisms" may never reach its greater part ; and 
 that " on every particular question, a majority may be found 
 in its councils, free from particular interests, and giving 
 
552 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 therefore a uniform prevalence to the principles of justice. 
 The smaller the societies, the more violent and convulsive 
 their schisms. We have chanced to live in an age which 
 will probably be distinguished in history for its experiments 
 in government, on a larger scale than has yet taken place. 
 But we shall not live to see the result." 
 
 As power will always be abused where there is not an 
 identity of interests between those who exercise it and 
 those on whom it acts, a republic seems to be incompatible 
 with a great extent of country, unless a part of the sovereign 
 powers of government be exercised by local authorities. 
 For there needs must be a great diversity of interests, feel 
 ings, and habits in an extensive country, each of which 
 claims a certain degree of indulgence to make the people 
 contented ; and if all political power is exercised by one 
 general government, however that may be constituted, that 
 power will be abused. The laws and regulations which suit 
 one part do not suit another, and there can be no security 
 that the majority will understand these various interests, 
 nor always regard them when they arc understood. But if 
 the powers of the general government are limited to those 
 objects in which there is a common interest, and the local or 
 peculiar interests are left to subordinate, but independent 
 authorities, a large extent of country seems no more incom 
 patible with a republic than any other form of government. 
 To apply these remarks to the United States, with what 
 propriety of language could our government be called a 
 republic, if all the powers now vested in the state govern 
 ments were centred in the general government ? Would 
 they be capable of regulating the law between master and 
 slave in the southern states ? Might they not, in their zeal 
 to put an end to this relation, re-enact the bloody tragedy of 
 St. Domingo ? The people of New England have also their 
 peculiar laws and favourite usages, their schools, their pro- 
 
THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 553 
 
 visions for churches and roads : could they safely trust a 
 Congress of the Union to legislate for them in these favourite 
 and truly important concerns ? If there were no other 
 objection, the want of time for judicious legislation for such 
 multifarious objects would be an insuperable one ; and as 
 bad laws and rules are better than none, a substitute 
 would be found by vesting large discretionary powers in 
 agents. 
 
 To attain the greatest degree of civil freedom and useful 
 legislation practicable, it seems indispensable to have some 
 distribution of power like the following : 1. The supreme 
 government should have powers extending as far as the 
 general concurrence of interests, and then its powers should 
 stop. 2. Large portions of the territory, such as states, 
 having a much closer resemblance of interests, should have 
 the power of regulating those interests ; and 3. Each 
 individual should retain the power of regulating his own 
 peculiar concerns or those of his family ; as the power to 
 direct the labour, provide and distribute the food, clothing, 
 instruction, and other wants of eacli individual of the family. 
 It will be perceived that in this series of powers the ramifi 
 cations become more numerous as they become more minute 
 that the general government, which has the largest powers, 
 has also the fewest. The state governments, which are next 
 in authority, have many more powers ; and the powers of a 
 master of a family, which is the least, extends to nearly every 
 act of those who arc subjects in his little domain. Now in 
 all these cases it is essential that those who exercise political 
 power should be taken from the class on whom their power 
 is to act, and should at stated times return to it again. 
 And though by these provisions we have all the security 
 that is attainable against an abuse of power, yet under a 
 constitution thus guarded we must expect to find much 
 imperfection. There will be, in greater or less portions, 
 
554 THE LIFE OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 injustice and folly, fraud, violence, and neglect of duty ; and 
 the difference between the best and the worst government is 
 only as to the proportion of these alloys. Mr. Jefferson 
 here shows the light in which he regarded the French revo 
 lution, tarnished and stigmatized as it was with violence and 
 crime. "It is unfortunate," he remarks, "that the efforts of 
 mankind to recover the freedom of which they have been so 
 long deprived, will be accompanied with violence, with 
 errors, and even with crimes. But while we weep over the 
 means, we must pray for the end. 5 
 
 In the summer of the same year Mr. Genet was recalled, 
 under circumstances which made it doubtful whether it was 
 not more in consequence of the overthrow of the political 
 party to which he was attached, than on account of his dis 
 respectful conduct towards the American administration ; 
 and he was succeeded by Mr. Fauchet, who discharged his 
 duty to his country with equal fidelity, but much greater dis 
 cretion. At the same time Mr. Gouverneur Morris was 
 recalled at the instance of the French government, and Mr. 
 Monroe appointed in his place. The first-named gentleman 
 was possessed of brilliant talents, great address, and an 
 unceasing desire to exercise them in the pursuit of distinc 
 tion, pleasure, or profit, and no less readily for others benefit 
 than his own. With some friendly prepossessions towards 
 rank and station, and no very exalted ideas of popular wis 
 dom or virtue, he had soon formed an unfavourable opinion 
 of the French revolution, its agents, and its results ; and 
 forgetting the caution and neutrality which became him, 
 both as a foreigner and a public minister, he had yielded 
 to his sympathies, and volunteered his services in favour of 
 Louis XVI. ; and his agency and advice seem to have been 
 received by the monarch and his friends with the most entire 
 confidence. But it was impossible that he could thus take 
 sides with the court without its being discovered by their 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 555 
 
 lynx-eyed opponents, and consequently resented. He had 
 therefore been for some time an object of jealousy and dis 
 like to the ardent friends of the revolution, both in France 
 and his own country, until the recall of Mr. Genet, re 
 quested by our government, afforded a decent pretext to 
 the French government to make a similar request of the 
 United States. 
 
 Mr. Morris s countrymen made a just estimate of his 
 talents and accomplishments, and they entertained correct 
 opinions of his political principles : but from their aversion 
 to those principles, and his reputation for gallantry, they 
 underrated both his patriotism and morals. Amidst all his 
 devotion to the fair, and his partiality for the privileged 
 orders, he mingled a respect for virtue and a lively attach 
 ment to what he believed to be the interests of his country ; 
 and where his political doctrines did not bias his judgment, 
 he showed great penetration and sagacity in scanning the 
 motives of men, and in his anticipations of the future. 
 
 His successor, though less fitted for exciting admiration, 
 had qualities which are more certain to reward their pos 
 sessor industry, perseverance, and a jealous sensibility to 
 the value of character and the good opinion of mankind. 
 These, without any splendid endowments of genius, were 
 sufficient to carry him forward from step to step, until he 
 reached the highest power in the state ; and if he met with 
 difficulties which occasionally impeded his career, or if he 
 may be considered to owe his good fortune in part to circum 
 stances entirely fortuitous, and these circumstances may 
 seem to detract from his merit, yet it must be recollected 
 that it implies no small praise that he had the judgment 
 and energy to overcome the obstacles in the first case, or 
 to profit by the accidents in the last. An ordinary man 
 would have been capable neither of resisting the one, nor 
 of taking advantage of the other. 
 
556 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 The discontents in Kentucky, at this time, were the greater, 
 not merely because most of its inhabitants had the same 
 political sentiments as their parent state of Virginia, and 
 of course belonged to the democratic party, but because they 
 regarded the navigation of the Mississippi, the only channel 
 by which they could send the redundant products of their 
 fertile soil to market, as in great danger; and they made 
 loud and vehement complaints against the administration, 
 either because they thought that their interests had not been 
 sufficiently protected by the administration, or" they wished 
 to rouse it to a more decisive course towards Spain. Their 
 language bore so much more the character of threat and de 
 fiance than that of petitioners invoking the aid of the govern 
 ment, that it impressed men s minds, generally, with the 
 belief that they set little value on the union ; and that as 
 soon as they felt themselves sufficiently strong to effect a 
 separation, and to support an independent government, 
 they would break off their connexion with the Atlantic 
 states. Time has however shown the fallacy of this opinion, 
 for there is no part of the United States which has mani 
 fested more attachment to the union, and there certainly is 
 none that has a more direct or stronger interest in its pre 
 servation ; since it is only by means of their profiting by 
 the naval resources of the Atlantic states that they can secure 
 to themselves the unrestricted navigation of the river, which 
 is the principal channel of their commerce. 
 
 The opposition to an increase of taxes by the democratic 
 party seemed somewhat inconsistent with their strong re 
 pugnance to a national debt, and to the reproach against 
 the federalists that their object was to perpetuate it. They 
 grounded their objection however on the species of tax which 
 was resorted to the excise as one which was odious in its 
 character, unequal in its operation, and which, by the num 
 ber of officers required for its collection, took much more 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 557 
 
 money from the people than it brought into the treasury. 
 This last argument indeed was extended even to duties on 
 imports, and it was maintained by many of the opposition 
 that all the revenue required by the government ought to 
 be raised by direct taxes ; partly because, as the people will 
 then know what they pay, they will be certain to look closely 
 into the public disbursements, and thus prevent that waste 
 ful expenditure to which all governments ai-c prone, and 
 partly because the money thus collected from the people 
 goes immediately into the treasury, whereas in the case of 
 indirect taxes, the consumer is made to refund to the mer 
 chant, not only the tax he has advanced, but the ordinary 
 mercantile profit on the tax besides. 
 
 This opinion was very current before the party who ad 
 vanced it was called upon to put it into practice. They 
 then discovered that these arguments had not the weight 
 which had been honestly imputed to them. That if an in- I 
 direct tax was less felt, because it was less perceived by 
 reason of its being mixed up with the price, that was a posi 
 tive recommendation ; and to choose a tax because it was 
 more felt would be incurring a positive evil to avoid the 
 chance of one as if one was to make his food unpalatable 
 to prevent his eating too much. The objection moreover is 
 inconsistent with the capacity of the people for self-govern 
 ment, as it supposes them unable to judge of the prudence 
 of their agents, except through the medium of their feelings. 
 Besides, it is as reasonable to suppose that this increased 
 sensibility to the pressure of a tax may make them too par 
 simonious, and grudge a proper expenditure, as that the 
 want of that feeling will make them tolerate extravagance. 
 With regard to the second objection, that may be true in 
 populous countries, but is certainly not so in this ; for the 
 whole expense of collecting the custom-house duties has been 
 but about 3J per cent., whilst that of direct taxes has been 
 
558 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 upwards of 25 per cent. But the undiscriminating appli 
 cation of European maxims to the United States, which was 
 thus made by the republican party, is an error with which 
 they are much less frequently chargeable than their op 
 ponents. 
 
 At the end of the year Mr. Jefferson s late associate and 
 rival also resigned his office, impelled, as it was generally 
 understood, by the insufficiency of his salary, and with the 
 intention of resuming the practice of the law. 
 
 This gentleman, though labouring under the disadvantage 
 of not being a native of the United States, and of having a 
 theoretical preference for monarchical government, had a po 
 litical influence in this country second only to that of General 
 Washington and Mr. Jefferson. He was a member, and no 
 doubt an active and efficient member, of the convention 
 which formed the federal constitution, and he did more than 
 any other individual in recommending that constitution to 
 the adoption of the people. The essays, under the title of 
 the Federalist, in which he had the co-operation of Mr. 
 Madison and Mr. Jay, have been regarded as so able and 
 sound an exposition of that instrument, that they are gene 
 rally received as authority by all. He afterwards, as Secre 
 tary of the Treasury, had the same overruling agency in 
 shaping the measures of the administration, and even those 
 of the legislature the funding of the public debt, the as 
 sumption of the state debts, the system of revenue ; and al 
 though the bank is understood to have been planned by Mr. 
 Robert Morris, that measure as well as the others were re 
 commended by his pen and his personal influence to the 
 adoption of Congress. In his report on the subject of manu 
 factures, the views and argument which are to be urged in 
 favour of giving them encouragement are so full, that during 
 a course of more than forty years, scarcely anything has 
 been added to them. His political opinions have already 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 559 
 
 been noticed. They were tinged probably by his early im 
 pressions, as well as by his associations in New York. He 
 was a warm friend and an open enemy. His frankness, 
 generosity, and manly independence were such as to com 
 mand the respect of his adversaries, as well as the unbounded 
 attachment of his friends. 
 
 The hostilities with the Indians on the Ohio, which had 
 lasted so long, and which had cost the United States so 
 dearly in proportion to the numbers engaged, were brought 
 to a close this year by General Wayne, who obtained over 
 them a decisive victory at the battle of the Miamis. This 
 was the last struggle of that brave, but ill-fated race, on the 
 Ohio, until that of 1811, which resulted in the cession of 
 their lands to the whites for ever. 
 
 On Mr. Madison s receiving Mr. Jefferson s letter, in 
 which the former was urged to be a candidate for the office 
 of the Presidency after the retirement of General Wash 
 ington, Mr. Madison on the 23d of March expressed a 
 similar wish as to himself. To this letter he replies on the 
 27th of April, 1795. He there speaks more explicitly than 
 he had done before. He says that as to himself, the subject 
 had been thoroughly weighed and decided on, and that by 
 his "retirement from office," he had meant from all office 
 high or low without exception. That "the subject had not 
 been presented to him by any vanity of his own. That the 
 idea had been forced upon him by continual insinuations in 
 the public papers, while he was in office." The subject 
 being once presented to him, his own quiet required that 
 he should face it and examine it. That "he did so 
 thoroughly, and had no difficulty to see that every reason 
 which had determined him to retire from the office he then 
 held, operated more strongly against that which was insinu 
 ated to be his object." In addition to the considerations 
 which then determined him, he says " the special one, which 
 
500 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
 
 supervened on his retirement, still more insuperably bar 
 red the door to it. The state of his health ; the attention 
 which his affairs required; and above all, the delights he 
 felt in the society of his family and in agricultural pursuits;" 
 and that " the little spice of ambition, which he had in his 
 younger days, had long since evaporated." He then adds, 
 "In stating to you the heads of reasons which have pro 
 duced my determination, I do not mean an opening for 
 further discussion, or that I may be reasoned out of it. The 
 question is for ever closed with me ; my sole object is to 
 avail myself of the first opening ever given me from a 
 friendly quarter (and I could not with decency do it be 
 fore,) of preventing any division or loss of votes, which might 
 be fatal to the republican interest." He then intimates 
 his wish that the votes of the party should be given to 
 Mr. Madison. 
 
 For some time before the arrival of the treaty with Great 
 Britain, negotiated by Mr. Jay, there had been a suspension 
 of hostilities between the two parties, and both had been 
 employed in the interval in burnishing their arms for a 
 renewal of the conflict, whenever that negotiation was 
 brought to a close, whatever should be the issue. 
 
 The treaty arrived early in March. On the 8th of June 
 the Senate were convened for the purpose of considering it, 
 and on the 24th of the month they advised its ratification 
 by the requisite majority, with the exception of the 12th 
 article, which, meaning to prohibit the export from the 
 United States in American vessels of such articles as they 
 had previously imported from the West Indies, enumerated 
 cotton among them, it not being known to Mr. Jay that this 
 commodity was becoming an article of export from the 
 United States. 
 
 While the administration was deliberating on the effect of 
 this qualified ratification, intelligence was received that the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 561 
 
 order of council for the seizure of provisions going to France 
 was renewed. The President then determined not to ratify 
 the treaty, if that order was enforced. 
 
 In the mean time Mr. James Thompson Mason, one of 
 the senators from Virginia, conceiving himself absolved 
 from the obligations of secrecy which had generally attached 
 to the executive duties of the senate, publishe4 in a Phila 
 delphia journal an abstract of the treaty; on which the 
 whole of the opposition, that is the entire democratic party, 
 from one end of the union to the other, exclaimed with one 
 voice that it had tamely and basely surrendered the honour, 
 rights, and interests of the United States at the feet of 
 their most deadly enemy. 
 
 Meetings were held in all the large towns, reprobating 
 the treaty, and most of the newspapers took the same 
 ground. The animosity to England and the attachment 
 to France, who had already begun that career of military 
 success which filled all Europe with astonishment and alarm, 
 were now at their height; and they were of themselves 
 sufficient to ensure the condemnation of any treaty with 
 England, however fair or reciprocal. But now that these 
 feelings have passed away we find in that instrument but 
 too much cause to justify their lively dissatisfaction. The 
 federal party believing that war with England, with whom 
 they desired peace, and a closer connexion with France, 
 whom they at once hated and feared, would be the con 
 sequence of a rejection of the treaty, used all their efforts 
 to overcome the strong repugnance with which it was re 
 ceived by the great body of the people ; but as is usual on 
 such occasions, their exertions had little effect except with 
 their own party. Mr. Jay was openly reviled for having 
 negotiated the treaty ; the Senate, treated no better for 
 advising its ratification, was charged with downright cor 
 ruption, and General Washington escaped an imputation 
 
 VOL. i. 2 o 
 
562 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 on his integrity, only to endure the charge of weakness of 
 understanding, and of being the dupe of the British faction 
 around him. In this state of exasperation and mistrust, 
 they looked to the House of Representatives for relief by 
 refusing to make the appropriations and to pass the laws 
 necessary to carry this odious treaty into effect, and vehe 
 ment appeals were made to them through the people, in the 
 interval, by means of pamphlets and newspapers. 
 
 At this time Mr. Jefferson, adverting to a pamphlet writ 
 ten by Alexander Hamilton in defence of the treaty, ap 
 plied to Mr. Madison to answer it. He thus pays a tribute 
 to the talents of his rival : " Hamilton is really a Colossus 
 to the anti-republican party : without numbers he is a host 
 within himself. They have got themselves into a defile, 
 where they might be finished; but too much security on 
 the republican part will give time to his talents and inde- 
 fatigableness to extricate them. In truth, when he comes 
 forward there is nobody but yourself who can meet him." 
 
 "The merchants were certainly (except those of them 
 who are English) as open-mouthed at first against the treaty 
 as any. But the general expression of indignation has 
 alarmed them for the strength of the government. They 
 have feared the shock would be too great, and have chosen 
 to tack about and support both treaty and government, 
 rather than risk the government. 1 He thus concludes : 
 " There appears a pause at present in the public sentiment, 
 which may be followed by a revulsion. This is the effect of 
 the desertion of the merchants, of the President s chiding 
 answer to Boston and Richmond, of the writings of Curtius 
 and Camillus, and of the quietism into which people natu 
 rally fall after first sensations are over. For God s sake 
 take up your pen and give a fundamental reply to Curtius 
 and Camillus." 
 
 He seems to have soon anticipated that opposition to the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 563 
 
 treaty which was afterwards made by the House of Repre 
 sentatives, and which gave rise to the delicate question of 
 the precise boundary between the legislative and the treaty- 
 making power under the constitution. This expedient for 
 annulling a treaty which he regarded in so odious a light 
 the more readily presented itself to his mind, as it had been 
 one of the subjects of collision between himself and Colonel 
 Hamilton in the cabinet. It has been several times agi 
 tated since, but on no occasion so fully as in the succeeding 
 session, in the debate on this treaty. 
 
 He speaks of the treaty in a letter to Governor Rutledge 
 of South Carolina, dated November 30th, 1795. " I join 
 with you in thinking the treaty an execrable thing. But 
 both negotiators must have understood, that, as there were 
 articles in it which could not be carried into execution with 
 out the aid of legislatures on both sides, therefore it must 
 be referred to them, and that these legislatures being free 
 agents, would not give it their support if they disapproved it. 
 I trust the popular branch of our legislature will disapprove 
 of it, and thus rid us of this infamous act, which is really 
 nothing more than a treaty of alliance between England 
 and the Anglomen of this country against the legislature 
 and people." 
 
 This treaty, which was the occasion of so much excite 
 ment at the time, and which subsequently had so much 
 influence on the foreign relations of the United States, and 
 the fortunes of its political parties, deserves an especial 
 notice. Its purpose was threefold ; to settle past differences, 
 ancient and recent ; to determine some principles of the 
 law of nations, particularly the relative rights of belligerents 
 and neutrals ; and lastly, to regulate their future commerce 
 and friendly intercourse. 
 
 With a view to the first object, provision was made for 
 
 2o2 
 
564 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 ascertaining the boundary both on the north-east and north 
 west corner of the United States. Great Britain agreed to 
 surrender the military posts, still retained by her, contrary 
 to the treaty of 1783, reserving certain rights to British 
 settlers in their vicinity, and to pay American citizens for 
 recent illegal captures, wherever compensation could not 
 be obtained in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. 
 The United States, on their part, agreed to compensate 
 British creditors for all damages sustained by them in the 
 recovery of their debts in America, arising from legal impe 
 diments; and to pay for all captures of British property 
 made within the jurisdiction of the United States. These 
 several stipulations were to be executed by different sets of 
 commissioners, to be appointed by the parties. It was also 
 stipulated that the citizens or subjects of one nation then 
 holding lands in the territories of the other, might continue 
 to hold them. 
 
 To the second head may be referred the following stipu 
 lations : It was agreed, in behalf of the neutral nation, that 
 its vessels, having on board contraband articles, should be 
 carried to the most convenient port ; and should not be 
 liable to confiscation on entering a blockaded port without 
 notice ; where provisions by the modern law of nations be 
 come contraband they should be paid for, and the neutral be 
 indemnified for detention ; neutral property found in a 
 besieged place, after surrender, to be restored ; commanders 
 of privateers to be answerable for damages done to neutrals, 
 for which purpose they should be required to give bond and 
 security. In behalf of the belligerent, it was agreed that 
 not only all military stores, but everything used in the 
 equipment of vessels, except fir planks and un wrought iron, 
 should be deemed contraband ; ships of war of one party to 
 be entitled to hospitable reception in the ports of the other ; 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 565 
 
 all prizes to have free admission into the ports of either 
 party, free from examination, fee, or detention ; the citizens 
 or subjects of one party not to engage in hostilities against 
 the other. Privateers of a third party not to arm or sell 
 their prizes in the ports of either ; nor, when they had 
 made prize on the other, to receive shelter, except from 
 stress of weather ; the neutral to permit no property to be 
 captured within its jurisdiction. In case of war between the 
 parties, there should be no confiscation of private property ; 
 the merchants of one nation residing within the territories 
 of the other, might, under certain conditions, continue to 
 reside there ; and reprisals were never to be made without a 
 previous demand of satisfaction and proof of injury. 
 
 For the regulation of their commercial intercourse, the 
 parties agree to permit a free trade and intercourse to their 
 citizens and subjects respectively, on either side of their 
 common boundary, (the limits of the Hudson s Bay Com 
 pany excepted,) and to the Indians within their respective 
 limits ; the mutual navigation of their inland waters was 
 permitted with the following exceptions : American vessels 
 were not to enter any British seaport, or any river belotv the 
 highest port of entry (with a single unimportant exception) 
 and British vessels were not to enter any river of the United 
 States above the highest port of entry, except that every 
 port and place on the Mississippi should be open to both 
 parties. Between the British territories in Europe, and all 
 the territories of the United States, freedom of commerce 
 and navigation was stipulated on terms of entire reciprocity; 
 each party was admitted into the ports of the other on the 
 terms of the most favoured nation, both as to duties and 
 prohibitions; and in furtherance of this object, the United 
 States were restricted from increasing their discriminating 
 duties in favour of American vessels ; and to Great Britain 
 was reserved the right of countervailing those which then 
 existed. 
 
566 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 By the J 2th article, American vessels, not exceeding 70 tons, 
 were permitted to carry to the West Indies American pro 
 ducts not prohibited, on the same terms as British vessels, and 
 to export in like manner West India products direct to the 
 United States ; but so long as this trade should be per 
 mitted, the United States agree not to export in their 
 vessels, molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa, or cotton. The same 
 trade was secured to British vessels. 
 
 A trade to the British settlements in the East Indies, in 
 articles not prohibited, was also permitted to American 
 vessels, paying the same tonnage duty and charges as 
 British vessels ; but the United States agree to carry the 
 products of those settlements only to their own ports ; not 
 to engage in the coasting trade, and that their citizens are 
 not to reside there. Provision was made for the appoint 
 ment of consuls, and for the surrender of persons charged 
 with murder or forgery. 
 
 The articles respecting boundary, compensation, interior 
 commerce, and confiscation were made perpetual, and the 
 other articles were limited to twelve years, or two years after 
 the war, at the option of either party. 
 
 Passing by the numerous objections which originated in 
 national prejudice and party feeling, or artfully appealed to 
 them, we may notice those which had a more solid founda 
 tion. In adjusting the mutual claims of the parties the 
 treaty was grossly unequal. 1. While it secured to the 
 British creditor indemnity for the supposed injustice of the 
 state legislatures and courts, not only as to the principal of 
 their debts, but also as to the interest during the war, re 
 gardless of the unanswered reasoning of Mr. Jefferson, it 
 made no provision whatever for the negroes who had been 
 carried off, contrary to the treaty of peace. 2. It made no 
 compensation for the detention of the posts, by which 
 American citizens had been cut off from the benefits of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 567 
 
 fur trade ; and which detention Great Britain had justified 
 by the legal obstacles experienced by British creditors. 
 Justice required that where the injury was mutual, compen 
 sation should be so ; instead of which, a new condition, in 
 behalf of British settlers, was annexed to their surrender. 
 3. The right to navigate the Mississippi, which had been 
 conceded to Great Britain by the treaty of 1783, under the 
 mistaken idea that it extended to her territory, was now 
 renewed, and greatly enlarged, when the mistake was dis 
 covered; though the same principle of national law was not 
 extended to the United States, as to the navigation of the 
 St. Lawrence ; so that an unfounded claim of a small tract of 
 unsettled country to an outlet to the ocean, was allowed to 
 Great Britain, while the unquestioned claim of the United 
 States to a like outlet for a settled country, of great extent, 
 was denied. 4. In extending the list of contraband articles 
 farther than the United States had done by other treaties, 
 they gave an advantage to Great Britain, at the expense of 
 France, and surrendered the protection of the neutral flag 
 to an important branch of their staple products; naval 
 stores, masts, and spars. 5. In the article admitting pro 
 visions to be contraband, the United States gave their 
 sanction to an innovation in national law that was peculiarly 
 injurious to them, and against which they had so loudly 
 complained after the British order of the 8th of June. 6. 
 British vessels had free admission into all the ports of the 
 United States, while American vessels were excluded from 
 the British ports in America, and are admitted into the West 
 Indies only on conditions which preclude its acceptance, for 
 besides the restriction as to cotton, the article would deprive 
 the United States of a gainful branch of their commerce in 
 carrying colonial produce to Europe, and moreover, limits the 
 conceded trade to vessels of too small a burthen to engage 
 in the lumber trade, or to compete with larger vessels. 
 7. The trade from America to the East Indies, by which 
 
568 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 dollars were exchanged for India manufactures, had been 
 permitted before ihe treaty, as being very convenient to the 
 East India Company, but was now subjected to the new 
 restriction of being direct to the United States. 8. Whilst 
 Great Britain thus rigidly insisted on her colonial monopoly, 
 and relaxed it only on the hardest conditions, the United 
 States, by the article concerning discriminating and counter 
 vailing duties, deprived themselves of their only means of 
 protecting their commerce and navigation. 9. Though the 
 United States acknowledged every claim advanced by Great 
 Britain, and made compensation for every injury, the 
 greatest of the wrongs sustained by them, the impressment 
 of their seamen, was left unredressed and unnoticed. 
 
 In addition to these objections, which so strikingly exhibit 
 the disadvantages under which a weak power negotiates 
 with a strong one, it may be remarked that in those parts of 
 the treaty which have the appearance of reciprocity, the 
 benefit is, by the different circumstances of the parties 
 principally on the part of Great Britain. Thus, the provi 
 sions in favour of aliens holding lands, and of resident 
 foreign merchants ; against the sequestration of debts and 
 private property ; and against reprisals, operate in favour of 
 twenty, or perhaps fifty British subjects for one American 
 citizen. Even in the article which permitted each party to 
 carry on the fur trade within the territories of the other, by 
 which the United States appeared to gain more than they 
 gave, the advantage, by reason of the reserved rights of the 
 Hudson s Bay Company, and the established course of trade, 
 was greatly on the side of Great Britain. The United 
 States having made so many concessions to liberal principles 
 for the advantage of Great Britain, might surely have expected 
 some extension of the same principles for their benefit, by 
 abolishing privateering, or, at least, the right of search for 
 enemy s goods. 
 
 The defenders of the treaty, on the other hand, insisted 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 569 
 
 on the solid advantages of obtaining possession of the 
 western posts, by which a profitable fur trade would be 
 opened to the United States, and the danger of Indian 
 hostility avoided ; on the large amount the merchants would 
 receive for their property illegally condemned by the British 
 courts of vice- admiralty ; and lastly, that the treaty was the 
 only alternative of war, which, besides its directs burdens and 
 evils, would deprive the country of the golden harvest it 
 was then reaping from its neutrality. These arguments 
 which appealed so forcibly to the self-interest of individuals, 
 finally and with difficulty prevailed, and thus Great Britain 
 obtained for her mercantile community indemnity for the 
 past and security for the future ; important concessions to 
 her belligerent interests ; and unresisting submission to her 
 colonial monopoly, at no other expense than a surrender of 
 seven military posts within the limits of the United States 
 which she was bound by treaty to surrender twelve years 
 before ; and an agreement to pay for such property as her 
 subjects had illegally taken, after a failure to recover of the 
 captors in the due course of law. Great as was the dispa 
 rity of the parties, in point of power, a treaty so grossly 
 unequal and defective could not have been ratified, if the 
 immense amount of property captured had not interested so 
 many in its ratification. Nor could this power of bribing 
 American merchants with their own money find any coun 
 teraction among individuals from the money to be received 
 by British creditors, as that was to be paid out of the trea- , ; 
 sury of the United States. 
 
 On the main question, whether more good or evil resulted 
 to the United States from the ratification, there is still room 
 for a difference of opinion. To trace out the chain of causes 
 and effects in a series of events which have actually occurred, 
 though not always an easy task, may yet be within the scope 
 of human wisdom, but to perceive the concatenation, on a 
 
570 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 different state of facts, is beyond the reach of any degree 
 of sagacity ; and no one can conclusively show that had the 
 treaty been rejected, war would have been the certain con 
 sequence ; or, though it had, that the spirit it indicated 
 would not have prevented the subsequent spoliations on 
 American commerce, and the war of 1813; or whether, on 
 the whole, the substantial interest of the nation would have 
 been thereby promoted or impeded. In such questions the 
 most we should look to is, whether we have defended our own 
 rights, without infringing the rights of others, and to approve 
 or condemn our course, according as it has conformed to that 
 rule. If tried by this test, it would not be easy to defend 
 the treaty of 1794. 
 
 In this unqualified condemnation of the treaty it is not 
 meant to cast any imputation on the zeal, talents, or pa 
 triotism of its distinguished negotiator. They are unques 
 tionable, and were never more faithfully exerted. But the 
 misfortune was, that Mr. Jay left the United States under 
 the firm belief generally entertained by his party, that peace 
 with England, the prevention of a closer fraternity with the 
 French, and the continued ascendency of the federalists, all 
 depended on his making a treaty. Every thing then, which 
 could interest either his patriotic or party feelings, (and 
 neither were lukewarm,) was hazarded on this single step. 
 The moral necessity under which he acted was as well 
 known to the British ministry as it was felt by himself, and 
 they naturally profited by it to insist on every thing which 
 he could venture to give, and to concede nothing which they 
 could decently refuse. 
 
571 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 \ 
 
 The British Treaty ratified by the President and Senate. Proceedings 
 in Congress. The right of Congress to refuse appropriations for 
 executing a treaty discussed. Considerations on this subject drawn 
 from the character of the Federal Government. Letter to Mr. Giles. 
 The duty to take sides between conflicting parties considered. Con 
 struction of the Constitution as to the power in Congress to establish 
 Post Roads. Letter to Mazzei. Mr. Jefferson s defence of that 
 letter the objections to it considered. General Washington s Fare 
 well Address. Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson rival candidates for the 
 Presidency. Mr. Jefferson chosen Vice- President the considera 
 tions which reconciled him to that result. 
 
 1796. 
 
 THE ferment of the public mind went on increasing until 
 the meeting of Congress, when all eyes were turned on that 
 body to see the course it would take. In the President s 
 opening speech to both Houses of Congress, he had men 
 tioned the British treaty and stated that it had been ratified 
 by the United States, with the exception of a part of the 
 12th article, since which the course of the British govern 
 ment was not known. The answer by the House of Repre 
 sentatives, though not explicit, plainly intimated disappro 
 bation of the treaty. In February, the treaty being returned 
 with the ratification of the British government, it was 
 announced to the nation by proclamation, a copy of which 
 was sent to each House of Congress on the 1st of March, 
 1796. 
 
 This course was censured as disrespectful to the House of 
 Representatives, and as implying that the concurrence of 
 the legislature was not necessary to give validity to the 
 
572 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 treaty. On the 2nd of March a Motion for a copy of the 
 instructions to the minister who negotiated the treaty, 
 brought on a debate in which the powers of the executive, 
 and of the legislature, with reference to treaties, were fully 
 investigated by all the talent and zeal which either party 
 could put in requisition. 
 
 It was contended by the opposition that although the 
 constitution had vested the power of making treaties in the 
 President and senate, without restriction or qualification, 
 yet that did not prevent the restriction which must neces 
 sarily arise from the express provisions of the constitution 
 itself: or, said they, suppose the executive were to make a 
 treaty on any matter prohibited to them by the constitution, 
 or which required powers not delegated to them, as the ces 
 sion of a state or even a portion of its undisputed territory, 
 would the legislative branch of the government be bound to 
 pass laws for the execution of such an unconstitutional 
 treaty, and thus sanction a breach of the constitution? 
 Assuredly not. Congress then has the power in some cases 
 of refusing its co-operation, and whether the occasion is 
 proper for such an exercise of power depends upon the cir 
 cumstances of the case, to be decided by a sound discretion. 
 If the treaty is capable of execution without the interven 
 tion of the legislature, it is then binding on the nation, and 
 it becomes a rule of action on the citizen as much as any 
 legislative enactment ; but if such interposition is necessary, 
 then the legislature is as free to act as the executive, and 
 to grant or withhold its concurrence. It is true that it may 
 be both uncourteous and impolitic for the legislature to take 
 this course. It may make foreign nations cautious of ne 
 gotiating with a nation which thus has a power in reserve 
 by which it may annul or ratify a treaty according to circum 
 stances. But this is an argument, and a strong one, against 
 the exercise of the right, on light occasions, rather than 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 573 
 
 against its existence. The considerations of impolicy and 
 of its giving offence to the power treated with are as likely 
 to have due weight with the legislature as with the execu 
 tive, and this must be especially supposed in this country, 
 where the power of declaring war is confided solely to the 
 legislature. Without this check the power of taxing, the 
 power of naturalization, the power of incorporating other 
 states into the union, and the power of regulating the entire 
 commerce of the country, which have been placed solely in 
 the hands of the legislature, are virtually transferred to the 
 senate. 
 
 The friends of the administration maintained that a treaty 
 made pursuant to the forms prescribed in the constitution 
 was binding on the nation, and the legislature could not 
 refuse to co-operate in its execution without a violation of 
 its constitutional duty, and of the national faith. That 
 granting it would not be bound to execute a treaty when 
 the executive had transcended its powers, that would fur 
 nish no argument where such a plea could not be pretended, 
 for the same reason that an act done contrary to the consti 
 tution is void, an act done in conformity to that instrument 
 is binding. 
 
 After a debate of a fortnight, the resolution was carried 
 by a majority of 62 to 37. The President, however, refused 
 to send a copy of the instructions, and stated his reasons at 
 full length, founded on the executive right of the President 
 and senate to make treaties. In support of his opinion he relies 
 on the proceedings of the convention which formed the con 
 stitution, on the previous course of the legislature on the 
 subject of treaties, and on the obvious inconveniences and 
 impolicy of disclosing the several steps taken in negoti 
 ation. 
 
 Further resolutions were then moved which assert the 
 right of the House of Representatives, whenever stipulations 
 
574 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 are made by treaty on subjects confided by the constitution 
 to Congress, to deliberate on the expediency of carrying them 
 into execution, which were carried by a vote of 57 to 35. 
 
 When subsequently a bill was introduced to carry the 
 treaty into effect, its merits were carefully and formally dis 
 cussed, and after a protracted debate in a committee of the 
 whole, the expediency of making the requisite provisions by 
 law was carried by a single vote, and in the House by a 
 majority of three; considerations of policy and expediency 
 inducing some to join in executing an unsatisfactory treaty 
 rather than hazard the peace of the country, which seemed 
 to be the almost certain alternative. 
 
 On this subject it may be further remarked, that if it had 
 been intended by the constitution that it should be alto 
 gether discretionary in Congress to make the appropriations 
 necessary for carrying treaties into effect, it would have at 
 once required the concurrence of both Houses, and not have 
 left so important a power to be deduced by implication : and 
 further, that this construction would greatly lessen the 
 weight of the executive in any negotiation, as foreign powers 
 could never be certain that a treaty agreed upon by the 
 two governments would not be eventually annulled by the 
 House of Representatives ; and even when there was no 
 motive of public interest to urge them to such a course, 
 it might easily happen, in the struggles of parties, or by 
 the casual influence of particular individuals, or by combi 
 nations of particular factions or interests, that measures, 
 really salutary and likely to prove popular, would be for a 
 time defeated. On these accounts nations would be more 
 cautious of treating with us, except only in those matters in 
 which there was no room for difference and dissatisfaction. 
 
 On the other hand, if we suppose the representatives to 
 have no discretion whatever, and to be mere machines to 
 carry into effect any treaty which it may please the Presi- 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 575 
 
 dent to make, and the senate to ratify, it would remove one 
 of those checks which the constitution has provided to guard 
 the purses of the people, such as we see in the provision 
 which prohibits duties on exports which makes duties on 
 imports equal which gives to the House of Representa 
 tives the exclusive right to originate money bills, and to 
 Congress the exclusive right of laying taxes, and limits the 
 objects since all these rights, powers, and restrictions might 
 be annulled by treaty. Thus, for instance, a treaty may 
 stipulate the cession of a state, or the part of a state a 
 heavy tribute to a foreign nation or may form a union 
 with Canada or Mexico or, adopting the Chinese policy, 
 may cede our foreign commerce to other nations or enter 
 into an alliance offensive and defensive with the blacks of 
 Hayti. In such cases as these, could it be supposed that 
 the popular branch of the legislature would not and ought 
 not to refuse their aid to carry the treaty into effect ? If this 
 be admitted, then the power is conceded, and whether it 
 shall be exercised or not is a question of circumstances. It 
 is perhaps a yet more satisfactory reason for this construc 
 tion, that this is all the check which the treaty -making power 
 has, since the constitution contains no express restraint what 
 ever. 
 
 But to this again it is objected that no fair argument of 
 construction can be drawn from such extreme cases which 
 may be imagined indeed as possible, but which cannot ra 
 tionally be expected ; that constitutions are made on the 
 supposition that men will obey the common impulses of self- 
 interest, of common sense, of settled habit such as that 
 the people will choose representatives, and that they will 
 find representatives willing to serve ; that the state legisla 
 tures will always be in existence ; that they will choose se 
 nators ; that they will raise revenue and disburse it, will 
 keep a true record of their proceedings, and publish their 
 
576 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 laws when made : that whenever any extraordinary case 
 should arise to contradict these reasonable expectations, the 
 functions of all laws and constitutions would be merged in 
 the great law of self-preservation, and that no more argu 
 ment can be drawn from such rare and improbable cases to 
 show the fair meaning of the constitution, than we could 
 infer a general right to take the property and life of another, 
 from the fact that we might rightly take his bread to prevent 
 us from starving, or push him from a plank not sufficient to 
 support two, to save ourselves from drowning. That reason 
 ing, therefore, on cases of probable recurrence, the President 
 and Seriate, whose power flows ultimately from the people, 
 and who are responsible to the people, must be supposed 
 incapable of making a treaty which they did not believe con 
 ducive to the national interests ; and that supposing them 
 to have thus acted, although they may appear to have some 
 what mistaken those interests, it would be better in general 
 that the contract should be ratified with good faith, than 
 present a field for the excesses and caprices of party spirit ; 
 and, if the constitution is found defective, to circumscribe by 
 an amendment the treaty-making power within more safe 
 and precise limits. By way of analogy, it may be remarked 
 that the same arguments urged against the obligation to 
 provide for the execution of treaties, drawn from their pos 
 sible abuse, applies to the appointing power, except that the 
 consequences would be commonly less serious. That de 
 partment may appoint to a highly responsible office an un 
 principled and dangerous man ; yet it has never been sup 
 posed that in such a case the House of Kepresentatives had 
 the right to withhold his salary. 
 
 On this question of the power of the House of Represen 
 tatives to judge of the expediency of carrying a treaty into 
 effect, public opinion was then divided the authority of 
 General Washington, the cabinet and senate being on one 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 577 
 
 side, and that of the House of Representatives on the other, 
 supported by the names of Jefferson, Madison, Gallatin, and 
 their friends ; and the question was afterwards revived in 
 Mr. Madison s administration, when the House, as on the 
 present occasion, made the appropriations without deciding 
 the constitutional question. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Giles of December 31, 1795, Mr. Jef 
 ferson expresses himself well pleased with the manner in 
 which the House of Representatives had testified their dis 
 approbation of the treaty by their answer to the annual 
 speech. He then makes some free comments on the political 
 character of Mr. Edmund Randolph who had lately sent 
 in his resignation of Secretary of State, in consequence of 
 some injurious imputations contained in a letter from the 
 French minister Fauchet to his government, and which had 
 been intercepted by a British cruiser, and communicated to 
 the American government. He has no hesitation in ac 
 quitting that gentleman of the charge of corruption, but 
 speaks of him as a wavering politician giving his principles 
 to one party and his practice to the other ; and imputes to 
 his want of firmness the President s habitual concert with 
 the British and anti-republican party. He warmly condemns 
 that disposition to halt between two parties, and deems it to 
 be as immoral as to pursue a middle line between honest men 
 and rogues. 
 
 Assuredly when the matters in controversy appear to in 
 volve the honour, security, or other serious interests of the 
 country, we are bound to take a decided stand on one side 
 or the other, and hesitation or neutrality is the part of the 
 coward and the knave. But where it happens, as it com 
 monly does, that there are specious grounds of right ad 
 vanced by both parties, nay, more, that there is reason and 
 truth with both, but pushed to extremes, a mind of unusual 
 candour and impartiality may see what is most consonant 
 
 VOL. i. 2 p 
 
578 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to right in either, or what is most undeniably wrong, and 
 may thus be disposed to agree and to disagree in part with 
 both. It must however be admitted that such neutral ter 
 ritory is not wholly occupied by this description of persons, 
 but partly by those who are desirous of pleasing all, or are 
 fearful of offending from mere timidity or good nature; 
 partly again by those who pursue the same object with a 
 view of profiting by it, like the bat in the fable, ready to de 
 clare itself bird or beast, according to the seeming chances 
 of victory : and lastly, a numerous body who are kept from 
 going on one side or other by the vis inertia of indifference. 
 So that this body, to which the combatants on either side 
 address themselves, may contain some of the wisest and 
 purest, as well as the most worthless of the community. 
 
 He regarded the finances of the United States as unin 
 telligible to the great body of the people, and as purposely 
 made so by Hamilton. He even supposes that Hamilton 
 himself did not understand them, and was unable to give a 
 clear view of the excess of our debts beyond our credits, or 
 whether we were diminishing or increasing the debt. His 
 own opinion was that the annual expenses then exceeded 
 the revenue about a million of dollars ; and he declared that 
 if Mr. Gallatin would present the public with a clear and 
 simple view of the finances, he would merit immortal honour. 
 It was probably not unknown to him that that gentleman, 
 as it afterwards appeared, was actually engaged in pre 
 paring such a work, which made its appearance in the fol 
 lowing year. 
 
 The postscript to this letter, in noticing a proposition of 
 Mr. Madison s respecting post roads, first presents the ques 
 tion of the power of Congress to provide these useful facili 
 ties of communication between different parts of the union, 
 which has since been so much discussed, and has so divided 
 the politicians of the country. Mr. Jefferson, as usual, was 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 579 
 
 in favour of that construction which most restricts the power 
 of the federal government, and he relies more on the per- / 
 nicious consequences from the exercise of the power, than 
 on the literal import of the constitution itself. He views it 
 as " a source of boundless patronage to the executive, job 
 bing to members of Congress and their friends, and a bot 
 tomless abyss of public money. You will be^in, 3 he says, 
 "by only appropriating the surplus of the post-office reve 
 nues ; but the other revenues will soon be called to their 
 aid, and it will be a source of eternal scramble among the 
 members, who can get the most money wasted in their state ; 
 and they will always get most who are meanest.". . . . He 
 objects to the want of local knowledge by Congress, and also 
 to the constitutionality " Does the power to establish post 
 roads," he asks, " given you by the constitution, mean that 
 you shall make the roads, or only select from those already 
 made, those on which there shall be a post ? If the term be 
 equivocal, (and I really do not think it so,) which is the 
 safest construction ? That which permits a majority of 
 Congress to go to cutting down mountains and bridging of 
 rivers, or the other, which if too restricted, may be referred 
 to the states for amendment ; securing still due measure and 
 proportion among us, and providing some means of infor 
 mation to the members of Congress, tantamount to that 
 ocular inspection, which even in our county determinations, 
 the magistrate finds cannot be supplied by any other evi 
 dence ? " 
 
 This is certainly one of the most important questions which 
 divide those who severally favour a liberal and a strict con 
 struction of the constitution. But other considerations have 
 mingled with this of federal power, and have given many 
 supporters to the party which affirms the existence of the 
 power to make roads. Besides the local advantages which, 
 operating on the hopes and interests of various parts of 
 
 2 p 2 
 
580 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the country, have influenced the opinions of the people, the 
 western states in particular maintain that it is only in this 
 way that they can receive any adequate return for their con 
 tributions to the national treasury ; that while so much is 
 expended to give facility and security to foreign commerce 
 as by discriminating tonnage duties; bounties to fishing ves 
 sels ; monopoly to coasting vessels ; light-houses ; break 
 waters, and the establishment of a navy itself something 
 should also be expended to facilitate the only commercial 
 intercourse which the interior states are capable of carrying 
 on. Some of the Atlantic states, too, have favoured the 
 same construction, because, from their position they expected 
 to gain from the national treasury more than they contri 
 buted to it ; and they might, moreover, in this way have 
 the benefit of expensive public improvements which were 
 unattainable in any other. Many also, who regarded the 
 permanency of the union as precarious as it was desirable,, 
 looked upon these national roads as links of connexion be 
 tween the west and the east, which would thus bind the 
 remotest extremes of the union together by the strong ties 
 of commercial interest. Every one saw that these means 
 of intercommunication would greatly add to the wealth of 
 the nation, and that from the difficulty of getting the sepa 
 rate states to unite in any plan, they would be impracti 
 cable, except when made by the general government. There 
 was another consideration, which though adventitious, had 
 probably more influence of late years than any other. This 
 was the protection to domestic manufactures, It was fore 
 seen that in a short time the public debt would be extin 
 guished, after which event, at least ten millions of the exist 
 ing revenue would be released, and consequently that duties 
 to that amount on foreign fabrics must be taken off. The 
 only w r ay then in which the protection of the present tariff 
 could be preserved to domestic manufactures was by a system 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 581 
 
 of national roads and canals, so that the money with which 
 foreign manufactures were taxed, to favour the competition 
 of our own, would defray the expense of these national works ; 
 and in this way an alliance was formed between the friends 
 of manufactures and of the advocates for the power of making 
 roads and canals. 
 
 The great Cumberland road was afterwards undertaken 
 during Mr. Jefferson s administration, with the consent of 
 the states through which it passed ; and the powers which 
 he then sanctioned in the general government, must be re 
 garded as indicating his deliberate opinion, so far as they 
 conflict with the views expressed to Mr. Madison in 1796. 
 
 In speaking of the British treaty on the 24th of March to 
 Mr. Munroe, he states the constitutional doctrine to be 
 that which was afterwards declared by a majority of the House 
 of Representatives ; and declared that " on the precedent now 
 to be set will depend the future construction of our constitu 
 tion, and whether the powers of legislation shall be trans, 
 ferred from the President, Senate, and House of Repre 
 sentatives, to the President and Senate and Piamingo, or 
 any other Indian, Algerine, or other chief." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Madison a few days afterwards, he speaks 
 of Mr. Gallatin s views on this subject as able, but not free 
 from difficulty, though less so, perhaps, than the opposite 
 construction. " According to the rule established by usage 
 and common sense, of construing one part of the instrument 
 by another, the objects on which the President and Senate 
 may exclusively act by treaty are much reduced, but the 
 field on which they may act with the sanction of the legis 
 lature, is large enough ; and I see no harm in rendering 
 their sanction necessary, and not much harm in annihilating 
 the whole treaty-making power, except as to making peace." 
 " If the power was possessed," he remarks, " he could con 
 ceive no case in which it could be more properly used ; and 
 
582 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 the people were looking to Congress to save them from the 
 effects of the avarice and corruption of the first agent, the 
 revolutionary machinations of others, and the incomprehen 
 sible acquiescence of the only honest man who has assented 
 to it. I wish that his honesty and his political errors may 
 not furnish a second occasion to exclaim, curse on his virtues, 
 they have undone his country. " 
 
 He fortifies his construction of the constitution by referring 
 to an answer made by General Washington to the Senate 
 in 1791, in which he said he should take measures for the 
 ransom of our citizens in Algiers, in conformity with their 
 advice, as soon as the requisite sum should be appropriated 
 by the legislature. 
 
 It was about this time, when Mr. Jefferson partook of the 
 dissatisfaction which the British treaty generally inspired, 
 and of the popular suspicions as to the motives of those who 
 favoured it, that he wrote a letter to Mr. Mazzei, an Italian 
 gentleman who had lived some time in his neighbourhood, 
 and with whom he had been particularly intimate. He 
 represents to him the falling off that had taken place in the 
 attachment of some of the leading politicians to liberty and 
 republicanism, which -he attributes to the corrupting influ 
 ence of Great Britain, the funding system, and the bank. 
 The political portion of this letter was translated into Italia n 
 and published in Florence by Mr. Mazzei, was then trans 
 lated into French, and published at Paris in the Monifeur, 
 and having been retranslated into English and republished 
 in this country in the folio wing year, it became the subject of 
 severe animadversion against Mr. Jefferson by the federal 
 party. The offensive passage in the original letter was in 
 these words : 
 
 " The aspect of our politics has wonderfully changed 
 
 since you left us, April 24, 1796. In place of that noble 
 love of liberty and republican government which carried us 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 583 
 
 triumphantly through the war, an Anglican monarchical and 
 aristocratical party has sprung up, whose avowed object is 
 to draw over us the substance, as they have already done 
 the forms, of the British government. The main body of 
 our citizens, however, remain true to their republican prin 
 ciples ; the whole landed interest is republican, and so is a 
 great mass of talents. Against us are the executive, the 
 judiciary, two out of three branches of the legislature, all 
 the officers of the government, all who want to be officers, 
 all timid men who prefer the calm of despotism to the bois 
 terous sea of liberty; British merchants and Americans 
 trading on British capitals, speculators and holders in the 
 banks and public funds, a contrivance invented for the pur 
 poses of corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to 
 the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British model. 
 It would give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates 
 who have gone over to these heresies, men who were Sam 
 sons in the field and Solomons in the council, but who have 
 had their heads shorn by the harlot England. In short, we 
 are likely to preserve the liberty we have obtained only by 
 unremitting labours and perils. But we shall preserve it ; 
 and our mass of weight and wealth on the good side is so 
 great, as to leave no danger that force will ever be attempted 
 against us. We have only to wake and snap the Lilliputian 
 cords with which they have been entangling us during the 
 first sleep which succeeded our labours." 
 
 The enemies of Mr. Jefferson, with a view of profiting 
 by the strong hold which General Washington always had 
 on the affections of the people, insisted that these, his accu 
 sations of a desire in some to introduce a monarchical govern 
 ment, and of apostacy from their former principles, meant 
 to apply to that eminent man, and that considering the 
 relations in which Mr. Jefferson professed to stand towards 
 him, the calumny was as base as it was unfounded. No 
 
584 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 letter which Mr. Jefferson ever wrote excited as much interest 
 or was the subject of as much comment and censure as this. 
 
 Mr. Pickering states, on the authority of Dr. Stuart, that 
 General Washington had, when he became a private citizen, 
 " called Mr. Jefferson to account" for expressions used in 
 his letter to Mazzei ; and adds, " in what manner he humbled 
 himself and appeased the just resentment of Washington 
 will never be known, as some time after his death, the corre 
 spondence was not to be found, and a diary for an important 
 period of his presidency was also missing." 
 
 In reply to this offensive imputation, Mr. Jefferson affirms, 
 that " there never passed a word, written or verbal, directly 
 or indirectly," between General Washington and himself on 
 the subject of that letter ; he is at some pains to show that 
 the story is altogether unfounded ; and he exposes the awk 
 ward attempt to draw support to it, by connecting the as 
 sumed fact of the lost correspondence with the lost diary, 
 though the correspondence, if it took place at all, must have 
 been after April, 1797, when the letter to Mazzei was pub 
 lished in America, and consequently after General Wash 
 ington had ceased to be President ; while the diary, said to 
 be lost, and supposed to mention the correspondence, was 
 written during the presidency. 
 
 " This letter to Mazzei," he says, " has been a precious 
 theme of crimination for federal malice. It was a long letter 
 of business, in which was inserted a single paragraph only 
 of political information. In this information there was not 
 one word which would not then have been, or would not now 
 be approved by every republican in the United States, looking 
 back to those times, as you will see by a faithful copy now 
 inclosed of the whole of what that letter said on the subject 
 of the United States, or of its government." He says that 
 the letter contains not one word respecting France, or any 
 of the proceedings or relation between this country and that; 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 585 
 
 but that the paragraph which makes him charge his own 
 country with ingratitude and injustice towards France, he 
 supposes was interpolated by the party then in power, who 
 caught at every thing to buoy them up. Yet this inter 
 polation is quoted by Mr. Pickering, as the remark of Mr. 
 Jefferson. He adverts also to the substitution of form, in 
 the translation, for " forms*." He denies that he meant 
 his remarks against an Anglican monarchical and aristocratic 
 party to apply to General Washington ; insists that they do 
 not necessarily apply to him, and that General Washington 
 was well aware that these censures were not intended for 
 him. He thus concludes his vindication : " The truth is, 
 that the federalists, pretending to be the exclusive friends 
 of General Washington, have ever done what they could to 
 sink his character, by hanging theirs on it, and by repre 
 senting as the enemy of republicans him, who, of all men, 
 is best entitled to the appellation of the father of that re 
 public which they were endeavouring to subvert, and the 
 republicans to maintain. They cannot deny, because the 
 elections proclaimed the truth, that the great body of the 
 nation approved the republican measures. General Wash 
 ington was himself sincerely a friend to the republican prin 
 ciples of our constitution. His faith, perhaps, in its duration, 
 might not have been as confident as mine ; but he repeatedly 
 declared to me, that he was determined it should have a fair 
 
 * I have seen and carefully examined the press copy of the original. 
 The word is plainly " forms," and never could have been different. These 
 press copies, it may be observed in answer to the cavils of the malevolent 
 and suspicious, bear upon their face proofs of their authenticity. Those 
 of the same date have the same degree of that peculiar tinge or disco 
 loration which time gives to paper ; and, as they are to be read on the 
 wrong side, and are therefore printed on very thin, semi-transparent 
 paper, erasure is impracticable ; nor can any addition be made without 
 plainly manifesting itself, as may be seen whenever any casual omission 
 of a letter or word has been supplied, or lines, too faintly impressed, have 
 been rendered more legible. 
 
586 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 chance for success, and that he would lose the last drop of 
 his blood in its support, against any attempt that might be 
 made to change it from its republican form. He made these 
 declarations the oftener because he knew my suspicions that 
 Hamilton had other views, and he wished to quiet my jea 
 lousies on this subject. For Hamilton frankly avowed that 
 he considered the British constitution, with all the corrup 
 tions of its administration, as the most perfect model of 
 government which had ever been devised by the wit of man ; 
 professing, however, at the same time, that the spirit of this 
 country was so fundamentally republican, that it would be 
 visionary to think of introducing monarchy here, and that, 
 therefore, it was the duty of its administrators to conduct 
 it on the principles their constituents had elected. 
 
 " General Washington, after the retirement of his first 
 cabinet, and the composition of his second, entirely federal, 
 and at the head of which was Mr. Pickering himself, had no 
 opportunity of hearing both sides of any question. His mea 
 sures, consequently, took more the hue of the party in whose 
 hands he was. Their measures were certainly not approved 
 by the republicans ; yet were they not imputed to him, but 
 to the counsellors around him; and his prudence so far 
 restrained their impassioned course and bias, that no act of 
 strong mark, during the remainder of his administration, 
 excited much dissatisfaction. He lived too short a time 
 after, and too much withdrawn from information, to correct 
 the views into which he had been deluded ; and the continued 
 assiduities of the party drew him into the vortex of their 
 intemperate career ; separated him still further from his real 
 friends ; and excited him to actions and expressions of dis 
 satisfaction, which grieved them, but could not loosen their 
 affections from him. They would not suffer the temporary 
 aberration to weigh against the innumerable merits of his life ; 
 and, although they tumbled his seducers from their places, 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 587 
 
 they preserved his memory embalmed in their hearts, with 
 undiminished love and devotion ; and there it will for ever 
 remain embalmed, in entire oblivion of every temporary 
 thing which might cloud the glories of his splendid life. It 
 is vain then, for Mr. Pickering and his friends to endeavour to 
 falsify his character, by representing him as an enemy to 
 republicans and republican principles, and as exclusively the 
 friend of those who were so ; and had he lived longer, he 
 would have returned to his ancient and unbiassed opinions, 
 would have replaced his confidence in those whom the people 
 approved and supported, and would have seen that they 
 were only restoring and acting on the principles of his own 
 first administration." 
 
 As this letter to Mazzei has drawn so much obloquy on 
 Mr. Jefferson, we may be excused for giving a closer exa 
 mination to the charges and to his defence. The grounds 
 of crimination are 1. That he has imputed to General 
 Washington an undue attachment to England, and a secret 
 preference for monarchical over republican government ; that 
 he was plainly designated in that passage of the letter which 
 says, " against us are the executive, and two out of three 
 branches of the legislature;" and was meant to be compre 
 hended among " the apostates who though Samsons in the 
 field, and Solomons in the council, have had their heads 
 shorn by the harlot England." 2. That after the publication 
 of the letter, on an explanation being demanded by General 
 Washington, he had made the most submissive apology, 
 denying his allusion to General Washington, as far as he 
 could, and asking forgiveness where he could not. 3. That 
 to conceal this humiliation from the world, the person who 
 had charge of General Washington s papers, after his death, 
 had, either at his own instance, for the purpose of recom 
 mending himself to Mr. Jefferson, who then dispensed the 
 emoluments of office, or on the application of Mr. Jefferson 
 
538 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 himself, abstracted the correspondence between them, as 
 well as a part of the General s diary, while he was President, 
 which also concerned Mr. Jefferson, for which service the 
 same individual was rewarded by an office of trust and profit. 
 4. That, in his letter to Mr. Van Buren, Mr. Jefferson, 
 in the teeth of the clearest evidence, uncandidly attempts 
 to deny that he meant to comprehend General Washington, 
 thus having the meanness to disavow the slanders he had 
 had the baseness to fabricate. 5. And lastly, that at the 
 very moment of this denial he virtually renews and repeats 
 the same calumnies in the very same letter, in declaring 
 that he had written nothing to Mazzei which was not then, 
 and w r ould not now, be approved by the republican party 
 throughout the United States. 
 
 To the first of these charges, Mr. Jefferson gives an ex 
 press denial : and while he has never retracted one word as 
 to the leading men of the federal party, he has uniformly 
 maintained that he did not mean to class General Washing 
 ton with them, either as to their principles or purposes. Now 
 upon this subject we have abundant evidence to satisfy a 
 candid inquirer. Not only in his diary does he repeatedly 
 express his conviction that General Washington was a re 
 publican in his attachments, though he had not the same 
 entire confidence in the fitness of the people for self-govern 
 ment as Mr. Jefferson, but also in several of his letters to 
 individuals of the same party as himself; and in the long 
 letter he wrote to General Washington to dissuade him from 
 retiring at the end of the first term, he not only would not 
 have urged him to continue, if he had believed that his prin 
 ciples were opposed to those to which he showed through 
 life such a rooted attachment, and on which his hopes of 
 favour with his countrymen rested, but he would never have 
 ventured to censure so roundly as he did in that letter the 
 principles which he believed were those of General Wash- 
 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 539 
 
 ington. This letter then is of itself utterly inconsistent with 
 the fact that he intended to comprehend in his letter to 
 Mazzei, him whom he had at all other times cxcepted. They 
 were plainly meant for Hamilton, Adams, Jay, the Pinck- 
 neys, and some others who had been distinguished in the 
 revolution as soldiers or statesmen, and who then guided 
 the executive councils, but who, by their Anglican attach 
 ments and antigallican prejudices, were endeavouring as 
 much as they coald to assimilate our government to that 
 of Great Britain. This opinion, whether well founded or 
 not, Mr. Jefferson, in common with a large proportion of 
 his party, fully entertained. There is abundant evidence 
 to show that, as to some of the federal party, they were not 
 mistaken ; and if in the course of time, the American go 
 vernment were to disappoint the hopes of its friends and 
 admirers, and prove a failure, many of that party would 
 have claims to the character of foresight, which even their 
 enemies could not resist, and which some of their admirers 
 already assert for them by anticipation. 
 
 2 and 3. As to the fact that Mr. Jefferson made a sub 
 missive apology, in consequence of a demand of explanation 
 by General Washington, the supposition must be considered 
 as nearly gratuitous. It is positively denied by Mr. Jeffer 
 son, and there is no evidence which ought to outweigh his 
 denial. Mr. Pickering, who acknowledged his dislike of 
 Mr. Jefferson, and whose susceptibility of hatred and resent 
 ment was the strongest feature in his character, states it on 
 the authority of Dr. Stuart, and he undertakes to account 
 for the absence of the best testimony the letter itself by 
 supposing that it had been clandestinely withdrawn by him 
 who had the custody of those papers. There is, however, 
 no direct evidence that such a letter ever existed. Dr. Stuart 
 does not say that he ever saw it ; and had he seen it, we are 
 authorized to infer, from the temper manifested towards Mr. 
 
590 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 Jefferson, that he would have been as prompt to declare it 
 as Mr. Pickering would have been to repeat the declaration. 
 The supposition seems to be either a mere inference from 
 doubtful facts, or to rest on vague, unsupported and im 
 probable rumour. The inference rests on the fact, that an 
 office was bestowed by Mr. Jefferson on the individual who 
 had the temporary charge of General Washington s papers. 
 But surely, when so many motives may have induced Mr. 
 Jefferson to give this office, it is unreasonable to assume that 
 it was the price of treachery. As he must give the office to 
 some one, we might require nothing more than the fact that 
 it was asked for. Besides, there is a certain degree of libe 
 rality and courtesy to be expected from every President to 
 wards his predecessors, which has manifested itself on many 
 occasions, and which none but coarse minds will condemn. 
 Mr. Jefferson acknowledges to this sentiment in the case of 
 Mr. Adams, and he would have felt additional motives for 
 granting a favour to one who had been a member of the 
 family of General Washington. There was also a rumour 
 on this subject that Kawlins, whom General Washington 
 employed about this time as an amanuensis, told a merchant 
 in Alexandria, that he copied a letter from the General to 
 Mr. Jefferson, relative to the Mazzei letter, which was so 
 very severe, " it made his hair stand on end." I have in 
 quired into this story, and it seems as unsupported as the 
 rest. Rawlins is dead : the merchant is dead ; and no one 
 is alive who pretends to have heard Rawlins make the asser 
 tion. To establish then the fact that General Washington 
 wrote an angry letter to Mr. Jefferson, we must assume that 
 the person who had the story from the Alexandria merchant, 
 neither misrepresented nor misunderstood him that he again 
 neither misrepresented nor misunderstood Rawlins and 
 lastly, that Rawlins neither misrepresented nor misunder 
 stood General Washington, either as to the character of the 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 591 
 
 letter or the person to whom it was addressed. If testimony 
 like this, adduced by a prejudiced partizan against apolitical 
 opponent, is to be received, what character would be safe ? 
 But it is not merely insufficient, it is disproved by intrinsic 
 circumstances. It must be remembered that when Mr. 
 Jefferson is said to have written the letter of ^apology, he 
 must have had every reason to believe that the letter he 
 wrote would one day see the light. He knew the regular 
 business-like habits of General Washington ; and conse 
 quently, the letter had the same probability of preservation 
 as if it had been filed away among the archives of state. 
 He would then have said nothing which would have dis 
 graced or discredited him with the nation, but have vindi 
 cated himself on similar grounds to those taken in his letter 
 to Mr. Van Buren; in which case, he had no motive to 
 suppress the correspondence. 
 
 4. That he attempted to show in his letter to Mr. Van 
 Buren, that the term did not comprehend General Wash 
 ington, because by the two branches of the legislature, he 
 meant the two Houses of Congress ; whereas, it was no 
 torious, as he himself admitted, that a majority of the House 
 of Representatives were at that time members of the repub 
 lican or opposition party. This must be conceded ; but it 
 is only an evidence of his lapse of memory, in grounding 
 an argument on a subordinate fact, in support of what he 
 knew to be the truth. He cannot be presumed to have 
 knowingly mis-stated a fact, which a bare reference to the 
 Journals of the House, or the history of the times would 
 have satisfactorily contradicted. The fact was, that not 
 only was the weight of the senate, but also of the executive 
 thrown into the scale of the federal party, the leaders of 
 which were English in their predilections, and antigallican 
 in their antipathies ; and these sentiments being contrary 
 to those of the republicans, they were consequently con- 
 
592 THK LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 demned ; and Mr. Jefferson made a distinction between the 
 President and his advisers, which many of his party refused 
 to make. Of all the imputations to which this letter has 
 given rise, this unimportant mistake is the only one which 
 is well-founded ; and that is evidence of nothing but a 
 failure of memory, which induces him to use an untenable 
 argument to support what he knew to be an undeniable 
 truth, and which it would be miraculous if an octogenarian 
 did not sometimes exhibit.* 
 
 He is however considered as repeating the very same 
 calumny, in the letter to Mr. Van Buren, when he says, that 
 what he had uttered in his letter to Mazzei was approved 
 by the republican party throughout the United States. As 
 in that letter he had expressly disclaimed all intention of 
 comprehending General Washington ; his remarks apply 
 solely to the federal party, and he certainly was well-war 
 ranted in making it, when he received so large a majority 
 of the suffrages of the nation for the office of President, at 
 his second election after that letter was published. It is 
 true that these sweeping censures of the federalists excited 
 lively resentment at the time ; it is also true that the party 
 affected to regard them as equally meant for General Wash 
 ington as themselves, and they adroitly appealed to the 
 
 * His letter to Mr. Giles in December, 1825, respecting Mr. J. Q. 
 Adams s information concerning the federal party in Massachusetts, is a 
 striking proof of this. It would be easy to multiply examples of this 
 failure of memory in the last years of his life ; but the following will suffice. 
 In his character of rector of the University of Virginia, he made out a sort 
 of commission, or certificate of appointment for the professors. When he 
 gave me mine, I found on inspection that he had inserted the name of my 
 friend Henry St. George Tucker, the president of the court of appeals. 
 On representing it to him he took it with him to alter it ; he brought it to 
 me with the name altered in one part, but left unchanged in another. I 
 have before me several short notes written to his physician, Dr. Dungli- 
 son of the university, in which the name of that gentleman is spelt four 
 different ways. 
 
TF1E LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 593 
 
 fervid attachment which the great mass of all parties felt 
 for that illustrious man; and profited by the advantage 
 which his death gave them, when the murmurs of discontent 
 were hushed in the national tribute of regret and veneration 
 for his memory, and all his supposed errors were forgotten. 
 Yet with all their efforts, thus favoured by circumstances, 
 they were unable to affect Mr. Jefferson s popularity ; and, 
 so far as the sentiments of the people are to be inferred from 
 their acts, they gave their sanction to these views. They 
 did not indeed consider them as applicable to General Wash 
 ington, and they did not believe that Mr. Jefferson meant 
 so to apply them. He and they had entire confidence in 
 Washington s republicanism and patriotism, but yet be 
 lieved that he might sometimes be mistaken. Nor in sup 
 posing that those around him had an influence on his 
 opinions both of men and measures, can they be fairly 
 regarded as impeaching either his firmness or discernment, 
 for where is the man who would not be so influenced ? Such 
 an influence was the more readily credited, when it was 
 recollected that he was surrounded by individuals who were 
 more familiar with subjects of legislation, diplomacy, and 
 constitutional law than himself; and that, with his charac 
 teristic modesty and caution, no one was more sensible of 
 this difference than General Washington himself. 
 
 The journals of the day show that Mr. Jefferson did not 
 suffer with his own party for the letter to Mazzei, and the 
 declining opposition to him, while President, shows that he 
 did not suffer with the nation. It is then truly remarked 
 by Mr. Jefferson, that the federal party act the part of friends 
 to themselves rather than of Washington, in seeking to 
 make him the sharer of the bitter obloquy they provoked, 
 of the popular disfavour they underwent, and of the sentence 
 of condemnation deliberately passed on their policy, by the 
 most solemn acts of the nation ; and they alone do justice 
 
 VOL. i. 2 Q 
 
594 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 to his pure, firm, well-balanced mind, who, while they are 
 obliged to admit that, in some of his views and measures, he 
 was not one of themselves, maintain also that he cannot be 
 claimed by their opponents; and though he occasionally 
 acted with either party most often with the federalists he 
 approved or condemned the acts and opinions of either, with 
 an impartiality which entitled him to the praise that no other 
 of his contemporaries could boast of being a man of no 
 party. 
 
 His dissatisfaction with the political aspect of affairs was 
 further manifested in a letter to Mr. Munroe of the 12th of 
 June, immediately after the rising of Congress. " You will 
 have seen," he says, " by the proceedings of Congress, the 
 truth of what I always observed to you, that one man out 
 weighs them all, in influence over the people, who have sup 
 ported his judgment against their own and that of their 
 representatives. Republicanism must lie on its oars ; re 
 sign the vessel to its pilot; and themselves to the course 
 he thinks best for them." He speaks of the influence of the 
 bank, and of the deprivation of money by its issues. He 
 says, the paper in circulation in and around Philadelphia 
 amounts to twenty millions of dollars, and that in the whole 
 union, to one hundred millions ; but he adds that the last 
 estimate is too high. Indeed the paper in circulation, at 
 this time, when the population is about three times what 
 it was then, and the increase of wealth yet greater, does not 
 much exceed one hundred millions, and probably at the time 
 spoken of was less than thirty millions. At that period the 
 affairs of banks were studiously concealed from the public ; 
 and one of the most important ameliorations that have 
 since taken place in regard to these institutions, is, that their 
 actual condition is now made known to the world, by which 
 not only their imprudence is checked, but false impressions 
 concerning them are prevented. The extravagant estimate 
 mentioned by Mr. Jefferson was made from some mistaken 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 595 
 
 and imaginary proportion between their capital and their 
 supposed issues. He considers that the consequence of such 
 an increase of the circulating medium has been a depre 
 ciation of 50 per cent., which he endeavours to prove by a 
 reference to the prices of commodities. But as all the banks 
 in the country then redeemed their notes in specie, it is clear 
 that such a rise could have taken place in the money price 
 of no article of merchandise ; and if it existed at all, it must 
 have been confined to town lots and lands near the towns, 
 the price of which often depends upon fancy rnd whim, and 
 upon speculative notions of future profit, in which hope has 
 its wonted influence in biassing the judgment. The prices 
 of tobacco and wheat must always have been regulated here 
 by the prices abroad, whatever superabundance of money 
 we may have had ; and the depreciation of paper can never 
 be greater when compared with other articles, than it is with 
 gold and silver. Indeed, Mr. Jefferson admits that the 
 lands in his neighbourhood had not risen. 
 
 There having recently appeared in a leading opposition 
 paper, the Aurora, an anonymous attack on ihe adminis 
 tration, in which were first published the queries which the 
 President had propounded to his cabinet as to the course 
 to be pursued on the arrival of Mr. Genet, Mr. Jefferson, 
 knowing that a copy had been in his possession, and had 
 been communicated only to the members of the cabinet, 
 was induced to write immediately to General Washington, 
 for the purpose of preventing or averting any suspicion that 
 the publication was made by his agency. He declares that 
 the paper had never been out of his possession, and that 
 its contents had never been communicated to any one, ex 
 cept perhaps to Mr. Madison, who had his entire confidence. 
 He at the same time adverts to the efforts of mischief-making 
 individuals to produce a schism between them, and particu 
 larly alludes to one person, whom he charges with the most 
 
 2 Q 2 
 
596 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 unfair and culpable practices to obtain materials for his un 
 worthy purposes. He at the same time asserts, in a tone of 
 manly independence, his right and his practice to speak 
 unreservedly of political affairs. He here takes occasion to 
 repeat a remark formerly made, that from an early period 
 of life he had resolved never to write for the newspapers, 
 and that he had rigidly adhered to his determination. 
 
 He also applied for a copy of the written reasons he had 
 given, as a member of the cabinet, in the case of the Little 
 Sarah ; remarking, that although he did not know that the 
 paper would ever be of the least importance to him, " yet 
 one loves to possess arms, though he hopes never to have 
 occasion for them." 
 
 General Washington, in his answer, promptly exculpated 
 Mr. Jefferson from the charge of divulging these queries, 
 and says that he knows by whom they were communicated, 
 and for what purpose. He admits that he had learnt that 
 Mr. Jefferson and his friends spoke disrespectfully of him, 
 but that he had always replied to such communications, that 
 lie had no reason to question Mr. Jefferson s sincerity. He 
 disclaims being under the undue influence of any one ; says 
 that he did not believe in the infallibility of the politics or 
 measures of any man living; that he was no party man 
 himself; and if parties did exist, his first wish was to recon 
 cile them. He repels the charges of undue prejudice against 
 France, and partiality for England, with great warmth. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Munroe in July, that the suc 
 cess of the Anglican party in getting the British treaty 
 through "was a dear-bought victory ; v and he is evidently 
 very sanguine of a favourable change, whether General 
 Washington s successor should be " a monocrat or repub 
 lican." He mentions the court paid to Patrick Henry by 
 the federalists, and the offers made to him; and says that 
 (t Mr. Jay and his advocate Camillas (Hamilton,) are com- 
 letely treaty foundered." 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 597 
 
 By this time Mr. Jefferson was the avowed candidate of 
 the republican party, in case General Washington resigned; 
 but his pretensions were not so warmly or so openly pressed 
 as they would have been, if the retirement of the President 
 had been formally announced. The parties showed no for 
 bearance towards each other ; but their respective views in 
 the choice of a successor to General Washington had not 
 
 O 
 
 yet constituted a part of their public discussions. 
 
 In the month of September, however, General Washington, 
 by a farewell address* to the people of the United States, 
 declared his fixed determination not to be again a candidate 
 for their suffrages, but to retire to private life after the ex 
 piration of his constitutional term, on the 3rd of March, 1797. 
 And all motive for reserve having now ceased, whether from 
 caution or delicacy, the politicians on both sides prepared 
 for the struggle, and put into operation those means of 
 attack and defence which they had long been previously 
 preparing. The supporters of the administration had gene 
 rally fixed on the vice-president, Mr. Adams, as their can 
 didate, while its opponents, with yet greater unanimity and 
 cordiality, selected Mr. Jefferson. 
 
 Mr. Adams was recommended to the federal party by his 
 services in the revolution, by his being likely to unite the 
 votes of New England, by his favour with the English party 
 from his speculative views concerning the British constitu 
 tion, and by the office he had already held for eight years, 
 which seemed to give him the claim of seniority over his 
 associates. Yet it was not without some mistrust and hesi- 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson lias in a letter to Judge Johnson given an account of 
 the divided authorship of this address, \\hich some of his political oppo 
 nents have attempted to discredit. The time will come when his account 
 will be supported, by the most undeniable evidence, by which it will ap 
 pear that the father of his country, in giving his last advice to his fellow 
 citizens, with equal modesty and good sense did not disdain to ask and 
 receive assistance from those whom he believed best qualified to give it. 
 
598 THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 tation that he was accepted by some ; for he was known to 
 be obstinately self-willed in adhering to his opinions, and 
 if he was honest and independent in forming them, he was 
 likewise sometimes eccentric ; he was also supposed to attach 
 an undue importance to the ceremonials of rank, and to 
 arrogate to himself a degree of personal deference, which 
 qualities were unfavourable to that real dignity and weight 
 of character which are at all times so desirable in a chief 
 magistrate; but especially when the country was divided 
 into two jealous and hostile parties. Thus his good qualities, 
 by their excess, as well as his weaknesses, formed grounds 
 of objection to him ; but either, on account of unpopularity 
 from the British treaty, or from having a less favourable 
 geographical position, no other competitor was deemed 
 equally strong. 
 
 The votes therefore of the two parties were generally 
 given to Mr. Adams and Mr. Jefferson respectively ; but 
 parties not being as well disciplined then as at the present 
 day, the votes of some of the states, where each elector was 
 chosen in a separate district, were divided between the two 
 candidates. Thus both in Virginia and North Carolina, Mr. 
 Adams received one vote, though the other votes were given 
 for Mr. Jefferson ; and even in Pennsylvania, where the mode 
 of election, by general ticket, was likely to result in an un 
 divided vote of the state, Mr. Adams also received one vote 
 by the extraordinary popularity of one of the electors of his 
 party. The result of which favourable circumstances was, 
 that he received 71 votes, being one more than a majority, 
 and Mr. Jefferson but 68 ; whereas, if these votes repre 
 senting minorities of those respective states had been trans 
 ferred to him, their respective votes would have been exactly 
 reversed. Though Mr. Jefferson s vote was not sufficient to 
 elect him to the office of President, it secured him that of 
 vice-president, as Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, who had 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 599 
 
 been the individual selected by the federalists for that office, 
 received but 59 votes*. 
 
 While the election was pending, and before its results 
 could be certainly known, Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Madison 
 on the 17th of December, and after declaring his anxious 
 hope that he might come out second or third* he adverts to 
 the possibility of an equality of electoral votes between him 
 and Mr. Adams, and that the representatives might be also 
 divided. In this case, he says, he was impelled both by 
 duty and inclination to relieve the embarrassment ; and he 
 authorized Mr. Madison, in that event, to urge on his be 
 half that Mr. Adams should be preferred, on the ground of 
 seniority, both as to years and public services ; that when 
 there were so many motives to induce some of the members 
 to change their votes, the addition of his wish might have 
 some effect. In speaking of our foreign affairs, he remarks, 
 " that they never wore so gloomy an aspect since the year 
 1783. Let those come to the helm who think they can steer 
 clear of the difficulties. I have no confidence in myself for 
 the undertaking." 
 
 He expresses similar sentiments in a letter to Governor 
 Kutledge of South Carolina, ten days afterwards. " I had 
 retired," he said, " after five-and-twenty years of constant 
 occupation in public affairs, and total abandonment of my 
 own. I retired much poorer than when I entered the publi c 
 service, and desired nothing but rest and oblivion. My 
 name, however, was again brought forward, without con 
 cert or expectation on my part ; (on my salvation I declare 
 it ;) I do not as yet know the result, as a matter of fact ; 
 
 * Mr. Jefferson received the votes of seven out of the sixteen states ; to 
 wit, the 8 votes of South Carolina, the 4 of Georgia, the 3 of Tennessee, 
 and the 4 of Kentucky ; 14 of the 15 votes of Pennsylvania, 20 of the 
 21 votes of Virginia, and 11 of the 12 votes of North Carolina. He 
 also received 4 of the 1 1 votes of Maryland. 
 
GOO THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 
 
 for in my retired canton we have nothing later from Phila 
 delphia than of the second week of this month. Yet I have 
 
 never one moment doubted the result On principles of 
 
 public respect I should not have refused; but I protest, 
 before my God, that I shall, from the bottom of my heart, 
 rejoice at escaping. I know well that no man will ever 
 bring out of that office the reputation which carries him into 
 it. I have no ambition to govern men ; no passion which 
 would lead me to delight to ride in a storm. Flumina amo 
 sylvasque inglorius." 
 
 On the following day, December 28th, he addressed a 
 letter to Mr. Adams, in which he states, that though he did 
 not certainly know the result of the election, he never doubted 
 it, and improbable as it might seem, he never wished for 
 any other. He hints to Mr. Adams that he might be cheated 
 out of his succession by his arch friend of New York, meaning 
 Hamilton, who was known not to be partial to Mr. Adams. 
 He professes sentiments of friendship and esteem, and re 
 peats the unambitious disclaimer made to Mr. Rutledge, as 
 well as his opinion of the difficulties in prospect to those 
 who would have the direction of public affairs. 
 
 The same sentiments were expressed to Mr. Madison in 
 a letter of the first of January, ere he had been informed 
 of the result of the election. " It is difficult," he remarks, 
 " to obtain full credit to declarations of disinclination to 
 honours, and most so with those who still remain in the 
 world. But never was there a more solid unwillingness, 
 founded on rigorous calculation, formed in the mind of any 
 man, short of peremptory refusal. No arguments, therefore, 
 were necessary to reconcile me to a relinquishment of the 
 first office, or acceptance of the second. No motive could 
 have induced me to undertake the first, but that of putting 
 our vessel upon her republican tack, and preventing her 
 being driven too far to leeward of her true principles." He 
 
THE LIFE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 601 
 
 professes no unwillingness to take the office of vice-president, 
 or to be placed in a secondary station to Mr. Adams, who 
 had always been his senior. He adds, " If Mr. Adams 
 could be induced to administer the government on its true 
 principles, quitting his bias for an English constitution, it 
 would be worthy of consideration whether i^; would not be 
 for the public good, to come to a good understanding with 
 him as to his future elections. He is the only sure barrier 
 against Hamilton s getting in." 
 
 It is altogether unreasonable to question the sincerity of 
 these declarations of Mr. Jefferson concerning the presi 
 dency, as his enemies affect to do ; when made so continu 
 ally and in the same strain, not to those who were less 
 intimate with him, but to his most confidential friends, and 
 who consequently must have been aware of their hollo wness 
 and insincerity, had such been their character. No object 
 can be assigned sufficient to warrant such a risk of losing 
 that good opinion which he had always so highly prized. 
 A state of feeling confessedly at variance with the ordinary 
 tenor of human desires is rendered less improbable from 
 the difficulties that were fast gathering around our foreign 
 affairs, and the unfeigned distrust he had of his own quali 
 fications for conducting the nation through a period of war, 
 which tohis mind was inevitable. This consideration seemed to 
 present itself whenever he mentioned the office of President ; 
 and to all his correspondents he spoke of the "storm that 
 was impending/ 1 and of " the difficulty of avoiding its fury." 
 
 But whatever were his motives, it must be admitted that 
 he bore his defeat with the best possible grace, and that, 
 gratified by the proofs of public confidence and esteem he 
 had received, he seemed to think more of the cares and risks 
 he had escaped than of the power and distinction he had 
 missed; and he prepared to discharge the far humbler duties 
 to which his country had assigned him, with his wonted 
 cheerfulness, diligence, and fidelity. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 [A, p. 77.] 
 
 Articles of Confederation and perpetual union entered into by the Dele 
 gates of the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, $c., 
 in General Congress, met at Philadelphia, May -20th, 1775. 
 
 I. The name of the confederacy shall henceforth be, The United Co 
 lonies of North America. 
 
 II. The United Colonies hereby severally enter into a firm league of 
 friendship with each other, binding on themselves and their posterity, 
 for their common defence against their enemies, for the security of their 
 liberties and their properties, the safety of their persons and families, 
 and their mutual and general welfare. 
 
 III. That each colony shall enjoy and retain as much as it may think 
 fit of its own present laws, customs, rights, privileges, and peculiar juris 
 dictions, within its own limits; and may amend its own constitution, as 
 shall seem best to its own assembly or convention. 
 
 IV. That for the more convenient management of general interests, 
 delegates shall be elected annually, in each colony, to meet in general 
 Congress, at such time and place as shall be agreed on in the next 
 preceding Congress. Only where particular circumstances do not make 
 a deviation necessary, it is understood to be a rule that each succeeding 
 Congress is to be held in a different colony, till the whole number be 
 gone through, and so in perpetual rotation ; and that, accordingly, the 
 next Congress after the present shall be held at Annapolis, in Maryland. 
 
 V. That the power and duty of the Congress shall extend to the de 
 termining on war and peace, the entering into alliances, the reconciliation 
 with Great Britain, the settling all disputes between colony and colony, 
 if any should arise, and the planting new colonies where proper. The 
 Congress shall also make such general ordinances thought necessary to 
 the general welfare, of which particular assemblies cannot be competent, 
 viz : those that may relate to our general commerce or general currency, 
 to the establishment of posts, the regulation of our common forces; the 
 Congress shall also have the appointment of all oflicers, civil and military, 
 appertaining to the general confederacy, such as general treasurer, secre 
 tary, &c. &c. c. 
 
 VI. All charges of war, and all other general expenses to be incurred 
 
APPENDIX. 003 
 
 for the common welfare, shall be defrayed out of a common treasury, 
 which is to be supplied by each colony, in proportion to its number of 
 male polls between 16 and 60 years of age; the taxes for paying that 
 proportion are to be laid and levied by the laws of each colony. 
 
 VII. The number of delegates to be elected and sent to the Congress 
 by each colony, shall bs regulated from time to time, by the number of 
 such polls returned, so as that one delegate shall be allowed for every 
 5000 polls. And the delegates are to bring with them to, every Congress 
 an authenticated return of the number of polls in their respective colonies, 
 which is to be taken for the purposes above-mentioned. 
 
 A 7 III. At every meeting of the Congress, one half of the members re 
 turned, exclusive of proxies, shall be necessary to make a quorum ; and 
 each delegate at the Congress, shall have a vote in all cases ; and, if ne 
 cessarily absent, shall be allowed to appoint any other delegate from the 
 same colony to be his proxy, who may vote for him. 
 
 IX. An Executive Council shall be appointed by the Congress out of 
 their own body, consisting of twelve persons of whom, in the first appoint 
 ment, one third, viz. : four shall be for one year, four for two years, and 
 four for three years ; and, as the said terms expire, the vacancies shall 
 be filled up by appointment for three years, whereby one-third of the 
 members shall be chosen annually ; and each person who has served the 
 same term of three years as counsellor, shall have a respite of three years 
 before he can be elected again. This council, of whom two-thirds shall 
 be a quorum, in the recess of the Congress is to execute what shall have 
 been enjoined thereby; to manage thu general continental business and 
 interests, to receive applications from foreign countries, to prepare mat 
 ters for the consideration of the Congress, to fill up, pro tempore, conti 
 nental offices that fall vacant, and to draw on the general treasurer 
 for such monies us may be necessary for general services, and appro 
 priated by the Congress to such services. 
 
 X. No colony shall engage in an offensive war with any nation of 
 Indians without the consent of the Congress or great council above-men 
 tioned, who are first to consider the justice and necessity of such war. 
 
 XI. A perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, is to be entered into, 
 as soon as may be, with the Six Nations; their limits ascertained, and to 
 be secured to them ; these lands not to be encroached on ; nor any pri 
 vate or colony purchase to be made of them hereafter to be held good, 
 nor any contract for lands to be made but between the great council of 
 the Indians at Onondaga and the general Congress. The boundaries 
 and lands of all other Indians shall also be ascertained and secured to 
 them in the same manner; and persons appointed to reside among them 
 in proper districts, who shall take care to prevent injustice in the trade 
 with them ; and be enabled at our general expense, by occasional small 
 supplies, to relieve their personal vvanis and distresses ; and all purchases 
 from them shall be by the Congress, for the general advantage and 
 benefit of the United Colonies. 
 
604 APPENDIX. 
 
 XII. As all new institutions may have imperfections, which only time 
 and experience can discover, it is agreed that the General Congress, 
 from time to time, shall propose such amendments to this constitution 
 as may he found necessary, which being approved by a majority of the 
 colony assemblies, shall be equally binding with the rest of the articles 
 of this confederation. 
 
 XIII. Any and every colony from Great Britain upon the continent of 
 North America, not at present engaged in our association, may, upon 
 application, and joining the said association, be received into the con 
 federation, viz. : Quebec, St. John s, Nova Scotia, Bermudas, and the 
 East and West Floridas, and shall thereupon be entitled to all the ad 
 vantages of our union, mutual assistance and commerce. 
 
 These articles shall be proposed to the several provincial conventions 
 or assemblies, to be by them considered ; and, if approved, they are ad 
 vised to empower their delegates to agree and ratify the same in the 
 ensuing Congress: after which the union thereby established is to con 
 tinue firm, till the terms of reconciliation proposed in the petition of the 
 last Congress to the King are agreed to ; till the acts, since made, re 
 straining the American commerce and fisheries, are repealed ; till repa 
 ration is made for the injury done to Boston by shutting up its port ; for 
 burning Charlestown, and for the expense of this ur.just war; and till all 
 the British troops are withdrawn from America. On the arrival of these 
 events, the colonies are to return to their ft rmcr connexions and friend 
 ship with Great Britain ; but on failure thereof, this confederation is to 
 be perpetual. 
 
 [B, p. 90.] 
 
 A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America, 
 <in General Congress assembled* 
 
 When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one 
 people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with 
 another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and 
 equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature s God entitle 
 them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they 
 should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men are created equal ; 
 that they are endowed by their Creator with [inherent and*] inalienable 
 rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; 
 that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, de 
 riving their just powers from the consent of the governed ; that whenever 
 any form of government becomes destructive of these ends , it is the right 
 
 * The parts struck out are printed in Italics, and enclosed in brackets. The 
 additions are placed in foot-notes. 
 
 * Certain iii alienable lights. 
 
APPENDIX. G05 
 
 of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, lay 
 ing its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such 
 form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happi 
 ness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established 
 should not he changed for light and transient causes : and accordingly 
 all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer 
 while evils arc sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the 
 forms to which they are accustomed. But when a Ion g s train of abuses 
 and usurpations [begun at a distinguished period and] pursuing in 
 variably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under abso 
 lute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such govern 
 ment, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has 
 been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the 
 necessity which constrains them to [expunge?] their former systems of 
 government. The history of the present King of Groat Britain is a 
 history of [unremitting*] injuries and usurpations, [among which appears 
 no solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest, but all have c ~\ 
 in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these 
 states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world [for the 
 truth of which we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood. ] 
 
 He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary 
 for the public good. 
 
 He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing 
 importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be 
 obtained ; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to 
 them. 
 
 He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large dis 
 tricts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of repre 
 sentation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them, and formidable 
 to tyrants only. 
 
 He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfort 
 able, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole 
 purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. 
 
 He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly [and continually} 
 for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people. 
 lie has refused for along time after such dissolutions to cause others 
 to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, 
 have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state remain 
 ing, in the meantime, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from with 
 out and convulsions within. 
 
 He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states ; for that 
 purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to 
 pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the condi 
 tions of new appropriations of lands. 
 
 8 Alter. b Repeated injuries. c All having in direct object. 
 
GOG APPENDIX. 
 
 He has \9ufferedF\ the administration of justice, {totally to cease in 
 some of the states* 3 ] refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary 
 powers. 
 
 He has made [our] judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of 
 their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries. 
 
 He has erected a multitude of new offices, [by a self -assumed power] 
 and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people and eat out 
 their substance. 
 
 He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies [and ships of 
 irar] without the consent of our legislatures. 
 
 He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, 
 the civil power. 
 
 He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdisction foreign to 
 our constitutions and unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent to 
 their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large bodies of armed 
 troops among us; for protecting them by a mock trial from punishment, 
 for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these 
 states ; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world ; for imposing 
 taxes on us without our consent ; for depriving us [ c ] of the benefits of 
 trial by jury ; for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended 
 offences ; for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighbour 
 ing province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarg 
 ing its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru 
 ment for introducing the same absolute rule into these [states*] ; for 
 taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and alter 
 ing fundamentally the forms of our governments ; for suspending our 
 own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legis 
 late for us in all cases whatsoever. 
 
 He has abdicated government here [ withdrawing his governors, and 
 declaring us out of his allegiance and protection. e ] 
 
 He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and 
 destroyed the lives of our people. 
 
 He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to 
 complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny already begun with 
 circumstances of cruelty and perfidy [ f ] unworthy the head of a civilized 
 nation. 
 
 He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas 
 to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their 
 friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. 
 
 He has [~] endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the 
 merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistin 
 guished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions [of existence.] 
 
 a Obstructed. 
 
 b By refusing his assent to laws. c In many cases. d Colonies. 
 
 e By declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. 
 
 f Scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally. 
 
 s Excited domestic insurrections among us, and has. 
 
APPENDIX. 607 
 
 [He has incited treasonable insurrections of our fellow citizens, with 
 the allurements of forfeiture and confiscation of our property. 
 
 He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its 
 most sacred rights of hfe and liberty in the persons of a distant people 
 who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in 
 another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation 
 thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of INFIDEL powers, is 
 the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. Determined to keep 
 open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted 
 his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to 
 restrain this execrable commerce. And that thi* assemblage of horrors 
 might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very 
 people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which 
 he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded 
 them : thus paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIKS 
 of one people with crimes which he urges them to commit against the 
 LIVES of another .] 
 
 In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in 
 the most humhle terms : our repeated addresses have been answered 
 only hy repeated injuries. 
 
 A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may de 
 fine a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a [ a ] people [who mean to be free. 
 Future ages will scarcely believe that the hardiness of one man adven 
 tured, within the short compass of twelve years only, to lay a foundation 
 so broad and so undisguised for tyranny over a people fostered and 
 fixed in principles of freedom. ] 
 
 Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We 
 have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to 
 extend [a b ] jurisdiction over [these our states ]. We have reminded them 
 of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here, [no one of 
 which could warrant so strange a pretension : that these were effected at 
 the expense of our own blood and treasure, unassisted by the wealth or 
 the strength of Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several 
 forms of government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying 
 a foundation for perpetual league and amity with them : but that sub 
 mission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in 
 idea, if history may be credited: and, ] we [ d ] appealed to their native 
 justice and magnanimity [as well as to*\ the ties of our common kindred 
 to disavow these usurpations which [were likely to 1 ] interrupt our con 
 nexion and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of 
 justice and of consanguinity, [and when occasions have been given them, 
 by the regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the 
 disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election, re-established 
 
 a Free. h An unwarrantable jurisdiction. c Us. d Have. 
 
 e And we have conjured them by the ties. f Would inevitably interrupt. 
 
(JOS APPENDIX. 
 
 them in power. At this very time, too, they are permitting their chief 
 magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch 
 and foreign mercenaries, to invade and destroy us. These facts have 
 given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to 
 renounce for ever these unfeeling brethren. We must endeavour to for 
 get our former love for them, and hold them as we hold the rest of man- 
 hind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free and 
 a great people together ; but a communication of grandeur and of free 
 dom, it seems, is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. 
 The road to happiness and to glory is open to us too. We will tread it 
 apart from them, and A ] acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our 
 [eternal] separation [ b ] ! 
 
 We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in 
 General Congress assembled, do in the name, and by the authority of the 
 good people of these [stirtes, reject and renounce all allegiance and sub 
 jection to the kings of Great Britain and all others who may hereafter 
 claim by, through, or under them ; we utterly dissolve all political con 
 nexion which may heretofore have subsisted between us and the people 
 or parliament of Great Britain : and finally we do assert and declare 
 these colonies to be free and independent states,] and that as free and 
 independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, con 
 tract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things 
 which independent states may of right do. c 
 
 * And for the support of this declaration, we mutually pledge to each 
 other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour. d 
 
 [C, p. 90.] 
 
 In a parcel found among Mi\ Jefferson s papers is a parcel indorsed, 
 " Papers of old Congress, 1 containing the original draughts or copies of 
 the following documents, drawn by him : 
 
 a We must therefore acquiesce. 
 
 b And hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies ia war, in peace 
 fi leads. 
 
 c We therefore the representatives of the United States of America in Gene 
 ral Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme Judge of the world for the 
 rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, and by the authority of the good 
 people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colo 
 nies are. and of right ought to be, free and independent states; tbat they are 
 absolved from all allegiance to the JJritish crown, and that all political con- 
 nexion between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally 
 dissolved ; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy 
 war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other 
 acts and things which independent states may of right do. 
 
 a And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protec 
 tion of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our for 
 tunes, and our sacred honour. 
 
APPENDIX. 609 
 
 1. Declaration of the causes of taking up arras. 
 
 2. Resolution accepting General Sullivan s resignation. 
 
 3. " A Declaration [or Letter to General Howe] in Allen s case." 
 
 4. A recommendation to the " several provincial assemblies or conven 
 tions of the United colonies," to elect delegates to Congress for one year 
 only, and annually to displace one-half the delegation ; so that no mem 
 ber should be in more than two years consecutively. 
 
 5. Resolutions inviting foreigners to quit the service of the king of 
 Great Britain, and promising them land. 
 
 6. Resolutions on * the Articles inclosed by Lord Drummond to Lord 
 Howe." 
 
 7. Resolution asserting the determination to retaliate upon the enemy 
 for any executions, &c. of prisoners. 
 
 8. Resolution in answer to " the Resolution of the House of Com 
 mons/ [Lord North s conciliatory propositions,] by Thomas Jefferson, 
 with an amendment in the hand-writing of Dr. Franklin. 
 
 [D, p. 104.] 
 
 AN ACT for establishing RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, passed in the Assembly 
 of Virginia in the beginning of the year 1786. 
 
 WELL aware that Almighty God hath created the mind freej; that all 
 attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil 
 incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and 
 are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of 4 our religion, who 
 being Lord both of body and mind, yet choose not to propagate it by coer 
 cions on either as was in his Almighty power to do ; that the impious 
 presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, 
 being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion 
 over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of 
 thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to im 
 pose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions 
 over the greatest part of the world, and through all time ; that to com 
 pel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opin 
 ions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical ; that even the forcing 
 him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is de 
 priving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the 
 particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose 
 powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing 
 from the ministry those temporal rewards which proceeding from an ap 
 probation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement to 
 earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind ; that our 
 civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, more than our 
 opinions in physics or geometry ; that therefore the proscribing any citi 
 zen as unworthy the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity 
 
 VOL. I. 2 R 
 
610 APPENDIX. 
 
 of being called to the offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess 
 or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of 
 those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow- 
 citizens he has a natural right ; that it tends also to corrupt the principles 
 of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly 
 of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess 
 and conform to it ; that though indeed these are criminal who do not 
 withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the 
 bait in their way ; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers 
 into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of 
 principles, on the supposition of their ill-tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, 
 which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course 
 judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and 
 approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square 
 with or differ from his own ; that it is time enough for the rightful pur 
 poses of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles 
 break out into overt acts against peace and good order ; and finally, that 
 truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper 
 and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the con 
 flict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, 
 free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is 
 permitted freely to contradict them. 
 
 Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall 
 be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or 
 ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or 
 burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of 
 his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, 
 and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and 
 that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil 
 capacities. 
 
 And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the people 
 for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain 
 the acts of succeeding Assemblies, constituted with the power equal to 
 our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable, would be of 
 no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the 
 rights hereby asserted are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if 
 any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its 
 operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right. 
 
 [E,p.227.] 
 Account of the Paper Money of the Revolution. 
 
 Previous to the late revolution, most of the States were in the habit, when 
 ever they had occasion for more money than could be raised immediately, 
 by taxes, to issue paper notes or bills, in the name of the State, wherein 
 
APPENDIX. 611 
 
 they promised to pay to the bearer, the sura named in the note or bill. 
 In some of the states, no time of payment was fixed, nor tax laid to 
 enable payment. In these, the bills depreciated. But others of the 
 states named in the bill the day when it should be paid, laid taxes to 
 bring in money for that purpose, and paid the bills punctually, on or 
 before the day named. In these states, paper money was in as high 
 estimation as gold and silver. On the commencement o(|the late Revo 
 lution, Congress had no money. The external commerce of the states 
 being suppressed, the farmer could not sell his produce, and, of course, 
 could not pay a tax. Congress had no resource then, but in paper 
 money. Not being able to lay a tax for its redemption, they could only 
 promise that taxes should be laid for that purpose, so as to redeem the 
 bills by a certain day. They did not foresee the long continuance of the 
 war, the almost total suppression of their exports, and other events, which 
 rendered the performance of their engagement impossible. The paper 
 money continued, for a twelvemonth, equal to gold and silver. But the 
 quantities which they were obliged to emit, for the purposes of the war, 
 exceeded what had been the usual quantity of the circulating medium. It 
 began, therefore, to become cheaper or, as we expressed it, it depreciated, 
 as gold and silver would have done, had they been thrown into circulation 
 in equal quantities. But not having, like them, an intrinsic value, its 
 depreciation was more rapid, and greater, than could ever have happened 
 with them. In two years it had fallen to two dollars of paper money for 
 one of silver ; in three years, to four for one ; in nine months more, it fell 
 to ten for one ; and in the six months following, that is to say, by Sep 
 tember, 1779, it had fallen to twenty for one. 
 
 Congress, alarmed at the consequences which were to be apprehended, 
 should they lose this resource altogether, thought it necessary to make a 
 vigorous effort to stop its further depreciation. They therefore deter 
 mined, in the first place, that their emissions should not exceed two hun 
 dred millions of dollars, to which term they were then nearly arrived : 
 and, though they knew that twenty dollars of what they were then issuing, 
 would buy no more for their army than one silver dollar would buy, 
 yet they thought it would be worth while to submit to the sacrifices of 
 nineteen out of twenty dollars, if they could thereby stop further depre 
 ciation. They, therefore, published an address to their constituents, in 
 which they renewed their original declarations, that this paper money 
 should be redeemed at dollar for dollar. They proved the ability of the 
 states to do this, and that their liberty would be cheaply bought at that 
 price. The declaration was ineffectual. No man received the money at 
 a better rate ; on the contrary, in six months more, that is, by March, 1 780, 
 it had fallen to forty for one. Congress then tried an experiment of a 
 different kind. Considering their former offers to redeem this money, at 
 par, as relinquished, by the general refusal to take it but in progressive 
 depreciation, they required the whole to be brought in, declared it should 
 
612 APPENDIX. 
 
 be redeemed at its present value, of forty for one, and that they would 
 give to the holders new bills,*reduced in their denomination to the sum of 
 gold or silver, which was actually to be paid for them. This would re 
 duce the nominal sum of the mass in circulation, to the present worth of 
 that mass, which was five millions ; a sum not too great for the circulation 
 of the states, and which, they therefore hoped, would not depreciate fur 
 ther, as they continued firm in their purpose of emitting no more. This 
 effort was as unavailing as the former. Very little of the money was 
 brought in. It continued to circulate and to depreciate, till the end of 
 1 780, when it had fallen to seventy-five for one, and the money circulated 
 from the French army, being, by that time, sensible in all the states north 
 of the Potomac, the paper ceased its circulation altogether, in those states. 
 In Virginia and North Carolina, it continued a year longer, within which 
 time it fell to one thousand for one, and then expired, as it had done in 
 the other states, without a single groan. Not a murmur was heard on 
 this occasion among the people. On the contrary, universal congratula 
 tions took place, on their seeing this gigantic mass, whose dissolution 
 had threatened convulsions which should shake their infant confederacy 
 to its centre, quietly interred in its grave. Foreigners, indeed, who do 
 not, like the natives, feel indulgence for its memory, as of a being which 
 has vindicated their liberties, and fallen in the moment of victory, have 
 beed loud, and still are loud in their complaints. A few of them have 
 reason ; but the most noisy are not the best of them. They are persons 
 who have become bankrupt, by unskilful attempts at commerce with 
 America. That they may have some pretext to offer to their creditors, 
 they have bought up great masses of this dead money in America, where 
 it is to be had at five thousand for one, and they show the certificates of 
 their paper possessions, as if they had all died in their hands, and had 
 been the cause of their bankruptcy. Justice will be done to all by paying 
 to all persons what this money actually cost them, with an interest of 
 six per cent, from the time they received it. If difficulties present them 
 selves in the ascertaining the epoch of the receipt, it has been thought 
 better that the state should lose, by admitting easy proofs, than that 
 individuals, and especially foreigners, should, by being held to such as 
 would be difficult, perhaps impossible. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
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