Volume 5 / Part 3 — PART III.—Continued. LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE U. S. DOWN TO THE TIME OF HIS DEATH. 1790-1826. (continued 11)

I receive, with great pleasure, the testimonies of personal esteem which breathes through your letter; and I pray you to accept those equally sincere with which I now salute you.

TO MR. BARLOW.

Monticello, October 8, 1809.

Dear Sir,—It is long since I ought to have acknowledged the receipt of your most excellent oration on the 4th of July. I was doubting what you could say, equal to your own reputation, on so hackneyed a subject; but you have really risen out of it with lustre, and pointed to others a field of great expansion. A day or two after I received your letter to Bishop Gregoire, a copy of his diatribe to you came to hand from France. I had not before heard of it. He must have been eagle-eyed in quest of offence, to have discovered ground for it among the rubbish massed together in the print he animadverts on. You have done right in giving him a sugary answer. But he did not deserve it. For, notwithstanding a compliment to you now and then, he constantly returns to the identification of your sentiments with the extravagances of the Revolutionary zealots. I believe him a very good man, with imagination enough to declaim eloquently, but without judgment to decide. He wrote to me also on the doubts I had expressed five or six and twenty years ago, in the Notes of Virginia, as to the grade of understanding of the negroes, and he sent me his book on the literature of the negroes. His credulity has made him gather up every story he could find of men of color, (without distinguishing whether black, or of what degree of mixture,) however slight the mention, or light the authority on which they are quoted. The whole do no amount, in point of evidence, to what we know ourselves of Banneker. We know he had spherical trigonometry enough to make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicot, who was his neighbor and friend, and never missed an opportunity of puffing him. I have a long letter from Banneker, which shows him to have had a mind of very common stature indeed. As to Bishop Gregoire, I wrote him, as you have done, a very soft answer. It was impossible for doubt to have been more tenderly or hesitatingly expressed than that was in the Notes of Virginia, and nothing was or is farther from my intentions, than to enlist myself as the champion of a fixed opinion, where I have only expressed a doubt. St. Domingo will, in time, throw light on the question.

I intended, ere this, to have sent you the papers I had promised you. But I have taken up Marshall's fifth volume, and mean to read it carefully, to correct what is wrong in it, and commit to writing such facts and annotations as the reading of that work will bring into my recollection, and which has not yet been put on paper; in this I shall be much aided by my memorandums and letters, and will send you both the old and the new. But I go on very slowly. In truth, during the pleasant season, I am always out of doors, employed, not passing more time at my writing table than will despatch my current business. But when the weather becomes cold, I shall go out but little. I hope, therefore, to get through this volume during the ensuing winter; but should you want the papers sooner, they shall be sent at a moment's warning. The ride from Washington to Monticello in the stage, or in a gig, is so easy that I had hoped you would have taken a flight here during the season of good roads. Whenever Mrs. Barlow is well enough to join you in such a visit, it must be taken more at ease. It will give us real pleasure whenever it may take place. I pray you to present me to her respectfully, and I salute you affectionately.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN.

Monticello, October 11, 1809.

Dear Sir,—I do not know whether the request of Monsieur Moussier, explained in the enclosed letter, is grantable or not. But my partialities in favor of whatever may promote either the useful or liberal arts, induce me to place it under your consideration, to do in it whatever is right, neither more nor less. I would then ask you to favor me with three lines, in such form as I may forward him by way of answer.

I have reflected much and painfully on the change of dispositions which has taken place among the members of the cabinet, since the new arrangement, as you stated to me in the moment of our separation. It would be, indeed, a great public calamity were it to fix you in the purpose which you seemed to think possible. I consider the fortunes of our republic as depending, in an eminent degree, on the extinguishment of the public debt before we engage in any war: because, that done, we shall have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend it in war, without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its entire discharge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed to the English career of debt, corruption and rottenness, closing with revolution. The discharge of the debt, therefore, is vital to the destinies of our government, and it hangs on Mr. Madison and yourself alone. We shall never see another President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordinate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you would fix on that object the measure of your fame, and of the gratitude which our country will owe you. Nor can I yield up this prospect to the secondary considerations which assail your tranquillity. For sure I am, they never can produce any other serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated by our fellow citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to admit any remissness in their support of you. My opinion always was, that none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Congress than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does not feel your aid to be still as important for the future as it has been for the past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in the dispositions of Congress, and still less of the President, who, above all men, is the most interested and affectionately disposed to support you. I hope, then, you will abandon entirely the idea you expressed to me, and that you will consider the eight years to come as essential to your political career. I should certainly consider any earlier day of your retirement, as the most inauspicious day our new government has ever seen. In addition to the common interest in this question, I feel particularly for myself the considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you for your valuable aid during my administration of public affairs, a just sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was earned by your labors and belongs to you, and the sincere friendship and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to promote the common good; and of which I pray you now to accept the most cordial and respectful assurances.

TO THE CHEVALIER DE ONIS.

Monticello, November 4, 1809.

Thomas Jefferson presents his respectful compliments to his Excellency the Chevalier de Onis, and congratulates him on his safe arrival in the United States, and at a season so propitious for the preservation of health against the effects of a sensible and sudden change of climate. He hopes that his residence here will be made agreeable to him, and that it will be useful in cementing the friendship and intercourse of the two nations, so advantageous to both. He would have been happy to have paid his respects to the Chevalier de Onis in person, and to have had the honor of forming his acquaintance; but the distance and bad roads deny him that pleasure. He learns with great satisfaction that his venerable and worthy friend, Mr. Yznardi, continues in life and health, and takes this occasion of bearing testimony to his loyal and honorable conduct while in the United States. He salutes the Chevalier de Onis with assurances of his high respect and consideration.

TO GEORGE W. IRVING, ESQ.

Monticello, November 23, 1809.

Sir,—An American vessel, the property of a respectable merchant of Georgetown, on a voyage to some part of Europe for general purposes of commerce, proposes to touch at some part of Spain with the view of obtaining Merino sheep to be brought to our country. The necessity we are under, and the determination we have formed of emancipating ourselves from a dependence on foreign countries for manufactures which may be advantageously established among ourselves, has produced a very general desire to improve the quality of our wool by the introduction of the Merino race of sheep. Your sense of the duties you owe to your station will not permit me to ask, nor yourself to do any act which might compromit you with the government with which you reside, or forfeit that confidence on their part which can alone enable you to be useful to your country. But as far as that will permit you to give aid to the procuring and bringing away some of the valuable race, I take the liberty of soliciting you to do so—it will be an important service rendered to your country: to which you will be further encouraged by the assurance that the enterprise is solely on the behalf of agricultural gentlemen of distinguished character in Washington and its neighborhood, with a view of disseminating the benefits of their success as widely as they can. Without any interest in it myself, other than the general one, I cannot help wishing a favorable result, and therefore add my solicitations to the assurances of my constant esteem and respect.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monticello, November 26, 1809.

Dear Sir,—Your letter of the 6th was received from our post office on the 24th, after my return from Bedford. I now re-enclose the letters of Mr. Short and Romanzoff, and with them a letter from Armstrong, for your perusal, as there may be some matters in it not otherwise communicated. The infatuation of the British government and nation is beyond every thing imaginable. A thousand circumstances announce that they are on the point of being blown up, and they still proceed with the same madness and increased wickedness. With respect to Jackson I hear but one sentiment, except that some think he should have been sent off. The more moderate step was certainly more advisable. There seems to be a perfect acquiescence in the opinion of the Government respecting Onis. The public interest certainly made his rejection expedient, and as that is a motive which it is not pleasant always to avow, I think it fortunate that the contending claims of Charles and Ferdinand furnished such plausible embarrassment to the question of right; for, on our principles, I presume, the right of the Junta to send a Minister could not be denied. La Fayette, in a letter to me expresses great anxiety to receive his formal titles to the lands in Louisiana. Indeed, I know not why the proper officers have not sooner sent on the papers on which the grants might issue. It will be in your power to forward the grants or copies of them by some safe conveyance, as La Fayette says that no negotiation can be effected without them.

I enclose you a letter from Major Neely, Chickasaw agent, stating that he is in possession of two trunks of the unfortunate Governor Lewis, containing public vouchers, the manuscripts of his western journey, and probably some private papers. As he desired they should be sent to the President, as the public vouchers render it interesting to the public that they should be safely received, and they would probably come most safely if addressed to you, would it not be advisable that Major Neely should receive an order on your part to forward them to Washington addressed to you, by the Stage, and if possible under the care of some person coming on? When at Washington I presume the papers may be opened and distributed; that is to say, the vouchers to the proper offices where they are cognizable; the manuscript voyage, &c., to General Clarke, who is interested in it, and is believed to be now on his way to Washington; and his private papers, if any, to his administrator—who is John Marks, his half brother. It is impossible you should have time to examine and distribute them; but if Mr. Coles could find time to do it, the family would have entire confidence in his distribution. The other two trunks, which are in the care of Capt. Russel at the Chickasaw bluffs, and which Pernier (Gov. Lewis' servant) says contain his private property, I write to Capt. Russel, at the request of Mr. Marks, to forward to Mr. Brown at New Orleans, to be sent on to Richmond under my address. Pernier says that Gov. Lewis owes him $240 for his wages. He has received money from Neely to bring him on here, and I furnish him to Washington, where he will arrive penniless, and will ask for some money to be placed to the Governor's account. He rides a horse of the Governor's, which, with the approbation of the administration, I tell him to dispose of and give credit for the amount in his account against the Governor. He is the bearer of this letter, and of my assurances of constant and affectionate esteem.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monticello, November 30, 1809.

Dear Sir,—I received last night yours of the 27th, and rode this morning to Col. Monroe's. I found him preparing to set out to-morrow morning for London, from whence he will not return till Christmas. I had an hour or two's frank conversation with him. The catastrophe of poor Lewis served to lead us to the point intended. I reminded him that in the letter I wrote to him while in Europe, proposing the Government of Orleans, I also suggested that of Louisiana, if fears for health should be opposed to the other. I said something on the importance of the post, its advantages, &c.—expressed my regret at the curtain which seemed to be drawn between him and his best friends, and my wish to see his talents and integrity engaged in the service of his country again, and that his going into any post would be a signal of reconciliation, on which the body of republicans, who lamented his absence from the public service, would again rally to him. These are the general heads of what I said to him in the course of our conversation. The sum of his answers was, that to accept of that office was incompatible with the respect he owed himself; that he never would act in any office where he should be subordinate to any body but the President himself, or which did not place his responsibility substantially with the President and the nation; that at your accession to the chair, he would have accepted a place in the cabinet, and would have exerted his endeavors most faithfully in support of your fame and measures; that he is not unready to serve the public, and especially in the case of any difficult crisis in our affairs; that he is satisfied that such is the deadly hatred of both France and England, and such their self reproach and dread at the spectacle of such a government as ours, that they will spare nothing to destroy it; that nothing but a firm union among the whole body of republicans can save it, and therefore that no schism should be indulged on any ground; that in his present situation, he is sincere in his anxieties for the success of the administration, and in his support of it as far as the limited sphere of his action or influence extends; that his influence to this end had been used with those with whom the world had ascribed to him an interest he did not possess, until, whatever it was, it was lost, (he particularly named J. Randolph, who, he said, had plans of his own, on which he took no advice;) and that he was now pursuing what he believed his properest occupation, devoting his whole time and faculties to the liberation of his pecuniary embarrassments, which, three years of close attention, he hoped, would effect. In order to know more exactly what were the kinds of employ he would accept, I adverted to the information of the papers, which came yesterday, that Gen. Hampton was dead, but observed that the military life in our present state, offered nothing which could operate on the principle of patriotism; he said he would sooner be shot than take a command under Wilkinson. In this sketch, I have given truly the substance of his ideas, but not always his own words. On the whole, I conclude he would accept a place in the cabinet, or a military command dependent on the Executive alone, and I rather suppose a diplomatic mission, because it would fall within the scope of his views, and not because he said so, for no allusion was made to anything of that kind in our conversation. Everything from him breathed the purest patriotism, involving, however, a close attention to his own honor and grade. He expressed himself with the utmost devotion to the interests of our own country, and I am satisfied he will pursue them with honor and zeal in any character in which he shall be willing to act.

I have thus gone far beyond the single view of your letter, that you may, under any circumstances, form a just estimate of what he would be disposed to do. God bless you, and carry you safely through all your difficulties.

TO MR. CHARLES F. WELLES.

Monticello, December 3, 1809.

Sir,—I received, within a few days past, your favor of February 29th, (for September, I presume,) in either case it has been long on the way. It covered the two pieces of poetry it referred to. Of all the charges brought against me by my political adversaries, that of possessing some science has probably done them the least credit. Our countrymen are too enlightened themselves, to believe that ignorance is the best qualification for their service. If Mr. M. solicits a seat in Congress, I am sure he will be more just to himself, and more respectful to his electors, than to claim it on this ground.

Without pretending to all the merits so kindly ascribed by the more friendly and poetical answer, I feel the right of claiming that of integrity of motives. Whether the principles of the majority of our fellow citizens, or of the little minority still opposing them, be most friendly to the rights of man, posterity will judge; and to that arbiter I submit my own conduct with cheerfulness. It has been a great happiness to me, to have received the approbation of so great a portion of my fellow citizens, and particularly of those who have opportunities of inquiring, reading and deciding for themselves. It is on this view that I owe you especial acknowledgments, which I pray you to accept with the assurances of my respect.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monticello, December 7, 1809.

Dear Sir,—The enclosed letter is from Father Richard, the Director of a school at Detroit, being on a subject in which the departments both of the Treasury and War are concerned, I take the liberty of enclosing it to yourself as the centre which may unite these two agencies. The transactions which it alludes to took place in the months of December and January preceding my retirement from office, and as I think it possible they may not have been fully placed on the records of the War office, because they were conducted verbally for the most part, I will give a general statement of them as well as my recollection will enable me. In the neighborhood of Detroit (two or three miles from the town) is a farm, formerly the property of one Earnest, a bankrupt Collector. It is now in the possession of the Treasury department, as a pledge for a sum in which he is in default to the government, much beyond the value of the farm. As it is a good one, has proper buildings, and in a proper position for the purpose contemplated, General Dearborne proposed to purchase it for the War department at its real value. Mr. Gallatin thought he should ask the sum for which it was hypothecated. I do not remember the last idea in which we all concurred; but I believe it was that, as the Treasury must, in the end, sell it for what it could get, the War department would become a bidder as far as its real value, and in the meantime would rent it. On this farm we proposed to assemble the following establishments: 1st. Father Richards' school. He teaches the children of the inhabitants of Detroit—but the part of the school within our view was that of the young Indian girls instructed by two French females, natives of the place, who devote their whole time and their own property, which was not inconsiderable, to the care and instruction of Indian girls in carding, spinning, weaving, sewing, and the other household arts suited to the condition of the poor, and as practiced by the white women of that condition. Reading and writing were an incidental part of their education. We proposed that the War department should furnish the farm and the houses for the use of the school gratis, and add $400 a year to the funds, and that the benefits of the Institution should be extended to the boys also of the neighboring tribes, who were to be lodged, fed, and instructed there.

2d. To establish there the farmer at present employed by the United States, to instruct those Indians in the use of the plough and other implements and practices of agriculture, and in the general management of the farm. This man was to labor the farm himself, and to have the aid of the boys through a principal portion of the day, by which they would contract habits of industry, learn the business of farming, and provide subsistence for the whole Institution. Reading and writing were to be a secondary object.

3d. To remove thither the carpenter and smith at present employed by the United States among the same Indians; with whom such of the boys as had a turn for it should work and learn their trades.

This establishment was recommended by the further circumstance that whenever the Indians come to Detroit on trade or other business, they encamp on or about this farm. This would give them opportunities of seeing their sons and daughters, and their advancement in the useful arts—of seeing and learning from example all the operations and process of a farm, and of always carrying home themselves some additional knowledge of these things. It was thought more important to extend the civilized arts, and to introduce a separation of property among the Indians of the country around Detroit than elsewhere, because learning to set a high value on their property, and losing by degrees all other dependence for subsistence, they would deprecate war with us as bringing certain destruction on their property, and would become a barrier for that distant and isolated post against the Indians beyond them. There are beyond them some strong tribes, as the Sacs, Foxes, &c., with whom we have as yet had little connection, and slender opportunities of extending to them our benefits and influence. They are therefore ready instruments to be brought into operation on us by a powerful neighbor, which still cultivates its influence over them by nourishing the savage habits which waste them, rather than by encouraging the civilized arts which would soften, conciliate and preserve them. The whole additional expense to the United States was to be the price of the farm, and an increase of $400 in the annual expenditures for these tribes.

This is the sum of my recollections. I cannot answer for their exactitude in all details, but General Dearborne could supply and correct the particulars of my statement. Mr. Gallatin, too was so often in consultation on the subject, that he must have been informed of the whole plan; and his memory is so much better than mine, that he will be able to make my statement what it should be. Add to this that I think I generally informed yourself of our policy and proceedings in the case, as we went along; and, if I am not mistaken, it was one of the articles of a memorandum I left with you of things still in fieri, and which would merit your attention. I have thought it necessary to put you in possession of these facts, that you might understand the grounds of Father Richards' application, and be enabled to judge for yourself of the expediency of pursuing the plan, or of the means of withdrawing from it with justice to the individuals employed in its execution. How far we are committed with the Indians themselves in this business will be seen in a speech of mine to them, of January 31st, filed in the War office, and perhaps something more may have passed to them from the Secretary of War. Always affectionately yours.

TO DR. CHAPMAN.

Monticello, December 11, 1809.

Sir,—Your favor of November 10th did not come to hand till the 29th of that month. The subject you have chosen for the next anniversary discourse of the Linnean Society, is certainly a very interesting and also a difficult one. The change which has taken place in our climate, is one of those facts which all men of years are sensible of, and yet none can prove by regular evidence, they can only appeal to each other's general observation for the fact. I remember that when I was a small boy, (say 60 years ago,) snows were frequent and deep in every winter—to my knee very often, to my waist sometimes—and that they covered the earth long. And I remember while yet young, to have heard from very old men, that in their youth, the winters had been still colder, with deeper and longer snows. In the year 1772, (37 years ago,) we had a snow two feet deep in the champain parts of this State, and three feet in the counties next below the mountains. That year is still marked in conversation by the designation of "the year of the deep snow." But I know of no regular diaries of the weather very far back. In latter times, they might perhaps be found. While I lived at Washington, I kept a diary, and by recurring to that, I observe that from the winter of 1802-3, to that of 1808-9, inclusive, the average fall of snow of the seven winters was only fourteen and a half inches, and that the ground was covered but sixteen days in each winter on an average of the whole. The maximum in any one winter, during that period, was twenty-one inches fall, and thirty-four days on the ground. The change in our climate is very shortly noticed in the Notes on Virginia, because I had few facts to state but from my own recollections, then only of thirty or thirty-five years. Since that my whole time has been so completely occupied in public vocations, that I have been able to pay but little attention to this subject, and if I have heard any facts respecting it, I made no note of them, and they have escaped my memory. Thus, sir, with every disposition to furnish you with any information in my possession, I can only express my regrets at the entire want of them. Nor do I know of any source in this State, now existing, from which anything on the subject can be derived. Williams, in his History of Vermont, has an essay on the change of climate in Europe, Asia and Africa, and has very ingeniously laid history under contribution for materials. Doctor Williamson has written on the change of our climate, in one of the early volumes of our philosophical transactions. Both of these are doubtless known to you.

Wishing it had been in my power to have been more useful to you, I pray you to accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO W. C. NICHOLAS, ESQ.

Monticello, December 16, 1809.

Dear Sir,—I now enclose you the agricultural catalogue. I do not know whether I have made it more or less comprehensive than you wished; but in either case, you can make it what it should be by reduction or addition—there are probably other good books with which I am unacquainted. I do not possess the Geoponica, nor Rozier's Dictionary. All the others I have, and set them down on my own knowledge, except Young's Experimental Agriculture, which I have not, but had the benefit of reading your copy. I am sorry to address this catalogue to Warren, instead of Washington. Never was there a moment when it was so necessary to unite all the wisdom of the nation in its councils. Our affairs are certainly now at their ultimate point of crisis. I understand the Eastern Republicans will agree to nothing which shall render not-intercourse effectual, and that in any question of that kind, the Federalists will have a majority. There remains, then, only war or submission, and if we adopt the former, they will desert us. Under these difficulties you ought not to have left us. A temporary malady was not a just ground for permanent withdrawing, and you are too young to be entitled as yet to decline public duties. I think there never was a time when your presence in Congress was more desirable. However, the die is cast, and we have only to regret what we cannot repair. You must indulge me a little in scolding on this subject, and the rather as it is the effect of my great esteem and respect.

TO MR. SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.

Monticello, January 15, 1810.

Sir,—Your favor of December 12th has been duly received, as was also that of September 28th. With the blank subscription paper for the academy of Frederic county, enclosed in your letter of September, nothing has been done. I go rarely from home, and therefore have little opportunity of soliciting subscriptions. Nor could I do it in the present case in conformity with my own judgment of what is best for institutions of this kind. We are all doubtless bound to contribute a certain portion of our income to the support of charitable and other useful public institutions. But it is a part of our duty also to apply our contributions in the most effectual way we can to secure their object. The question then is whether this will not be better done by each of us appropriating our whole contributions to the institutions within our own reach, under our own eye; and over which we can exercise some useful control? Or would it be better that each should divide the sum he can spare among all the institutions of his State, or of the United States? Reason, and the interest of these institutions themselves, certainly decide in favor of the former practice. This question has been forced on me heretofore by the multitude of applications which have come to me from every quarter of the Union on behalf of academies, churches, missions, hospitals, charitable establishments, &c. Had I parcelled among them all the contributions which I could spare, it would have been for each too feeble a sum to be worthy of being either given or received. If each portion of the State, on the contrary, will apply its aids and its attentions exclusively to those nearest around them, all will be better taken care of. Their support, their conduct, and the best administration of their funds, will be under the inspection and control of those most convenient to take cognizance of them, and most interested in their prosperity. With these impressions myself, I could not propose to others what my own judgment disapproved, as to their duty as well as my own. These considerations appear so conclusive to myself, that I trust they will be a sufficient apology for my not having fulfilled your wishes with respect to the paper enclosed. They are therefore submitted to your candor, with assurances of my best wishes for the success of the institution you patronize, and of my respect and consideration for yourself.

TO MR. EPPES.

Monticello, January 17, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 10th came safely to hand, and I now enclose you a letter from Francis; he continues in excellent health, and employs his time well. He has written to his mamma and grandmamma. I observe that the H. of R. are sensible of the ill effects of the long speeches in their house on their proceedings. But they have a worse effect in the disgust they excite among the people, and the disposition they are producing to transfer their confidence from the legislature to the executive branch, which would soon sap our constitution. These speeches, therefore, are less and less read, and if continued will cease to be read at all. The models for that oratory which is to produce the greatest effect by securing the attention of hearers and readers, are to be found in Livy, Tacitus, Sallust, and most assuredly not in Cicero. I doubt if there is a man in the world who can now read one of his orations through but as a piece of task-work. I observe the house is endeavoring to remedy the eternal protraction of debate by setting up all night, or by the use of the Previous Question. Both will subject them to the most serious inconvenience. The latter may be turned upon themselves by a trick of their adversaries. I have thought that such a rule as the following would be more effectual and less inconvenient. "Resolved that at [viii.] o'clock in the evening (whenever the house shall be in session at that hour) it shall be the duty of the Speaker to declare that hour arrived, whereupon all debate shall cease. If there be then before the house a main question for the reading or passing of a bill, resolution or order, such main question shall immediately be put by the Speaker, and decided by yeas and nays.

"If the question before the house be secondary, as for amendment, commitment, postponement, adjournment of the debate or question, laying on the table, reading papers, or a previous question, such secondary, [or any other which may delay the main question,] shall stand ipso facto discharged, and the main question shall then be before the house, and shall be immediately put and decided by yeas and nays. But a motion for adjournment of the house, may once and once only, take place of the main question, and if decided in the negative, the main question shall then be put as before. Should any question of order arise, it shall be decided by the Speaker instanter, and without debate or appeal; and questions of privilege arising, shall be postponed till the main question be decided. Messages from the President or Senate may be received but not acted on till after the decision of the main question. But this rule shall be suspended during the [three] last days of the session of Congress."

No doubt this, on investigation, will be found to need amendment; but I think the principle of it better adapted to meet the evil than any other which has occurred to me. You can consider and decide upon it, however, and make what use of it you please, only keeping the source of it to yourself. Ever affectionately yours.

TO MR. SAMUEL KERCHEVAL.

Monticello, January 19, 1810.

Sir,—Yours of the 7th inst. has been duly received, with the pamphlet enclosed, for which I return you my thanks. Nothing can be more exactly and seriously true than what is there stated: that but a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State: that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man has been adulterated and sophisticated by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves: that rational men, not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue and cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.

You expect that your book will have some effect on the prejudices which the society of Friends entertain against the present and late administrations. In this I think you will be disappointed. The Friends are men formed with the same passions, and swayed by the same natural principles and prejudices as others. In cases where the passions are neutral, men will display their respect for the religious professions of their sect. But where their passions are enlisted, these professions are no obstacle. You observe very truly, that both the late and present administration conducted the government on principles professed by the Friends. Our efforts to preserve peace, our measures as to the Indians, as to slavery, as to religious freedom, were all in consonance with their profession. Yet I never expected we should get a vote from them, and in this I was neither deceived nor disappointed. There is no riddle in this to those who do not suffer themselves to be duped by the professions of religions sectaries. The theory of American Quakerism is a very obvious one. The mother society is in England. Its members are English by birth and residence, devoted to their own country as good citizens ought to be. The Quakers of these States are colonies or filiations from the mother society, to whom that society sends its yearly lessons. On these, the filiated societies model their opinions, their conduct, their passions and attachments. A Quaker is essentially an Englishman, in whatever part of the earth he is born or lives. The outrages of Great Britain on our navigation and commerce, have kept us in perpetual bickerings with her. The Quakers here have taken side against their own government, not on their profession of peace, for they saw that peace was our object also; but from devotion to the views of the mother society. In 1797-8, when an administration sought war with France, the Quakers were the most clamorous for war. Their principle of peace, as a secondary one, yielded to the primary one of adherence to the Friends in England, and what was patriotism in the original, became treason in the copy. On that occasion, they obliged their good old leader, Mr. Pemberton, to erase his name from a petition to Congress against war, which had been delivered to a Representative of Pennsylvania, a member of the late and present administration; he accordingly permitted the old gentleman to erase his name. You must not therefore expect that your book will have any more effect on the Society of Friends here, than on the English merchants settled among us. I apply this to the Friends in general, not universally. I know individuals among them as good patriots as we have.

I thank you for the kind wishes and sentiments towards myself, expressed in your letter, and sincerely wish to yourself the blessings of heaven and happiness.

TO MR. BALDWIN.

Monticello, January 19, 1810.

Thomas Jefferson returns to Mr. Baldwin his thanks for the copy of the letters of Cerus and Amicus just received from him. He sincerely wishes its circulation among the Society of Friends may have the effect Mr. Baldwin expects, of abating their prejudices against the government of their country. But he apprehends their disease is too deeply seated; that identifying themselves with the mother society in England, and taking from them implicitly their politics, their principles and passions, it will be long before they will cease to be Englishmen in everything but the place of their birth, and to consider that, and not America, as their real country. He is particularly thankful to Mr. Baldwin for the kind wishes and sentiments expressed in his letter, and sincerely wishes to him the blessings of health and happiness.

TO MR. THOMAS T. HEWSON.

Monticello, January 21, 1810.

Sir,—I have duly received your favor of the 8th inst., informing me that the American Philosophical Society had been pleased again unanimously to re-elect me their President. For these continued testimonials of their favor, I can but renew the expressions of my continued gratitude, and the assurances of my entire devotion to their service. If, in my present situation, I can in any wise forward their laudable pursuits for the information and benefit of mankind, all other duties shall give place to that.

I pray you to be the channel of communicating these sentiments, with the expressions of my dutiful respects to the Society, and to accept, yourself, the assurance of my great esteem and respect.

TO THE HONORABLE PAUL HAMILTON.

Monticello, January 23, 1810.

Sir,—The enclosed letter would have been more properly addressed to yourself, or perhaps to the Secretary of War. I have no knowledge at all of the writer; but suppose the best use I can make of his letter, as to himself or the public, is to enclose it to you for such notice only as the public utility may entitle it to; perhaps I should ask the favor of you to communicate it, with the samples, and with my friendly respects, to the Secretary of War, who may know something of the writer. I recollect that his predecessor made some trial of cotton tenting, and found it good against the water. Its combustibility, however, must be an objection to it for that purpose, and perhaps even on shipboard. I avail myself of the occasion which this circumstance presents of expressing my sincere anxieties for the prosperity of the administration in all its parts, which indeed involves the prosperity of us all, and of tendering to yourself in particular the assurances of my high respect and consideration.

TO MR. BARLOW.

Monticello, January 24, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 15th is received, and I am disconsolate on learning my mistake as to your having a dynamometer. My object being to bring a plough to be made here to the same standard of comparison by which Guillaume's has been proved, nothing less would be satisfactory than an instrument made by the same standard. I must import one, therefore, but how, in the present state of non-intercourse, is the difficulty. I do not know * * * personally, but by character well. He is the most red-hot federalist, famous, or rather infamous for the lying and slandering which he vomited from the pulpit in the political harangues with which he polluted the place. I was honored with much of it. He is a man who can prove everything if you will take his word for proof. Such evidence of Hamilton's being a republican he may bring; but Mr. Adams, Edmund Randolph, and myself, could repeat an explicit declaration of Hamilton's against which * * proofs would weigh nothing.

I am sorry to learn that your rural occupations impede so much the progress of your much to be desired work. You owe to republicanism, and indeed to the future hopes of man, a faithful record of the march of this government, which may encourage the oppressed to go and do so likewise. Your talents, your principles, and your means of access to public and private sources of information, with the leisure which is at your command, point you out as the person who is to do this act of justice to those who believe in the improvability of the condition of man, and who have acted on that behalf, in opposition to those who consider man as a beast of burthen made to be rode by him who has genius enough to get a bridle into his mouth. The dissensions between two members of the Cabinet are to be lamented. But why should these force Mr. Gallatin to withdraw? They cannot be greater than between Hamilton and myself, and yet we served together four years in that way. We had indeed no personal dissensions. Each of us, perhaps, thought well of the other as a man, but as politicians it was impossible for two men to be of more opposite principles. The method of separate consultation, practised sometimes in the Cabinet, prevents disagreeable collisions.

You ask my opinion of Maine. I think him a most excellent man. Sober, industrious, intelligent and conscientious. But, in the difficulty of changing a nursery establishment, I suspect you will find an insurmountable obstacle to his removal. Present me respectfully to Mrs. Barlow, and be assured of my constant and affectionate esteem.

P. S. The day before yesterday the mercury was at 5½° with us, a very uncommon degree of cold here. It gave us the first ice for the ice house.

TO GIDEON GRANGER, ESQ.

Monticello, January 24, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I was sorry, by a letter from Mr. Barlow the other day, to learn the ill state of your health, and I sincerely wish that this may find you better. Young, temperate and prudent as you are, great confidence may be reposed in the provision nature has made for the restoration of order in your system when it has become deranged; she effects her object by strengthening the whole system, towards which medicine is generally mischevous. Nor are the sedentary habits of office friendly to it. But of all this your own good understanding, instructed by your experience, is the best judge. * * * * * I cannot pass over this occasion of writing to you, the first presented me since retiring from office, without expressing to you my sense of the important aid I received from you in the able and faithful direction of the office committed to your charge. With such auxiliaries, the business and burthen of government becomes all but insensible, and its painful anxieties are relieved by the certainty that all is going right. In no department did I feel this sensation more strongly than in yours, and though at this time of little significance to yourself, it is a relief to my mind to discharge the duty of bearing this testimony to your valuable services. I must add my acknowledgments for your friendly interference in setting the public judgment to rights with respect to the Connecticut prosecutions, so falsely and maliciously charged on me. I refer to a statement of the facts in the National Intelligencer of many months past, which I was sensible came from your hand. I pray you to be assured of my great and constant attachment, esteem and respect.

TO MR. J. GARLAND JEFFERSON.

Monticello, January 25, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of December 12th was long coming to hand. I am much concerned to learn that any disagreeable impression was made on your mind, by the circumstances which are the subject of your letter. Permit me first to explain the principles which I had laid down for my own observance. In a government like ours, it is the duty of the Chief Magistrate, in order to enable himself to do all the good which his station requires, to endeavor, by all honorable means, to unite in himself the confidence of the whole people. This alone, in any case where the energy of the nation is required, can produce a union of the powers of the whole, and point them in a single direction, as if all constituted but one body and one mind, and this alone can render a weaker nation unconquerable by a stronger one. Towards acquiring the confidence of the people, the very first measure is to satisfy them of his disinterestedness, and that he is directing their affairs with a single eye to their good, and not to build up fortunes for himself and family, and especially, that the officers appointed to transact their business, are appointed because they are the fittest men, not because they are his relations. So prone are they to suspicion, that where a President appoints a relation of his own, however worthy, they will believe that favor and not merit, was the motive. I therefore laid it down as a law of conduct for myself, never to give an appointment to a relation. Had I felt any hesitation in adopting this rule, examples were not wanting to admonish me what to do and what to avoid. Still, the expression of your willingness to act in any office for which you were qualified, could not be imputed to you as blame. It would not readily occur that a person qualified for office ought to be rejected merely because he was related to the President, and the then more recent examples favored the other opinion. In this light I considered the case as presenting itself to your mind, and that the application might be perfectly justifiable on your part, while, for reasons occurring to none perhaps, but the person in my situation, the public interest might render it unadvisable. Of this, however, be assured that I considered the proposition as innocent on your part, and that it never lessened my esteem for you, or the interest I felt in your welfare.

My stay in Amelia was too short, (only twenty-four hours,) to expect the pleasure of seeing you there. It would be a happiness to me any where, but especially here, from whence I am rarely absent. I am leading a life of considerable activity as a farmer, reading little and writing less. Something pursued with ardor is necessary to guard us from the tedium-vitæ, and the active pursuits lessen most our sense of the infirmities of age. That to the health of youth you may add an old age of vigor, is the sincere prayer of

Yours, affectionately.

TO JUDGE DAVID CAMPBELL.

Monticello, January 28, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your letter of November 5th, was two months on its passage to me. I am very thankful for all the kind expressions of friendship in it, and I consider it a great felicity, through a long and trying course of life, to have retained the esteem of my early friends unaltered. I find in old age that the impressions of youth are the deepest and most indelible. Some friends, indeed, have left me by the way, seeking, by a different political path, the same object, their country's good, which I pursued with the crowd along the common highway. It is a satisfaction to me that I was not the first to leave them. I have never thought that a difference in political, any more than in religious opinions, should disturb the friendly intercourse of society. There are so many other topics on which friends may converse and be happy, that it is wonderful they would select, of preference, the only one on which they cannot agree. I am sensible of the mark of esteem manifested by the name you have given to your son. Tell him from me, that he must consider as essentially belonging to it, to love his friends and wish no ill to his enemies. I shall be happy to see him here whenever any circumstance shall lead his footsteps this way. You doubt, between law and physic, which profession he shall adopt. His peculiar turn of mind, and your own knowledge of things will best decide this question. Law is quite overdone. It is fallen to the ground, and a man must have great powers to raise himself in it to either honor or profit. The mob of the profession get as little money and less respect, than they would by digging the earth. The followers of Esculapius are also numerous. Yet I have remarked that wherever one sets himself down in a good neighborhood, not pre-occupied, he secures to himself its practice, and if prudent, is not long in acquiring whereon to retire and live in comfort. The physician is happy in the attachment of the families in which he practices. All think he has saved some one of them, and he finds himself everywhere a welcome guest, a home in every house. If, to the consciousness of having saved some lives, he can add that of having at no time, from want of caution, destroyed the boon he was called on to save, he will enjoy, in age, the happy reflection of not having lived in vain; while the lawyer has only to recollect how many, by his dexterity, have been cheated of their right and reduced to beggary. After all, I end where I began, with the observation that your son's disposition and your prudence, are the best arbiters of this question, and with the assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO CÆSAR A. RODNEY.

Monticello, February 10, 1810.

My Dear Sir,—I have to thank you for your favor of the 31st ultimo, which is just now received. It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us, personally, that the portion in the history of mankind, at which we were called to take a share in the direction of their affairs, was such an one as history has never before presented. At any other period, the even-handed justice we have observed towards all nations, the efforts we have made to merit their esteem by every act which candor or liberality could exercise, would have preserved our peace, and secured the unqualified confidence of all other nations in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which is now blasting the world, physical and moral, has prostrated all the mounds of reason as well as right. All those calculations which, at any other period, would have been deemed honorable, of the existence of a moral sense in man, individually or associated, of the connection which the laws of nature have established between his duties and his interests, of a regard for honest fame and the esteem of our fellow men, have been a matter of reproach on us, as evidences of imbecility. As if it could be a folly for an honest man to suppose that others could be honest also, when it is their interest to be so. And when is this state of things to end? The death of Bonaparte would, to be sure, remove the first and chiefest apostle of the desolation of men and morals, and might withdraw the scourge of the land. But what is to restore order and safety on the ocean? The death of George III? Not at all. He is only stupid; and his ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are ephemeral. But his nation is permanent, and it is that which is the tyrant of the ocean. The principle that force is right, is become the principle of the nation itself. They would not permit an honest minister, were accident to bring such an one into power, to relax their system of lawless piracy. These were the difficulties when I was with you. I know they are not lessened, and I pity you.

It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that they are kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge for themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and to maintain their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and integrity of their functionaries. Macte virtute therefore. Continue to go straight forward, pursuing always that which is right, as the only clue which can lead us out of the labyrinth. Let nothing be spared of either reason or passion, to preserve the public confidence entire, as the only rock of our safety. In times of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in war, to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence is even now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the executive to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a confidence as auspicious as it is well founded.

I avail myself of this, the first occasion of writing to you, to express all the depth of my affection for you; the sense I entertain of your faithful co-operation in my late labors, and the debt I owe for the valuable aid I received from you. Though separated from my fellow laborers in place and pursuit, my affections are with you all, and I offer daily prayers that ye love one another, as I love you. God bless you.

TO REV. MR. KNOX.

Monticello, February 12, 1810.

Sir,—Your favor of January 22d loitered on the way somewhere, so as not to come to my hand until the 5th inst. The title of the tract of Buchanan which you propose to translate, was familiar to me, and I possessed the tract; but no circumstance had ever led me to look into it. Yet I think nothing more likely than that, in the free spirit of that age and state of society, principles should be avowed, which were felt and followed, although unwritten in the Scottish constitution. Undefined powers had been entrusted to the crown, undefined rights retained by the people, and these depended for their maintenance on the spirit of the people, which, in that day was dependence sufficient. I shall certainly, after what you say of it, give it a serious reading. His latinity is so pure as to claim a place in school reading, and the sentiments which have recommended the work to your notice, are such as ought to be instilled into the minds of our youth on their first opening. The boys of the rising generation are to be the men of the next, and the sole guardians of the principles we deliver over to them. That I have acted through life on those of sincere republicanism I feel in every fibre of my constitution. And when men who feel like myself, bear witness in my favor, my satisfaction is complete. The testimony of approbation implied in the desire you express of coupling my name with Buchanan's work, and your translation of it, cannot but be acceptable and flattering; and the more so as coming from one of whom a small acquaintance had inspired me with a great esteem. This I am now happy in finding an occasion to express. The times which brought us within mutual observation were awfully trying. But truth and reason are eternal. They have prevailed. And they will eternally prevail, however, in times and places they may be overborne for a while by violence, military, civil, or ecclesiastical. The preservation of the holy fire is confided to us by the world, and the sparks which will emanate from it will ever serve to rekindle it in other quarters of the globe, numinibus secundis.

Amidst the immense mass of detraction which was published against me, when my fellow citizens proposed to entrust me with their concerns, and the efforts of more candid minds to expose their falsehood, I retain a remembrance of the pamphlet you mention. But I never before learned who was its author; nor was it known to me that Mr. Pechin had ever published a copy of the Notes on Virginia. But had all this been known, I should have seen myself with pride by your side. Wherever you lead, we may all safely follow, assured that it is in the path of truth and liberty. Mr. Pechin knew well that your introduction would plead for his author, and only erred in not asking your leave. Wishing every good effect which may follow your undertaking, I tender you the assurances of my high esteem and respect.

TO W. D. G. WORTHINGTON, ESQ.

Monticello, February 24, 1810.

Sir,—I have to thank you for the pamphlet you have been so kind as to send me, and especially for its contents so far as they respect myself personally. I had before read your speech in the newspapers, with great satisfaction, and the more, as, besides the able defence of the government, I saw that an absent and retired servant would still find, in the justice of the public counsellors, friendly advocates who would not suffer his name to be maligned without answer or reproof. If, brooding over past calamities, the attentions of federalism can, by abusing me, be diverted from disturbing the course of government, they will make me useful longer than I had expected to be so. Having served them faithfully for a term of twelve or fourteen years, in the terrific station of Rawhead and Bloodybones, it was supposed that, retired from power, I should have been functus officio, of course, for them also. If, nevertheless, they wish my continuance in that awful office, I yield, and the rather as it may be exercised at home, without interfering with the tranquil enjoyment of my farm, my family, my friends and books. In truth, having never felt a pain from their abuse, I bear them no malice. Contented with our government, elective as it is in three of its principal branches, I wish not, on Hamilton's plan, to see two of them for life; and still less, hereditary, as others desire. I believe that the yeomanry of the Federalists think on this subject with me. They are substantially republican. But some of their leaders, who get into the public councils, would prefer Hamilton's government, and still more the hereditary one. Hinc illæ lachrymæ, I wish them no harm, but that they may never get into power, not for their harm, but for the good of our country. I hope the friends of republican government will keep strict watch over them, and not let them want, when they need it, the wholesome discipline of which you have sent me a specimen. I commit them with entire confidence to your care, and salute you with esteem and respect.

TO MR. BURWELL.

Monticello, February 25, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 16th, has given me real uneasiness. I was certainly very unfortunate in the choice of my expression, when I hit upon one which could excite any doubt of my unceasing affections for you. In observing that you might use the information as you should find proper, I meant merely that you might communicate it to the President, the Secretaries of State or War, or to young Mr. Lee, as should be judged by yourself most proper. I meant particularly, to permit its communication to Mr. Lee, to enlighten his enquiries, for I do not know that his father received the medal. I could only conduct the information to the completion of the dye and striking off a proof. With such assurances as I have of your affection, be assured that nothing but the most direct and unequivocal proofs can ever make me suspect its abatement, and conscious of as warm feelings towards yourself, I hope you will ever be as unready to doubt them. Let us put this, then, under our feet.

I like your convoy bill, because although it does not assume the maintenance of all our maritime rights, it assumes as much as it is our interest to maintain. Our coasting trade is the first and most important branch, never to be yielded but with our existence. Next to that is the carriage of our own productions in our own vessels, and bringing back the returns for our own consumption; so far I would protect it, and force every part of the Union to join in the protection at the point of the bayonet. But though we have a right to the remaining branch of carrying for other nations, its advantages do not compensate its risks. Your bill first rallies us to the ground the constitution ought to have taken, and to which we ought to return without delay; the moment is the most favorable possible, because the Eastern States, by declaring they will not protect that cabotage by war, and forcing us to abandon it, have released us from every future claim for its protection on that part. Your bill is excellent in another view: it presents still one other ground to which we can retire before we resort to war; it says to the belligerents, rather than go to war, we will retire from the brokerage of other nations, and confine ourselves to the carriage and exchange of our own productions; but we will vindicate that in all its rights—if you touch it, it is war.

The present delightful weather has drawn us all into our farms and gardens; we have had the most devastating rain which has ever fallen within my knowledge. Three inches of water fell in the space of about an hour. Every hollow of every hill presented a torrent which swept everything before it. I have never seen the fields so much injured. Mr. Randolph's farm is the only one which has not suffered; his horizontal furrows arrested the water at every step till it was absorbed, or at least had deposited the soil it had taken up. Everybody in this neighborhood is adopting his method of ploughing, except tenants who have no interest in the preservation of the soil.

Present me respectfully to Mrs. Burwell, and be assured of my constant affection.

TO GENERAL KOSCIUSKO.

Monticello, February 26, 1810.

My Dear General and Friend,—I have rarely written to you; never but by safe conveyances; and avoiding everything political, lest coming from one in the station I then held, it might be imputed injuriously to our country, or perhaps even excite jealousy of you. Hence my letters were necessarily dry. Retired now from public concerns, totally unconnected with them, and avoiding all curiosity about what is done or intended, what I say is from myself only, the workings of my own mind, imputable to nobody else.

The anxieties which I know you have felt, on seeing exposed to the justlings of a warring world, a country to which, in early life, you devoted your sword and services when oppressed by foreign dominion, were worthy of your philanthropy and disinterested attachment to the freedom and happiness of man. Although we have not made all the provisions which might be necessary for a war in the field of Europe, yet we have not been inattentive to such as would be necessary here. From the moment that the affair of the Chesapeake rendered the prospect of war imminent, every faculty was exerted to be prepared for it, and I think I may venture to solace you with the assurance, that we are, in a good degree, prepared. Military stores for many campaigns are on hand, all the necessary articles (sulphur excepted), and the art of preparing them among ourselves, abundantly; arms in our magazines for more men than will ever be required in the field, and forty thousand new stand yearly added, of our own fabrication, superior to any we have ever seen from Europe; heavy artillery much beyond our need; an increasing stock of field pieces, several foundries casting one every other day each; a military school of about fifty students, which has been in operation a dozen years; and the manufacture of men constantly going on, and adding forty thousand young soldiers to our force every year that the war is deferred; at all our seaport towns of the least consequence we have erected works of defence, and assigned them gunboats, carrying one or two heavy pieces, either eighteen, twenty-four, or thirty-two pounders, sufficient in the smaller harbors to repel the predatory attacks of privateers or single armed ships, and proportioned in the larger harbors to such more serious attacks as they may probably be exposed to. All these were nearly completed, and their gunboats in readiness, when I retired from the government. The works of New York and New Orleans alone, being on a much larger scale, are not yet completed. The former will be finished this summer, mounting four hundred and thirty-eight guns, and, with the aid of from fifty to one hundred gunboats, will be adequate to the resistance of any fleet which will ever be trusted across the Atlantic. The works for New Orleans are less advanced. These are our preparations. They are very different from what you will be told by newspapers, and travellers, even Americans. But it is not to them the government communicates the public condition. Ask one of them if he knows the exact state of any particular harbor, and you will find probably that he does not know even that of the one he comes from. You will ask, perhaps, where are the proof of these preparations for one who cannot go and see them. I answer, in the acts of Congress, authorizing such preparations, and in your knowledge of me, that, if authorized, they would be executed.

Two measures have not been adopted, which I pressed on Congress repeatedly at their meetings. The one, to settle the whole ungranted territory of Orleans, by donations of land to able-bodied young men, to be engaged and carried there at the public expense, who would constitute a force always ready on the spot to defend New Orleans. The other was, to class the militia according to the years of their birth, and make all those from twenty to twenty-five liable to be trained and called into service at a moment's warning. This would have given us a force of three hundred thousand young men, prepared by proper training, for service in any part of the United States; while those who had passed through that period would remain at home, liable to be used in their own or adjacent States. These two measures would have completed what I deemed necessary for the entire security of our country. They would have given me, on my retirement from the government of the nation, the consolatory reflection, that having found, when I was called to it, not a single seaport town in a condition to repel a levy of contribution by a single privateer or pirate, I had left every harbor so prepared by works and gunboats, as to be in a reasonable state of security against any probable attack; the territory of Orleans acquired, and planted with an internal force sufficient for its protection; and the whole territory of the United States organized by such a classification of its male force, as would give it the benefit of all its young population for active service, and that of a middle and advanced age for stationary defence. But these measures will, I hope, be completed by my successor, who, to the purest principles of republican patriotism, adds a wisdom and foresight second to no man on earth.

So much as to my country. Now a word as to myself. I am retired to Monticello, where, in the bosom of my family, and surrounded by my books, I enjoy a repose to which I have been long a stranger. My mornings are devoted to correspondence. From breakfast to dinner, I am in my shops, my garden, or on horseback among my farms; from dinner to dark, I give to society and recreation with my neighbors and friends; and from candle light to early bed-time, I read. My health is perfect; and my strength considerably reinforced by the activity of the course I pursue; perhaps it is as great as usually falls to the lot of near sixty-seven years of age. I talk of ploughs and harrows, of seeding and harvesting, with my neighbors, and of politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being free to say and do what I please, without being responsible for it to any mortal. A part of my occupation, and by no means the least pleasing, is the direction of the studies of such young men as ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring village, and have the use of my library and counsel, and make a part of my society. In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on the main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. So that coming to bear a share in the councils and government of their country, they will keep ever in view the sole objects of all legitimate government.

* * * * * * * *

Instead of the unalloyed happiness of retiring unembarrassed and independent, to the enjoyment of my estate, which is ample for my limited views, I have to pass such a length of time in a thraldom of mind never before known to me. Except for this, my happiness would have been perfect. That yours may never know disturbance, and that you may enjoy as many years of life, as health and ease to yourself shall wish, is the sincere prayer of your constant and affectionate friend.

TO DOCTOR JONES.

Monticello, March 5, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I received duly you favor of the 19th ultimo, and I salute you with all ancient and recent recollections of friendship. I have learned, with real sorrow, that circumstances have arisen among our executive counsellors, which have rendered foes those who once were friends. To themselves it will be a source of infinite pain and vexation, and therefore chiefly I lament it, for I have a sincere esteem for both parties. To the President it will be really inconvenient; but to the nation I do not know that it can do serious injury, unless we were to believe the newspapers, which pretend that Mr. Gallatin will go out. That indeed would be a day of mourning for the United States; but I hope that the position of both gentlemen may be made so easy as to give no cause for either to withdraw. The ordinary business of every day is done by consultation between the President and the Head of the department alone to which it belongs. For measures of importance or difficulty, a consultation is held with the Heads of departments, either assembled, or by taking their opinions separately in conversation or in writing. The latter is most strictly in the spirit of the constitution. Because the President, on weighing the advice of all, is left free to make up an opinion for himself. In this way they are not brought together, and it is not necessarily known to any what opinion the others have given. This was General Washington's practice for the first two or three years of his administration, till the affairs of France and England threatened to embroil us, and rendered consideration and discussion desirable. In these discussions, Hamilton and myself were daily pitted in the cabinet like two cocks. We were then but four in number, and, according to the majority, which of course was three to one, the President decided. The pain was for Hamilton and myself, but the public experienced no inconvenience. I practised this last method, because the harmony was so cordial among us all, that we never failed, by a contribution of mutual views on the subject, to form an opinion acceptable to the whole. I think there never was one instance to the contrary, in any case of consequence. Yet this does, in fact, transform the executive into a directory, and I hold the other method to be more constitutional. It is better calculated too to prevent collision and irritation, and to cure it, or at least suppress its effects when it has already taken place. It is the obvious and sufficient remedy in the present ease, and will doubtless be resorted to.

Our difficulties are indeed great, if we consider ourselves alone. But when viewed in comparison to those of Europe, they are the joys of Paradise. In the eternal revolution of ages, the destinies have placed our portion of existence amidst such scenes of tumult and outrage, as no other period, within our knowledge, had presented. Every government but one on the continent of Europe, demolished, a conqueror roaming over the earth with havoc and destruction, a pirate spreading misery and ruin over the face of the ocean. Indeed, my friend, ours is a bed of roses. And the system of government which shall keep us afloat amidst the wreck of the world, will be immortalized in history. We have, to be sure, our petty squabbles and heart burnings, and we have something of the blue devils at times, as to these raw heads and bloody bones who are eating up other nations. But happily for us, the Mammoth cannot swim, nor the Leviathan move on dry land; and if we will keep out of their way, they cannot get at us. If, indeed, we choose to place ourselves within the scope of their tether, a gripe of the paw, or flounce of the tail, may be our fortune. Our business certainly was to be still. But a part of our nation chose to declare against this, in such a way as to control the wisdom of the government. I yielded with others, to avoid a greater evil. But from that moment, I have seen no system which could keep us entirely aloof from these agents of destruction. If there be any, I am certain that you, my friends, now charged with the care of us all, will see and pursue it. I give myself, therefore, no trouble with thinking or puzzling about it. Being confident in my watchmen I sleep soundly. God bless you all, and send you a safe deliverance.

TO GOVERNOR LANGDON.

Monticello, March 5, 1810.

Your letter, my dear friend, of the 18th ultimo, comes like the refreshing dews of the evening on a thirsty soil. It recalls ancient as well as recent recollections, very dear to my heart. For five and thirty years we have walked together through a land of tribulations. Yet these have passed away, and so, I trust, will those of the present day. The toryism with which we struggled in '77, differed but in name from the federalism of '99, with which we struggled also; and the Anglicism of 1808, against which we are now struggling, is but the same thing still in another form. It is a longing for a King, and an English King rather than any other. This is the true source of their sorrows and wailings.

The fear that Bonaparte will come over to us and conquer us also, is too chimerical to be genuine. Supposing him to have finished Spain and Portugal, he has yet England and Russia to subdue. The maxim of war was never sounder than in this case, not to leave an enemy in the rear; and especially where an insurrectionary flame is known to be under the embers, merely smothered, and ready to burst at every point. These two subdued, (and surely the Anglomen will not think the conquest of England alone a short work,) ancient Greece and Macedonia, the cradle of Alexander, his prototype, and Constantinople, the seat of empire for the world, would glitter more in his eye than our bleak mountains and rugged forests. Egypt, too, and the golden apples of Mauritania, have for more than half a century fixed the longing eyes of France; and with Syria, you know, he has an old affront to wipe out. Then come "Pontus and Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia," the fine countries, on the Euphrates and Tigris, the Oxus and Indus, and all beyond the Hyphasis, which bounded the glories of his Macedonian rival; with the invitations of his new British subjects on the banks of the Ganges, whom, after receiving under his protection the mother country, he cannot refuse to visit. When all this done and settled, and nothing of the old world remains unsubdued, he may turn to the new one. But will he attack us first, from whom he will get but hard knocks and no money? Or will he first lay hold of the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil? A republican Emperor, from his affection to republics, independent of motives of expediency, must grant to ours the Cyclop's boon of being the last devoured. While all this is doing, we are to suppose the chapter of accidents read out, and that nothing can happen to cut short or to disturb his enterprises.

But the Anglomen, it seems, have found out a much safer dependence than all these chances of death or disappointment. That is, that we should first let England plunder us, as she has been doing for years, for fear Bonaparte should do it; and then ally ourselves with her, and enter into the war. A conqueror, whose career England could not arrest when aided by Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal, she is now to destroy, with all these on his side, by the aid of the United States alone. This, indeed, is making us a mighty people. And what is to be our security, that when embarked for her in the war, she will not make a separate peace, and leave us in the lurch? Her good faith! The faith of a nation of merchants! The Punica fides of modern Carthage! Of the friend and protectress of Copenhagen! Of the nation who never admitted a chapter of morality into her political code! And is now boldly avowing that whatever power can make hers, is hers of right. Money, and not morality, is the principle of commerce and commercial nations. But, in addition to this, the nature of the English Government forbids, of itself, reliance on her engagements; and it is well known she has been the least faithful to her alliances of any nation of Europe, since the period of her history wherein she has been distinguished for her commerce and corruption, that is to say, under the houses of Stuart and Brunswick. To Portugal alone she has steadily adhered, because, by her Methuen treaty, she had made it a colony, and one of the most valuable to her. It may be asked, what, in the nature of her government, unfits England for the observation of moral duties? In the first place, her King is a cypher; his only function being to name the oligarchy which is to govern her. The parliament is, by corruption, the mere instrument of the will of the administration. The real power and property in the government is in the great aristocratical families of the nation. The nest of office being too small for all of them to cuddle into at once, the contest is eternal, which shall crowd the other out. For this purpose, they are divided into two parties, the Ins and the Outs, so equal in weight that a small matter turns the balance. To keep themselves in, when they are in, every stratagem must be practised, every artifice used which may flatter the pride, the passions or power of the nation. Justice, honor, faith must yield to the necessity of keeping themselves in place. The question whether a measure is moral, is never asked; but whether it will nourish the avarice of their merchants, or the piratical spirit of their navy, or produce any other effect which may strengthen them in their places. As to engagements, however positive, entered into by the predecessors of the Ins, why, they were their enemies; they did everything which was wrong; and to reverse everything which they did, must, therefore, be right. This is the true character of the English government in practice, however different its theory; and it presents the singular phenomenon of a nation, the individuals of which are as faithful to their private engagements and duties, as honorable, as worthy, as those of any nation on earth, and whose government is yet the most unprincipled at this day known. In an absolute government there can be no such equiponderant parties. The despot is the government. His power suppressing all opposition, maintains his ministers firm in their places. What he has contracted, therefore, through them, he has the power to observe with good faith; and he identifies his own honor and faith with that of his nation.

When I observed, however, that the King of England was a cypher, I did not mean to confine the observation to the mere individual now on that throne. The practice of Kings marrying only in the families of Kings, has been that of Europe for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them in idleness and inaction, whether in a stye, a stable or a state-room, pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual appetites, immerse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let everything bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, and in a few generations they become all body and no mind; and this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in the constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of the animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen in raising Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the XVI. was a fool, of my own knowledge, and in despite of the answers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, and of Naples the same. They passed their lives in hunting, and despatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each other know what game they had killed the preceding days. The King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George of England, you know, was in a straight waistcoat. There remained, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked up to have lost her common sense. In this state Bonaparte found Europe; and it was this state of its rulers which lost it with scarce a struggle. These animals had become without mind and powerless; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few generations. Alexander, the grandson of Catharine, is as yet an exception. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third generation. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my friend, and all such good men and true, in his holy keeping.

TO ABBE SALIMANKIS.

Monticello, March 14, 1810.

Sir,—I have duly received your favor of February 27th and am very thankful for the friendly sentiments therein expressed towards myself, as well as for the pamphlet enclosed. That it contains many serious truths and sound admonitions every reader will be sensible. At the same time it is a comfort that the medal has two sides. I do not myself contemplate human nature in quite so sombre a view. That there is much vice and misery in the world, I know; but more virtue and happiness I believe, at least in our part of it; the latter being the lot of those employed in agriculture in a greater degree than of other callings. That we are overdone with banking institutions, which have banished the precious metals, and substituted a more fluctuating and unsafe medium, that these have withdrawn capital from useful improvements and employments to nourish idleness, that the wars of the world have swollen our commerce beyond the wholesome limits of exchanging our own productions for our own wants, and that, for the emolument of a small proportion of our society, who prefer these demoralizing pursuits to labors useful to the whole, the peace of the whole is endangered, and all our present difficulties produced, are evils more easily to be deplored than remedied. They should lead us to direct our prayers, if our philanthropy fails to do it, for the re-establishment of peace in Europe, when our commerce must of course return to its proper objects, and the idle to habits of industry. To these prayers, in which you will not fail to join, let me add my best wishes and respects for yourself.

TO MR. FULTON.

Monticello, March 17, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I have duly received your favor of February 24th covering one of your pamphlets on the Torpedo. I have read it with pleasure. This was not necessary to give them favor in my eye. I am not afraid of new inventions or improvements, nor bigoted to the practices of our forefathers. It is that bigotry which keeps the Indians in a state of barbarism in the midst of the arts, would have kept us in the same state even now, and still keeps Connecticut where their ancestors were when they landed on these shores. I am much pleased that Congress is taking up the business. Where a new invention is supported by well-known principles, and promises to be useful, it ought to be tried. Your torpedoes will be to cities what vaccination has been to mankind. It extinguishes their greatest danger. But there will still be navies. Not for the destruction of cities, but for the plunder of commerce on the high seas. That the tories should be against you is in character, because it will curtail the power of their idol, England.

I am thankful to you for the trouble you have taken in thinking of the felier hydraulique. To be put into motion by the same power which was to continue the motion was certainly wanting to that machine, as a better name still is. I would not give you the trouble of having a model made, as I have workmen who can execute from the drawing. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO G. VOOLIF, PERPETUAL SECRETARY OF THE FIRST CLASS OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF SCIENCES, OF LITERATURE AND OF FINE ARTS, AT AMSTERDAM.

Monticello, May 2d, 1810.

Sir,—Your letter of the 10th of May of the last year came but lately to my hands. I am duly sensible of the honor done me by the first class of the Royal Institute of sciences, of literature, and of fine arts, in associating me to their class, and by the approbation which his majesty the king of Holland has condescended to give to their choice. His patronage of institutions for extending among mankind the boundaries of information, proves his just sense of the cares devolved on him by his high station, and commands the approving voice of all the sons of men. If mine can be heard from this distance among them, it will be through the benefit of the special communication which your position may procure it, and which I am to request. I pray you to present also my thanks to the first class for this mark of their distinction, which I receive with due sensibility and gratitude. Sincerely a friend to science, and feeling the fraternal relation it establishes among the whole family of its votaries, wheresoever dispersed through nations friendly or hostile, I shall be happy at all times in fulfilling any particular views which the society may extend to this region of the globe, and in being made useful to them in any special services they will be pleased to give me an opportunity of rendering. To yourself, Sir, I tender the assurances of my particular respect and high consideration.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

Monticello, May 3d, 1810.

Sir, Your favor of February 1st lately came to my hands. It brings me new proofs, in the resolutions it enclosed, of the indulgence with which the legislature of Orleans has been pleased to view my conduct in the various duties assigned to me by our common country. The times in which we have lived have called for all the services which any of its citizens could render, and if mine have met approbation they are fully rewarded.

The interposition noticed by the Legislature of Orleans was an act of duty of the office I then occupied. Charged with the care of the general interest of the nation, and among these with the preservation of their lands from intrusion, I exercised, on their behalf, a right given by nature to all men, individual or associated, that of rescuing their own property wrongfully taken. In cases of forcible entry on individual possessions, special provisions, both of the common and civil law, have restrained the right of rescue by private force, and substituted the aid of the civil power. But no law has restrained the right of the nation itself from removing by its own arm, intruders on its possessions. On the contrary, a statute recently passed, had required that such removals should be diligently made. The Batture of New Orleans, being a part of the bed contained between the two banks of the river, a naked shoal indeed at low water, but covered through the whole season of its regular full tides, and then forming the ground of the port and harbor for the upper navigation, over which vessels ride of necessity when moored to the bank, I deemed it public property, in which all had a common use. The removal, too, of the force which had possessed itself of it, was the more urgent from the interruption it might give to the commerce, and other lawful uses, of the inhabitants of the city and of the Western waters generally.

If this aid from the public authority was particularly interesting to the territory of Orleans, it certainly adds new satisfaction to my consciousness of having done what was right.

I ask the favor of you to convey to the Legislature of Orleans, my gratitude for the interest they are so kind as to express in my future happiness; and I pray to the Governor of the Universe, that He may always have them and our country in his holy keeping.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR CLAIBORNE.

Monticello, May 3, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your letters of January 12th and February 1st, came to hand only a fortnight ago. The enclosed contains my answer to the latter, for communication to the Legislature. So many false views on the subject of the batture have been presented in and out of Congress, that duty to myself, as well as justice to the citizens of New Orleans and of the western country generally, required that I should avail myself of the occasion these resolutions presented, of stating, in the fewest words possible, the true ground of my conduct, and, as I think, of the rights of the western country. But the occasion also restricted me to the limits of a short text only, every word of which would be matter for copious commentary, in a dilated discussion of the subject. Has Moreau de l'Isle's opinion ever been printed? I wish it were possible to get a copy of it. Perhaps I might be able to make good use of it.