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 12)

Before the receipt of your letter of Jan. 12th, I had heard of your great loss, and been impressed with the depth of it. Long tried in the same school of affliction, no loss which can rend the human heart is unknown to mine; and a like one particularly, at about the same period of life, had taught me to feel the sympathies of yours. The same experience has proved that time, silence and occupation are its only medicines. Of occupation, you have enough and of the highest order; that of continuing to make a worthy people happy by a just and parental government, and of protecting them from the wolves prowling around to devour them. Your own example will be the best lesson for the son which has been left to comfort you, to whose course in life I hope it will give a shape which shall make him truly a comfort and support to your latter days, protracted to your own wishes.

I really wish effect to the hints in my letter to you for so laying off the additions to the city of New Orleans, as to shield it from yellow fever. My confidence in the idea is founded in the acknowledged experience that we have never seen the genuine yellow fever extend itself into the country, nor even to the outskirts or open parts of a close-built city. In the plan I propose, every square would be surrounded, on every side, by open and pure air, and would, in fact, be a separate town with fields or open suburbs around it.

TO MESSRS. HUGH L. WHITE, THOMAS M'CORRY, JAMES CAMPBELL, ROBERT CRAIGHEAD, JOHN N. GAMBLE, TRUSTEES FOR THE LOTTERY OF EAST TENNESSEE COLLEGE.

Monticello, May 6, 1810.

Gentlemen,—I received, some time ago, your letter of February 28th, covering a printed scheme of a lottery for the benefit of the East Tennessee College, and proposing to send tickets to me to be disposed of. It would be impossible for them to come to a more inefficient hand. I rarely go from home, and consequently see but a few neighbors and friends, who occasionally call on me. And having myself made it a rule never to engage in a lottery or any other adventure of mere chance, I can, with the less candor or effect, urge it on others, however laudable or desirable its object may be. No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government. I am sincerely rejoiced, therefore, to find that so excellent a fund has been provided for this noble purpose in Tennessee. Fifty-thousand dollars placed in a safe bank, will give four thousand dollars a year, and even without other aid, must soon accomplish buildings sufficient for the object in its early stage. I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not in others, of making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge for each separate professorship, with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged around an open square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult. Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent to his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of preference, and might be at the head of their table, if, as I suppose, it can be reconciled with the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate parties, rather than in a large and common mess. These separate buildings, too, might be erected successively and occasionally, as the number of professorships and students should be increased, or the funds become competent.

I pray you to pardon me if I have stepped aside into the province of counsel; but much observation and reflection on these institutions have long convinced me that the large and crowded buildings in which youths are pent up, are equally unfriendly to health, to study, to manners, morals and order; and, believing the plan I suggest to be more promotive of these, and peculiarly adapted to the slender beginnings and progressive growth of our institutions, I hoped you would pardon the presumption, in consideration of the motive which was suggested by the difficulty expressed in your letter, of procuring funds for erecting the building. But, on whatever plan you proceed, I wish it every possible success, and to yourselves the reward of esteem, respect and gratitude due to those who devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every successive age fit governors for the next. To these accept, in addition, the assurances of mine.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monticello, May 13, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I thank you for your promised attention to my portion of the Merinos, and if there be any expenses of transportation, &c., and you will be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours and notify the amount, it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we do with them? I have been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions lately practised in the sale of these animals, and with the description of patriotism and praise to the sellers, as if the thousands of dollars apiece they have not been ashamed to receive were not reward enough, that I am disposed to consider as right, whatever is the reverse of what they have done. Since fortune has put the occasion upon us, is it not incumbent upon us so to dispense this benefit to the farmers of our country, as to put to shame those who, forgetting their own wealth and the honest simplicity of the farmers, have thought them fit objects of the shaving art, and to excite, by a better example, the condemnation due to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged in the family of Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it should incur the risk and expense of all new improvements, and give the benefit freely to the many of more restricted circumstances. The question then recurs, What are we to do with them? I shall be willing to concur with you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that we may have some proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first idea, to be modified or postponed to whatever you shall think better.

Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different counties of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. And as there must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let us begin with our own counties, which are contiguous and nearly central to the State, and proceed, circle after circle, till we have given a ram to every county. This will take about seven years, if we add to the full descendants those which will have past to the fourth generation from common ewes, to make the benefit of a single male as general as practicable to the county, we may ask some known character in each county to have a small society formed which shall receive the animal and prescribe rules for his care and government. We should retain ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that they may enable us the sooner to furnish a male to every county. When all shall have been provided with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a condition to give an ewe also to every county, if it be thought necessary. But I suppose it will not, as four generations from their full-blooded ram will give them the pure race from common ewes.

In the meantime we shall not be without a profit indemnifying our trouble and expense. For if of our present stock of common ewes, we place with the ram as many as he may be competent to, suppose fifty, we may sell the male lambs of every year for such reasonable price as, in addition to the wool, will pay for the maintenance of the flock. The first year they will be half bloods, the second three-quarters, the third seven-eights, and the fourth full-blooded, if we take care in selling annually half the ewes also, to keep those of highest blood, this will be a fund for kindnesses to our friends, as well as for indemnification to ourselves; and our whole State may thus, from this small stock, so dispersed, be filled in a very few years with this valuable race, and more satisfaction result to ourselves than money ever administered to the bosom of a shaver. There will be danger that what is here proposed, though but an act of ordinary duty, may be perverted into one of ostentation, but malice will always find bad motives for good actions. Shall we therefore never do good? It may also be used to commit us with those on whose example it will truly be a reproof. We may guard against this perhaps by a proper reserve, developing our purpose only by its execution.

TO GOVERNOR TYLER.

Monticello, May 26, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your friendly letter of the 12th has been duly received. Although I have laid it down as a law to myself, never to embarrass the President with my solicitations, and have not till now broken through it, yet I have made a part of your letter the subject of one to him, and have done it with all my heart, and in the full belief that I serve him and the public in urging that appointment. We have long enough suffered under the base prostitution of law to party passions in one judge, and the imbecility of another. In the hands of one the law is nothing more than an ambiguous text, to be explained by his sophistry into any meaning which may subserve his personal malice. Nor can any milk-and-water associate maintain his own dependence, and by a firm pursuance of what the law really is, extend its protection to the citizens or the public. I believe you will do it, and where you cannot induce your colleague to do what is right, you will be firm enough to hinder him from doing what is wrong, and by opposing sense to sophistry, leave the juries free to follow their own judgment.

I have long lamented with you the depreciation of law science. The opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is to the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and what is not in him is not necessary. I still lend my counsel and books to such young students as will fix themselves in the neighborhood. Coke's institutes and reports are their first, and Blackstone their last book, after an intermediate course of two or three years. It is nothing more than an elegant digest of what they will then have acquired from the real fountains of the law. Now men are born scholars, lawyers, doctors; in our day this was confined to poets. You wish to see me again in the legislature, but this is impossible; my mind is now so dissolved in tranquillity, that it can never again encounter a contentious assembly; the habits of thinking and speaking off-hand, after a disuse of five and twenty years, have given place to the slower process of the pen. I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength. 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it. But this division looks to many other fundamental provisions. Every hundred, besides a school, should have a justice of the peace, a constable and a captain of militia. These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its police by patroles, &c., (as the select men of the Eastern townships.) Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite, and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present Captaincies might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power to the courts to alter them occasionally. These little republics would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States were enabled to repeal the embargo in opposition to the Middle, Southern and Western States, and their large and lubberly division into counties which can never be assembled. General orders are given out from a centre to the foreman of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the whole nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in one instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of the republic, and say with old Simeon, "nune dimittas Domine." But our children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the fulness of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. So be it, and to yourself health, happiness and long life.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, COUNT PAHLEN, ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIA.

Monticello, July 13, 1810.

Sir,—I have been honored with your letter of the 25th ult., and have to return you my thanks for those of Madame de Tessé and General Lafayette, and for the print of Baron Humboldt, all of which are come safely to hand, and present to me the proofs and recollections of their much-valued friendships. To these acknowledgments, permit me to add my congratulations on your safe arrival in the United States, after journeys and voyages which, from their length, cannot have been pleasant. If, after this, it shall be found that a change of twenty degrees of latitude shall have no unfavorable influence on your health, it will furnish double cause of felicitation.

I am much flattered by the kind notice of the Emperor, which you have been so obliging as to communicate to me. The approbation of the good is always consoling; but that of a sovereign whose station and endowments are so pre-eminent, is received with the sensibility which the veneration for his character inspires. Among other motives of commiseration which the calamities of Europe cannot fail to excite in every virtuous mind, the interruption which these have given to the benevolent views of the Emperor is prominent. The accession of a sovereign, with the dispositions and qualifications to improve the condition of a great nation, and to place its happiness on a permanent basis, is a phenomenon so rare in the annals of mankind, that, when the blessing occurs, it is lamentable that any portion of it should be usurped by occurrences of the character of those we have seen. If, separated from these scenes by an ocean of a thousand leagues breadth, they have required all our cares to keep aloof from their desolating effects, I can readily conceive how much more they must occupy those to whose territories they are contiguous.

That the Emperor may be able, whenever a pacification takes place, to show himself the father and friend of the human race, to restore to nations the moral laws which have governed their intercourse, and to prevent, forever, a repetition of those ravages by sea and land, which will distinguish the present as an age of Vandalism, I sincerely pray.

I consider as a happy augury, the choice which the Emperor has made of a person to reside near our government, so distinguished by his dispositions and qualifications to cherish the friendship and the interests of both nations. With my best wishes that your residence among us may be rendered entirely agreeable, and be accompanied with the blessing of health, accept the assurances of my great respect and consideration.

TO MR. BOTTA.

Monticello, July 15, 1810.

Sir,—I am honored with your letter of the 12th of January, and although the work you therein mention is not yet come to hand, I avail myself of an occasion, now rendered rare and precarious between our two countries, of anticipating the obligation I shall owe for the pleasure I shall have in perusing it, and of travelling over with you the important scenes, quorum pars minima fui, scenes which have given an impulsion to the world, which, as to ourselves, has been a great blessing, but whether to Europe or not, can only be estimated by him who sees the future as well as the present and past. We are certainly indebted to those who think our revolution worthy of their pen, and who will do justice to our actions and motives; and to yourself I have no doubt we shall owe this obligation, and I now make you my acknowledgments with confidence and pleasure. It will be a worthy preface to the history of this age of revolutions, to be ended we know not when nor how. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great respect and consideration.

TO MR. LAMBERT.

Monticello, July 16, 1810.

Sir,—An indispensable piece of business which has occupied me for a month past, obliged me to suspend all correspondence during that time. This must apologize for my late acknowledgment of your favor of May 19th, and for the tardy expression of my thanks for so much of the papers you enclosed as respected myself. The approbation of my political conduct by my republican countrymen generally, is a pillow of sweet repose to me, undisturbed by the noise of the enemies to our form of government. The political sentiments expressed by your society are in the pure spirit of the principles of our revolution; so long as these prevail, we are safe from everything which can assail us from without or within.

Your several communications on the first meridian, have been regularly handed to the Philosophical Society; not corresponding regularly with any of the members, I have received no information respecting them. I have formerly observed to you that while I entertain no doubt of their accuracy, my own familiarity with the subject had been too long suspended, to enable me to render a critical opinion on them. My occupations here are almost exclusively given to my farm and affairs. They furnish me exercise, health and amusement, and with the recreations of family and neighborly society, fill up most of my time, and give a tranquillity necessary to my time of life. With my best wishes for your prosperity, accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

Monticello, July 16, 1810.

Dear General and Friend,—Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The federalists, during their short-lived ascendency, have nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days; long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who, giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress. They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of our enemies, and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they too are gone; and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze of success which England shall feel, for it has now been some years that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced her had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country as to control the will of its government and three-fourths of its people, and oblige the three-fourths to submit to one-fourth, is to me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence, is in her own conduct, and not from anything in our power. Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.

But these are views which concern the present and future generation, among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her to agriculture, manufactures and emigration, will lessen her happiness. But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborne do? How do you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm, or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy, healthy and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend.

TO JUDGE COOPER.

Monticello, August 6, 1810.

Dear Sir,—The tardiness of acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May 10th will I fear induce a presumption that I have been negligent of its contents, but I assure you I lost not a moment in endeavoring to fulfil your wishes in procuring a good geological correspondent in this State. I could not offer myself, because of all the branches of science it was the one I had the least cultivated. Our researches into the texture of our globe could be but so superficial, compared with its vast interior construction, that I saw no safety of conclusion from the one, as to the other; and therefore have pointed my own attentions to other objects in preference, as far as a heavy load of business would permit me to attend to anything else. Looking about, therefore, among my countrymen for some one who might answer your views, I fixed on Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, not long since returned from France, where he had attended particularly to chemistry, and had also attended Mr. Maclure in some of his geological expeditions, as best qualified. I wrote to him; unfortunately he was from home, and did not return till the latter end of July. I received his answer since our last post only. A diffidence in his qualifications to be useful to you, has induced him to decline the undertaking, having, as he assures me, paid no particular attention to that branch of science. I have in vain looked over our State for some other person who might contribute to your views. As yet I can think of nobody; and whatever may be the result of further inquiry, I have thought I ought not longer to delay informing you of my unsuccessful efforts so far. Should I be able to find a subject worthy of your correspondence, I shall not fail to engage him in it, and to give you notice. I thank you for the case of Dempsy v. the Insurers, which I have read with great pleasure, and entire conviction. Indeed it is high time to withdraw all respect from courts acting under the arbitrary orders of governments who avow a total disregard to those moral rules which have hitherto been acknowledged by nations, and have served to regulate and govern their intercourse. I should respect just as much the rules of conduct which governed Cartouche or Blackbeard, as those now acted on by France or England. If your argument is defective in anything, it is in having paid to the antecedent decisions of the British courts of Admiralty, the respect of examining them on grounds of reason; and the not having rested the decision at once on the profligacy of those tribunals, and openly declared against permitting their sentences to be ever more quoted or listened to until those nations return to the practice of justice, to an acknowledgment that there is a moral law which ought to govern mankind, and by sufficient evidences of contrition for their present flagitiousness, make it safe to receive them again into the society of civilized nations. I hope this will still be done on a proper occasion. Yet knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges. Those now at the bar may be bold enough to follow reason rather than precedent and may bring that principle on the bench when promoted to it; but I fear this effort is not for my day. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, there was not a physician of Europe of forty years of age, who ever assented to it. I fear you will experience Harvey's fate. But it will become law when the present judges are dead. Wishing you health and happiness at all times, accept the assurances of my constant and great esteem and respect.

TO MR. DUANE.

Monticello, August 12, 1810.

Sir,—Your letter of July 16th has been duly received, with the paper it enclosed, for which accept my thanks, and especially for the kind sentiments expressed towards myself. These testimonies of approbation, and friendly remembrance, are the highest gratifications I can receive from any, and especially from those in whose principles and zeal for the public good I have confidence. Of that confidence in yourself the military appointment to which you allude was sufficient proof, as it was made, not on the recommendations of others, but on our own knowledge of your principles and qualifications. While I cherish with feeling the recollections of my friends, I banish from my mind all political animosities which might disturb its tranquillity, or the happiness I derive from my present pursuits. I have thought it among the most fortunate circumstances of my late administration that, during its eight years continuance, it was conducted with a cordiality and harmony among all the members, which never were ruffled on any, the greatest or smallest occasion. I left my brethren with sentiments of sincere affection and friendship, so rooted in the uniform tenor of a long and intimate intercourse, that the evidence of my own senses alone ought to be permitted to shake them. Anxious, in my retirement, to enjoy undisturbed repose, my knowledge of my successor and late coadjutors, and my entire confidence in their wisdom and integrity, were assurances to me that I might sleep in security with such watchmen at the helm, and that whatever difficulties and dangers should assail our course, they would do what could be done to avoid or surmount them. In this confidence I envelope myself, and hope to slumber on to my last sleep. And should difficulties occur which they cannot avert, if we follow them in phalanx, we shall surmount them without danger.

I have been long intending to write to you as one of the associated company for printing useful works.

Our laws, language, religion, politics and manners are so deeply laid in English foundations, that we shall never cease to consider their history as a part of ours, and to study ours in that as its origin. Every one knows that judicious matter and charms of style have rendered Hume's history the manual of every student. I remember well the enthusiasm with which I devoured it when young, and the length of time, the research and reflection which were necessary to eradicate the poison it had instilled into my mind. It was unfortunate that he first took up the history of the Stuarts, became their apologist, and advocated all their enormities. To support his work, when done, he went back to the Tudors, and so selected and arranged the materials of their history as to present their arbitrary acts only, as the genuine samples of the constitutional power of the crown, and, still writing backwards, he then reverted to the early history, and wrote the Saxon and Norman periods with the same perverted view. Although all this is known, he still continues to be put into the hands of all our young people, and to infect them with the poison of his own principles of government. It is this book which has undermined the free principles of the English government, has persuaded readers of all classes that these were usurpations on the legitimate and salutary rights of the crown, and has spread universal toryism over the land. And the book will still continue to be read here as well as there. Baxter, one of Horne Tooke's associates in persecution, has hit on the only remedy the evil admits. He has taken Hume's work, corrected in the text his misrepresentations, supplied the truths which he suppressed, and yet has given the mass of the work in Hume's own words. And it is wonderful how little interpolation has been necessary to make it a sound history, and to justify what should have been its title, to wit, "Hume's history of England abridged and rendered faithful to fact and principle." I cannot say that his amendments are either in matter or manner in the fine style of Hume. Yet they are often unperceived, and occupy so little of the whole work as not to depreciate it. Unfortunately he has abridged Hume, by leaving out all the less important details. It is thus reduced to about one half its original size. He has also continued the history, but very summarily, to 1801. The whole work is of 834 quarto pages, printed close, of which the continuation occupies 283. I have read but little of this part. As far as I can judge from that little, it is a mere chronicle, offering nothing profound. This work is so unpopular, so distasteful to the present Tory palates and principles of England, that I believe it has never reached a second edition. I have often inquired for it in our book shops, but never could find a copy in them, and I think it possible the one I imported may be the only one in America. Can we not have it re-printed here? It would be about four volumes 8vo.

I have another enterprise to propose for some good printer. I have in my possession a MS. work in French, confided to me by a friend, whose name alone would give it celebrity were it permitted to be mentioned. But considerations insuperable forbid that. It is a Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. The history of that work is well known. He had been a great reader, and had commonplaced everything he read. At length he wished to undertake some work into which he could bring his whole commonplace book in a digested form. He fixed on the subject of his Spirit of Laws, and wrote the book. He consulted his friend Helvetius about publishing it, who strongly dissuaded it. He published it, however, and the world did not confirm Helvetius' opinion. Still, every man who reflects as he reads, has considered it as a book of paradoxes; having, indeed, much of truth and sound principle, but abounding also with inconsistencies, apochryphal facts and false inferences. It is a correction of these which has been executed in the work I mention, by way of commentary and review; not by criticising words or sentences, but by taking a book at a time, considering its general scope, and proceeding to confirm or confute it. And much of confutation there is, and of substitution of true for false principle, and the true principle is ever that of republicanism. I will not venture to say that every sentiment in the book will be approved, because, being in manuscript, and the French characters, I have not read the whole, but so much only as might enable me to estimate the soundness of the author's way of viewing his subject; and, judging from that which I have read, I infer with confidence that we shall find the work generally worthy of our high approbation, and that it everywhere maintains the preëminence of representative government, by showing that its foundations are laid in reason, in right, and in general good. I had expected this from my knowledge of the other writings of the author, which have always a precision rarely to be met with. But to give you an idea of the manner of its execution, I translate and enclose his commentary on Montesquieu's eleventh book, which contains the division of the work. I wish I could have added his review at the close of the twelve first books, as this would give a more complete idea of the extraordinary merit of the work. But it is too long to be copied. I add from it, however, a few extracts of his reviews of some of the books, as specimens of his plan and principles. If printed in French, it would be of about 180 pages 8vo, or 23 sheets. If any one will undertake to have it translated and printed on their own account, I will send on the MS. by post, and they can take the copyright as of an original work, which it ought to be understood to be. I am anxious it should be ably translated by some one who possesses style as well as capacity to do justice to abstruse conceptions. I would even undertake to revise the translation if required. The original sheets must be returned to me, and I should wish the work to be executed with as little delay as possible.

I close this long letter with assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN, ESQ.

Monticello, August 16, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Yours of July 14th, with the welcome paper it covered, has been most thankfully received. I had before received from your office and that of State, all the printed publications on the subject of the batture, that is to say, the opinion of the Philadelphia lawyers and of G. Livingston himself, the publications of Derbigny, Thierry, Poydras, and the pièces probantes. I had been very anxious to get Moreau's memoire, which is only in manuscript, having heard it was the best of all. After waiting long and in vain for it, I was informed by my counsel that they were ruled to plead, and must be furnished with the grounds of defence. I was obliged, therefore, to take up the subject—had got through it and put it into the hands of Mr. Hay, when the observations you were so kind as to furnish, came to hand. Although it was too late to give to everything its shape which these, at an earlier stage, might have suggested, I was still enabled to avail myself of them usefully. The question of the chancery jurisdiction of the Orleans judges had particularly escaped me, and entirely. When Mr. Hay returned the paper therefore, I was enabled, by re-copying a sheet or two at the close, to introduce this question in its proper place. I had also, till then, been uninformed of the circumstances under which Bertrand Gravier left France, and therefore had not been aware of the reasons for which John Gravier had chosen to come in by purchase. This information enabled me to extend and strengthen much of what I had before said on that subject; and by interleaving and recopying a part, to get that also into its proper place. On the whole, you will see, with the benefit of these amendments, what I had conceived to be a true statement of the fact and law of the case. But the paper is very voluminous, and I could not shorten it. It is now in the hands of the President, who will enclose it to you by the same post which carries this; when you shall have perused it, be so good as to re-enclose it to me, as I wish to submit it to our other fellow-laborers, after such amendments as Mr. Madison and yourself will be so good as to suggest. I wish the ground I take to meet all your approbations. The uninformed state in which the debates of the last session proved Congress to be, as to this case, makes me fear they may, at the next, under the intrigues and urgency of Livingston, be induced to take some step which might have an injurious effect on the opinion of a jury. I think, therefore, to ask a member or two of each house to read this statement, merely to make themselves masters of the subject, and be enabled to prevent any unfavorable interference of Congress. Perhaps, if they see the case in the light I do, they may think of doing more—of having the Attorney General desired to attend to the case as of public concern: for really it is so. I have no concern at all in maintaining the title to the batture. It would be totally unnecessary for me to employ counsel to go into the question at all for my own defence. That is solidly built on the simple fact, that if I were in error, it was honest, and not imputable to that gross and palpable corruption or injustice which makes a public magistrate responsible to a private party. I know that even a federal jury could not find a verdict against me on this head. But I go fully into the question of title, because our characters are concerned in it, and because it involves a most important right of the citizens, and one which, if decided against them, would be a precedent of incalculable evil. The detention, too, has been so long the act of Congress itself, that for this reason I have supposed they might think it entitled to their attention, and direct the Attorney General to take care of the public interest in it, as has lately been done by the House of Commons, in the action of Sir Francis Burdett against their Speaker. But on this subject I wish to be advised by yourself and my other friends, rather than trust to my own judgment, too likely to be under bias. If I send the case to be perused by two or three members, it will be under a strong injunction not to let its contents get into other hands, my counsel having strongly advised against apprizing them of the topics of defence, as well from apprehensions of subornation of witnesses as to material facts, as from other considerations. Pray advise me on this head. My counsel are Hay, Wist and Janewell.

I have seen with infinite grief the set which is made at you in the public papers, and with the more as my name has been so much used in it. I hope we both know one another too well to receive impression from circumstances of this kind. A twelve years' intimate and friendly intercourse must be better evidence to each of the dispositions of the other than the letters of foreign ministers to their courts, or tortured influences from facts true or false. I have too thorough a conviction of your cordial good will towards me, and too strong a sense of the faithful and able assistance I received from you, to relinquish them on any evidence but of my own senses. With entire faith in your assurance of these truths, I shall add those only of my constant affection and high respect.

TO COLONEL WM. DUANE.

Monticello, September 16, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of August 17th arrived the day after I had left this place on a visit to one I have near Lynchburg, from whence I am but lately returned. The history of England you describe is precisely Baxter's, of which I wrote you; and if you compare him with Hume, you will find the text preserved verbatim, with particular exceptions only. The French work will accompany this letter. Since writing to you I have gone over the whole, and can assure you it is the most valuable political work of the present age. In some details we all may differ from him or from one another, but the great mass of the work is highly sound. Its title would be "A Commentary on Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws;" perhaps the words "and Review" might be inserted at the——. Helvetius' letter on the same work should be annexed, if it can possibly be procured. It was contained in a late edition of the works of Helvetius published by the Abbé de la Roche. Probably that edition might be found. I never before heard of Williams' lectures on Montesquieu, but I am glad to hear of everything which reduces that author to his just level, as his predilection for monarchy, and the English monarchy in particular, has done mischief everywhere, and here also, to a certain degree. With respect to the Notes on Virginia, I do contemplate some day the making additions and corrections to them; but I am inclined to take the benefit of my whole life to make collections and observations, and let the editing them be posthumous. The anecdote respecting the paper put into my hands by Dr. Franklin has not been handed to you with entire correctness. I returned from France in December 1789, and in March following I went on to New York to take the post assigned me in the new government. On my way through Philadelphia I called on Dr. Franklin, who was then confined to his bed. As the revolution had then begun, indeed was supposed to be closed by the completion of a constitution, and he was anxious to know the part all his acquaintances had taken, he plied me with questions for an hour or two with a vivacity and earnestness which astonished me. When I had satisfied his inquiries, I observed to him that I had heard, and with great pleasure, that he had began the history of his own life, and had brought it down to the revolution, (for so I had heard while in Europe.) "Not exactly so," said he, "but I will let you see the manner in which I do these things." He then desired one of his small grand-children who happened to be in the room, to bring him such a paper from the table. It was brought, and he put it into my hands and said, "there, put that into your pocket and you will see the manner of my writing." I thanked him and said "I should read it with great pleasure, and return it to him safely." "No," said he, "keep it." I took it with me to New York. It was, as well as I recollect, about a quire of paper, in which he had given, with great minuteness, all the details of his negotiations (informal) in England, to prevent their pushing us to extremities. These were chiefly through Lord Howe and a lady, I think the sister of Lord Howe, but of this I am not certain; but I remember noting the particulars of her conversation as marking her as a woman of very superior understanding. He gave all the conversations with her and Lord Howe, and all the propositions he passed through them to their minister, the answers and conversations with the minister reported through them, his endeavors used with other characters, whether with the ministers directly I do not recollect; but I remember well that it appeared distinctly from what was brought to him from the ministers, that the real obstacle to their meeting the various overtures he made was the prospect of great confiscations to provide for their friends, and that this was the real cause of the various shiftings and shufflings they used to evade his propositions. Learning, on his death, which happened soon after, that he had bequeathed all his unpublished writings to his grandson, W. T. Franklin, with a view to the emolument he might derive from their publication, I thought this writing was fairly his property, and notified to him my possession of it, and that I would deliver it to his order. He soon afterwards called on me at New York, and I delivered it to him. He accepted it, and, while putting it into his pocket, observed that his grandfather had retained another copy which he had found among his papers. I did not reflect on this till suspicions were circulated that W. T. F. had sold these writings to the British Minister. I then formed the belief that Dr. Franklin had meant to deposit this spare copy with me in confidence that it would be properly taken care of, and sincerely repented the having given it up; and I have little doubt that this identical paper was the principal object of the purchase by the British government, and the unfortunate cause of the suppression of all the rest. I do not think I have any interesting papers or facts from Dr. Franklin. Should any occur at any time, I will communicate them freely, nobody wishing more ardently that the public could be possessed of everything that was his or respected him, believing that a greater or better character has rarely existed. I am happy to learn that his blood shows itself in the veins of the two of his great grandchildren whom you mention. But I should think medicine the best profession for a genius resembling his, as that of the elder is supposed to do. I have received information of Pestalozzi's mode of education from some European publications, and from Mr. Keefe's book which shows that the latter possesses both the talents and the zeal for carrying it into effect. I sincerely wish it success, convinced that the information of the people at large can alone make them the safe, as they are the sole depository of our political and religious freedom. The idea of antimony in this neighborhood is, I believe, without foundation. Some twenty or thirty years ago a mineral was found about ten miles from this place, which one of those idle impostors, who call themselves mine-hunters, persuaded the proprietor was gold ore. The poor man lost a crop in digging after it. After fruitless assays of the mineral, some other person, knowing as little of the matter, fancied it must be antimony. A third idea was that it was black lead. It was abandoned, and the mine hole filled up, nor can we at this day hear of any piece of the mineral in possession of any one.

You say in your letter that you will send me the proofs of the commentary on Montesquieu for revisal. It is only the translation I should wish to revise. I feel myself answerable to the author for a correct publication of his ideas. The translated sheets may come by post as they are finished off; they shall be promptly returned, the originals coming with them. Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO J. B. COLVIN.

Monticello, September 20, 1810.

Sir,—Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it. If I have left in the breasts of my fellow citizens a sentiment of satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.

The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur, which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages, provisions and even men by force, to enable that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of meum and tuum. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the Executive of the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might appropriate it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he, for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself by transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense; but a reverence for law, and the probability that the advantage might still be legally accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind of the other party. Ought the Executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to have secured the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice for the transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would have been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a very possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety; and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.

To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city. Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1st, in seizing notorious conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2d. In sending them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the salus populi supreme over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and his fellow citizens generally, are bound to judge according to the circumstances under which he acted. They are not to transfer the information of this place or moment to the time and place of his action; but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that there never was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr's band was crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson's information was very different, and he could act on no other.

From these examples and principles you may see what I think on the question proposed. They do not go to the case of persons charged with petty duties, where consequences are trifling, and time allowed for a legal course, nor to authorize them to take such cases out of the written law. In these, the example of overleaping the law is of greater evil than a strict adherence to its imperfect provisions. It is incumbent on those only who accept of great charges, to risk themselves on great occasions, when the safety of the nation, or some of its very high interests are at stake. An officer is bound to obey orders; yet he would be a bad one who should do it in cases for which they were not intended, and which involved the most important consequences. The line of discrimination between cases may be difficult; but the good officer is bound to draw it at his own peril, and throw himself on the justice of his country and the rectitude of his motives.

I have indulged freer views on this question, on your assurances that they are for your own eye only, and that they will not get into the hands of newswriters. I met their scurrilities without concern, while in pursuit of the great interests with which I was charged. But in my present retirement, no duty forbids my wish for quiet.

Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

Monticello, September 22, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I have wanted the occasion of the present enclosure to perform the duty of my thanks for the kind communication of papers from your office in the question between Livingston and myself. These have mainly enabled me to give a correct statement of facts. I deferred proceeding to a particular consideration of the case in hopes of the aid of Moreau's Memoire, which I have understood to be the ablest which has been written. But I was at length forced to proceed without it, my counsel informing me they were ruled to plead, and must therefore know the grounds of defence. You will see what I have made of it by the enclosed, which I forward in the hope you will consider and correct it. I have done this the rather because I presume all my fellow laborers feel an interest in what all approved, and because I think I should urge nothing which they disapprove. Will you then do me the favor to put on paper such corrections as you would advise, and forward them to me, handing on the enclosed paper at the same time to Mr. Rodney? I wrote him by this post that he may expect it from you, and I ask the same favor of correction from him, and above all to delay as little as possible, because time presses to give to this paper its ultimate form. My counsel press me earnestly not to let the topics of defence get out, so as to be known to the adversary. Although I know Congress will be strongly urged, yet I hope they will take no measure which may impress a jury unfavorably, by inferences not intended. And were the case to be thought to belong to the public, still I believe it better they should let it come on, on the footing of a private action. I pray you to be assured of my constant affection and respect.

September 26th. Sent a P. S. verbatim, the same as that to Mr. Rodney.

TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

Monticello, September 25, 1810.

Dear Sir,—I have to thank you for your kind letter of June 8th, and the suggestions it furnished on the question whether Livingston could maintain an action in Richmond for a trespass committed in Orleans. This being a question of common law, I leave it to my counsel so much more recent than I am in that branch of law. I have undertaken to furnish them with the grounds of my defence under the lex loci. I wished for the aid of Moreau's Memoire because it is understood to be the ablest of any. However, my counsel being ruled to plead, and pressing me for the grounds of defence, I proceeded to consider the case, meaning at first only an outline, but I got insensibly into the full discussion, which became very voluminous, and the more so as it was necessary not only to enter all the authorities at large in the text, because few possess them, but also translations of them, because all do not understand all the languages in which they are. Believing my late associates in the executive would feel an interest in the justification of a conduct in which all concurred, and also in the issue of it, I have thought it a duty to consult them as to the grounds to be taken, and to take none against their advice. My statement has therefore been submitted to the President, Mr. Smith and Mr. Gallatin, and will be forwarded to you by Mr. Smith as soon as he shall have read it. I have to request your consideration and corrections of it, and that you will be so good as to furnish them on a separate paper. I am obliged also to ask an immediate attention to them, because time presses to give to this paper its ultimate shape, to plead, and collect the evidence. Its early return to me therefore is urging. I do not know whether my counsel (Hay, Wist and Tazewell) have pleaded to the jurisdiction. * * * * * The death of Cushing is opportune, as it gives an opening for at length getting a republican majority on the supreme bench. Ten years has the anti-civism of that body been bidding defiance to the spirit of the whole nation, after they had manifested their will by reforming every other branch of the government. I trust the occasion will not be lost; Bidwell's disgrace withdraws the ablest man of the section in which Cushing's successor must be named. The pure integrity, unimpeachable conduct, talents and republican firmness of Lincoln, leave him now, I think, without a rival. He is thought not an able common lawyer. But there is not and never was an able one in the New England States. Their system is sui generis, in which the common law is little attended to. Lincoln is one of the ablest in their system, and it is among them he is to execute the great portion of his duties. Nothing is more material than to complete the reformation of the government by this appointment, which may truly be said to be putting the keystone into the arch. In my statement of the law of Livingston's case, I do not pretend to consider every argument as perfectly sound. I have, as is usual, availed myself of some views, which may have a weight with others which they have not with me. I have no right to assume infallibility, and I present them, therefore, ut valcant ubi possint. Accept the assurances of my constant and affectionate esteem.

P. S., September 26. In my letter of yesterday, I have omitted to observe, with respect to the arrangement of materials in the paper it speaks of, that it is not such as counsel would employ in pleading a cause. It was determined by other considerations. I thought it very possible the case might be dismissed out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I determined, on this event, to lay it before the public, either directly or through Congress. Respect for my associates, for myself, for our nation, would not permit me to come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to plead and argue a cause. This was not my situation. This would naturally be by way of narrative or statement of the facts in their order of time, establishing these facts as they occur, and bringing forward the law arising on them, and pointing to the Executive the course he was to pursue. I supposed it more dignified to present it as a history and explanation of what had taken place. It does not, indeed, in that form, display the subject in one great whole, but it brings forward successively a number of questions, solving themselves as they arise, and leaving no one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling over the whole case, and finding as it goes along that all has been considered and all is right, rests in that state of satisfaction which it is our object to produce. In truth, I have never known a case which presented so many distinct questions, having no dependence on one another, nor belonging even to the same branches of jurisprudence.

TO MR. GALLATIN.

Monticello, September 27, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 10th came safely to hand, and laid me under new obligations for the valuable observations it contained. The error of twelve feet instead of seven, for the rise of the batture, really sautoit aux yeux, and how I could have committed it at first, or passed it over afterwards without discovery, and having copied Pelletier's plan myself, is unaccountable. I have adopted also most of your other corrections. You observe that the arguments proving the batture public, yet prove it of such a character that it could not be within the scope of the law of March 4th, against squatters. I should so adjudge myself; yet I observe many opinions otherwise, and in defence against a spadassin, it is lawful to use all weapons. Besides, I have no pretensions to be exclusively the judge of what arguments are sound and what not. I give them, therefore, that they may weigh with those who think they have weight and have a right to decide for themselves. That act of Congress, moreover, was evidently respected, particularly in the order under which the removal was made.

With respect to the arrangement of materials in my statement, I know it is not such as counsel would employ in pleading such a cause; it is not such as I would have made myself in that character; it was determined by other considerations. I thought it possible the case might be dismissed out of court by a plea to the jurisdiction. I determined, on this event, to lay it before the public, either directly or through Congress. Respect for my associates, for myself, for our nation, would not permit me to come forward, as a criminal under accusation, to plead and argue a cause. This was not my situation. I had only to state to my constituents a common transaction. This would naturally be by way of narrative or statement of the facts, in their order of time, establishing these facts as they occur, and bringing forward the law arising on them and pointing to the Executive the course he was to pursue. I suppose it more self-respectful to present it as a history and explanation of what had taken place. It does not, indeed, in that form, display the subject in one great whole, but it brings forward successively a number of questions, solving themselves as they arise, and leaving no one unexamined. And the mind, after travelling over the whole case, and finding as it goes along that all has been considered, and all is right, rests in that state of satisfaction which it is our object to produce. In truth, I have never known a case which presented so many distinct questions, having no dependence on one another, nor belonging even to the same branches of jurisprudence. After all, I offer this as explanation, not justification of the order adopted.

* * * * * * * *

At length, then, we have a chance of getting a republican majority in the Supreme Judiciary. For ten years has that branch braved the spirit and will of the nation, after the nation had manifested its will by a complete reform in every branch depending on them. The event is a fortunate one, and so timed as to be a God-send to me. I am sure its importance to the nation will be felt, and the occasion employed to complete the great operation they have so long been executing, by the appointment of a decided republican, with nothing equivocal about him. But who will it be? The misfortune of Bidwell removes an able man from the competition. Can any other bring equal qualifications to those of Lincoln? I know he was not deemed a profound common lawyer; but was there ever a profound common lawyer known in any of the Eastern States? There never was, nor never can be one from those States. The basis of their law is neither common nor civil; it is an original, if any compound can so be called. Its foundation seems to have been laid in the spirit and principles of Jewish law, incorporated with some words and phrases of common law, and an abundance of notions of their own. This makes an amalgam sui generis, and it is well known that a man, first and thoroughly initiated into the principles of one system of law, can never become pure and sound in any other. Lord Mansfield was a splendid proof of this. Therefore, I say, there never was, nor can be a profound common lawyer from those States. Sullivan had the reputation of preëminence there as a common lawyer. But we have his history of land titles, which gives us his measure. Mr. Lincoln is, I believe, considered as learned in their laws as any one they have. Federalists say that Parsons is better. But the criticalness of the present nomination puts him out of question. As the great mass of the functions of the new judge are to be performed in his own district, Lincoln will be most unexceptionable and acceptable there; and on the supreme bench equal to any one who can be brought from thence; add to this his integrity, political firmness and unimpeachable character, and I believe no one can be found to whom there will not be more serious objections.

You seem to think it would be best to ascertain the probable result before making a proposition to Congress to defend Livingston's suit. On mature consideration I think it better that no such proposition should be made. The debates there would fix the case as a party one, and we are the minority in the judiciary department, and especially in the federal branch of it here. Till Congress can be thoroughly put in possession of all the points in the case, it is best they should let it lie. Livingston, by removing it into the Judiciary, has fairly relinquished all claims on their interference. I am confident that Congress will act soundly, whenever we can give them a knowledge of the whole case. But I tire you with this business, and end therefore with repeating assurances of my constant attachment and respect.

TO CAPTAIN ISAAC HILLARD.

Monticello, October 9, 1810.

Sir,—I duly received your letter of September 10th, and return you thanks for that and the pamphlet you were so kind as to enclose me. The health you enjoy at so good an old age, and the strength of mind evidenced in your pamphlet, are subjects of congratulation to yourself and of thankfulness to him who gives them. I am sorry that a professor of religion should have given occasion for such a censure. It proves he has much to conquer in his own uncharitableness, and that it is not from him his flock are to learn not to bear false witness against their neighbor. But as to so much of his pulpit philippic as concerns myself I freely forgive him; for I feel no falsehood and fear no truth. That you may long continue to enjoy health, happiness and a sound mind, is my sincere prayer.

TO COLONEL DUANE.

Monticello, November 13, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Your third packet is received before the second had been returned. It is now enclosed, and the other shall go by the next post. I find, as before, nothing to correct but those errors of the copyist which you would have corrected yourself before committed to the press. If it were practicable to send me the original sheets with the translated, perhaps my equal familiarity with both languages might enable me sometimes to be of some advantage; but I presume that might be difficult, and of little use, scarcely perhaps of any. I thank you for the copy of Williams. I have barely dipped into it a little. Enough, however, to see he is far short of the luminous work you are printing. Indeed I think that the most valuable work of the present age. I received from Williams, some years ago, his book on the claims of authors. I found him to be a man of sound and true principles, but not knowing how to go at them, and not able to trace or develop them for others. I believe with you that the crisis of England is come. What will be its issue it is vain to prophesy; so many thousand contingencies may turn up to affect its direction. Were I to hazard a guess, it would be that they will become a military despotism. Their recollections of the portion of liberty they have enjoyed will render force necessary to retain them under pure monarchy. Their pressure upon us has been so severe and so unprincipled, that we cannot deprecate their fate, though we might wish to see their naval power kept up to the level of that of the other principal powers separately taken. But may it not take a very different turn? Her paper credit annihilated, the precious metals must become her circulating medium. The taxes which can be levied on her people in these will be trifling in comparison with what they could pay in paper money; her navy then will be unpaid, unclothed, unfed. Will such a body of men suffer themselves to be dismissed and to starve? Will they not mutiny, revolt, embody themselves under a popular Admiral, take possession of Western and Bermuda islands, and act on the Algerine system? If they should not be able to act on this broad scale, they will become individual pirates; and the modern Carthage will end as the old one has done. I am sorry for her people, who are individually as respectable as those of other nations—it is her government which is so corrupt, and which has destroyed the nation—it was certainly the most corrupt and unprincipled government on earth. I should be glad to see their farmers and mechanics come here, but I hope their nobles, priests, and merchants will be kept at home to be moralized by the discipline of the new government. The young stripling whom you describe is, probably, as George Nicholas used to say, "in the plenitude of puppyism." Such coxcombs do not serve even as straws to show which way the wind blows. Alexander is unquestionably a man of an excellent heart, and of very respectable strength of mind; and he is the only sovereign who cordially loves us. Bonaparte hates our government because it is a living libel on his. The English hate us because they think our prosperity filched from theirs. Of Alexander's sense of the merits of our form of government, of its wholesome operation on the condition of the people, and of the interest he takes in the success of our experiment, we possess the most unquestionable proofs; and to him we shall be indebted if the rights of neutrals, to be settled whenever peace is made, shall be extended beyond the present belligerents; that is to say, European neutrals, as George and Napoleon, of mutual consent and common hatred against us, would concur in excluding us. I thought it a salutary measure to engage the powerful patronage of Alexander at conferences for peace, at a time when Bonaparte was courting him; and although circumstances have lessened its weight, yet it is prudent for us to cherish his good dispositions, as those alone which will be exerted in our favor when that occasion shall occur. He, like ourselves, sees and feels the atrociousness of both the belligerents. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. JAMES RONALDSON.

Monticello, December 3, 1810.

Sir,—I now return you the paper you were so kind as to enclose to me. The hint to the two belligerents of disarming each other of their auxiliaries, by opening asylums to them and giving them passages to this country, is certainly a good one. Bonaparte has mind enough to adopt it, but not the means. England, again, has the means but not mind enough; she would prefer losing an advantage over her enemy to giving one to us. It is an unhappy state of mind for her, but I am afraid it is the true one. She presents a singular phenomenon of an honest people whose constitution, from its nature, must render their government forever dishonest; and accordingly, from the time that Sir Robert Walpole gave the constitution that direction which its defects permitted, morality has been expunged from their political code. I think the paper might do good if published, and could do no harm. It cannot lessen our means of availing ourselves of the same resource in case of our being at war with either belligerent. The only difficulty in these cases (and in the revolutionary war we found it a great one) is the conveying the invitation to the adverse troops. Accept my salutations and assurances of respect.

TO DAVID HOWELL, ESQ.

Monticello, December 15, 1810.

Dear Sir,—Our last post brought me your friendly letter of November 27th. I learn with pleasure that republican principles are predominant in your State, because I conscientiously believe that governments founded in these are more friendly to the happiness of the people at large, and especially of a people so capable of self-government as ours. I have been ever opposed to the party so falsely called federalists, because I believe them desirous of introducing into our government authorities hereditary or otherwise independent of the national will. These always consume the public contributions, and oppress the people with labor and poverty. No one was more sensible than myself, while Governor Fenner was in the Senate, of the soundness of his political principles, and rectitude of his conduct. Among those of my fellow laborers of whom I had a distinguished opinion, he was one, and I have no doubt those among whom he lives, and who have already given him so many proofs of their unequivocal confidence in him, will continue so to do. It would be impertinent in me, a stranger to them, to tell them what they all see daily. My object too, at present, is peace and tranquillity, neither doing nor saying anything to be quoted, or to make me the subject of newspaper disquisitions. I read one or two newspapers a week, but with reluctance give even that time from Tacitus and Horace, and so much other more agreeable reading; indeed, I give more time to exercise of the body than of the mind, believing it wholesome to both. I enjoy, in recollection, my ancient friendships, and suffer no new circumstances to mix alloy with them. I do not take the trouble of forming opinions on what is passing among them, because I have such entire confidence in their integrity and wisdom as to be satisfied all is going right, and that every one is doing his best in the station confided to him. Under these impressions, accept sincere assurances of my continued esteem and respect for yourself personally, and my best wishes for your health and happiness.

TO MR. LAW.

Monticello, January 15, 1811.

Dear Sir,—An absence from home of some length has prevented my sooner acknowledging the receipt of your letter, covering the printed pamphlet, which the same absence has as yet prevented me from taking up, but which I know I shall read with great pleasure. Your favor of December the 22d, is also received.

Mr. Wagner's malignity, like that of the rest of his tribe of brother printers, who deal out calumnies for federal readers, gives me no pain. When a printer cooks up a falsehood, it is as easy to put it into the mouth of a Mr. Fox, as of a smaller man, and safer into that of a dead than a living one. Your sincere attachment to this country, as well as to your native one, was never doubted by me; and in that persuasion, I felt myself free to express to you my genuine sentiments with respect to England. No man was more sensible than myself of the just value of the friendship of that country. There are between us so many of those circumstances which naturally produce and cement kind dispositions, that if they could have forgiven our resistance to their usurpations, our connections might have been durable, and have insured duration to both our governments. I wished, therefore, a cordial friendship with them, and I spared no occasion of manifesting this in our correspondence and intercourse with them; not disguising, however, my desire of friendship with their enemy also. During the administration of Mr. Addington, I thought I discovered some friendly symptoms on the part of that government; at least, we received some marks of respect from the administration, and some of regret at the wrongs we were suffering from their country. So, also, during the short interval of Mr. Fox's power. But every other administration since our Revolution has been equally wanton in their injuries and insults, and have manifested equal hatred and aversion. Instead, too, of cultivating the government itself, whose principles are those of the great mass of the nation, they have adopted the miserable policy of teazing and embarrassing it, by allying themselves with a faction here, not a tenth of the people, noisy and unprincipled, and which never can come into power while republicanism is the spirit of the nation, and that must continue to be so, until such a condensation of population shall have taken place as will require centuries. Whereas, the good will of the government itself would give them, and immediately, every benefit which reason or justice would permit it to give. With respect to myself, I saw great reason to believe their ministers were weak enough to credit the newspaper trash about a supposed personal enmity in myself towards England. This wretched party imputation was beneath the notice of wise men. England never did me a personal injury, other than in open war; and for numerous individuals there, I have great esteem and friendship. And I must have had a mind far below the duties of my station, to have felt either national partialities or antipathies in conducting the affairs confided to me. My affections were first for my own country, and then, generally, for all mankind; and nothing but minds placing themselves above the passions, in the functionaries of this country, could have preserved us from the war to which their provocations have been constantly urging us. The war interests in England include a numerous and wealthy part of their population; and their influence is deemed worth courting by ministers wishing to keep their places. Continually endangered by a powerful opposition, they find it convenient to humor the popular passions at the expense of the public good. The shipping interest, commercial interest, and their janizaries of the navy, all fattening on war, will not be neglected by ministers of ordinary minds. Their tenure of office is so infirm that they dare not follow the dictates of wisdom, justice, and the well-calculated interests of their country. This vice in the English constitution, renders a dependence on that government very unsafe. The feelings of their King, too, fundamentally adverse to us, have added another motive for unfriendliness in his ministers. This obstacle to friendship, however, seems likely to be soon removed; and I verily believe the successor will come in with fairer and wiser dispositions towards us; perhaps on that event their conduct may be changed. But what England is to become on the crush of her internal structure, now seeming to be begun, I cannot foresee. Her monied interest, created by her paper system, and now constituting a baseless mass of wealth equal to that of the owners of the soil, must disappear with that system, and the medium for paying great taxes thus failing, her navy must be without support. That it shall be supported by permitting her to claim dominion of the ocean, and to levy tribute on every flag traversing that, as lately attempted and not yet relinquished, every nation must contest, even ad internecionem. And yet, that retiring from this enormity, she should continue able to take a fair share in the necessary equilibrium of power on that element, would be the desire of every nation.

I feel happy in withdrawing my mind from these anxieties, and resigning myself, for the remnant of life, to the care and guardianship of others. Good wishes are all an old man has to offer to his country or friends. Mine attend yourself, with sincere assurances of esteem and respect, which, however, I should be better pleased to tender you in person, should your rambles ever lead you into the vicinage of Monticello.

TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.

Monticello, January 16, 1811.

Dear Sir,—I had been considering for some days, whether it was not time by a letter, to bring myself to your recollection, when I received your welcome favor of the 2d instant. I had before heard of the heart-rending calamity you mention, and had sincerely sympathized with your afflictions. But I had not made it the subject of a letter, because I knew that condolences were but renewals of grief. Yet I thought, and still think, this is one of the cases wherein we should "not sorrow, even as others who have no hope."

* * * * * * * *

You ask if I have read Hartley? I have not. My present course of life admits less reading than I wish. From breakfast, or noon at latest, to dinner, I am mostly on horseback, attending to my farm or other concerns, which I find healthful to my body, mind and affairs; and the few hours I can pass in my cabinet, are devoured by correspondences; not those with my intimate friends, with whom I delight to interchange sentiments, but with others, who, writing to me on concerns of their own in which I have had an agency, or from motives of mere respect and approbation, are entitled to be answered with respect and a return of good will. My hope is that this obstacle to the delights of retirement, will wear away with the oblivion which follows that, and that I may at length be indulged in those studious pursuits, from which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have called me.

I shall receive your proposed publication and read it with the pleasure which everything gives me from your pen. Although much of a sceptic in the practice of medicine, I read with pleasure its ingenious theories.

I receive with sensibility your observations on the discontinuance of friendly correspondence between Mr. Adams and myself, and the concern you take in its restoration. This discontinuance has not proceeded from me, nor from the want of sincere desire and of effort on my part, to renew our intercourse. You know the perfect coincidence of principle and of action, in the early part of the Revolution, which produced a high degree of mutual respect and esteem between Mr. Adams and myself. Certainly no man was ever truer than he was, in that day, to those principles of rational republicanism which, after the necessity of throwing off our monarchy, dictated all our efforts in the establishment of a new government. And although he swerved, afterwards, towards the principles of the English constitution, our friendship did not abate on that account. While he was Vice President, and I Secretary of State, I received a letter from President Washington, then at Mount Vernon, desiring me to call together the Heads of departments, and to invite Mr. Adams to join us (which, by-the-bye, was the only instance of that being done) in order to determine on some measure which required despatch; and he desired me to act on it, as decided, without again recurring to him. I invited them to dine with me, and after dinner, sitting at our wine, having settled our question, other conversation came on, in which a collision of opinion arose between Mr. Adams and Colonel Hamilton, on the merits of the British constitution, Mr. Adams giving it as his opinion, that, if some of its defects and abuses were corrected, it would be the most perfect constitution of government ever devised by man. Hamilton, on the contrary, asserted, that with its existing vices, it was the most perfect model of government that could be formed; and that the correction of its vices would render it an impracticable government. And this you may be assured was the real line of difference between the political principles of these two gentlemen. Another incident took place on the same occasion, which will further delineate Mr. Hamilton's political principles. The room being hung around with a collection of the portraits of remarkable men, among them were those of Bacon, Newton and Locke, Hamilton asked me who they were. I told him they were my trinity of the three greatest men the world had ever produced, naming them. He paused for some time: "the greatest man," said he, "that ever lived, was Julius Cæsar." Mr. Adams was honest as a politician, as well as a man; Hamilton honest as a man, but, as a politician, believing in the necessity of either force or corruption to govern men.

You remember the machinery which the federalists played off, about that time, to beat down the friends to the real principles of our constitution, to silence by terror every expression in their favor, to bring us into war with France and alliance with England, and finally to homologize our constitution with that of England. Mr. Adams, you know, was overwhelmed with feverish addresses, dictated by the fear, and often by the pen, of the bloody buoy, and was seduced by them into some open indications of his new principles of government, and in fact, was so elated as to mix with his kindness a little superciliousness towards me. Even Mrs. Adams, with all her good sense and prudence, was sensibly flushed. And you recollect the short suspension of our intercourse, and the circumstance which gave rise to it, which you were so good as to bring to an early explanation, and have set to rights, to the cordial satisfaction of us all. The nation at length passed condemnation on the political principles of the federalists, by refusing to continue Mr. Adams in the Presidency. On the day on which we learned in Philadelphia the vote of the city of New York, which it was well known would decide the vote of the State, and that, again, the vote of the Union, I called on Mr. Adams on some official business. He was very sensibly affected, and accosted me with these words: "Well, I understand that you are to beat me in this contest, and I will only say that I will be as faithful a subject as any you will have." "Mr. Adams," said I, "this is no personal contest between you and me. Two systems of principles on the subject of government divide our fellow citizens into two parties. With one of these you concur, and I with the other. As we have been longer on the public stage than most of those now living, our names happen to be more generally known. One of these parties, therefore, has put your name at its head, the other mine. Were we both to die to-day, to-morrow two other names would be in the place of ours, without any change in the motion of the machinery. Its motion is from its principle, not from you or myself." "I believe you are right," said he, "that we are but passive instruments, and should not suffer this matter to affect our personal dispositions." But he did not long retain this just view of the subject. I have always believed that the thousand calumnies which the federalists, in bitterness of heart, and mortification at their ejection, daily invented against me, were carried to him by their busy intriguers, and made some impression. When the election between Burr and myself was kept in suspense by the federalists, and they were meditating to place the President of the Senate at the head of the government, I called on Mr. Adams with a view to have this desperate measure prevented by his negative. He grew warm in an instant, and said with a vehemence he had not used towards me before, "Sir, the event of the election is within your own power. You have only to say you will do justice to the public creditors, maintain the navy, and not disturb those holding offices, and the government will instantly be put into your hands. We know it is the wish of the people it should be so." "Mr. Adams," said I, "I know not what part of my conduct, in either public or private life, can have authorized a doubt of my fidelity to the public engagements. I say, however, I will not come into the government by capitulation. I will not enter on it, but in perfect freedom to follow the dictates of my own judgment." I had before given the same answer to the same intimation from Gouverneur Morris. "Then," said he, "things must take their course." I turned the conversation to something else, and soon took my leave. It was the first time in our lives we had ever parted with anything like dissatisfaction. And then followed those scenes of midnight appointment, which have been condemned by all men. The last day of his political power, the last hours, and even beyond the midnight, were employed in filling all offices, and especially permanent ones, with the bitterest federalists, and providing for me the alternative, either to execute the government by my enemies, whose study it would be to thwart and defeat all my measures, or to incur the odium of such numerous removals from office, as might bear me down. A little time and reflection effaced in my mind this temporary dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, and restored me to that just estimate of his virtues and passions, which a long acquaintance had enabled me to fix. And my first wish became that of making his retirement easy by any means in my power; for it was understood he was not rich. I suggested to some republican members of the delegation from his State, the giving him, either directly or indirectly, an office, the most lucrative in that State, and then offered to be resigned, if they thought he would not deem it affrontive. They were of opinion he would take great offence at the offer; and moreover, that the body of republicans would consider such a step in the outset as arguing very ill of the course I meant to pursue. I dropped the idea, therefore, but did not cease to wish for some opportunity of renewing our friendly understanding.

Two or three years after, having had the misfortune to lose a daughter, between whom and Mrs. Adams there had been a considerable attachment, she made it the occasion of writing me a letter, in which, with the tenderest expressions of concern at this event, she carefully avoided a single one of friendship towards myself, and even concluded it with the wishes "of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your friend, Abigail Adams." Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, I determined to make an effort towards removing the cloud from between us. This brought on a correspondence which I now enclose for your perusal, after which be so good as to return it to me, as I have never communicated it to any mortal breathing, before. I send it to you, to convince you I have not been wanting either in the desire, or the endeavor to remove this misunderstanding. Indeed, I thought it highly disgraceful to us both, as indicating minds not sufficiently elevated to prevent a public competition from affecting our personal friendship. I soon found from the correspondence that conciliation was desperate, and yielding to an intimation in her last letter, I ceased from further explanation. I have the same good opinion of Mr. Adams which I ever had. I know him to be an honest man, an able one with his pen, and he was a powerful advocate on the floor of Congress. He has been alienated from me, by belief in the lying suggestions contrived for electioneering purposes, that I perhaps mixed in the activity and intrigues of the occasion. My most intimate friends can testify that I was perfectly passive. They would sometimes, indeed, tell me what was going on; but no man ever heard me take part in such conversations; and none ever misrepresented Mr. Adams in my presence, without my asserting his just character. With very confidential persons I have doubtless disapproved of the principles and practices of his administration. This was unavoidable. But never with those with whom it could do him any injury. Decency would have required this conduct from me, if disposition had not; and I am satisfied Mr. Adams' conduct was equally honorable towards me. But I think it part of his character to suspect foul play in those of whom he is jealous, and not easily to relinquish his suspicions.