Volume 9 / Part 6 — PART VI. MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. (continued 2)

Page 26. "Une puissance, en effet," &c. The account of the settlement of the colonies, which precedes this paragraph, shows that that settlement was not made by public authority, or at the public expense of England; but by the exertions, and at the expense of individuals. Hence it happened, that their constitutions were not formed systematically, but according to the circumstances which happened to exist in each. Hence, too, the principles of the political connection between the old and new countries, were never settled. That it would have been advantageous to have settled them, is certain; and, particularly, to have provided a body which should decide, in the last resort, all cases wherein both parties were interested. But it is not certain that that right would have been given, or ought to have been given to the Parliament; much less, that it resulted to the Parliament, without having been given to it expressly. Why was it necessary that there should have been a body to decide in the last resort? Because, it would have been for the good of both parties. But this reason shows it ought not to have been the Parliament, since that would have exercised it for the good of one party only.

Page 105. As to the change of the 8th article of Confederation, for quoting requisitions of money on the States.

By a report of the Secretary of Congress, dated January the 4th, 1786, eight States had then acceded to the proposition; to wit, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Congress, on the 18th of April, 1783, recommended to the States to invest them with a power, for twenty-five years, to levy an impost of five per cent. on all articles imported from abroad. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, had complied with this, before the 4th of January, 1786. Maryland had passed an act for the same purpose; but, by a mistake in referring to the date of the recommendation of Congress, the act failed of its effect. This was therefore to be rectified. Since the 4th of January, the public papers tell us that Rhode Island has complied fully with this recommendation.

It remains still for New York and Georgia to do it. The exportations of America, which are tolerably well known, are the best measure for estimating the importations. These are probably worth about twenty millions of dollars, annually. Of course, this impost will pay the interest of a debt to that amount. If confined to the foreign debt, it will pay the whole interest of that, and sink half a million of the capital, annually. The expenses of collecting this impost, will probably be six per cent. on its amount, this being the usual expense of collection in the United States. This will be sixty thousand dollars.

On the 30th of April, 1784, Congress recommended to the States, to invest them with a power, for fifteen years, to exclude from their ports the vessels of all nations, not having a treaty of commerce with them; and to pass, as to all nations, an act on the principles of the British navigation act. Not that they were disposed to carry these powers into execution, with such as would meet them in fair and equal arrangements of commerce; but that they might be able to do it against those who should not. On the 4th of January, 1786, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, had done it. It remained for New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, and Georgia, to do the same.

In the meantime, the general idea has advanced before the demands of Congress, and several States have passed acts, for vesting Congress with the whole regulation of their commerce, reserving the revenue arising from these regulations, to the disposal of the State in which it is levied. The States which, according to the public papers, have passed such acts, are New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, and Virginia; but the Assembly of Virginia, apprehensive that this disjointed method of proceeding may fail in its effect, or be much retarded, passed a resolution on the 21st of January, 1786, appointing commissioners to meet others from the other States, whom they invite into the same measure, to digest the form of an act, for investing Congress with such powers over their commerce, as shall be thought expedient, which act is to be reported to their several Assemblies, for their adoption. This was the state of the several propositions relative to the impost, and regulation of commerce, at the date of our latest advices from America.

Page 125. The General Assembly of Virginia, at their session in 1785, passed an act, declaring that the district, called Kentucky, shall be a separate and independent State, on these conditions. 1. That the people of that district shall consent to it. 2. That Congress shall consent to it, and shall receive them into the federal Union. 3. That they shall take on themselves a proportionable part of the public debt of Virginia. 4. That they shall confirm all titles to lands within their district, made by the State of Virginia, before their separation.

Page 139. It was in 1783, and not in 1781, that Congress quitted Philadelphia.

Page 140. "Le Congres qui se trouvoit à la portée des rebelles fut effrayé." I was not present on this occasion, but I have had relations of the transaction from several who were. The conduct of Congress was marked with indignation and firmness. They received no propositions from the mutineers. They came to the resolutions, which may be seen in the journals of June the 21st, 1783, then adjourned regularly, and went through the body of the mutineers to their respective lodgings. The measures taken by Dickinson, the President of Pennsylvania, for punishing this insult, not being satisfactory to Congress, they assembled, nine days after, at Princeton, in Jersey. The people of Pennsylvania sent petitions declaring their indignation at what had passed, their devotion to the federal head, and their dispositions to protect it, and praying them to return; the legislature, as soon as assembled, did the same thing; the Executive, whose irresolution had been so exceptionable, made apologies. But Congress were now removed; and, to the opinion that this example was proper, other causes were now added, sufficient to prevent their return to Philadelphia.

Page 155. l. 2. Omit "La detta actuelle," &c.

And also, "Les details," &c., &c., to the end of the paragraph, "celles des Etats Unis;" page 156. The reason is, that these passages seem to suppose, that the several sums emitted by Congress, at different times, amounting nominally to two hundred millions of dollars, had been actually worth that at the time of emission, and, of course, that the soldiers and others had received that sum from Congress. But nothing is further from the truth. The soldier, victualler, or other persons who received forty dollars for a service, at the close of the year 1779, received, in fact, no more than he who received one dollar for the same service, in the year 1775, or 1776; because, in those years, the paper money was at par with silver; whereas, by the close of 1779, forty paper dollars were worth but one of silver, and would buy no more of the necessaries of life. To know what the monies emitted by Congress were worth to the people, at the time they received them, we will state the date and amount of every several emission, the depreciation of paper money at the time, and the real worth of the emission in silver or gold.

Emission. Sum Emitted. Depreciation. Worth of the sum emitted, in silver dollars.

1775. June 23 2,000,000 .... 2,000,000

" November 29 3,000,000 .... 3,000,000

1776. Feb. 17 4,000,000 .... 4,000,000

" August 13 5,000,000 .... 5,000,000

1777. May 20 5,000,000 2⅔ 1,877,273

" August 15 1,000,000 3 333,333⅓

" Nov. 7 1,000,000 4 250,000

" Dec. 3 1,000,000 4 250,000

1778. January 8 1,000,000 4 250,000

" January 22 2,000,000 4 500,000

" February 16 2,000,000 5 400,000

" March 5 2,000,000 5 400,000

" April 4 1,000,000 6 166,666⅔

" April 10 5,000,000 6 833,333⅓

" April 18 500,000 6 83,333⅓

" May 22 5,000,000 5 1,000,000

" June 20 5,000,000 4 1,250,000

" July 30 5,000,000 4⅓ 1,111,111

" September 5 5,000,000 5 1,000,000

" September 26 10,000,100 5 2,000,020

" November 4 10,000,100 6 1,666,683⅓

" December 14 10,000,100 6 1,666,683⅓

1779. January 14 [15]24,447,620 8 3,055,952½

" February 3 5,000,160 10 500,016

" February 12 5,000,160 10 500,016

" April 2 5,000,160 17 294,127

" May 5 10,000,100 21 416,670⅚

" June 4 10,000,100 20 500,005

" July 17 15,000,280 20 750,014

" September 17 15,000,260 24 625,610⅚

" October 14 5,000,180 30 166,672⅔

" November 17 10,050,340 38½ 261,053

" November 29 10,000,140 38½ 259,743

200,000,000 36,367,719⅚

Thus, it appears, that the two hundred millions of dollars, emitted by Congress, were worth, to those who received them, but about thirty-six millions of silver dollars. If we estimate at the same value, the like sum of two hundred millions, supposed to have been emitted by the States, and reckon the Federal debt, foreign and domestic, at about forty-three millions, and the State debts, at about twenty-five millions, it will form an amount of one hundred and forty millions of dollars, or seven hundred and thirty-five millions of livres, Tournois, the total sum which the war has cost the inhabitants of the United States. It continued eight years, from the battle of Lexington to the cessation of hostilities in America. The annual expense, then, was about seventeen millions and five hundred thousand dollars, while that of our enemies was a greater number of guineas.

It will be asked, how will the two masses of Continental and of State money have cost the people of the United States seventy-two millions of dollars, when they are to be redeemed, now, with about six millions? I answer, that the difference, being sixty-six millions, has been lost on the paper bills, separately, by the successive holders of them. Every one, through whose hands a bill passed, lost on that bill what it lost in value, during the time it was in his hands. This was a real tax on him; and, in this way, the people of the United States actually contributed those sixty-six millions of dollars, during the war, and by a mode of taxation the most oppressive of all, because the most unequal of all.

Page 166; bottom line. Leave out "Et c'est une autre economie," &c. The reason of this, is, that in 1784, purchases of lands were to be made of the Indians, which were accordingly made. But in 1785, they did not propose to make any purchase. The money desired in 1785, five thousand dollars, was probably to pay agents residing among the Indians, or balances of the purchases of 1784. These purchases will not be made every year; but only at distant intervals, as our settlements are extended; and it may be regarded as certain, that not a foot of land will ever be taken from the Indians, without their own consent. The sacredness of their rights, is felt by all thinking persons in America, as much as in Europe.

Page 170. Virginia was quotaed the highest of any State in the Union. But during the war, several States appear to have paid more, because they were free from the enemy, whilst Virginia was cruelly ravaged. The requisition of 1784, was so quotaed on the several States, as to bring up their arrearages; so that when they should have paid the sums then demanded, all would be on an equal footing. It is necessary to give a further explanation of this requisition. The requisitions of one million and two hundred thousand dollars, of eight millions, and two millions, had been made during the war, as an experiment, to see whether, in that situation, the States could furnish the necessary supplies. It was found they could not. The money was thereupon obtained by loans in Europe; and Congress meant, by their requisition of 1784, to abandon the requisitions of one million and two hundred thousand dollars, and of two millions, and also one-half of the eight millions. But as all the States, almost, had made some payments in part of that requisition, they were obliged to retain such a proportion of it, as would enable them to call for equal contributions from all the others.

Page 170. I cannot say how it has happened, that the debt of Connecticut is greater than that of Virginia. The latter is the richest in productions, and, perhaps, made greater exertions to pay for her supplies in the course of the war.

Page 172. "Les Americains sevant aprés une banqueroute," &c. The objections made to the United States, being here condensed together in a short compass, perhaps, it would not be improper to condense the answers in as small a compass, in some such form as follows. That is, after the words "aucun espoir," add, "But to these charges it may be justly answered, that those are no bankrupts who acknowledge the sacredness of their debts, in their just and real amount, who are able, within a reasonable time, to pay them, and who are actually proceeding in that payment; that they furnish, in fact, the supplies necessary for the support of their government; that their officers and soldiers are satisfied, as the interest of their debt is paid regularly, and the principal is in a course of payment; that the question, whether they fought ill, should be asked of those who met them at Bunker's hill, Bennington, Stillwater, King's mountain, the Cowpens, Guilford, and the Eutaw. And that the charges of ingratitude, madness, infidelity and corruption, are easily made by those to whom falsehoods cost nothing; but that no instances, in support of them, have been produced, or can be produced."

Page 187. "Les officiérs et les soldats ont eté payés," &c. The balances due to the officers and soldiers have been ascertained, and a certificate of the sum given to each; on these, the interest is regularly paid; and every occasion is seized of paying the principal, by receiving these certificates as money, whenever public property is sold, till a more regular and effectual method can be taken, for paying the whole.

Page 191. "Quoique la loi dont nous parlons, ne s'observe plus en Angleterre." "An alien born may purchase lands or other estates, but not for his own use; for the King is thereupon entitled to them." "Yet an alien may acquire a property in goods, money and other personal estate, or may hire a house for his habitation. For this is necessary for the advancement of trade." "Also, an alien may bring an action concerning personal property, and may make a will, and dispose of his personal estate." "When I mention these rights of an alien, I must be understood of alien friends only, or such whose countries are in peace with ours; for alien enemies have no rights, no privileges, unless by the King's special favor, during the time of war." Blackstone, B. 1. c. 10, page 372. "An alien friend may have personal actions, but not real; an alien enemy shall have neither real, personal, or mixed actions. The reason why an alien friend is allowed to maintain a personal action, is, because he would otherwise be incapacitated to merchandise, which may be as much to our prejudice as his." Cunningham's law dict. title, Aliens. The above is the clear law of England, practiced from the earliest ages to this day, and never denied. The passage quoted by M. de Meuisnier from 2 Blackstone, c. 26, is from his chapter, "Of title to things personal by occupancy." The word "personal," shows, that nothing in this chapter relates to lands, which are real estate; and, therefore, this passage does not contract the one before quoted from the same author, (1 Bl. c. 10.) which says, that the lands of an alien belong to the King. The words, "of title by occupancy," show, that it does not relate to debts, which, being a moral existence only, cannot be the subject of occupancy. Blackstone, in this passage, (B. 2. c. 26.) speaks only of personal goods of an alien, which another may find, and seize as prime occupant.

Page 193. "Le remboursement presentera des difficultés des sommes considerables," &c. There is no difficulty nor doubt on this subject. Every one is sensible how this is to be ultimately settled. Neither the British creditor, nor the State, will be permitted to lose by these payments. The debtor will be credited for what he paid, according to what it was really worth at the time he paid it, and he must pay the balance. Nor does he lose by this; for if a man who owed one thousand dollars to a British merchant, paid eight hundred paper dollars into the treasury, when the depreciation was at eight for one, it is clear he paid but one hundred real dollars, and must now pay nine hundred. It is probable, he received those eight hundred dollars for one hundred bushels of wheat, which were never worth more than one hundred silver dollars. He is credited, therefore, the full worth of his wheat. The equivoque is in the use of the word "dollar."

Page 226. "Qu' on abolisse les privileges du clergé." This privilege, originally allowed to the clergy, is now extended to every man, and even to women. It is a right of exemption from capital punishment, for the first offence, in most cases. It is, then, a pardon by the law. In other cases, the Executive gives the pardon. But when laws are made as mild as they should be, both those pardons are absurd. The principle of Beccaria is sound. Let the legislators be merciful, but the executors of the law inexorable. As the term "privileges du clergé" may be understood by foreigners, perhaps, it will be better to strike it out here, and substitute the word "pardon."

Page 239. "Les commissaries veulent," &c. Manslaughter is the killing a man with design, but in a sudden gust of passion, and where the killer has not had time to cool. The first offence is not punished capitally, but the second is. This is the law of England and of all the American States; and is not now a new proposition. Those laws have supposed that a man, whose passions have so much dominion over him, as to lead him to repeated acts of murder, is unsafe to society: that it is better he should be put to death by the law, than others, more innocent than himself, on the movements of his impetuous passions.

Ibid. "Mal-aisé d'indiquer la nuance precise," &c. In forming a scale of crimes and punishments, two considerations have principal weight. 1. The atrocity of the crime. 2. The peculiar circumstances of a country, which furnish greater temptations to commit it, or greater facilities for escaping detection. The punishment must be heavier to counterbalance this. Were the first the only consideration, all nations would form the same scale. But, as the circumstances of a country have influence on the punishment, and no two countries exist precisely under the same circumstances, no two countries will form the same scale of crimes and punishments. For example; in America, the inhabitants let their horses go at large, in the uninclosed lands, which are so extensive, as to maintain them altogether. It is easy, therefore, to steal them, and easy to escape. Therefore, the laws are obliged to oppose these temptations with a heavier degree of punishment. For this reason, the stealing of a horse in America, is punished more severely, than stealing the same value in any other form. In Europe, where horses are confined so securely, that it is impossible to steal them, that species of theft need not be punished more severely than any other. In some countries of Europe, stealing fruit from trees is punished capitally. The reason is, that it being impossible to lock fruit trees up in coffers, as we do our money, it is impossible to oppose physical bars to this species of theft. Moral ones are, therefore, opposed by the laws. This, to an unreflecting American, appears the most enormous of all the abuses of power; because, he has been used to see fruits hanging in such quantities, that, if not taken by men, they would rot: he has been used to consider them, therefore, as of no value, and as not furnishing materials for the commission of a crime. This must serve as an apology for the arrangements of crimes and punishments, in the scale under our consideration. A different one would be formed here; and still different ones in Italy, Turkey, China, &c.

Page 240. "Les officiers Americains," &c., to page 264, "qui le meritoient." I would propose to new model this section, in the following manner. 1. Give a succinct history of the origin and establishment of the Cincinnati. 2. Examine whether, in its present form, it threatens any dangers to the State. 3. Propose the most practicable method of preventing them.

Having been in America, during the period in which this institution was formed, and being then in a situation which gave me opportunities of seeing it, in all its stages, I may venture to give M. de Meusnier materials for the first branch of the preceding distribution of the subject. The second and third, he will best execute himself. I should write its history in the following form:

When, on the close of that war, which established the independence of America, its army was about to be disbanded, the officers, who, during the course of it, had gone through the most trying scenes together, who, by mutual aids and good offices, had become dear to one another, felt with great oppression of mind, the approach of that moment which was to separate them, never, perhaps, to meet again. They were from different States, and from distant parts of the same State. Hazard alone could, therefore, give them but rare and partial occasions of seeing each other. They were, of course, to abandon altogether the hope of ever meeting again, or to devise some occasion which might bring them together. And why not come together on purpose, at stated times? Would not the trouble of such a journey be greatly overpaid, by the pleasure of seeing each other again, by the sweetest of all consolations, the talking over the scenes of difficulty and of endearment they had gone through? This, too, would enable them to know who of them should succeed in the world, who should be unsuccessful, and to open the purses of all to every laboring brother. This idea was too soothing, not to be cherished in conversation. It was improved into that of a regular association, with an organized administration, with periodical meetings, general and particular, fixed contributions for those who should be in distress, and a badge, by which, not only those who had not had occasion to become personally known, should be able to recognize one another, but which should be worn by their descendants, to perpetuate among them the friendships which had bound their ancestors together.

General Washington was, at that moment, oppressed with the operation of disbanding an army which was not paid, and the difficulty of this operation was increased, by some two or three States' having expressed sentiments, which did not indicate a sufficient attention to their payment. He was sometimes present, when his officers were fashioning in their conversations, their newly proposed society. He saw, the innocence of its origin, and foresaw no effects less innocent. He was, at that time, writing his valedictory letter to the States, which has been so deservedly applauded by the world. Far from thinking it a moment to multiply the causes of irritation, by thwarting a proposition which had absolutely no other basis but that of benevolence and friendship, he was rather satisfied to find himself aided in his difficulties by this new incident, which occupied, and, at the same time, soothed the minds of the officers. He thought, too, that this institution would be one instrument the more for strengthening the federal bond, and for promoting federal ideas. The institution was formed. They incorporated into it the officers of the French army and navy, by whose sides they had fought, and with whose aid they had finally prevailed, extending it to such grades as they were told might be permitted to enter into it. They sent an officer to France, to make the proposition to them, and to procure the badges which they had devised for their order. The moment of disbanding the army having come, before they could have a full meeting to appoint their President, the General was prayed to act in that office till their first general meeting, which was to be held at Philadelphia, in the month of May following.

The laws of the society were published. Men who read them in their closets, unwarmed by those sentiments of friendship which had produced them, inattentive to those pains which an approaching separation had excited in the minds of the institutors, politicians, who see in everything only the dangers with which it threatens civil society, in fine, the laboring people, who, shielded by equal laws, had never seen any difference between man and man, but had read of terrible oppressions, which people of their description experience in other countries, from those who are distinguished by titles and badges, began to be alarmed at this new institution. A remarkable silence, however, was observed. Their solicitudes were long confined within the circles of private conversation. At length, however, a Mr. Burke, Chief Justice of South Carolina, broke that silence. He wrote against the new institution, foreboding its dangers, very imperfectly indeed, because he had nothing but his imagination to aid him. An American could do no more; for to detail the real evils of aristocracy, they must be seen in Europe. Burke's fears were thought exaggerations in America; while in Europe, it is known that even Mirabeau has but faintly sketched the curses of hereditary aristocracy as they are experienced here, and as they would have followed in America, had this institution remained. The epigraph of Burke's pamphlet, was, "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion." Its effect corresponded with its epigraph. This institution became, first, the subject of general conversation. Next, it was made the subject of deliberation in the legislative Assemblies of some of the States. The Governor of South Carolina censured it, in an address to the Assembly of that State. The Assemblies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, condemned its principles. No circumstance, indeed, brought the consideration of it expressly before Congress; yet it had sunk deep into their minds. An offer having been made to them, on the part of the Polish order of Divine Providence, to receive some of their distinguished citizens into that order, they made that an occasion to declare, that these distinctions were contrary to the principles of their Confederation.

The uneasiness excited by this institution, had very early caught the notice of General Washington. Still recollecting all the purity of the motives which gave it birth, he became sensible that it might produce political evils, which the warmth of those motives had masked. Add to this, that it was disapproved by the mass of citizens of the Union. This, alone, was reason strong enough, in a country where the will of the majority is the law, and ought to be the law. He saw that the objects of the institution were too light, to be opposed to considerations as serious as these; and that it was become necessary to annihilate it absolutely. On this, therefore, he was decided. The first annual meeting at Philadelphia was now at hand; he went to that, determined to exert all his influence for its suppression. He proposed it to his fellow officers, and urged it with all his powers. It met an opposition which was observed to cloud his face with an anxiety, that the most distressful scenes of the war had scarcely ever produced. It was canvassed for several days, and, at length, it was no more a doubt what would be its ultimate fate. The order was on the point of receiving its annihilation, by the vote of a great majority of its members. In this moment, their envoy arrived from France, charged with letters from the French officers, accepting with cordiality the proposed badges of union, with solicitations from others to be received into the order, and with notice that their respectable Sovereign had been pleased to recognize it, and permit his officers to wear its badges. The prospect now changed. The question assumed a new form. After the offer made by them, and accepted by their friends, in what words could they clothe a proposition to retract it, which would not cover themselves with the reproaches of levity and ingratitude? which would not appear an insult to those whom they loved? Federal principles, popular discontent, were considerations whose weight was known and felt by themselves. But would foreigners know and feel them equally? Would they so far acknowledge their cogency, as to permit without any indignation, the eagle and ribbon to be torn from their breasts, by the very hands which had placed them there? The idea revolted the whole society. They found it necessary, then, to preserve so much of their institution as might continue to support this foreign branch, while they should prune off every other, which would give offence to their fellow citizens: thus sacrificing, on each hand, to their friends and to their country.

The society was to retain its existence, its name, its meetings, and its charitable funds: but these last were to be deposited with their respective legislatures. The order was to be no longer hereditary; a reformation, which had been pressed even from this side the Atlantic; it was to be communicated to no new members; the general meetings, instead of annual, were to be triennial only. The eagle and ribbon, indeed, were retained; because they were worn, and they wished them to be worn by their friends who were in a country where they would not be objects of offence; but themselves never wore them. They laid them up in their bureaus with the medals of American Independence, with those of the trophies they had taken, and the battles they had won. But through all the United States, no officer is seen to offend the public eye, with the display of this badge. These changes have tranquillized the American States. Their citizens feel too much interest in the reputation of their officers, and value too much, whatever may serve to recall to the memory of their allies, the moments wherein they formed but one people, not to do justice to the circumstance which prevented a total annihilation of the order. Though they are obliged by a prudent foresight, to keep out everything from among themselves, which might pretend to divide them into orders, and to degrade one description of men below another, yet they hear with pleasure, that their allies, whom circumstances have already placed under these distinctions, are willing to consider it as one, to have aided them in the establishment of their liberties, and to wear a badge which may recall them to their remembrance; and it would be an extreme affliction to them, if the domestic reformation which has been found necessary, if the censures of individual writers, or if any other circumstance should discourage the wearing their badge or lessen its reputation.

This short but true history of the order of the Cincinnati, taken from the mouths of persons on the spot, who were privy to its origin and progress, and who knew its present state, is the best apology which can be made for an insinuation, which appeared to be, and was really, so heterogeneous to the governments in which it was erected.

It should be further considered, that in America no other distinction between man and man had ever been known, but that of persons in office, exercising powers by authority of the laws, and private individuals. Among these last, the poorest laborer stood on equal ground with the wealthiest millionnaire, and generally on a more favored one, whenever their rights seemed to jar. It has been seen that a shoemaker or other artisan, removed by the voice of his country from his work bench into a chair of office, has instantly commanded all the respect and obedience which the laws ascribe to his office. But of distinction by birth or badge, they had no more idea than they had of the mode of existence in the moon or planets. They had heard only that there were such, and knew that they must be wrong. A due horror of the evils which flow from these distinctions, could be excited in Europe only, where the dignity of man is lost in arbitrary distinctions, where the human species is classed into several stages of degradation, where the many are crushed under the weight of the few, and where the order established, can present to the contemplation of a thinking being, no other picture than that of God Almighty and his angels, trampling under foot the host of the damned. No wonder, then, that the institution of the Cincinnati should be innocently conceived by one order of American citizens, should raise in the other orders, only a slow, temperate, and rational opposition, and should be viewed in Europe as a detestable parricide.

The second and third branches of this subject, no body can better execute than M. de Meusnier. Perhaps it may be curious to him to see how they strike an American mind at present. He shall, therefore, have the ideas of one who was an enemy to the institution from the first moment of its conception, but who was always sensible that the officers neither foresaw nor intended the injury they were doing to their country.

As to the question, then, whether any evil can proceed from the institution as it stands at present, I am of opinion their may. 1. From the meetings. These will keep the officers formed into a body; will continue a distinction between the civil and military, which it would be for the good of the whole to obliterate, as soon as possible; and the military assemblies will not only keep alive the jealousies and fears of the civil government, but give ground for these fears and jealousies. For when men meet together, they will make business if they have none; they will collate their grievances, some real, some imaginary, all highly painted; they will communicate to each other the sparks of discontent; and these may engender a flame which will consume their particular, as well as the general happiness. 2. The charitable part of the institution is still more likely to do mischief, as it perpetuates the dangers apprehended in the preceding clause. For here is a fund provided of permanent existence. To whom will it belong? To the descendants of American officers of a certain description. These descendants, then, will form a body, having sufficient interest to keep up an attention to their description, to continue meetings, and perhaps, in some moment, when the political eye shall be slumbering, or the firmness of their fellow citizens relaxed, to replace the insignia of the order and revive all its pretensions. What good can the officers propose which may weigh against these possible evils? The securing their descendants against want? Why afraid to trust them to the same fertile soil, and the same genial climate, which will secure from want the descendants of their other fellow citizens? Are they afraid they will be reduced to labor the earth for their sustenance? They will be rendered thereby both more honest and happy. An industrious farmer occupies a more dignified place in the scale of beings, whether moral or political, than a lazy lounger, valuing himself on his family, too proud to work, and drawing out a miserable existence, by eating on that surplus of other men's labor, which is the sacred fund of the helpless poor. A pitiful annuity will only prevent them from exerting that industry and those talents which would soon lead them to better fortune.

How are these evils to be prevented? 1. At their first general meeting, let them distribute the funds on hand to the existing objects of their destination, and discontinue all further contributions. 2. Let them declare, at the same time, that their meetings, general and particular, shall thenceforth cease. 3. Let them melt up their eagles and add the mass to the distributable fund, that their descendants may have no temptation to hang them in their button holes.

These reflections are not proposed as worthy the notice of M. de Meusnier. He will be so good as to treat the subject in his own way, and no body has a better. I will only pray him to avail us of his forcible manner, to evince that there is evil to be apprehended, even from the ashes of this institution, and to exhort the society in America to make their reformation complete; bearing in mind, that we must keep the passions of men on our side, even when we are persuading them to do what they ought to do.

Page 268. "Et en effet la population," &c. Page 270. "Plus de confiance."

To this we answer that no such census of the numbers was ever given out by Congress, nor ever presented to them: and further, that Congress never have, at any time, declared by their vote, the number of inhabitants in their respective States. On the 22d of June, 1775, they first resolved to emit paper money. The sum resolved on was two millions of dollars. They declared, then, that the twelve confederate colonies (for Georgia had not yet joined them) should be pledged for the redemption of these bills. To ascertain in what proportion each State should be bound, the members from each were desired to say, as nearly as they could, what was the number of the inhabitants of their respective States. They were very much unprepared for such a declaration. They guessed, however, as well as they could. The following are the numbers, as they conjectured them, and the consequent apportionment of the two millions of dollars.

Inhabitants. Dollars.

New Hampshire, 100,000 82,713

Massachusetts, 350,000 289,496

Rhode Island, 58,000 47,973

Connecticut, 200,000 165,426

New York, 200,000 165,426

New Jersey, 180,000 107,527

Pennsylvania, 300,000 248,139

Delaware, 30,000 24,813

Maryland, 250,000 206,783

Virginia, 400,000 330,852

North Carolina, 200,000 165,426

South Carolina, 200,000 165,426

2,418,000 2,000,000

Georgia having not yet acceded to the measures of the other States, was not quotaed; but her numbers were generally estimated at about thirty thousand, and so would have made the whole two million four hundred and forty-eight thousand persons, of every condition. But it is to be observed, that though Congress made this census the basis of their apportionment, yet they did not even give it a place on their journals; much less publish it to the world with their sanction. The way it got abroad was this: As the members declared from their seats the number of inhabitants which they conjectured to be in their State, the secretary of Congress wrote them on a piece of paper, calculated the portion of two millions of dollars to be paid by each, and entered the sum only in the journals. The members, however, for their own satisfaction, and the information of their States, took copies of this enumeration and sent them to their States. From thence they got into the public papers: and when the English news writers found it answer their purpose to compare this with the enumeration of 1783, as their principle is "to lie boldly that they may not be suspected of lying," they made it amount to three millions one hundred and thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and nine, and ascribed its publication to Congress itself.

In April, 1785, Congress being to call on the States to raise a million and a half of dollars annually for twenty-five years, it was necessary to apportion this among them. The States had never furnished them with their exact numbers. It was agreed, too, that in this apportionment five slaves should be counted as three freemen only. The preparation of this business was in the hands of a committee; they applied to the members for the best information they could give them of the number of their States. Some of the States had taken pains to discover their numbers. Others had done nothing in that way, and, of course, were now where they were in 1775, when their numbers were first called on to declare their numbers. Under these circumstances, and on the principle of counting three-fifths only of the slaves, the committee apportioned the money among the States, and reported their work to Congress. In this they had assessed South Carolina as having one hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants The delegate for that State, however, prevailed on Congress to assess them on the footing of one hundred and fifty thousand only, in consideration of the state of total devastation in which the enemy had left their country. The difference was then laid on the other States, and the following was the result:—

Inhabitants. Dollars.

New Hampshire, 82,200 52,708

Massachusetts, 350,000 224,427

Rhode Island, 50,400 32,318

Connecticut, 206,000 132,091

New York, 200,000 128,243

New Jersey, 130,000 83,358

Pennsylvania, 320,000 205,189

Delaware, 35,000 22,443

Maryland, 220,700 141,517

Virginia, 400,000 256,487

North Carolina, 170,000 109,006

South Carolina, 150,000 96,183

Georgia, 25,000 16,030

2,339,300 1,500,000

Still, however, Congress refused to give the enumeration the sanction of a place on their journals, because it was not formed on such evidence as a strict attention to accuracy and truth required. They used it from necessity, because they could get no better rule, and they entered on their journals only the apportionment of money. The members, however, as before, took copies of the enumeration, which was the groundwork of the apportionment, sent them to their States, and thus this second enumeration got into the public papers, and was by the English ascribed to Congress as their declaration of their present numbers. To get at the real numbers which this enumeration supposes, we must add twenty thousand to the number on which South Carolina was quoted; we must consider that seven hundred thousand slaves are counted but as four hundred and twenty thousand persons, and add, on that account, two hundred and eighty thousand. This will give us a total of two millions six hundred and thirty-nine thousand three hundred inhabitants of every condition in the thirteen States, being two hundred and twenty-one thousand three hundred more than the enumeration of 1775, instead of seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand five hundred and nine less, which the English papers asserted to be the diminution of numbers in the United States, according to the confession of Congress themselves.

Page 272. "Comportera peut etre une population de thirty millions."

The territory of the United States contains about a million of square miles, English. There is, in them, a greater proportion of fertile lands than in the British dominions in Europe. Suppose the territory of the United States, then, to attain an equal degree of population with the British European dominions, they will have an hundred millions of inhabitants. Let us extend our views to what may be the population of the two continents of North and South America, supposing them divided at the narrowest part of the isthmus of Panama. Between this line and that of 50' of north latitude, the northern continent contains about five millions of square miles, and south of this line of division the southern continent contains about seven millions of square miles. I do not pass the 50th degree of northern latitude in my reckoning, because we must draw a line somewhere, and considering the soil and climate beyond that, I would only avail my calculation of it, as a make weight, to make good what the colder regions within that line may be supposed to fall short in their future population. Here are twelve millions of square miles, then, which, at the rate of population before assumed, will nourish twelve hundred millions of inhabitants, a number greater than the present population of the whole globe is supposed to amount to. If those who propose medals for the resolution of questions, about which nobody makes any question, those who have invited discussion on the pretended problem, Whether the discovery of America was for the good of mankind? if they, I say, would have viewed it only as doubling the numbers of mankind, and, of course, the quantum of existence and happiness, they might have saved the money and the reputation which their proposition has cost them. The present population of the inhabited parts of the United Stated is of about ten to the square mile; and experience has shown us, that wherever we reach that, the inhabitants become uneasy, as too much compressed, and go off in great numbers to search for vacant country. Within forty years their whole territory will be peopled at that rate. We may fix that, then, as the term beyond which the people of those States will not be restrained within their present limits; we may fix that population, too, as the limit which they will not exceed till the whole of those two continents are filled up to that mark, that is to say, till they shall contain one hundred and twenty millions of inhabitants. The soil of the country on the western side of the Mississippi, its climate, and its vicinity to the United States, point it out as the first which will receive population from that nest. The present occupiers will just have force enough to repress and restrain the emigrations to a certain degree of consistence. We have seen lately a single person go and decide on a settlement in Kentucky, many hundred miles from any white inhabitant, remove thither with his family and a few neighbors; and though perpetually harassed by the Indians, that settlement in the course of ten years has acquired thirty thousand inhabitants. Its numbers are increasing while we are writing, and the State, of which it formerly made a part, has offered it independence.

Page 280, line five. "Huit des onze Etats," &c. Say, "There were ten States present; six voted unanimously for it, three against it, and one was divided; and seven votes being requisite to decide the proposition affirmatively, it was lost. The voice of a single individual of the State which was divided, or of one of those which were of the negative, would have prevented this abominable crime from spreading itself over the new country. Thus we see the fate of millions unborn hanging on the tongue of one man, and heaven was silent in that awful moment! But it is to be hoped it will not always be silent, and that the friends to the rights of human nature will in the end prevail.

"On the 16th of March, 1785, it was moved in Congress that the same proposition should be referred to a committee, and it was referred by the votes of eight States against three. We do not hear that anything further is yet done on it."

Page 286. "L'autorité du Congrés etoit necessaire." The substance of the passage alluded to in the journal of Congress, May the 26th, 1784, is, "That the authority of Congress to make requisitions of troops during peace is questioned; that such an authority would be dangerous, combined with the acknowledged one of emitting or borrowing money; and that a few troops only being wanted to guard magazines and garrison the frontier posts, it would be more proper at present to recommend than to require."

Mr. Jefferson presents his compliments to M. de Meusnier, and sends him copies of the thirteenth, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth articles of treaty between the King of Prussia and the United States.

If M. de Meusnier proposes to mention the facts of cruelty of which he and Mr. Jefferson spoke yesterday, the twenty-fourth article will introduce them properly, because they produced a sense of the necessity of that article. These facts are, 1. The death of upwards of eleven thousand American prisoners in one prison ship (the Jersey), and in the space of three years. 2. General Howe's permitting our prisoners, taken at the battle of Germantown, and placed under a guard in the yard of the Statehouse of Philadelphia, to be so long without any food furnished them that many perished with hunger. Where the bodies laid, it was seen that they had eaten all the grass around them within their reach, after they had lost the power of rising, or moving from their place. 3. The second fact was the act of a commanding officer; the first, of several commanding officers, and for so long a time as must suppose the approbation of government. But the following was the act of government itself. During the periods that our affairs seemed unfavorable, and theirs successful, that is to say, after the evacuation of New York, and again, after the taking of Charleston, in South Carolina, they regularly sent our prisoners, taken on the seas and carried to England, to the East Indies. This is so certain, that in the month of November or December, 1785, Mr. Adams having officially demanded a delivery of the American prisoners sent to the East Indies, Lord Cærmarthen answered, officially, "That orders were immediately issued for their discharge." M. de Meusnier is at liberty to quote this fact. 4. A fact to be ascribed not only to the government, but to the parliament, who passed an act for that purpose in the beginning of the war, was the obliging our prisoners taken at sea, to join them, and fight against their countrymen. This they effected by starving and whipping them. The insult on Captain Stanhope, which happened at Boston last year, was a consequence of this. Two persons, Dunbar and Lowthorp, whom Stanhope had treated in this manner (having particularly inflicted twenty-four lashes on Dunbar), meeting him at Boston, attempted to beat him. But the people interposed and saved him. The fact is referred to in that paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which says, "He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands." This was the most afflicting to our prisoners of all the cruelties exercised on them. The others affected the body only, but this the mind; they were haunted by the horror of having, perhaps, themselves shot the ball by which a father or a brother fell. Some of them had constancy enough to hold out against half allowance of food and repeated whippings. These were generally sent to England, and from thence to the East Indies. One of them escaped from the East Indies, and got back to Paris, where he gave an account of his sufferings to Mr. Adams, who happened to be then at Paris.

M. de Meusnier, where he mentions that the slave law has been passed in Virginia, without the clause of emancipation, is pleased to mention, that neither Mr. Wythe, nor Mr. Jefferson was present, to make the proposition they had meditated; from which, people, who do not give themselves the trouble to reflect or inquire, might conclude hastily, that their absence was the cause why the proposition was not made; and, of course, that there were not in the Assembly, persons of virtue and firmness enough to propose the clause for emancipation. This supposition would not be true. There were persons there, who wanted neither the virtue to propose, nor talents to enforce the proposition, had they seen that the disposition of the legislature was ripe for it. These worthy characters would feel themselves wounded, degraded, and discouraged by this idea. Mr. Jefferson would therefore be obliged to M. de Meusnier, to mention it in some such manner as this. "Of the two commissioners, who had concerted the amendatory clause for the gradual emancipation of slaves, Mr. Wythe could not be present, he being a member of the judiciary department, and Mr. Jefferson was absent on the legation to France. But there were not wanting in that Assembly, men of virtue enough to propose, and talents to vindicate this clause. But they saw, that the moment of doing it with success was not yet arrived, and that an unsuccessful effort, as too often happens, would only rivet still closer the chains of bondage, and retard the moment of delivery to this oppressed description of men. What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and, the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery, than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must await, with patience, the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these, our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless, a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality."

[The following are the articles of the treaty with Prussia, referred to in the preceding observations.]

Article 13. And in the same case, of one of the contracting parties being engaged in war with any other power, to prevent all the difficulties and misunderstandings, that usually arise respecting the merchandise heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and military stores of every kind, no such articles, carried in the vessels, or by the subjects or citizens of one of the parties, to the enemies of the other, shall be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation or condemnation, and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful to stop such vessels and articles, and to detain them for such length of time, as the captors may think necessary to prevent the inconvenience or damage that might ensue from their proceeding, paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors; and it shall further be allowed to use, in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the military stores so detained, paying the owners the full value of the same, to be ascertained by the current price at the place of its destination. But in the case supposed, of a vessel stopped for articles heretofore deemed contraband, if the master of the vessel stopped, will deliver out the goods supposed to be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not, in that case, be carried into any port, nor further detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.

Article 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts, and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without molestation or hindrance; and all women and children, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artizans, manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general, all others whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses be burned or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the armed force of the enemy, into whose power, by the events of war, they may happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to be taken from them, for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price And all merchant and trading vessels, employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested. And neither of the contracting parties shall grant, or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce.

Article 24. And to prevent the destruction of prisoners of war, by sending them into distant and inclement countries, or by crowding them into close and noxious places, the two contracting parties solemnly pledge themselves to each other and the world, that they will not adopt any such practice; that neither will send the prisoners whom they may take from the other, into the East Indies or any other parts of Asia or Africa; but that they shall be placed in some part of their dominions in Europe or America, in wholesome situations, that they shall not be confined in dungeons, prison ships, nor prisons, nor be put into irons, nor bound, nor otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. That the officers shall be enlarged, on their paroles, within convenient districts, and have comfortable quarters, and the common men be disposed in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as roomy and good, as are provided by the party in whose power they are, for their own troops; that the officers shall be daily furnished by the party, in whose power they are, with as many rations, and of the same articles and quality, as are allowed by them, either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in their own army; and all others shall be daily furnished by them, with such rations as they allow to a common soldier in their own service; the value whereof shall be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistence of prisoners, at the close of the war; and the said accounts shall not be mingled with, or set off against any others, nor the balances due on them, be withheld as a satisfaction or reprisal for any other article, or for any other cause, real or pretended, whatever. That each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, of their own appointment, with every separate cantonment of prisoners in possession of the other, which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases, shall be allowed to receive and distribute whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends, and shall be free to make his reports in open letters, to those who employ him. But if any officer shall break his parole, or any other prisoners shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him, such individual officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article, as provides for his enlargement on parole or cantonment. And it is declared, that either the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending this, or the next preceding article, but, on the contrary, that the state of war is precisely that for which they are provided, and during which they are to be as sacredly observed, as the most acknowledged articles in the law of nature and nations.

VI. Answers to questions propounded by M. de Meusnier, Jan. 24th, 1786.

1. On the original establishment of the several States, the civil code of England, from whence they had emigrated, was adopted. This of course could extend only to general laws, and not to those which were particular to certain places in England only. The circumstances of the new States obliged them to add some new laws, which their special situation required, and even to change some of the general laws of England in cases which did not suit their circumstances or ways of thinking. The law of descents, for instance, was changed in several States. On the late revolution, the changes which their new form of government rendered necessary were easily made. It was only necessary to say that the powers of legislation, the judiciary, and the executive powers, heretofore exercised by persons of such and such description, shall henceforth be exercised by persons to be appointed in such and such manners. This was what their constitution did. Virginia thought it might be necessary to examine the whole code of law, to reform such parts of it as had been calculated to produce a devotion to monarchy, and to reduce into smaller volume such useful parts as had become too diffuse. A committee was appointed to execute this work; they did it; and the Assembly began in October, 1785, the examination of it, in order to change such parts of the report as might not meet their approbation, and to establish what they should approve. We may expect to hear the result of their deliberations about the last of February next.

I have heard that Connecticut undertook a like work; but I am not sure of this, nor do I know whether any other of the States have or have not done the same.

2. The constitution of New Hampshire, established in 1776, having been expressly made to continue only during the contest with Great Britain, they proceeded, after the close of that, to form and establish a permanent one, which they did. The Convention of Virginia which organized their new government, had been chosen before a separation from Great Britain had been thought of in their State. They had, therefore, none but the ordinary powers of legislation. This leaves their act for organizing the government subject to be altered by every legislative assembly; and though no general change in it has been made, yet its effect has been controlled in several special cases. It is therefore thought that that State will appoint a convention for the special purpose of forming a stable constitution. I think no change has been made in any other of the States.

3. The following is a rough estimate of the particular debts of some of the States as they existed in the year 1784:

New Hampshire $500,000

Rhode Island 5,000,000

Massachusetts 430,000

Connecticut 3,439,086⅔

Virginia 2,300,000.

United States' principal of Foreign debt nearly $7,000,000.

The principal of the Domestic debt is somewhere between 27½ millions and 35¼ millions, call it therefore 31,300,000.

$38,300,000.

The other States not named here, are probably indebted in the same proportion to their abilities. If so, and we estimate their abilities by the rule of quotaing them those eight States will owe about fourteen millions, and consequently the particular debts of all the States will amount to twenty-five or twenty-six millions of dollars.

5. A particular answer to this question would lead to very minute details: one general idea, however, may be applied to all the States. Each having their separate debt, and a determinate proportion of the Federal debt, they endeavor to lay taxes sufficient to pay the interest of both of these, and to support their own and the Federal Government. These taxes are generally about one or one and a-half per cent. on the value of property; and from two and a-half to five per cent. on foreign merchandise imported. But the payment of this interest regularly, is not accomplished in many of the States. The people are as yet not recovered from the depredations of the war. When that ended their houses were in ruin, their farms waste, themselves distressed for clothing and necessaries for their households. They cannot as yet, therefore, bear heavy taxes. For the payment of the principal no final measures are yet taken. Some States will have land for sale, the produce of which may pay the principal debt. Some will endeavor to have an exceeding of their taxes to be applied as a sinking fund; and all of them look forward to the increase of population, and of course an increase of productions in their present taxes, to enable them to be sinking their debt. This is a general view. Some of the States have not yet made even just efforts for satisfying either the principal or interest of their public debt.

6. By the close of the year 1785 there had probably passed over about 50,000 emigrants. Most of these were Irish. The greatest number of the residue were Germans. Philadelphia receives most of them, and next to that, Baltimore and New York.

7. Nothing is decided as to Vermont. The four northernmost States wish it to be received into the Union. The Middle and Southern States are rather opposed to it. But the great difficulty arises with New York, which claims that territory. In the beginning every individual revolted at the idea of giving them up. Congress therefore only interfered from time to time, to prevent the two parties from coming to an open rupture. In the meanwhile the minds of the New Yorkers have been familiarizing to the idea of a separation, and I think it will not be long before they will consent to it. In that case, the Southern and Middle States will doubtless acquiesce, and Vermont will be received into the Union.

8. LeMaine, a part of the government of Massachusetts, but detached from it, (the State of New Hampshire lying between,) begins to desire to be separated. They are very weak in numbers as yet: but whenever they shall attain a certain degree of population, there are circumstances which render it highly probable they will be allowed to become a separate member of the Union.

9. It is believed that the State of Virginia has by this time made a second cession of lands to Congress, comprehending all those between the meridian of the mouth of the Great Kanhaway, the Ohio, Mississippi, and Carolina boundary. Within this lies Kentucky. I believe that their numbers are sufficient already to entitle them to come into Congress. And their reception there will only increase the delay necessary for taking the consent of the several Assemblies. There is no other new State as yet approaching the time of its reception.

10. The number of Royalists which left New York, South Carolina and Georgia, when they were evacuated by the British army was considerable, but I am absolutely unable to conjecture their numbers. From all the other States, I suppose perhaps two thousand may have gone.

11. The Confederation is a wonderfully perfect instrument, considering the circumstances under which it was formed. There are, however, some alterations which experience proves to be wanting. These are principally three. 1. To establish a general rule for the admission of new States into the Union. By the confederation no new States, except Canada, can be permitted to have a vote in Congress without first obtaining the consent of all the thirteen legislatures. It becomes necessary to agree what districts may be established into separate States, and at what period of their population they may come into Congress. The act of Congress of April 23, 1784, has pointed out what ought to be agreed on, to say also what number of votes must concur when the number of voters shall be thus enlarged. 2. The Confederation, in its eighth article, decides that the quota of money to be contributed by the several States shall be proportioned to the value of the landed property in the State. Experience has shown it impracticable to come at this value. Congress have therefore recommended to the States to agree that their quotas shall be in proportion to the number of their inhabitants, counting five slaves, however, but as equal to three free inhabitants. I believe all the States have agreed to this alteration except Rhode Island. 3. The Confederation forbids the States individually to enter into treaties of commerce, or of any other nature, with foreign nations: and it authorizes Congress to establish such treaties, with two reservations however, viz., that they shall agree to no treaty which would, 1. restrain the legislatures from imposing such duties on foreigners as natives are subject to; or 2., from prohibiting the exportation or importation of any species of commodities. Congress may therefore be said to have a power to regulate commerce so far as it can be effected by conventions with other nations, and by conventions which do not infringe the two fundamental reservations before mentioned. But this is too imperfect. Because, till a convention be made with any particular nation, the commerce of any one of our States with that nation may be regulated by the State itself, and even when a convention is made, the regulation of the commerce is taken out of the hands of the several States only so far as it is covered or provided for by that convention or treaty. But treaties are made in such general terms, that the greater part of the regulations would still result to the legislatures. Let us illustrate these observations by observing how far the commerce of France and England can be affected by the State Legislatures. As to England, any one of the legislatures may impose on her goods double the duties which are paid other nations; may prohibit their goods altogether; may refuse them the usual facilities for recovering their debts or withdrawing their property; may refuse to receive their Consuls or to give those Consuls any jurisdiction. But with France, whose commerce is protected by a treaty, no State can give any molestation to that commerce which is defended by the treaty. Thus, though a State may exclude the importation of all wines (because one of the reservations aforesaid is that they may prohibit the importation of any species of commodities), yet they cannot prohibit the importation of French wines, particularly while they allow wines to be brought in from other countries. They cannot impose heavier duties on French commodities than on those of other nations. They cannot throw peculiar obstacles in the way of their recovery of debts due to them, &c., &c., because those things are provided for by treaty. Treaties, however, are very imperfect machines for regulating commerce in the detail. The principal objects in the regulation of our commerce would be: 1. to lay such duties, restrictions, or prohibitions on the goods of any particular nation, as might oblige that nation to concur in just and equal arrangements of commerce. 2. To lay such uniform duties on the articles of commerce throughout all the States, as may avail them of that fund for assisting to bear the burthen of public expenses. Now, this cannot be done by the States separately, because they will not separately pursue the same plan. New Hampshire cannot lay a given duty on a particular article unless Massachusetts will do the same, because it will turn the importation of that article from her ports into those of Massachusetts, from whence they will be smuggled into New Hampshire by land. But though Massachusetts were willing to concur with New Hampshire in laying the same duty, yet she cannot do it for the same reason, unless Rhode Island will also, nor can Rhode Island without Connecticut, nor Connecticut without New York, nor New York without New Jersey, and so on quite to Georgia. It is visible, therefore, that the commerce of the States cannot be regulated to the best advantage but by a single body, and no body so proper as Congress. Many of the States have agreed to add an article to the Confederation for allowing to Congress the regulation of their commerce, only providing that the revenues to be raised on it shall belong to the States in which they are levied. Yet it is believed that Rhode Island will prevent this also. An everlasting recurrence to this same obstacle will occasion a question to be asked. How happens it that Rhode Island is opposed to every useful proposition? Her geography accounts for it, with the aid of one or two observations. The cultivators of the earth are the most virtuous citizens, and possess most of the amor patriæ. Merchants are the least virtuous, and possess the least of the amor patriæ. The latter reside principally in the seaport towns, the former in the interior country. Now, it happened that of the territory constituting Rhode Island and Connecticut, the part containing the seaports was erected into a State by itself, called Rhode Island, and that containing the interior country was erected into another State called Connecticut. For though it has a little sea-coast, there are no good ports in it. Hence it happens that there is scarcely one merchant in the whole State of Connecticut, while there is not a single man in Rhode Island who is not a merchant of some sort. Their whole territory is but a thousand square miles, and what of that is in use is laid out in grass farms almost entirely. Hence they have scarcely any body employed in agriculture. All exercise some species of commerce. This circumstance has decided the characters of these two States. The remedies to this evil are hazardous. One would be to consolidate the two States into one. Another would be to banish Rhode Island from the Union. A third, to compel her submission to the will of the other twelve. A fourth, for the other twelve to govern themselves according to the new propositions, and to let Rhode Island go on by herself according to the ancient articles. But the dangers and difficulties attending all these remedies are obvious.

These are the only alterations proposed to the confederation, and the last of them is the only additional power which Congress is thought to need.

12. Congress have not yet ultimately decided at what rates they will redeem the paper money in the hands of the holders. But a resolution of 1784 has established the principle, so that there can be little doubt but that the holders of paper money will receive as much real money as the paper was actually worth at the time they received it, and an interest of six per cent. from the time they received it. Its worth will be found in the depreciation table of the State wherein it was received; these depreciation tables having been formed according to the market price of the paper money at different epochs.

13. Those who talk of the bankruptcy of the United States, are of two descriptions: 1. Strangers who do not understand the nature and history of our paper money. 2. Holders of that paper money who do not wish that the world should understand it. Thus, when in March, 1780, the paper money being so far depreciated that forty dollars of it would purchase only one silver dollar, Congress endeavored to correct the progress of that depreciation by declaring they would emit no more, and would redeem what was in circulation at the rate of one dollar of silver for forty of paper; this was called by the brokers in paper money, a bankruptcy. Yet these very people who had only given one dollar's worth of provisions, of manufactures, or perhaps of silver, for their forty dollars, were displeased that they could not in a moment multiply their silver into forty. If it were decided that the United States should pay a silver dollar for every paper dollar they emitted, I am of opinion (conjecturing from loose data of my memory only as to the amount and true worth of the sums emitted by Congress and by the several States) that a debt, which in its just amount is not more, perhaps, than six millions of dollars, would amount up to four hundred millions, and instead of assessing every inhabitant with a debt of about two dollars, would fix on him thirty guineas, which is considerably more than the national debt of England affixes on each of its inhabitants, and would make a bankruptcy where there is none. The real just debts of the United States, which were stated under the third query, will be easily paid by the sale of their lands, which were ceded on the fundamental condition of being applied as a sinking fund for this purpose.

14. The whole army of the United States was disbanded at the close of the war. A few guards only were engaged for their magazines. Lately they have enlisted some two or three regiments to garrison the posts along the Northern boundary of the United States.

16. The United States do not own, at present, a single vessel of war; nor has Congress entered into any resolution on that subject.

17. I conjecture there are six hundred and fifty thousand negroes in the five southernmost States, and not fifty thousand in the rest. In most of these latter, effectual measures have been taken for their future emancipation. In the former, nothing is done towards that. The disposition to emancipate them is strongest in Virginia. Those who desire it, form, as yet, the minority of the whole State, but it bears a respectable portion to the whole in numbers and weight of character, and it is continually recruiting by the addition of nearly the whole of the young men as fast as they come into public life. I flatter myself it will take place there at some period of time not very distant. In Maryland and North Carolina a very few are disposed to emancipate. In South Carolina and Georgia, not the smallest symptom of it, but, on the contrary, these two States, and North Carolina, continue importations of negroes. These have been long prohibited in all the other States.

18. In Virginia, where a great proportion of the legislature consider the constitution but as other acts of legislation, laws have been frequently passed which controlled its effects. I have not heard that in the other States they have ever infringed their constitution, and I suppose they have not done it, as the Judges would consider any law as void which was contrary to the constitution. Pennsylvania is divided into two parties very nearly equal, the one desiring to change the constitution, the other opposing a change. In Virginia there is a part of the State which considers the act for organizing their government as a constitution, and are content to let it remain; there is another part which considers it only as an ordinary act of the legislature, who, therefore, wish to form a real constitution, correcting some defects which have been observed in the act now in force. Most of the young people as they come into office arrange themselves on this side, and I think they will prevail ere long. But there are no heats on this account. I do not know that any of the other States propose to change their constitution.

19. I have heard of no malversations in office which have been of any consequence, unless we consider as such some factious transactions in the Pennsylvania Assembly; or some acts of the Virginia Assembly which have been contrary to their constitution. The causes of these were explained in the preceding article.

20. Broils among the States may happen in the following ways: 1. A State may be embroiled with the other twelve by not complying with the lawful requisitions of Congress. 2. Two States may differ about their boundaries. But the method of settling these is fixed by the confederation, and most of the States which have any differences of this kind, are submitting them to this mode of determination, and there is no danger of opposition to the decree by any State. The individuals interested may complain, but this can produce no difficulty. 3. Other contestations may arise between two States, such as pecuniary demands, affrays among their citizens, and whatever else may arise between any two nations, with respect to these, there are two opinions. One that they are to be decided according to the ninth article of the confederation, which says that Congress shall be the last resort in all differences between two or more States, concerning boundary jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever; and prescribes the mode of decision, and the weight of reason is undoubtedly in favor of this opinion, yet there are some who question it.

It has been often said that the decisions of Congress are impotent because the confederation provides no compulsory power. But when two or more nations enter into compact, it is not usual for them to say what shall be done to the party who infringes it. Decency forbids this, and it is as unnecessary as indecent, because the right of compulsion naturally results to the party injured by the breach. When any one State in the American Union refuses obedience to the confederation by which they have bound themselves, the rest have a natural right to compel them to obedience. Congress would probably exercise long patience before they would recur to force; but if the case ultimately required it, they would use that recurrence. Should this case ever arise, they will probably coerce by a naval force, as being more easy, less dangerous to liberty, and less likely to produce much bloodshed.

It has been said, too, that our governments, both federal and particular, want energy; that it is difficult to restrain both individuals and States from committing wrong. This is true, and it is an inconvenience. On the other hand, that energy which absolute governments derive from an armed force, which is the effect of the bayonet constantly held at the breast of every citizen, and which resembles very much the stillness of the grave, must be admitted also to have its inconveniences. We weigh the two together, and like best to submit to the former. Compare the number of wrongs committed with impunity by citizens among us with those committed by the sovereign in other countries, and the last will be found most numerous, most oppressive on the mind, and most degrading of the dignity of man.

22. The States differed very much in their proceedings as to British property, and I am unable to give the details. In Virginia, the sums sequestered in the treasury remain precisely as they did at the conclusion of the peace. The British having refused to make satisfaction for the slaves they carried away, contrary to the treaty of peace, and to deliver up the ports within our limits, the execution of that treaty is in some degree suspended. Individuals, however, are paying off their debts to British subjects, and the laws even permit the latter to recover them judicially. But as the amount of these debts are twenty or thirty times the amount of all the money in circulation in that State, the same laws permit the debtor to pay his debts in seven equal and annual payments.

VII. Notes on M. Soulés' work.

Paris, Sept. 13th, 1786.

Sir,—Before the receipt of your favor of the 11th inst. I had written the enclosed short notes on such parts of your work as I have been yet able to go over. You will perceive that the corrections are very trifling. Such as they are, I will continue them, and forward them to you from time to time as I get along. I will endeavor also to answer such of the queries you propose in your letter as my memory will enable me to do with certainty. Some of them I shall be unable to answer, having left in America all my notes, memorandums, &c., which might have enabled me to give you the information you desire. I have the honor to be, with the most esteem and respect, sir,

Your most obedient humble servant. Th: Jefferson.

M. Soulés.

Answers to the queries of M. Soulés.

I am unable to say what was the number of Americans engaged in the affair of Bunker's Hill. I am able, however, to set right a gross falsehood of Andrews. He says the Americans there engaged were constantly relieved by fresh hands. This is entirely untrue. Bunker's Hill (or rather Breed's hill whereon the action was) is a peninsular joined to the main land by a neck of land almost level with the water, a few paces wide, and about one or two hundred toises long. On one side of this neck lay a vessel of war, and on the other several gun-boats. The body of our army was on the main land, and only a detachment had been sent into the peninsular. When the enemy determined to make the attack, they sent the vessel of war and gun-boats to take the position, before mentioned, to cut off all reinforcements, which they effectually did. Not so much as a company could venture to the relief of the men engaged, who therefore fought through the whole action, and at length were obliged to retire across the neck through the cross-fire of the vessels before mentioned.

"On the fall of Montgomery and his aids at Quebec, there were present Colonel Campbell and Major Dubois. Campbell, though having the rank of colonel, was only of the staff; Dubois was of the line. The usage of all nations, therefore, authorized the latter to take the command. But it was a case for which Congress had not yet provided. Campbell availed himself of this; and believing, on the sight of blood, that all was lost, ordered a retreat."

The speech to the Indians, in Andrews', page 357, is a little altered and abridged. You will find the genuine one in the Journal of Congress, of July, 1775. I do not distinctly enough recollect the anecdote of the old man's company, related by Andrews, to affirm it in all its parts. I think I recollect in general that there was such a company.

The questions relative to General Thomas, I could only have answered indistinctly from my own memory: but fortunately there came to Paris a few days ago, and will yet continue there a few days, a Colonel Blackden, an American officer of good understanding and of truth, and who was at the latter part of the affair of Quebec. He was at the surprise of Ticonderoga by Allen, and continued with the army until 1781. I have spoken with him on this subject, and find that he possesses treasures of details, which will be precious to M. Soulés. Any day that M. Soulés will do me the honor to come and take a famille soupe with me, (after the 16th instant,) if he will give me notice in the morning, I will ask Colonel Blackden to meet him here, and will make them acquainted. He is perfectly disposed to give all the information in his power to M. Soulés, and whatever he gives may be relied on. To him, then, I shall refer M. Soulés for answers to his military questions, and will wait his orders, recommending despatch, as Colonel Blackden has not long to stay.

The Stamp Act was passed in February, 1765.

What powers the Parliament might rightfully exercise over us, and whether any, had never been declared either by them or us. They had very early taken the gigantic step of passing the Navigation Act. The colonies remonstrated violently against it, and one of them, Virginia, when she capitulated to the commonwealth of England, expressly capitulated for a free trade. [See the articles on the Notes on Virginia, p. 201.] This capitulation, however, was as little regarded as the original right, restored by it, had been. The navigation act was re-enacted by Charles, and was enforced. And we had been so long in the habit of seeing them consider us merely as objects for the extension of their commerce, and of submitting to every duty or regulation imposed with that view, that we had ceased to complain of them. But when they proposed to consider us as objects of taxation, all the States took the alarm. Yet so little had we attended to this subject, that our advocates did not at first know on what ground to take their stand. Mr. Dickenson, a lawyer of more ingenuity than sound judgment, and still more timid than ingenious, not daring to question the authority to regulate commerce so as best to answer their own purpose, to which we had so long submitted, admitted that authority in its utmost extent. He acknowledged * * * * * that they could levy duties, internal or external, payable in Great Britain or in the States. He only required that these duties should be bonâ fide for the regulation of commerce, and not to raise a solid revenue. He admitted, therefore, that they might control our commerce, but not tax us. This mysterious system took, for a moment, in America as well as in Europe. But sounder heads saw in the first moment, that he who could put down the loom, could stop the spinning wheel, and he who could stop the spinning wheel could tie the hands which turned it. They saw that this flimsey fabric could not be supported. Who were to be judges whether duties were imposed with a view to burthen and suppress a branch of manufacture, or to raise a revenue? If either party, exclusively of the other, it was plain where that would end. If both parties, it was plain where that would end also. They saw, therefore, no sure clue to lead them out of their difficulties but reason and right. They dared to follow them, assured that they alone could lead them to defensible ground. The first elements of reason showed that the members of Parliament could have no power which the people of the several counties had not. That these had naturally a power over their own farms, and, collectively, over all England. That if they had any power over counties out of England, it must be founded on compact or force. No compact could be shown, and neither party chose to bottom their pretensions on force. It was objected that this annihilated the navigation act. True, it does. The navigation act, therefore, becomes a proper subject of treaty between the two nations. Or if Great Britain does not choose to have its basis questioned, let us go on as we have done. Let no new shackles be imposed, and we will continue to submit to the old. We will consider the restrictions on our commerce, now actually existing, as compensations yielded by us for the protection and privileges we actually enjoy, only trusting that if Great Britain, on a revisal of these restrictions, is sensible that some of them are useless to her and oppressive to us, she will repeal them. But on this she shall be free. Place us in the condition we were when the king came to the throne, let us rest so, and we will be satisfied. This was the ground on which all the States very soon found themselves rallied, and that there was no other which could be defended.

I will now proceed with remarks on the history. I do not think that M. Soulés mentioned the affair of the Cedars, which happened in April, 1775. This was an affair of no small importance. A committee was appointed by Congress to institute inquiries concerning it, as may be seen by the journal of June 14, 1776. The report of that committee is inserted in the journal of July the 10th, and I can assure M. Soulés, that the facts therein stated were proved unhesitatingly to the committee by witnesses present at the transactions, and who were on watch. I have the originals of that inquiry in my possession in America. The Captain Foster therein mentioned, was afterwards taken with Burgoyne's army, though permitted to go at large on his parole. He was not received into any American company, nor did the British officers, his fellow-prisoners, choose to be seen in company with him—so detestable had been the transaction, &c. Vol. i. p. 324. I have been very well informed, that during all the latter part of the defence, the garrison were obliged to return the cannon balls of the enemy, with which, indeed, the ground was covered, having none of their own left.

Page 325. "Il Peut un Serjent," &c. This particular truly related in Andrews.

Page 5. "Ils en vinrent," &c. See the journal of Congress. That it was on that day put off to the 1st of July. This was done at the instance of the members opposed to it. The friends of the resolution objected, that if it were not agreed to till the 1st of July, they would after that have to frame a Declaration of Independence, and that more time would then be lost. It was therefore agreed between the two, that the resolution should be put off till the 1st of July; and that a committee should be immediately appointed to draw a Declaration of Independence, conformable to the resolution, should it be adopted. A committee was accordingly appointed the next day. On the 1st of July the resolution was proposed, and when ready for a vote, a State required it to be put off till the next day. It was done, and was passed the next day, 2d of July. The Declaration of Independence was debated the 2d, 3d and 4th days of July, and on the last of these was passed and signed.

Page 6th. A "se retirèrent ensuite du Congres." I do not remember that the delegates of Maryland retired from Congress, and I think I could not have forgotten such a fact. On the contrary, I find by the journal of Congress, that they were present, and acting on the 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th and 24th of June.

Page 7. A "la plus grande partie." It should rather be the most important parts.

Page 7, 6. "Les états ferraient encore aujourd'hui partie de l'empire Britannique." M. Soulés may be assured that the submission of the States could not have been effected but by a long course of disasters, and such, too, as were irreparable in their nature. Their resources were great, and their determination so rooted, that they would have tried the last of them. I am as satisfied as I can be of anything, that the conjecture here stated would not have been verified by the event.

Page 14. "Provinces unis," should not this always be "états unis?"

Page 15. "Mais qu'on pouvoir aussi les interpreter," &c. His exact answer was, "That it was true the, &c. might include anything, but that might also include nothing."

Page 16. "Tant de confiance," &c. Their main confidence was in their own resources. They considered foreign aid as probable and desirable, but not essential. I believe myself, from the whole of what I have seen of our resources and perseverance, that had we never received any foreign aid, we should not have obtained our independence. But that we should have made a peace with Great Britain on any terms we pleased short of that, which would have been a subjection to the same king, a union of force in war, &c. 2. That had France supplied us plentifully with money, suppose about four millions of guineas a year, without entering into the war herself at all, we should have established our independence, but it would have cost more time and blood, but less money. 3. That France, aiding us as she did, with money and forces, shortened much the time, lessened the expense of blood, but at a greater expense of money to her than would have otherwise been requisite.