The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9)

TO DR. STEWART, OR TO ALL THE GENTLEMEN

January 31, 1793.

I have had under consideration Mr. Hallet's plans for the capitol, which undoubtedly have a great deal of merit. Doctor Thornton has also given me a view of his. These last came forward under some very advantageous circumstances. The grandeur, simplicity and beauty of the exterior, the propriety with which the apartments are distributed, and economy in the mass of the whole structure, will, I doubt not, give it a preference in your eyes, as it has done in mine and those of several others whom I have consulted. I have, therefore, thought it better to give the Doctor time to finish his plan, and for this purpose to delay until your next meeting a final decision. Some difficulty arises with respect to Mr. Hallet, who you know was in some degree led into his plan by ideas we all expressed to him. This ought not to induce us to prefer it to a better; but while he is liberally rewarded for the time and labor he has expended on it, his feelings should be saved and soothed as much as possible. I leave it to yourselves how best to prepare him for the possibility that the Doctor's plan may be preferred to his. Some ground for this will be furnished you by the occasion you will have for recourse to him as to the interior of the apartments, and the taking of him into service at a fixed allowance; and I understand that his necessities render it material that he should know what his allowance is to be.

TO MR. CARROLL

Philadelphia, February 1, 1793.

Dear Sir,—Doctor Thornton's plan of a capitol has been produced, and has so captivated the eyes and judgment of all as to leave no doubt you will prefer it when it shall be exhibited to you; as no doubt exists here of its preference over all which have been produced, and among its admirers no one is more decided than him whose decision is most important. It is simple, noble, beautiful, excellently distributed, and moderate in size. The purpose of this letter is to apprize you of this sentiment. A just respect for the right of approbation in the commissioners will prevent any formal decision in the President till the plan shall be laid before you and be approved by you. The Doctor will go with it to your meeting in the beginning of March. In the meantime, the interval of apparent doubt may be improved for settling the mind of poor Hallet, whose merit and distresses interest every one for his tranquillity and pecuniary relief. I have taken the liberty of making these private estimates, thinking you would wish to know the true state of the sentiments here on this subject, and am with sincere respect and esteem for your colleagues and yourself, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

Circular to the ministers of France, the United Netherlands, Great Britain, &c

Philadelphia, February 13, 1793.

Sir,—The House of Representatives having referred to me, to report to them the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions on the commerce of the United States with foreign nations, I have accordingly prepared a report on that subject. Being particularly anxious that it may be exact in matters of fact, I take the liberty of putting into your hands, privately and informally, an extract of such as relate to our commerce with your nation, in hopes that if you can either enlarge or correct them, you will do me that favor. It is safer to suppress an error in its first conception, than to trust to any after-correction; and a confidence in your sincere desire to communicate or to re-establish any truths which may contribute to a perfect understanding between our two nations, has induced me to make the present request. I wish it had been in my power to have done this sooner, and thereby have obtained the benefit of your having more time to contemplate it; but circumstances have retarded the entire completion of the report till the Congress is approaching its end, which will oblige me to give it in within three or four days.

I am, with great and sincere esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

P. S. The report having been prepared before the late diminution of the duties on our tobacco, that circumstance will be noted in the letter which will cover that report.

France receives favorably our bread stuff, rice, wood, pot and pearl ashes.

A duty of five sous the quintal, or nearly four and a half cents, is paid on our tar, pitch and turpentine. Our whale oils pay six livres the quintal, and are the only whale oils admitted. Our indigo pays five livres the quintal, their own two and a half; but a difference of quality, still more than a difference of duty, prevents its seeking that market.

Salted beef is received freely for re-exportation; but if for home consumption, it pays five livres the quintal. Other salted provisions pay that duty in all cases, and salted fish is made lately to pay the prohibitory one, of twenty livres the quintal.

Our ships are free to carry thither all foreign goods, which may be carried in their own or any other vessels, except tobaccos not of our own growth; and they participate with theirs, the exclusive carriage of our whale oils.

During their former government, our tobacco was under a monopoly, but paid no duties; and our ships were freely sold in their ports and converted into national bottoms. The first National Assembly took from our ships this privilege. They emancipated tobacco from its monopoly, but subjected it to duties of eighteen livres fifteen sous the quintal, carried in their own vessels, and twenty five livres, carried in ours; a difference more than equal to the freight of the article.

They and their colonies consume what they receive from us.

France, by a standing law, permits her West India possessions to receive directly our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch, and turpentine, rice and maize, and prohibits our other bread stuff; but a suspension of this prohibition having been left to the colonial legislature, in times of scarcity, it was formerly suspended occasionally, but latterly without interruption.

Our fish and salted provisions (except pork) are received in their islands, under a duty of three colonial livres the quintal, and our vessels are as free as their own to carry our commodities thither, and to bring away rum and molasses.

The United Netherlands prohibit our pickled beef and pork, meals, and bread of all sorts, and lay a prohibitory duty on spirits distilled from grain.

All other of our productions are received on varied duties, which may be reckoned, on a medium, at about three per cent.

They consume but a small proportion of what they receive. The residue is partly forwarded for consumption in the inland parts of Europe, and partly re-shipped to other maritime countries. On the latter portion, they intercept between us and the consumer, so much of the real value as is absorbed by the charges attending an intermediate deposit.

Foreign goods, except some East India articles, are received in the vessels of any nation.

Our ships may be sold and naturalized there, with exceptions of one or two privileges, which scarcely lessen their value.

In the American possessions of the United Netherlands, and Sweden, our vessels and produce are received, subject to duties, not so heavy as to have been complained of.

Great Britain receives our pot and pearl ashes free, while those of other nations pay a duty of two shillings and three pence the quintal. There is an equal distinction in favor of our bar iron, of which article, however, we do not produce enough for our own use. Woods are free from us, whilst they pay some small duty from other countries. Indigo and flaxseed are free from all countries. Our tar and pitch pay eleven pence sterling the barrel. From other alien countries they pay about a penny and a third more.

Our tobacco, for their own consumption, pays one shilling three pence sterling the pound, custom and excise, besides heavy expenses of collection; and rice, in the same case, pays seven shillings four pence sterling the hundred weight, which rendering it too dear as an article of common food, it is consequently used in very small quantity.

Our salted fish, and other salted provisions, except bacon, are prohibited. Bacon and whale oils are under prohibitory duties: so are our grains, meals and bread, as to internal consumption, unless in times of such scarcity as may raise the price of wheat to fifty shillings sterling the quarter, and other grains and meals in proportion.

Our ships, though purchased and navigated by their own subjects, are not permitted to be used, even in their trade with us.

While the vessels of other nations are secured by standing laws, which cannot be altered but by the concurrent will of the three branches of the British Legislature, in carrying thither any produce or manufacture of the country to which they belong, which may be lawfully carried in any vessels, ours, with the same prohibition of what is foreign, are further prohibited by a standing law (12. Car. 2. c. 18, s. 3,) from carrying thither all and any of our domestic productions and manufactures. A subsequent act, indeed, has authorized their executive to permit the carriage of our own productions in our own bottoms, at its sole discretion; and the permission has been given from year to year, by proclamation; but subject every moment to be withdrawn on that single will, in which event, our vessels having anything on board, stand interdicted from the entry of all British ports. The disadvantage of a tenure which may be so suddenly discontinued, was experienced by our merchants on a late occasion, when an official notification that this law would be strictly enforced, gave them just apprehensions for the fate of their vessels and cargoes despatched or destined to the ports of Great Britain. It was privately believed, indeed, that the order of that court went further than their intention, and so we were, afterwards, officially informed; but the embarrassments of the moment were real and great, and the possibility of their renewal lays our commerce to that country under the same species of discouragement, as to other countries where it is regulated by a single legislator; and the distinction is too remarkable not to be noticed, that our navigation is excluded from the security of fixed laws, while that security is given to the navigation of others.

Our vessels pay in their ports one shilling nine pence sterling per ton, light and tritrity dues, more than is paid by British ships, except in the port of London, where they pay the same as British.

The greater part of what they receive from us, is re-exported to other countries, under the useless charges of an intermediate deposit and double voyage.

From tables published in England, and composed, as is said, from the books of their Custom Houses, it appears, that of the indigo imported there in the years 1773-4-5, one third was re-exported; and from a document of authority, we learn that of the rice and tobacco imported there before the war, four-fifths were re-exported. We are assured, indeed, that the quantities sent thither for re-exportation since the war, are considerably diminished; yet less so than reason and national interest would dictate. The whole of our grain is re-exported, when wheat is below fifty shillings the quarter, and other grains in proportion.

Great Britain admits in her islands our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch and turpentine, rice and bread stuff, by a proclamation of her executive, limited always to the term of a year, but hitherto renewed from year to year. She prohibits our salted fish and other salted provisions. She does not permit our vessels to carry thither our own produce. Her vessels alone may take it from us, and bring in exchange, rum, molasses, sugar, coffee, cocoa nuts, ginger and pimento. There are, indeed, some freedoms in the island of Dominica, but under such circumstances as to be little used by us. In the British continental colonies, and in Newfoundland, all our productions are prohibited, and our vessels forbidden to enter their ports. Their Governors, however, in times of distress, have power to permit a temporary importation of certain articles in their own bottoms, but not in ours.

Our citizens cannot reside as merchants or factors within any of the British plantations, this being expressly prohibited by the same statute of 12 Car. 2, c. 18, commonly called their navigation act.

Of our commercial objects, Spain receives favorably our bread stuff, salted fish, wood, ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. On our meals, however, when re-exported to their colonies, they have lately imposed duties of from half a dollar to two dollars the barrel, the duties being so proportioned to the current price of their own flour, as that both together are to make the constant sum of nine dollars per barrel.

They do not discourage our rice, pot and pearl ash, salted provisions, or whale oil; but these articles being in small demand at their markets, are carried thither but in a small degree. Their demand for rice, however, is increasing. Neither tobacco nor indigo are received there.

Themselves and their colonies are the actual consumers of what they receive from us.

Our navigation is free with the kingdom of Spain, foreign goods being received there in our ships on the same conditions as if carried in their own, or in the vessels of the country of which such goods are the manufacture or produce.

Spain and Portugal refuse to those parts of America which they govern, all direct intercourse with any people but themselves. The commodities in mutual demand between them and their neighbors, must be carried to be exchanged in some part of the dominant country, and the transportation between that and the subject State, must be in a domestic bottom.

TO MR. HAMMOND

Philadelphia, February 16, 1793.

Sir,—I have duly received your letter of yesterday, with the statement of the duties payable on articles imported into Great Britain. The object of the report, from which I had communicated some extracts to you, not requiring a minute detail of the several duties on every article, in every country, I had presented both articles and duties in groups, and in general terms, conveying information sufficiently accurate for the object. And I have the satisfaction to find, on re-examining the expression in the report, that they correspond with your statement as nearly as generals can with particulars. The differences which any nation makes between our commodities and those of other countries, whether favorable or unfavorable to us, were proper to be noted. But they were subordinate to the more important questions, what countries consume most of our produce, exact the lightest duties, and leave to us the most favorable balance?

You seem to think that in the mention made of your official communication of April the 11th, 1792, that the clause in the navigation act (prohibiting our own produce to be carried in our own vessels into the British European dominions) would be strictly enforced in future, and the private belief expressed at the same time, that the intention of that court did not go so far, that the latter terms are not sufficiently accurate. About the fact it is impossible we should differ, because it is a written one. The only difference then, must be a merely verbal one. For thus stands the fact: In your letter of April the 11th, you say, you have received, by a circular despatch from your court, directions to inform this government that it had been determined in future strictly to enforce this clause of the navigation act. This I considered as an official notification. In your answer of April the 12th to my request of explanation, you say, "In answer to your letter of this day, I have the honor of observing, that I have no other instructions upon the subject of my communication, than such as are contained in the circular despatch, of which I stated the purport in my letter dated yesterday. I have, however, no difficulty in assuring you, that the result of my personal conviction is, that the determination of his Majesty's government to enforce the clause of the act, &c., is not intended to militate against the proclamation," &c. This personal conviction is expressed in the report as a private belief, in contradistinction to the official declaration. In your letter of yesterday, you choose to call it "a formal assurance of your conviction." As I am not scrupulous about words when they are once explained, I feel no difficulty in substituting in your report your own words, "personal conviction," for those of "private belief," which I had thought equivalent. I cannot indeed insert that it was a formal assurance, lest some readers might confound this with an official one, without reflecting that you could not mean to give official assurance that the clause would be enforced, and official assurance, at the same time, of your personal conviction that it would not be enforced.

I had the honor to acknowledge verbally the receipt of your letter of the 3d of August, when you did me that of making the inquiry verbally about six weeks ago; and I beg leave to assure you, that I am, with due respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DE TERNANT

Philadelphia, February 17, 1793.

Sir,—I have duly received your letter of yesterday, and am sensible of your favor in furnishing me with your observations on the statement of the commerce between our two nations, of which I shall avail myself for the good of both. The omission of our participation with your vessels, in the exclusive transportation of our tobacco, was merely that of the copy, as it was expressed in the original draught where the same circumstance respecting our whale oil was noted; and I am happy that your notice of it has enabled me to reinstate it before the report goes out of my hand.

I must candidly acknowledge to you, that I do not foresee the same effect in favor of our navigation, from the late reduction of duties on our tobaccos in France, which you seem to expect. The difference in favor of French vessels is still so great, as, in my opinion, to make it their interest to quit all other branches of the carrying business, to take up this; and as your stock of shipping is not adequate to the carriage of all your exports, the branches which you abandon will be taken up by other nations; so that this difference thrusts us out of the tobacco carriage, to let other nations in to the carriage of other branches of your commerce. I must therefore avail myself of this occasion to express my hope, that your nation will again revise this subject, and place it on more equal grounds. I am happy in concurring with you more perfectly in another sentiment, that as the principles of our governments become more congenial, the links of affection are multiplied between us. It is impossible they should multiply beyond our wishes. Of the sincere interest we take in the happiness and prosperity of your nation, you have had the most unequivocal proofs.

I pray you to accept assurances of sincere attachment to you personally, and of the sentiments of respect and esteem with which I am, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DE TERNANT

Philadelphia, February 20, 1793.

Sir,—I have laid before the President of the United States your notification of the 17th instant, in the name of the Provisory Executive Council charged with the administration of your government, that the French nation has constituted itself into a Republic. The President receives with great satisfaction this attention of the Executive Council, and the desire they have manifested of making known to us the resolution entered into by the National Convention, even before a definitive regulation of their new establishment could take place. Be assured, Sir, that the government and the citizens of the United States, view with the most sincere pleasure every advance of your nation towards its happiness, an object essentially connected with its liberty, and they consider the union of principles and pursuits between our two countries, as a link which binds still closer their interests and affections. We earnestly wish on our part that these our natural dispositions may be improved to mutual good, by establishing our commercial intercourse on principles as friendly to natural right and freedom, as are those of our governments.

I am, with sincere esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Philadelphia, February 20, 1793.

Sir,—The House of Representatives, about the close of the session before the last, referred to me the report of a committee on a message from the President of the United States, of the 14th of February, 1791, with directions to report to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, and measures for its improvement. The report was accordingly prepared during the ensuing recess, ready to be delivered at the next session, that is to say, at the last. It was thought possible at that time, however, that some changes might take place in the existing state of things, which might call for corresponding changes in measures. I took the liberty of mentioning this in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to express an opinion that a suspension of proceedings thereon, for a time, might be expedient, and to propose retaining the report till the present session, unless the House should be pleased to signify their pleasure to the contrary. The changes then contemplated have not taken place, nor, after waiting as long as the term of the session will admit, in order to learn something further on the subject, can anything definite thereon be now said. If, therefore, the House wishes to proceed on the subject, the report shall be delivered at a moment's warning. Should they not choose to take it up till their next session, it will be an advantage to be permitted to keep it by me till then, as some further particulars may perhaps be procured relative to certain parts of our commerce, of which precise information is difficult to obtain. I make this suggestion, however, with the most perfect deference to their will, the first intimation of which shall be obeyed on my part, so as to occasion them no delay.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE MINISTER OF FRANCE

Philadelphia, February 23, 1793.

Sir,—I have laid before the President of the United States your notification of the 17th instant, in the name of the Provisory Executive Council, charged with the administration of your Government, that the French nation has constituted itself into a Republic. The President receives, with great satisfaction, this attention of the Executive Council and the desire they have manifested of making known to us the resolution entered into by the National Convention, even before a definitive regulation of their new establishment could take place. Be assured, Sir, that the Government and the citizens of the United States view with the most sincere pleasure every advance of your nation towards its happiness, an object essentially connected with its liberty, and they consider the union of principles and pursuits between our two countries as a link which binds still closer their interests and affections. [The genuine and general effusions of joy which you saw overspread our country on their seeing the liberties of yours rise superior to foreign invasion and domestic trouble, have proved to you that our sympathies are great and sincere, and] we earnestly wish on our part that these, our mutual dispositions, may be improved to mutual good, by establishing our commercial intercourse on principles as friendly to natural right and freedom as are those of our Government. I am, with sincere esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO J. MADISON

March, 1793.

The idea seems to gain credit that the naval powers combining against France, will prohibit supplies, even of provisions, to that country. Should this be formally notified, I should suppose Congress would be called, because it is a justifiable cause of war, and as the Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side, neither ought it to do so on the negative side, by preventing the competent body from deliberating on the question. But I should hope that war would not be their choice. I think it will furnish us a happy opportunity of setting another precious example to the world, by showing that nations may be brought to do justice by appeals to their interests as well as by appeals to arms. I should hope that Congress, instead of a denunciation of war, would instantly exclude from our ports all the manufactures, produce, vessels and subjects of the nations committing this aggression, during the continuance of the aggression, and till full satisfaction made for it. This would work well in many ways, safely in all, and introduce between nations another umpire than arms. It would relieve us, too, from the risks and the horrors of cutting throats. The death of the King of France has not produced as open condemnations from the monocrats as I expected. I dined the other day in a company where the subject was discussed. I will name the company in the order in which they manifested their partialities; beginning with the warmest Jacobinism, and proceeding by shades, to the most heart felt aristocracy. Smith, (N. Y.,) Coxe, Stewart, T. Shippen, Bingham, Peters, Breck, Meredith, Wolcott. It is certain that the ladies of this city, of the first circle, are open-mouthed against the murderers of a sovereign, and they generally speak those sentiments which the more cautious husband smothers. Ternant has at length openly hoisted the flag of monarchy by going into deep mourning for his prince. I suspect he thinks a cessation of his visits to me a necessary accompaniment to this pious duty. A connection between him and Hamilton seems to be springing up. On observing that Duer was Secretary to the old Board of Treasury, I suspect him to have been the person who suggested to Hamilton the letter of mine to that board, which he so tortured in his Catullus. Dunlop has refused to print the piece which we had heard of before your departure, and it has been several days in Bache's hands, without any notice of it. The President will leave this about the 27th instant, and return about the 20th of April. Adieu.