The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9)

TO MR. COOPER

Monticello, September 1, 1807.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the 9th is received, and with it the copy of Dr. Priestley's Memoirs, for which I return you many thanks. I shall read them with great pleasure, as I revered the character of no man living more than his. With another part of your letter I am sensibly affected. I have not here my correspondence with Governor McKean to turn to, but I have no reason to doubt that the particular letter referred to may have been silent on the subject of your appointment as stated. The facts are these: The opinion I have ever entertained, and still entertain as strongly as ever, of your abilities and integrity, was such as made it my wish, from the moment I came to the administration, that you should be employed in some public way. On a review, however, of all circumstances, it appeared to me that the State of Pennsylvania had occasions for your service, which would be more acceptable than any others to yourself because they would leave you in the enjoyment of the society of Dr. Priestley, to which your attachment was known. I therefore expressed my solicitude respecting you to Governor McKean, whose desires to serve yourself and the public by employing you I knew to be great, and of course that you were an object of mutual concern, and I received his information of having found employment for your talents with the sincerest pleasure. But pressed as I am perpetually by an overflow of business, and adopting from necessity the rule of never answering any letter, or part of a letter, which can do without answer, in replying to his which related to other subjects, I probably said nothing on that, because my former letter had sufficiently manifested how pleasing the circumstance must be to me, and my time and practice did not permit me to be repeating things already said. This is a candid statement of that incident, and I hope you will see in it a silence accounted for on grounds far different from that of a continuance of my estimation and good wishes, which have experienced no change. With respect to the schism among the republicans in your State, I have ever declared to both parties that I consider the general government as bound to take no part in it, and I have carefully kept both my judgment, my affections, and my conduct, clear of all bias to either. It is true, as you have heard, that a distance has taken place between Mr. Clay and myself. The cause I never could learn nor imagine. I had always known him to be an able man, and I believed him an honest one. I had looked to his coming into Congress with an entire belief that he would be cordial with the administration, and even before that I had always had him in my mind for a high and important vacancy which had been from time to time expected, but is only now about to take place. I feel his loss therefore with real concern, but it is irremediable from the necessity of harmony and cordiality between those who are to manage together the public concerns. Not only his withdrawing from the usual civilities of intercourse with me, (which even the federalists with two or three exceptions keep up,) but his open hostility in Congress to the administration, leave no doubt of the state of his mind as a fact, although the cause be unknown. Be so good as to communicate my respects to Mr. Priestley, and to accept yourself my friendly salutations, and assurances of unaltered esteem.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR

Monticello, September 2, 1807.

Dear Sir,—My letter of August 28th, on the dispositions of the Indians, was to go the rounds of all our brethren, and to be finally sent to you with their separate opinions. I think it probable, therefore, that the enclosed extract of a letter from a priest at Detroit to Bishop Carroll, may reach you as soon, or sooner, than that. I therefore forward it, because it throws rather a different light on the dispositions of the Indians from that given by Hull and Dunham. I do not think, however, that it ought to slacken our operations, because those proposed are all precautionary. But it ought absolutely to stop our negotiations for land otherwise the Indians will think that these preparations are meant to intimidate them into a sale of their lands, an idea which would be most pernicious, and would poison all our professions of friendship to them. The immediate acquisition of the land is of less consequence to us than their friendship and a thorough confidence in our justice. We had better let the purchase lie till they are in better temper. I salute you with affection and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

Monticello, September 3.

Dear Sir,—Your letters of August 23d, 27th, 29th, and 30th, have all been received; the two last came yesterday. I observe that the merchants of New York and Philadelphia think that notice of our present crisis with England should be sent to the Straits of Sunda by a public ship, but that such a vessel going to Calcutta, or into the Bay of Bengal, would give injurious alarm; while those of Baltimore think such a vessel going to the Straits of Sunda would have the same effect. Your proposition, very happily in my opinion, avoids the objections of all parties; will do what some think useful and none think injurious. I therefore approve of it. To wit, that by some of the private vessels now going, instruction from the department of State be sent to our Consul at the Isle of France, to take proper measures to advise all our returning vessels, as far as he can, to be on their guard against the English, and that we now appoint and send a Consul to Batavia, to give the same notice to our vessels returning through the Straits of Sunda. For this purpose I sign a blank sheet of paper, over which signature the Secretary of State will have a consular commission written, leaving a blank for the name to be filled up by yourself with the name of such discreet and proper person as shall be willing to go. If he does not mean to reside there as Consul, we must bear his expenses out and in, and compensate his time. I presume you will receive this commission, and the papers you sent me through the Secretary of State, on the 8th.

I approve of the orders you gave for intercepting the pirates, and that they were given as the occasion required, without waiting to consult me, which would have defeated the object. I am very glad indeed that the piratical vessel and some of the crew have been taken, and hope the whole will be taken; and that this has been done by the militia. It will contribute to show the expediency of an organized naval militia.

I send you the extract of a letter I lately wrote to General Dearborne on the defence of the Chesapeake. Your situation will better enable you to make inquiries into the practicability of the plan than he can. If practicable, it is all-important.

I do not see the probability of receiving from Great Britain reparation for the wrong committed on the Chesapeake, and future security for our seamen, in the same favorable light with Mr. Gallatin and yourself. If indeed the consequence of the battle of Friedland can be to exclude her from the Baltic, she may temporize with us. But if peace among the continental powers of Europe should leave her free in her intercourse with the powers who will then be neutral, the present ministry, perhaps no ministry which can now be formed, will not in my opinion give us the necessary assurance respecting our flag. In that case, it must bring on a war soon, and if so, it can never be in a better time for us. I look to this, therefore, as most probably now to take place, although I do most sincerely wish that a just and sufficient security may be given us, and such an interruption of our property avoided. I salute you with affection and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE

Monticello, September 3, 1807.

Dear Sir,—Mr. Smith's letter of August 29th and the papers it enclosed, and which are now re-enclosed, will explain to you the necessity of my confirming his proposition as to the means of apprizing our East India commerce of their danger, without waiting for further opinions on the subject. You will see that it throws on you the immediate burden of giving the necessary instructions with as little delay as possible, lest the occasion by the vessels now sailing should be lost. Be so good as to return me his two letters, and to seal and forward on to him mine, and the other papers. Affectionate salutations.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE

Monticello, September 3, 1807.

Dear Sir,—After writing to Mr. Smith my letter of yesterday, by the post of that day, I received one from him now enclosed, and covering a letter from Mr. Crownenshield on the subject of notifying our East India trade. To this I have written the answer herein, which I have left open for your perusal, with Crownenshield's letter, praying that you will seal and forward them immediately, with any considerations of your own, addressed to Mr. Smith, which may aid him in the decision I refer to him. I do not give to the newspaper and parliamentary scraps the same importance you do. I think they all refer to the convention of limits sent us in the form of a project, brought forward only as a sop of the moment for Parliament and the public. Nothing but an exclusion of Great Britain from the Baltic will dispose her to peace with us, and to defer her policy of subsisting her navy by the general plunder of nations.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

Washington, September 4, 1807.

Dear Sir,—I had written to you yesterday on the subject of notifying our East India trade, in answer to yours of the 29th of August, and approving your proposition of giving the notice to our trade beyond the Straits of Sunda, by a consul specially sent to Batavia, and to that on this side by our consul at the Isle of France. Since writing that letter, I have received yours of the 31st, covering Mr. Crownenshield's. This letter shows a great and intimate knowledge of the subject, and points out so many various circumstances which may require a variation in the course to be pursued, that it confirms me in the opinion that it must be confided to the discretion of a well-chosen agent, governing himself by circumstances as they may occur. I think it possible, however, from Mr. Crownenshield's letter, that we may not have done the best in our power for notifying Madras, and the other ports in the bay of Bengal. I refer it to yourself, therefore, to decide on the advice you can so readily get at Baltimore, whether we should not despatch a third person, with instructions to procure himself a passage in any private vessel which may be going from this country to any port in the bay of Bengal, or to any other port from which he can probably get a passage to some port in the bay of Bengal, and from whence he can notify the other ports in the same bay, either by personally visiting them or by writing. Such a person should carry with him your commission as an agent of the navy, to obtain credence by secretly exhibiting that to those he should notify. I return you Mr. Crownenshield's and Mr. Gallatin's letters. I shall be absent from this place from the 9th to the 16th inst. Mr. Madison will be with me to-morrow, on a visit of some days. I salute you with affection and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY

Monticello, September 4, 1807.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 1st came to hand yesterday. The event has been * * * * * that is to say, not only to clear Burr, but to prevent the evidence from ever going before the world. But this latter case must not take place. It is now, therefore, more than ever indispensable, that not a single witness be paid or permitted to depart until his testimony has been committed to writing, either as delivered in court, or as taken by yourself in the presence of any of Burr's counsel, who may choose to attend to cross-examine. These whole proceedings will be laid before Congress, that they may decide, whether the defect has been in the evidence of guilt, or in the law, or in the application of the law, and that they may provide the proper remedy for the past and the future. I must pray you also to have an authentic copy of the record made out (without saying for what) and to send it to me; if the Judge's opinions make out a part of it, then I must ask a copy of them, either under his hand, if he delivers one signed, or duly proved by affidavit.

The criminal is preserved to become the rallying point of all the disaffected and the worthless of the United States, and to be the pivot on which all the intrigues and the conspiracies which foreign governments may wish to disturb us with, are to turn. If he is convicted of the misdemeanor, the Judge must in decency give us respite by some short confinement of him; but we must expect it to be very short. Be assured yourself, and communicate the same assurance to your colleagues, that your and their zeal and abilities have been displayed in this affair to my entire satisfaction and your own honor.

I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR

Monticello, September 6, 1807.

Dear Sir,—I enclose you the letters of Mr. Granger and Mr. J. Nicholas, by the latter of which you will see that an Indian rupture in the neighborhood of Detroit becomes more probable, if it has not already taken place. I see in it no cause for changing the opinion given in mine of August 28, but on the contrary, strong reason for hastening the measures therein recommended. We must make ever memorable examples of the tribe or tribes which shall have taken up the hatchet.

I salute you with affection and respect.

TO THOMAS PAINE

Monticello, September 6, 1807.

Dear Sir,—I received last night your favor of August 29, and with it a model of a contrivance for making one gun-boat do nearly double execution. It has all the ingenuity and simplicity which generally mark your inventions. I am not nautical enough to judge whether two guns may be too heavy for the bow of a gun-boat, or whether any other objection will countervail the advantage it offers, and which I see visibly enough. I send it this day to the Secretary of the Navy, within whose department it lies to try and to judge it. Believing, myself, that gun-boats are the only water defence which can be useful to us, and protect us from the ruinous folly of a navy, I am pleased with everything which promises to improve them.

The battle of Friedland, armistice with Russia, conquest of Prussia, will be working on the British stomach when they will receive information of the outrage they have committed on us. Yet, having entered on the policy proposed by their champion "war in disguise," of making the property of all nations lawful plunder to support a navy which their own resources cannot support, I doubt if they will readily relinquish it. That war with us had been predetermined may be fairly inferred from the diction of Berkley's order, the Jesuitism of which proves it ministerial from its being so timed as to find us in the midst of Burr's rebellion as they expected, from the contemporaneousness of the Indian excitements, and of the wide and sudden spread of their maritime spoliations. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY, ESQ., ATTORNEY FOR THE U. S., BEFORE THE DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

Monticello, September 7, 1807.

Sir,—Understanding that it is thought important that a letter of November 12, 1806, from General Wilkinson to myself, should be produced in evidence on the charges against Burr, depending in the District Court now sitting in Richmond, I send you a copy of it, omitting only certain passages, the nature of which is explained in the certificate subjoined to the letter. As the Attorney for the United States, be pleased to submit the copy and certificate to the uses of the Court. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

P. S. On re-examination of a letter of November 12, 1806, from General Wilkinson to myself, (which having been for a considerable time out of my possession, and now returned to me,) I find in it some passages entirely confidential, given for my information in the discharge of my executive functions, and which my duties and the public interest forbid me to make public. I have therefore given above a correct copy of all those parts which I ought to permit to be made public. Those not communicated are in nowise material for the purposes of justice on the charges of treason or misdemeanor depending against Aaron Burr; they are on subjects irrelevant to any issues which can arise out of those charges, and could contribute nothing towards his acquittal or conviction. The papers mentioned in the 1st and 3d paragraphs, as enclosed in the letters, being separated therefrom, and not in my possession, I am unable, from memory, to say what they were. I presume they are in the hands of the attorney for the United States. Given under my hand this 7th day of September, 1807.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL

Monticello, September 7, 1807.

Dear Sir,—I now return you Major Newton's letters. The intention of the squadron in the bay is so manifestly pacific, that your instructions to him are perfectly proper, not to molest their boats merely for approaching the shore. While they are giving up slaves and citizen seamen, and attempting nothing ashore, it would not be well to stop this by any new restriction. If they come ashore indeed, they must be captured, or destroyed if they cannot be captured, because we mean to enforce the proclamation rigorously in preventing supplies. So the instructions already given as to intercourse by flag, as to sealed and unsealed letters, must be strictly adhered to. It is so material that the seaport towns should have artillery militia duly trained, that I think you have done well to permit Captain Nestell's company to have powder and ball to exercise. With respect to gun-carriages, furnaces and clothes, I am so little familiar with the details of the War department that I must beg those subjects to lie till the return of the Secretary at War, which will be in three weeks. Proposing to be absent from this place from the 9th to the 16th instant, our daily post will be suspended during that interval. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO GEORGE HAY

Monticello, September 7, 1807.

Dear Sir,—I received, late last night, your favor of the day before, and now re-enclose you the subpœna. As I do not believe that the district courts have a power of commanding the executive government to abandon superior duties and attend on them, at whatever distance, I am unwilling, by any notice of the subpœna, to set a precedent which might sanction a proceeding so preposterous. I enclose you, therefore, a letter, public and for the court, covering substantially all they ought to desire. If the papers which were enclosed in Wilkinson's letter may, in your judgment, be communicated without injury, you will be pleased to communicate them. I return you the original letter.

I am happy in having the benefit of Mr. Madison's counsel on this occasion, he happening to be now with me. We are both strongly of opinion, that the prosecution against Burr for misdemeanor should proceed at Richmond. If defeated, it will heap coals of fire on the head of the Judge; if successful, it will give time to see whether a prosecution for treason against him can be instituted in any, and what other court. But we incline to think, it may be best to send Blennerhasset and Smith (Israel) to Kentucky, to be tried both for the treason and misdemeanor. The trial of Dayton for misdemeanor may as well go on at Richmond.

I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY

Monticello, September 8, 1807.

Dear Sir,—Mr. Madison, who is with me, suggests the expediency of immediately taking up the case of Captain Porter, against whom you know Mr. Erskine lodged a very serious complaint, for an act of violence committed on a British seaman in the Mediterranean. While Mr. Erskine was reminded of the mass of complaints we had against his government for similar violences, he was assured that contending against such irregularities ourselves, and requiring satisfaction for them, we did not mean to follow the example, and that on Captain Porter's return, it should be properly inquired into. The sooner this is done the better; because if Great Britain settles with us satisfactorily all our subsisting differences, and should require in return, (to have an appearance of reciprocity of wrong as well as redress,) a marked condemnation of Captain Porter, it would be embarrassing were that the only obstacle to a peaceable settlement, and the more so as we cannot but disavow his act. On the contrary, if we immediately look into it, we shall be more at liberty to be moderate in the censure of it, on the very ground of British example; and the case being once passed upon, we can more easily avoid the passing on it a second time, as against a settled principle. It is therefore to put it in our power to let Captain Porter off as easily as possible, as a valuable officer whom we all wish to favor, that I suggest to you the earliest attention to the inquiry, and the promptest settlement of it. I set out to-morrow on a journey of 100 miles, and shall be absent eight or nine days. I salute you affectionately.

TO MR. CRAWFORD

Monticello, September 8, 1807.

Thomas Jefferson presents his compliments to Mr. Crawford, and his thanks for his Observations on Quarantines, which he has read with great pleasure. Not himself a friend to quarantines, nor having confidence in their efficacy, even if they are necessary, he sees with pleasure every effort to lessen their credit. But the theory which derives all infection, and ascribes to unseen animals the effects hitherto believed to be produced by it, is as yet too new and unreceived to justify the public servants in resting thereon the public health, until time and further investigation shall have sanctioned it by a more general confidence. He salutes Mr. Crawford with great respect.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

Monticello, September 8, 1807.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 2d is received, and I have this day directed commissions for Bull, Hubbell, and for Benajah Nicholls of North Carolina, as Surveyor of the port of Windsor, v. Simeon Turner, resigned. This last is on the recommendation of Alston.

You know that the merchants of New York and Philadelphia were of opinion that a public vessel sent into the Bay of Bengal to notify our trade there, would in fact increase the danger of our vessels. The most intelligent merchants of Baltimore, consulted by Mr. Smith, were of the same opinion as to the Straits of Sunda. It was therefore concluded between Mr. Smith, Mr. Madison, and myself, (time not admitting further consultation,) that it would be best to make a Consul for Batavia, (there being none,) and send him to his post by a private vessel, with instructions to take the best measures he could for notifying all our trade beyond the Straits, to instruct our Consul at the Isle of France to do the same to all on this side, and moreover to send a special agent by any private conveyance to be obtained, to go from port to port in the Bay of Bengal, to give private notice to the vessels there. As several vessels were on their departure for those seas from Philadelphia and Baltimore, it is trusted that this arrangement will effect all the good proposed, and avoid all the evil apprehended at the different places which were consulted.

I set out to-morrow to Bedford, and shall be absent eight days. I shall leave this on the 30th, and be in Washington the 3d of October, ready for our meeting on the 5th. I salute you affectionately.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL

Monticello, September 18, 1807.

Sir,—On my return to this place yesterday I found your favor of the 15th, and now return the papers it covered. I am glad to see the temperate complexion of Lowrie's correspondence. I presume the intelligence from England since the arrival there of the information respecting the Chesapeake, will produce a moderate deportment in their officers. Your instructions to Major Newton on the opening of letters, are perfectly consonant with the rules laid down. With respect to the mode of furnishing the troops with provisions through any other channel than that of the public contractor, I am unable to say anything, being not at all acquainted with the arrangements of the war department on that subject. I enclose you a letter I have received from a Mr. Belcher, of Gloster, giving reason to believe there have been some contraventions of the Proclamation there which ought to be punished if they can be detected. I salute you with great esteem and respect.