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

I salute you with great affection and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN

February 28, 1808.

There is no source from whence our fair commerce derives so much vexation, or our country so much danger of war, as from forged papers and fraudulent voyages. Nothing should, in my opinion, be spared, either of trouble or expense on our part, to aid all nations in detecting and punishing them. I would therefore certainly direct Mr. Gelston to furnish Heinecher with every proof in his power, and to assure him that it shall be done on all occasions. Would it not be well to give this assurance to all the foreign consuls? It would at least show the world that this government does not countenance those frauds; and should not instructions be given to all the collectors to furnish all proofs in their power on demand? The three Englishmen will, I presume, be punished by the laws of Holland, either as spies, or prisoners of war. If their laws will not take hold of our scoundrel, Gardner, of the Jane, perhaps that government would put him on board a vessel, under the order of our consul, to be brought and punished here for the forgery of papers. Would it not be well to put a summary statement of this case, and of our orders on the occasion, into Smith's paper? Would it be amiss even to send it to Congress by message, with a recommendation to provide punishments against this practice? Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN

March 2, 1808.

On considering the papers which James Brown sent us, containing a statement of the parcels of property in and adjacent to New Orleans, to which the United States claims, we thought it safest to await the report of the commissioners, with their list of the property. The papers received yesterday by express from New Orleans, and now enclosed to you, give us a list of the property, and grounds of claim from the common council of the city. Having thus the statement, as it were, from both parties, I suppose we may consider the list as complete. It would therefore be only losing a year to wait for the report of the commissioners, and especially as the property is suffering. What shall we do? There are two questions,—first, which of these parcels do really belong to the United States? Second, how shall they be disposed of? On the first question, I presume Congress will not decide themselves, but either leave it to the present commissioners, or appoint others of higher standing and abilities, at least for the future, which is of too much value, and too much involved in prejudices there, to be safely trusted to the present commissioners. On the second question, perhaps Congress might now desire the Executive, so soon as the titles are decided, to state to them the parcels which should be kept for the government use, and then give to the city such as they need, and dispose of the rest as they see best.

Will you favor me with your ideas what is best to be done? Affectionate salutations.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR SULLIVAN

Washington, March 3, 1808.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of February 8th, covering the resolutions of the Legislature of Massachusetts, was received in due time. It is a circumstance of great satisfaction that the proceedings of the government are approved by the respectable Legislature of Massachusetts, and especially the late important measure of the embargo. The hearty concurrence of the States in that measure, will have a great effect in Europe. I derive great personal consolation from the assurances in your friendly letter, that the electors of Massachusetts would still have viewed me with favor as a candidate for a third presidential term. But the duty of retirement is so strongly impressed on my mind, that it is impossible for me to think of that. If I can carry into retirement the good will of my fellow citizens, nothing else will be wanting to my happiness.

Your letter of February 7th, with a recommendation for Salem, and that of the 8th recalling it, were both received. I dare say you have found that the solicitations for office are the most painful incidents to which an executive magistrate is exposed. The ordinary affairs of a nation offer little difficulty to a person of any experience; but the gift of office is the dreadful burthen which oppresses him. A person who wishes to make it an engine of self-elevation, may do wonders with it; but to one who wishes to use it conscientiously for the public good, without regard to the ties of blood or friendship, it creates enmities without numbers, many open, but more secret, and saps the happiness and peace of his life.

I pray you to accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO COLONEL MONROE

Washington, March 10, 1808.

Dear Sir,—

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From your letter of the 27th ultimo, I perceive that painful impressions have been made on your mind during your late mission, of which I had never entertained a suspicion. I must, therefore, examine the grounds, because explanations between reasonable men can never but do good. 1. You consider the mission of Mr. Pinckney as an associate, to have been in some way injurious to you. Were I to take that measure on myself, I might say in its justification, that it has been the regular and habitual practice of the United States to do this, under every form in which their government has existed. I need not recapitulate the multiplied instances, because you will readily recollect them. I went as an adjunct to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, yourself as an adjunct first to Mr. Livingston, and then to Mr. Pinckney, and I really believe there has scarcely been a great occasion which has not produced an extraordinary mission. Still, however, it is well known that I was strongly opposed to it in the case of which you complain. A committee of the Senate called on me with two resolutions of that body, on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great Britain, and requesting that I would demand satisfaction. After delivering the resolutions, the committee entered into free conversation, and observed, that although the Senate could not, in form, recommend any extraordinary mission, yet that as individuals, there was but one sentiment among them on the measure, and they pressed it. I was so much averse to it, and gave them so hard an answer, that they felt it, and spoke of it. But it did not end here. The members of the other House took up the subject, and set upon me individually, and these the best friends to you, as well as myself, and represented the responsibility which a failure to obtain redress would throw on us both, pursuing a conduct in opposition to the opinion of nearly every member of the Legislature. I found it necessary, at length, to yield my own opinion to the general use of the national council, and it really seemed to produce a jubilee among them; not from any want of confidence in you, but from a belief in the effect which an extraordinary mission would have on the British mind, by demonstrating the degree of importance which this country attached to the rights which we considered as infracted.

2. You complain of the manner in which the treaty was received. But what was that manner? I cannot suppose you to have given a moment's credit to the stuff which was crowded in all sorts of forms into the public papers, or to the thousand speeches they put into my mouth, not a word of which I had ever uttered. I was not insensible at the time of the views to mischief, with which these lies were fabricated. But my confidence was firm, that neither yourself nor the British government, equally outraged by them, would believe me capable of making the editors of newspapers the confidants of my speeches or opinions. The fact was this. The treaty was communicated to us by Mr. Erskine on the day Congress was to rise. Two of the Senators inquired of me in the evening, whether it was my purpose to detain them on account of the treaty. My answer was, "that it was not: that the treaty containing no provision against the impressment of our seamen, and being accompanied by a kind of protestation of the British ministers, which would leave that government free to consider it as a treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, I should not give them the trouble of deliberating on it." This was substantially, and almost verbally, what I said whenever spoken to about it, and I never failed when the occasion would admit of it, to justify yourself and Mr. Pinckney, by expressing my conviction, that it was all that could be obtained from the British government; that you had told their commissioners that your government could not be pledged to ratify, because it was contrary to their instructions; of course, that it should be considered but as a project; and in this light I stated it publicly in my message to Congress on the opening of the session. Not a single article of the treaty was ever made known beyond the members of the administration, nor would an article of it be known at this day, but for its publication in the newspapers, as communicated by somebody from beyond the water, as we have always understood. But as to myself, I can solemnly protest, as the most sacred of truths, that I never, one instant, lost sight of your reputation and favorable standing with your country, and never omitted to justify your failure to attain our wish, as one which was probably unattainable. Reviewing therefore, this whole subject, I cannot doubt you will become sensible, that your impressions have been without just ground. I cannot, indeed, judge what falsehoods may have been written or told you; and that, under such forms as to command belief. But you will soon find, my dear Sir, that so inveterate is the rancor of party spirit among us, that nothing ought to be credited but what we hear with our own ears. If you are less on your guard than we are here, at this moment, the designs of the mischief-makers will not fail to be accomplished, and brethren and friends will be made strangers and enemies to each other, without ever having said or thought a thing amiss of each other. I presume that the most insidious falsehoods are daily carried to you, as they are brought to me, to engage us in the passions of our informers, and stated so positively and plausibly as to make even doubt a rudeness to the narrator; who, imposed on himself, has no other than the friendly view of putting us on our guard. My answer is, invariably, that my knowledge of your character is better testimony to me of a negative, than any affirmative which my informant did not hear from yourself with his own ears. In fact, when you shall have been a little longer among us, you will find that little is to be believed which interests the prevailing passions, and happens beyond the limits of our own senses. Let us not then, my dear friend, embark our happiness and our affections on the ocean of slander, of falsehood and of malice, on which our credulous friends are floating. If you have been made to believe that I ever did, said, or thought a thing unfriendly to your fame and feelings, you do me injury as causeless as it is afflicting to me. In the present contest in which you are concerned, I feel no passion, I take no part, I express no sentiment. Whichever of my friends is called to the supreme cares of the nation, I know that they will be wisely and faithfully administered, and as far as my individual conduct can influence, they shall be cordially supported. For myself I have nothing further to ask of the world, than to preserve in retirement so much of their esteem as I may have fairly earned, and to be permitted to pass in tranquillity, in the bosom of my family and friends, the days which yet remain for me. Having reached the harbor myself, I shall view with anxiety (but certainly not with a wish to be in their place) those who are still buffetting the storm, uncertain of their fate. Your voyage has so far been favorable, and that it may continue with entire prosperity, is the sincere prayer of that friendship which I have ever borne you, and of which I now assure you, with the tender of my high respect and affectionate salutations.

TO RICHARD M. JOHNSON

Washington, March 10, 1808.

Sir,—I am sure you can too justly estimate my occupations; to need an apology for this tardy acknowledgment of your favor of February the 27th. I cannot but be deeply sensible of the good opinion you are pleased to express of my conduct in the administration of our government. This approbation of my fellow citizens is the richest reward I can receive. I am conscious of having always intended to do what was best for them; and never, for a single moment, to have listened to any personal interest of my own. It has been a source of great pain to me, to have met with so many among our opponents, who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions. I suppose, indeed, that in public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character, and who has energy enough to give them effect, must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles. But I came to the government under circumstances calculated to generate peculiar acrimony. I found all its offices in the possession of a political sect, who wished to transform it ultimately into the shape of their darling model, the English government; and in the meantime, to familiarize the public mind to the change, by administering it on English principles, and in English forms. The elective interposition of the people had blown all their designs, and they found themselves and their fortresses of power and profit put in a moment into the hands of other trustees. Lamentations and invective were all that remained to them. This last was naturally directed against the agent selected to execute the multiplied reformations, which their heresies had rendered necessary. I became of course the butt of everything which reason, ridicule, malice and falsehood could supply. They have concentrated all their hatred on me, till they have really persuaded themselves, that I am the sole source of all their imaginary evils. I hope, therefore, that my retirement will abate some of their disaffection to the government of their country, and that my successor will enter on a calmer sea than I did. He will at least find the vessel of state in the hands of his friends, and not of his foes. Federalism is dead, without even the hope of a day of resurrection. The quondam leaders, indeed, retain their rancor and principles; but their followers are amalgamated with us in sentiment, if not in name. If our fellow citizens, now solidly republican, will sacrifice favoritism towards men for the preservation of principle, we may hope that no divisions will again endanger a degeneracy in our government.

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I pray you to accept my salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.

TO MR. MADISON

March 11, 1808.

I suppose we must despatch another packet by the 1st of April at farthest. I take it to be an universal opinion that war will become preferable to a continuance of the embargo after a certain time. Should we not then avail ourselves of the intervening period to procure a retraction of the obnoxious decrees peaceably, if possible? An opening is given us by both parties, sufficient to form a basis for such a proposition.

I wish you to consider, therefore, the following course of proceeding, to wit:

To instruct our ministers at Paris and London, by the next packet, to propose immediately to both those powers a declaration on both sides that these decrees and orders shall no longer be extended to vessels of the United States, in which case we shall remain faithfully neutral; but, without assuming the air of menace, to let them both perceive that if they do not withdraw these orders and decrees, there will arrive a time when our interests will render war preferable to a continuance of the embargo; that when that time arrives, if one has withdrawn and the other not, we must declare war against that other; if neither shall have withdrawn, we must take our choice of enemies between them. This it will certainly be our duty to have ascertained by the time Congress shall meet in the fall or beginning of winter; so that taking off the embargo, they may decide whether war must be declared, and against whom. Affectionate salutations.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL

Washington, March 13, 1808.

Dear Sir,—I received last night your favor of the 10th. There can certainly be no present objection to the forwarding the letters therein mentioned, according to their address.

We have nothing new of importance, except that at the last reading of an amendatory bill a few days ago, the House of Representatives were surprised into the insertion of an insidious clause permitting any merchant having property abroad, on proving it to the executive, to send a ship for it. We are already overwhelmed with applications, and there is real danger that the great object of the embargo in keeping our ships and seamen out of harm's way, will be defeated; and every vessel and seaman sent out under this pretext, and placed in the prize of the belligerent tyrants. I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN

March 17, 1808.

I think it will be impossible to form general rules for carrying into execution the seventh section of the law of March 12th, without a fuller view of the number and nature of the cases which are to come under it. I have waited in expectation the applications would multiply so as to give one a general view, but I have received but about half a dozen. But, indeed, nothing short of a knowledge of all the cases can enable us to provide for them. I have been wishing, therefore, to converse with you on this proposition; to wit, to direct the collectors to advertize in their respective ports, that all persons desiring the benefit of that law, must immediately deliver to him a statement of the place where they have property, its amount, whether cash or goods, and what kind of goods, and in whose hands, on oath, but without exhibiting other proofs till further called on. These particulars may be stated in a tabular view; for cash we might authorize vessels to go immediately, but for goods rules must be framed on a view of all circumstances.

With respect to the constitution of the act, there are cases in the books where the word "may" has been adjudged equivalent to "shall," but the term "is authorized," unless followed by "and required," was, I think, never so considered. On the contrary, I believe it is the very term which Congress always use toward the executive when they mean to give a power to him, and leave the use of it to his discretion.

It is the very phrase on which there is now a difference in the House of Representatives, on the bill for raising 6,000 regulars, which says "there shall be raised," and some desire it to say "the President is authorized to raise," leaving him the power with a discretion to use it or not. It is to be observed also that the one construction puts it in the power of individuals to defeat the embargo in a great measure, while the other leaves a power to combine a due regard to the object of the law with the interests of individuals. I like your idea of proportioning the tonnage of the vessel to the value (in some degree) of the property, but its bulk must also be taken into consideration. On the whole, I should be for giving prompt permission to bring home money, because one vessel will bring for all those who have cash at the same port; but the bringing property in other forms, will require a fuller view and digest of rules. Affectionate salutations.

TO W. C. NICHOLAS, ESQ

Washington, March 20, 1808.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the 18th is duly received. Be assured that I value no act of friendship so highly as the communicating facts to me, which I am not in the way of knowing otherwise, and could not therefore otherwise guard against. I have had too many proofs of your friendship not to be sensible of the kindness of these communications, and to receive them with peculiar obligation. The receipt of Mr. Rose's answer has furnished the happiest occasion for me to present to Congress a complete view of the ground on which we stand with the two principal belligerents, and, with respect to France, to lay before them, for the public, every communication received from that government since the last session, including those heretofore sent, in order that they also may be published, and let our constituents see whether these papers gave just ground for the falsehoods which have been so impudently advanced. We shall hope to see you to-day. Affectionate salutations.

TO DOCTOR WISTAR

Washington, March 20, 1808.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 12th is received. Congress, I think, will rise in about three weeks,—say about the 11th of April, and I shall leave this five or six days after, on a visit of some length to Monticello. This illy accords with your journey to the westward in May; but can you not separate your excursion to this place from the western journey? Between Philadelphia and this place is but two days, and the roads are already fine. I would propose, therefore, that you should come a few days before Congress rises, so as to satisfy that article of your curiosity. The bones are spread in a large room, where you can work at your leisure, undisturbed by any mortal, from morning till night, taking your breakfast and dinner with us. It is a precious collection, consisting of upwards of three hundred bones, few of them of the large kinds which are already possessed. There are four pieces of the head, one very clear, and distinctly presenting the whole face of the animal. The height of his forehead is most remarkable. In this figure, the indenture at the eye gives a prominence of six inches to the forehead. There are four jaw-bones tolerably entire, with several teeth in them, and some fragments; three tusks like elephants; one ditto totally different, the largest probably ever seen, being now from nine to ten feet long, though broken off at both ends; some ribs; an abundance of teeth studded, and also of those of the striated or ribbed kind; a fore-leg complete; and then about two hundred small bones, chiefly of the foot. This is probably the most valuable part of the collection, for General Clarke, aware that we had specimens of the larger bones, has gathered up everything of the small kind. There is one horn of a colossal animal. The bones which came do not correspond exactly with General Clarke's description; probably there were some omissions of his packers. Having sent my books to Monticello, I have nothing here to assist you but the Encyclopedie Methodique. I hope you will make this a separate excursion; and come before Congress rises, whenever it best suits you. I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO THE DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY OF ADAMS, PENNSYLVANIA

March 20, 1808.

I see with pleasure, fellow citizens, in your address of February 15th, a sound recurrence to the first principles on which our government is founded; an examination by that test of the rights we possess, and the wrongs we have suffered; a just line drawn between a wholesome attention to the conduct of rulers, and a too ready censure of that conduct on every unfounded rumor; between the love of peace, and the determination to meet war, when its evils shall be less intolerable than the wrongs it is meant to correct. With so just a view of principles and circumstances, your approbation of my conduct, under the difficulties which have beset us on every side, is doubly valued by me, and offers high encouragement to a perseverance in my best endeavors for the preservation of your peace, so long as it shall be consistent with the preservation of your rights. When this ceases to be practicable, I feel entire confidence in the arduous exertions which you pledge in support of the measures which may be called for by the exigencies of the times, and in the known energies and enterprize of our countrymen in whatsoever direction they are pointed. If these energies are embodied by an union of will, and by a confidence in those who direct it, our nation, so favored in its situation, has nothing to fear from any quarter. To that union of effort may our citizens ever rally, minorities falling cordially, on the decision of a question, into the ranks of the majority, and bearing always in mind that a nation ceases to be republican only when the will of the majority ceases to be the law. I thank you, fellow citizens, for the solicitude you kindly express for my future welfare. A retirement from the exercise of my present charge is equally for your good and my own happiness. Gratitude for past favors, and affectionate concern for the liberty and prosperity of my fellow citizens, will cease but with life to animate my breast.