The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Part 19

PARIS, Sept. 9, 1787.

SIR,--Immediately on the receipt of your favor of the 31st of August, I waited on the person who is charged with the superintendence of the conduct of the Farms, and informed him that the customhouse officers had required the ancient duties on a cargo of pearlash, arrived at Havre. He observed to me that the duties promised to be abolished by the King were only those due to himself or the Farms; but that there were _droits loceaux_, which he could not abolish; that the officers of the customs might have demanded the droits loceaux, but that it was impossible they should have demanded any other duties. If they have done so, I will beg the favor of you to send me such evidence of the demand as will enable me to press for a proper notice of the Farms, if they have failed to give orders, or a punishment of the officer, if he has failed to obey them.

No further changes in the government since my last. The office of Directeur du tresor royal was offered to M. de La Borde and refused by him. Had no accident intervened, I think the affairs of the Dutch would have been arranged without producing any war immediately. They are even at this moment in a train of negotiation. But, in the meantime, a war has broke out between the Russians and Turks. We have no news yet of any action, but the Turks have imprisoned the Russian Amba.s.sador at Constantinople, and no hope is entertained of preventing hostilities.

Considering the situation of things in Europe, it seems inevitable that this fire must spread over the whole of it. The utmost that can be hoped, in my opinion, is that the season is so far advanced as that the other powers of Europe may not be drawn into the vortex of hostilities till the ensuing spring. The desire of government to prevent a war, might make it disagreeable to them to see this opinion published. I will pray you, therefore, to make use of it only for your own government, and that of the Americans concerned in commerce with your port. I shall make the same communication to our agents at Nantes and Bordeaux. I have the honor to be, with much esteem, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO MR. T. BLAKE.

PARIS, Sept. 9, 1787.

SIR,--Congress do not grant their sea-letters for the East Indies, but to s.h.i.+ps belonging to citizens of the United States, and navigated by officers and seamen of the United States. Even the cargo must also belong to their own citizens. Nor can these letters be obtained but on an application to Congress themselves, whereupon they appoint a committee of their own body to enquire into the circ.u.mstances relative to the vessel, cargo and crew, and on their report of the fact, they grant or refuse the pa.s.sport.

I am, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO MR. BONDFIELD.

PARIS, September 9, 1787.

SIR,--The affairs of Holland, though at one moment they had threatened a war, had got into a hopeful train of accommodation, when all of a sudden a war is kindled between the Russians and Turks. The latter have imprisoned the Russian Amba.s.sador resident with them, which you know is their manner of declaring war; and though no news of actual hostilities is yet arrived, every body considers them as inevitable. In the present state of Europe, a spark dropped anywhere must kindle the whole. The only thing to be hoped is that the advance of the season may prevent the other powers from being drawn into the vortex of hostilities, till the next spring. But this cannot be depended on. Government here would still wish for peace, and may see disagreeably the publication of any opinion unfriendly to their wish. I will beg of you, therefore, to make use of this for your own information only, and that of the persons concerned in our commerce from your port. My duty leads me to care of them, and my desire to give no offence makes me wish to give no further alarm. I make the same communication to the ports of Nantes, L'Orient, and Havre. I am, with much esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR DUMAS.

PARIS, September 10, 1787.

SIR,--I am honored with your favor of the 5th instant, and will forward the letter to Mr. Jay by the packet-boat which sails the 25th of this month. I am sorry for the situation in which Mr. Grand's refusal to make further advances has placed you. I know its pain, because I partic.i.p.ate of it. The aspect of your affairs has also been discouraging. Perhaps the war kindled between Russia and Turkey may engage your friends, of necessity in measures they wished to avoid, and may ultimately relieve you. Our Federal Convention is likely to sit till October; there is a general disposition through the States to adopt what they shall propose, and we may be a.s.sured their propositions will be wise, as a more able a.s.sembly never sat in America. Happily for us, that when we find our const.i.tutions defective and insufficient to secure the happiness of our people, we can a.s.semble with all the coolness of philosophers, and set it to rights, while every other nation on earth must have recourse to arms to amend or to restore their const.i.tutions. The sale of our western lands begins this month. I hope from this measure a very speedy reduction of our national debt. It can only be applied to pay off the princ.i.p.al, being irrevocably made a sinking fund for that purpose. I have the honor to be, with much esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO DON FRANCISCO CHIAPPI.

PARIS, September 15, 1787.

SIR,--I have lately received from Mr. Jay, Secretary for foreign affairs to the United States of America, the enclosed letter from Congress to his Majesty the Emperor (whom G.o.d preserve), and their ratification of the treaty between his Majesty (whom G.o.d preserve) and the United States, together with an instruction to forward them to you, to be delivered into the hands of his Majesty (whom G.o.d preserve). I am at the same time to ask the favor of you to deliver the inclosed letter to Taher Ben Abdelkack Fennish.

Mr. Jay also informs me that Congress had confirmed Mr. Barclay's appointment of yourself to be their agent at Morocco, of Don Joseph Chiappi to be their agent at Mogador, and Don Girolamo Chiappi to be their agent at Tangier, with which agents it was their desire that their ministers at Versailles and London should regularly correspond; that want of time prevented his having and sending to me the certified copies of these acts by that opportunity, but that he would do it by the next. It will be with singular pleasure that I shall be instrumental in forwarding to you these testimonies of the sense which Congress entertains of your personal merit, and of your dispositions to be useful to the citizens of America.

In the meantime, I shall be very happy to receive from you such communications, from time to time, as may be interesting to either nation, and will avail myself of every occasion of making communications of the same nature to you, and of a.s.suring you of those sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. GEORGE WYTHE.

PARIS, Sept. 16, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of Dec.

the 13th and 22d, 1786, and of Jan., 1787. These should not have been so long unanswered, but that they arrived during my absence on a journey of between three and four months through the southern parts of France, and northern of Italy. In the latter country, my time allowed me to go no farther than Turin, Milan, and Genoa: consequently, I scarcely got into cla.s.sical ground. I took with me some of the writings, in which endeavors have been made to investigate the pa.s.sage of Annibal over the Alps, and was just able to satisfy myself, from a view of the country, that the descriptions given of his march are not sufficiently particular to enable us, at this day, even to guess at his track across the Alps. In architecture, painting, sculpture, I found much amus.e.m.e.nt; but more than all, in their agriculture, many objects of which might be adopted with us to great advantage. I am persuaded, there are many parts of our lower country where the olive tree might be raised, which is a.s.suredly the richest gift of heaven. I can scarcely except bread. I see this tree supporting thousands among the Alps, where there is not soil enough to make bread for a single family. The caper too, might be cultivated with us. The fig we do raise. I do not speak of the vine, because it is the parent of misery. Those who cultivate it are always poor, and he who would employ himself with us in the culture of corn, cotton, &c., can procure, in exchange for them, much more wine, and better than he could raise by its direct culture.

I sent you formerly copies of the doc.u.ments on the Tagliaferro family, which I had received from Mr. Febroni. I now send the originals. I have procured for you a copy of Polybius, the best edition; but the best edition of Vitruvius, which is with the commentaries of Ticinus, is not to be got here. I have sent to Holland for it. In the meantime, the Polybius comes in a box containing books for Peter Carr, and for some of my friends in Williamsburg and its vicinities. I have taken the liberty of addressing the box to you. It goes to New York in the packet boat which carries this letter, and will be forwarded to you by water, by Mr. Madison. Its freight to New York is paid here. The transportation from thence to Williamsburg will be demanded of you, and shall stand as the equivalent to the cost of Polybius and Vitruvius, if you please. The difference either way will not be worth the trouble of raising and transmitting accounts. I send you herewith, a state of the contents of the box, and for whom each article is. Among these are some, as you will perceive, of which I ask your acceptance. It is a great comfort to me, that while here, I am able to furnish some amus.e.m.e.nt to my friends, by sending them such productions of genius, ancient and modern, as might otherwise escape them; and I hope they will permit me to avail myself of the occasion while it lasts.

This world is going all to war. I hope ours will remain clear of it. It is already declared between the Turks and Russians, and considering the present situation of Holland, it cannot fail to spread itself all over Europe. Perhaps it may not be till next spring, that the other powers will be engaged in it: nor is it as yet clear how they will arrange themselves. I think it not impossible that France and the two empires may join against all the rest. The Patriotic party in Holland will be saved by this, and the Turks sacrificed. The only thing which can prevent the union of France and the two empires, is the difficulty of agreeing about the part.i.tion of the spoils. Constantinople is the key of Asia. Who shall have it? is the question. I cannot help looking forward to the re-establishment of the Greeks as a people, and the language of Homer becoming again a living language, as among possible events. You have now with you Mr. Paradise, who can tell you how easily the modern may be improved into the ancient Greek.

You ask me in your letter, what ameliorations I think necessary in our federal const.i.tution. It is now too late to answer the question, and it would always have been presumption in me to have done it. Your own ideas, and those of the great characters who were to be concerned with you in these discussions, will give the law, as they ought to do, to us all. My own general idea was, that the States should severally preserve their sovereignty in whatever concerns themselves alone, and that whatever may concern another State, or any foreign nation, should be made a part of the federal sovereignty; that the exercise of the federal sovereignty should be divided among three several bodies, legislative, executive, and judiciary, as the State sovereignties are; and that some peaceable means should be contrived, for the federal head to force compliance on the part of the States. I have reflected on your idea of wooden, or ivory diagrams, for the geometrical demonstrations.

I should think wood as good as ivory; and that in this case, it might add to the improvement of the young gentlemen, that they should make the figures themselves. Being furnished by a workman with a piece of veneer, no other tool than a penknife and a wooden rule, would be necessary. Perhaps pasteboards, or common cards, might be still more convenient. The difficulty is, how to reconcile figures which must have a very sensible breadth to our ideas of a mathematical line, which, as it has neither breadth nor thickness, will revolt more at these than at simple lines drawn on paper or slate. If, after reflecting on this proposition, you would prefer having them made here, lay your commands on me, and they shall be executed.

I return you a thousand thanks for your goodness to my nephew. After my debt to you for whatever I am myself, it is increasing it too much to interest yourself for his future fortune. But I know, that to you, a consciousness of doing good is a luxury ineffable. You have enjoyed it already, beyond all human measure, and that you may long live to enjoy it, and to bless your country and friends, is the sincere prayer of him who is, with every possible sentiment of esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. DAVID RITTENHOUSE.

PARIS, September 18, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of April the 14th, and June the 26th, as also of the second volume of the transactions you were so kind as to send me. It would have been a grateful present indeed, could you have accompanied them with a copy of your observations on our western country. Besides the interest I feel in that country in common with others, I have a particular one, as having ventured so many crudities on that subject. A copy of these, with some late corrections, I have put into a box of books sent to Mr.

Madison, and another for Mr. Hopkinson. I hope he will forward them to you from New York. I have also put into the same box for you a dissertation, by De la Sauvagere, on the spontaneous growth of sh.e.l.ls.

When I was at Tours this summer, I inquired into the character of De la Sauvagere, from a gentleman who had known him well. He told me he was a person of talents, but of a heated imagination; however, that he might be depended on for any facts advanced on his own knowledge. This gentleman added, that he had seen such proofs of this growth of sh.e.l.ls in many parts of the country round Tours, as to convince him of the truth of the fact; and that he has never seen any person, even the most incredulous, quit those Falunieres but under the same conviction. After all, I cannot say I give faith to it. It is so unlike the processes of nature, to produce the same effect in two different ways, that I can only bring myself to agree it is not impossible. I have added for you the Connoissance des Temps for '88 and '89, and a copy of Fourcroi's Chemistry, which is the best and most complete publication in that line, which we have had for some time past. I shall be happy to receive an account of your improvement in timepieces, as well as the third volume of the transactions, when published. There are abundance of good things in the second volume. But I must say there are several which have not merit enough to be placed in such company. I think we should be a little rigid in our admission of papers. It is the peculiar privilege derived from our not being obliged to publish a volume in any fixed period of time. A person here pretends to have discovered the method of rendering sea-water potable, and has some respectable certificates of its success. He has contrived a varnish, also, for lining biscuit barrels, which preserves the biscuit good, and keeps it free from insects. He asks money for his secrets, so we are not to know them soon.

The affairs of Holland had got so far entangled as to leave little hope that war could be avoided. In this situation, the Turks have declared war against the Russians. This, I think, renders a general war inevitable. Perhaps the European powers may take this winter to determine which side each shall take. There is a possibility that an alliance between France and the two empires may induce England and Prussia to tread back their steps. In that case, the Patriotic party in Holland will be peaceably placed at the head of their government. The Turks will be driven out of Europe, their continental possessions divided between Russia and the Emperor, and perhaps their islands and Egypt allotted to France. These events seem possible at present. * * * *

TO THE HONORABLE THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY.

PARIS, September 18, 1787.

GENTLEMEN,--Congress having thought proper, by their vote of July the 18th, to entrust me to take measures for the redemption of our captives at Algiers, and to desire you to furnish the money necessary, it is proper to state to you some data whereby you may judge what sum is necessary. The French prisoners, last redeemed by the order of Mathurins, cost somewhat less than four hundred dollars: but the General of the order told me, that they had always been made to pay more for foreign prisoners than their own. The smallest sum then, at which we can expect ours, including redemption, clothing, feeding, and transportation, will be five hundred dollars each. There are twenty of them. Of course, ten thousand dollars is the smallest sum which can be requisite. I think a larger sum should be set apart, as so much of it as shall not be wanting for the prisoners, will remain for other uses.

As soon as you shall have notified me that the money is ready, I will proceed to execute the order of Congress. I must add the injunctions of the General of the Mathurins, that it be not made known that the public interest themselves in the redemption of these prisoners, as that would induce the Algerians to demand the most extravagant price. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most profound respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.