Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson Volume II Part 50

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLx.x.xIII.--TO WILLIAM SHORT, February 9,1789

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

Paris, February 9,1789.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you last on the 22nd of January, on which day I received yours of December the 31st, and since that, the other of January the 14th. We have now received news from America down to the middle of December.

They had then had no cold weather. All things relative to our new const.i.tution were going on well. Federal senators are; New Hamps.h.i.+re, President Langdon and Bartlett. Ma.s.sachusetts, Strong and Dalton.

Connecticut, Dr. Johnson and Ellsworth. New Jersey, Patterson and Ellmer. Pennsylvania, Robert Morris and M'Clay. Delaware, Reed and Ba.s.sett. Virginia, Richard Henry Lee and Grayson. Maryland, Charles Carroll, of Carrolton, and John Henry. All of these are federalists, except those of Virginia; so that a majority of federalists are secured in the Senate, and expected in the House of Representives. General Was.h.i.+ngton will be President, and probably Mr. Adams Vice-President. So that the const.i.tution will be put under way by those who will give it a fair trial. It does not seem probable that the attempt of New York, to have another convention to make amendments, will succeed, though Virginia concurs in it. It is tolerably certain that Congress will propose amendments to the a.s.semblies, as even the friends of the const.i.tution are willing to make amendments; some from a conviction they are necessary, others, from a spirit of conciliation. The addition of a bill of rights will, probably, be the most essential change. A vast majority of anti-federalists have got into the a.s.sembly of Virginia, so that Mr. Henry is omnipotent there. Mr. Madison was left out as a senator by eight or nine votes; and Henry has so modeled the districts for representatives, as to tack Orange to counties where himself has great influence, that Madison may not be elected into the lower federal House, which was the place he had wished to serve in, and not the Senate. Henry p.r.o.nounced a philippic against Madison in open a.s.sembly, Madison being then at Philadelphia. Mifflin is President of Pennsylvania, and Peters, Speaker. Colonel Howard is Governor of Maryland. Beverly Randolph, Governor of Virginia; (this last is said by a pa.s.senger only, and he seems not very sure.) Colonel Humphreys is attacked in the papers for his French airs, for bad poetry, bad prose, vanity, &c. It is said his dress, in so gay a style, gives general disgust against him. I have received a letter from him. He seems fixed with General Was.h.i.+ngton. Mayo's bridge, at Richmond, was completed, and carried away in a few weeks. While up, it was so profitable that he had great offers for it. A turnpike is established at Alexandria, and succeeds. Rhode Island has again refused to call a convention. Spain has granted to Colonel Morgan, of New Jersey, a vast tract of land on the western side of the Mississippi, with the monopoly of the navigation of that river. He is inviting settlers, and they swarm to him. Even the settlement of Kentucky is likely to be much weakened by emigrations to Morgan's grant. Warville has returned, charmed with our country. He is going to carry his wife and children to settle there. Gouverneur Morris has just arrived here; deputed, as is supposed, to settle Robert Morris's affairs, which continue still deranged. Doctor Franklin was well when he left America, which was about the middle of December.

I send Mr. Rutledge two letters by this post. Be so good as to present him my esteem, and to be a.s.sured yourself, of the sincere esteem and attachment with which I am and shall ever be? Dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLx.x.xIV.--TO M. DE VILLEDEUIL, February 10, 1789

TO M. DE VILLEDEUIL.

Paris, February 10, 1789.

Sir,

I take the liberty of troubling your Excellency with the following case, which I understand to be within your department. Mr. Jay, secretary for Foreign Affairs, to the United States of America, having occasion to send me despatches of great importance, and by a courier express, confided them to a Mr. Nesbitt, who offered himself in that character.

He has delivered them safely: but, in the moment of delivering them, explained to me his situation, which is as follows. He was established in commerce at L'Orient, during the war. Losses by s.h.i.+pwreck, by capture, and by the conclusion of the peace at a moment when he did not expect it, reduced him to bankruptcy, and he returned to America, with the consent of his creditors, to make the most of his affairs there.

He has been employed in this ever since, and now wis.h.i.+ng to see his creditors, and to consult them on their mutual interests, he availed himself of Mr. Jay's demand for a courier, to come under the safe conduct of that character to Paris, where he flattered himself he might obtain that of your Excellency, for the purpose of seeing his creditors, settling, and arranging with them. He thinks a twelvemonth will be necessary for this. Understanding that it is not unusual to grant safe conducts in such cases, and persuaded it will be for the benefit of his creditors, I take the liberty of enclosing his memoir to your Excellency, and of soliciting your favorable attention to it, a.s.sured that it will not be denied him, if it be consistent with the established usage; and if inadmissible, praying that your Excellency will have the goodness to give me as early an answer as the other arduous occupations in which you are engaged, will admit, in order that he may know whether he may see his creditors, or must return without. I am encouraged to trouble your Excellency with this application, by the goodness with which you have been pleased to attend to our interests on former occasions, and by the desire of availing myself of every occasion of proffering to you the homage of those sentiments of attachment and respect, with which I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLx.x.xV.--TO MR. CARNES, February 15,1789

TO MR. CARNES.

Paris, February 15,1789.

Sir,

I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of January the 23rd, and February the 9th and 10th. Your departure for America so soon, puzzles me as to the finis.h.i.+ng the affair of Schweighaeuser and Dobree, in which I could have reposed myself on you. It remains, that I ask you to recommend some person who may be perfectly relied on, in that business. In fact, it is probably the only one I shall have occasion to trouble them with before my own departure for America, which I expect to take place in May; and I fix my return to Paris, in December. While I ask your recommendation of a person to finish Dobree's business with fidelity, I must ask your secrecy on the subject of that very business, so as not to name it at all, even to the person you shall recommend.

With respect to the distressed American who needs one hundred and forty livres to enable him to return to America, I have no authority to apply any public monies to that purpose, and the calls of that nature are so numerous, that I am obliged to refuse myself to them in my private capacity. As to Captain Newell's case, you are sensible, that being in the channel of the laws of the land, to ask a special order from government, would expose us, in reciprocity to like demands from them in America, to which our laws would never permit us to accede. Speaking conscientiously, we must say it is wrong in any government to interrupt the regular course of justice. A minister has no right to intermeddle in a private suit, but when the laws of the country have been palpably perverted to the prejudice of his countryman.

When you shall be so kind as to recommend to me a correspondent in your port during your absence, I will ask the favor of you also to give me some idea of the time you expect to return.

I have the honor, after wis.h.i.+ng you pleasant and prosperous voyages, to a.s.sure you of the esteem and attachment, with which I am, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLx.x.xVI.--TO DR. BANCROFT, March 2, 1789

TO DR. BANCROFT.

Paris, March 2, 1789

Dear Sir,

I have just received a letter of January the 31st from Admiral Paul Jones, at Petersburg, which charging me with the execution of some commissions, and these requiring money, he tells me you will answer my drafts, to the amount of four or five thousand livres, on his account.

Be so good as to inform me whether you will pay such drafts.

A Monsieur Foulloy, who has been connected with Deane, lately offered me for sale two volumes of Deane's letter books and account books, that he had taken instead of money, which Deane owed him. I have purchased them on public account. He tells me Deane has still six or eight volumes more, and being to return soon to London, he will try to get them also, in order to make us pay high for them. You are sensible of the impropriety of letting such books get into hands which might make an unfriendly use of them. You are sensible of the immorality of an ex-minister's selling his secrets for money and, consequently, that there can be no immorality in tempting him with money to part with them; so that they may be restored to that government to whom they properly belong. Your former acquaintance with Deane may, perhaps, put it in your power to render our country the service of recovering those books. It would not do to propose it to him as for Congress. What other way would best bring it about, you know best. I suppose his distresses and his c.r.a.pulous habits will not render him difficult on this head. On the supposition that there are six or eight volumes, I think you might venture as far as fifty guineas, and proportionably for fewer. I will answer your draft to this amount and purpose, or you may retain it out of any monies you may propose to pay me for admiral Jones. There is no time to lose in this negotiation, as, should Foulloy arrive there before it is closed, he will spoil the bargain. If you should be able to recover these books, I would ask the favor of you to send them to me by the Diligence, that I may carry them back with me to America. I make no apology for giving you this trouble. It is for our common country, and common interest.

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

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLx.x.xVII.--TO M. DE MALESHERBES, March 11, 1789

TO M. DE MALESHERBES.

Sir,

Paris, March 11, 1789.

Your zeal to promote the general good of mankind, by an interchange of useful things, and particularly in the line of agriculture, and the weight which your rank and station would give to your interposition, induce me to ask it, for the purpose of obtaining one of the species of rice which grows in Cochin-China on high lands, and which needs no other watering than the ordinary rains. The sun and soil of Carolina are sufficiently powerful to insure the success of this plant, and Monsieur de Poivre gives such an account of its quality, as might induce the Carolinians to introduce it instead of the kind they now possess, which, requiring the whole country to be laid under water during a certain season of the year, sweeps off numbers of the inhabitants annually, with pestilential fevers. If you would be so good as to interest yourself in the procuring for me some seeds of the dry rice of Cochin-China, you would render the most precious service to my countrymen, on whose behalf I take the liberty of asking your interposition: very happy, at the same time, to have found such an occasion of repeating to you the homage of those sentiments of respect and esteem, with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,