The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Part 3

P. S. Will you permit my respects to your grandson, Mr. Franklin, to find their place here?

TO MR. STILES.

PARIS, December 24, 1786.

SIR,--I feel myself very much honored by the degree which has been conferred on me by the Senatus Academicus of Yale College, and I beg leave, through you, Sir, to express to them how sensible I am of this honor, and that it is to their and your indulgence, and not to any merit of my own, that I am indebted for it.

The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the ma.s.s of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. "Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem." Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.

The bickerings between Russia and the Porte are quieted for the moment.

The coolness between the Kings of Spain and Naples will remain, but will have no other consequence than that of the former withdrawing from interference with the affairs of the latter. The present King of Prussia pushes the interest of the Stadtholder more zealously than his uncle did. There have been fears that he might throw himself into the Austrian scale, which would greatly derange the European balance. This country is firm in support of the patriotic party in the United Netherlands.

We have made an advantageous treaty with Morocco, but with Algiers nothing is done. From what I learn from the temper of my countrymen and their tenaciousness of money, it will be more easy to raise s.h.i.+ps and men to fight these pirates into reason than money to bribe them. I wish that something could be done in some form or another to open the Mediterranean to us. You will have seen that France is endeavoring to relieve and encourage our commerce with her.

The arts and sciences offering nothing new at this moment worth communicating to you, I shall only add a.s.surances of the respect and esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DUMAS.

PARIS, December 25, 1786.

SIR,--A dislocation of my right wrist has for upwards of three months prevented my writing to you. I begin to use it a little for the pen; but it is with great pain. To this cause alone I hope you will ascribe that I have acknowledged at one time the receipt of so many of your letters. Their dates are September 12, 26, October 6, 17, 19, 23, November 3, 17, December 1, and there is one without date. They were communicated to the Marquis de LaFayette according to your desire, and those to Mr. Jay have been forwarded from time to time as private conveyances occurred, except some of the last for which no such conveyance has occurred till now. A gentleman is setting out for London, and from thence for New York.

We receive news from America of collections of the people in three or four instances in the Eastern States, demanding delays in the proceedings of the courts of justice. Those States, as you know, depended before the war chiefly on their whale oil and fish. The former was consumed in London, but, being now loaded with heavy duties, cannot go there. Much of their fish went up the Mediterranean, now shut to us by the piratical States. Their debts, therefore, press them, while the means of payment have lessened. The mobs, however, separated without a single injury having been offered to the person or property of any one, nor did they continue twenty-four hours in any one place. This country has opened a market for their whale oil, and we have made a good treaty of peace with Morocco. But with Algiers we can do nothing. An American paper has published a letter, as from me to the Count de Vergennes, on the subject of our productions of tobacco and rice. It is surrept.i.tious and falsified; and both the true and untrue parts very improper for the public eye. How a newswriter of America got at it, is astonis.h.i.+ng, and with what views it had been altered. I will be much obliged to you if you will endeavor to prevent its publication in the Leyden Gazette.

The following question I take the liberty of proposing to you confidentially. This country wants money in its treasury. Some individuals have proposed to buy our debt of twenty-four millions at a considerable discount. I have informed Congress of it, and suggested to them the expediency of borrowing this sum in Holland, if possible, as well to prevent loss to this country as to draw all their money transactions to one point. But could they borrow the money in Holland?

I would be obliged to you for your opinion on this question, as it would decide me in pressing this matter further on Congress, or letting it drop. It will readily occur to you that the answer should come through the hands of your amba.s.sador here alone. The pain in which I write obliges me, after many thanks for the interesting details of transactions in your country, to a.s.sure you of the esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. CARMICHAEL.

PARIS, December 26, 1786.

DEAR SIR,--A note from me of the 22d of September, apprised you it would be some time before I should be able to answer your letters. I did not then expect it would have been so long.

I enclose herein a resolution of Congress, recalling Mr. Lambe, which I will beg the favor of you to have delivered him. I have written to Mr.

Adams on the subject of directing him to settle with Mr. Barclay, and attend his answer. In the meantime, I am not without hopes Mr. Barclay has done the business. I send also a note desiring Mr. Lambe to deliver you his cypher, and a copy of a letter from the Minister of Finance here, to me, announcing several regulations in favor of our commerce.

My "Notes on Virginia," having been hastily written, need abundance of corrections. Two or three of these are so material, that I am reprinting a few leaves to subst.i.tute for the old. As soon as these shall be ready, I will beg your acceptance of a copy. I shall be proud to be permitted to send a copy, also, to the Count de Campomanes, as a tribute to his science and his virtues. You will find in them that the Natural Bridge has found an admirer in me also. I should be happy to make with you the tour of the curiosities you will find therein mentioned. That kind of pleasure surpa.s.ses much, in my estimation, whatever I find on this side the Atlantic. I sometimes think of building a little hermitage at the Natural Bridge (for it is my property) and of pa.s.sing there a part of the year at least.

I have received American papers to the 1st of November. Some tumultuous meetings of the people have taken place in the eastern States; _i. e._ one in Ma.s.sachusetts, one in Connecticut, and one in New Hamps.h.i.+re.

Their princ.i.p.al demand was, a respite in the judiciary proceedings. No injury was done, however, in a single instance, to the person or property of any one, nor did the tumult continue twenty-four hours in any one instance. In Ma.s.sachusetts, this was owing to the discretion which the malcontents still preserved; in Connecticut and New Hamps.h.i.+re, the body of the people rose in support of government, and obliged the malcontents to go to their homes. In the last-mentioned State, they seized about forty, who were in jail for trial. It is believed this incident will strengthen our government. Those people are not entirely without excuse. Before the war, these States depended on their whale oil and fish. The former was consumed in England, and much of the latter in the Mediterranean. The heavy duties on American whale oil, now required in England, exclude it from that market; and the Algerines exclude them from bringing their fish into the Mediterranean.

France is opening her ports for their oil, but in the meanwhile, their ancient debts are pressing them, and they have nothing to pay with. The Ma.s.sachusetts a.s.sembly, too, in their zeal for paying their public debt, had laid a tax too heavy to be paid in the circ.u.mstances of their State. The Indians seem disposed, too, to make war on us. These complicated causes, determined Congress to increase their forces to two thousand men. The latter was the sole object avowed, yet the former entered for something into the measure. However, I am satisfied the good sense of the people is the strongest army our government can ever have, and that it will not fail them. The commercial convention at Annapolis, was not full enough to do business. They found, too, their appointments too narrow, being confined to the article of commerce.

They have proposed a meeting in Philadelphia in May, and that it may be authorized to propose amendments of whatever is defective in the federal const.i.tution.

When I was in England, I formed a portable copying press, on the principles of the large one they make here, for copying letters. I had a model made there, and it has answered perfectly. A workman here has made several from that model. The itinerant temper of your court will, I think, render one of these useful to you. You must, therefore, do me the favor to accept of one. I have it now in readiness, and shall send it by the way of Bayonne, to the care of Mr. Alexander there, unless Don Miguel de Lardizabal can carry it with him.

My hand admonishes me it is time to stop, and that I must defer writing to Mr. Barclay till to-morrow.

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

TO MR. VAUGHAN.

PARIS, December 29, 1786.

SIR,--When I had the honor of seeing you in London, you were so kind as to permit me to trouble you sometimes with my letters, and particularly on the subject of mathematical or philosophical instruments. Such a correspondence will be too agreeable to me, and at the same time, too useful, not to avail myself of your permission. It has been an opinion pretty generally received among philosophers, that the atmosphere of America is more humid than that of Europe. Monsieur de Buffon makes this hypothesis one of the two pillars whereon he builds his system of the degeneracy of animals in America. Having had occasion to controvert this opinion of his, as to the degeneracy of animals there, I expressed a doubt of the fact a.s.sumed, that our climates are more moist. I did not know of any experiments which might authorize a denial of it.

Speaking afterwards on the subject with Dr. Franklin, he mentioned to me the observations he had made on a case of magnets, made for him by Mr. Nairne in London. Of these you will see a detail, in the second volume of the American Philosophical Transactions, in a letter from Dr.

Franklin to Mr. Nairne, wherein he recommends to him to take up the principle therein explained, and endeavor to make an hygrometer, which, taking slowly the temperature of the atmosphere, shall give its mean degree of moisture, and enable us thus to make with more certainty, a comparison between the humidities of different climates. May I presume to trouble you with an inquiry of Mr. Nairne, whether he has executed the Doctor's idea, and if he has, to get him to make for me a couple of the instruments he may have contrived? They should be made of the same piece, and under like circ.u.mstances, that sending one to America, I may rely on its indications there, compared with those of the one I shall retain here. Being in want of a set of magnets also, I would be glad if he would at the same time send me a set, the case of which should be made as Dr. Franklin describes his to have been, so that I may repeat his experiment. Colonel Smith will do me the favor to receive these things from Mr. Nairne, and to pay him for them.

I think Mr. Rittenhouse never published an invention of his in this way, which was a very good one. It was of an hygrometer which, like the common ones, was to give the actual moisture of the air. He has two slips of mahogany about five inches long, three-fourths of an inch broad, and one-tenth of an inch thick, the one having the grain running lengthwise, and the other crosswise. These are glued together by their faces, so as to form a piece five inches long, three-fourths of an inch broad, and one-third of an inch thick, which is stuck by its lower end into a little plinth of wood, presenting their edge to the view. The fibres of the wood you know are dilated, but not lengthened by moisture. The slip, therefore, whose grain is lengthwise, becomes a standard, retaining always the same precise length. That which has its grain crosswise, dilates with moisture, and contracts for the want of it. If the right hand piece be the cross grained one, when the air is very moist, it lengthens, and forces its companion to form a kind of interior annulus of a circle on the left. When the air is dry, it contracts, draws its companion to the right, and becomes itself the interior annulus. In order to show this dilatation and contraction, an index is fixed on the upper end of two of the slips; a plate of metal or wood is fastened to the front of the plinth, so as to cover the two slips from the eye. A slit, being nearly the portion of a circle, is cut in this plate, so that the shank of the index may play freely through its whole range. On the edge of the slit is a graduation. The objection to this instrument is, that it is not fit for comparative observations, because no two pieces of wood being of the same texture exactly, no two will yield exactly alike to the same agent. However, it is less objectionable on this account, than most of the substances used. Mr. Rittenhouse had a thought of trying ivory; but I do not know whether he executed it. All these substances not only vary from one another at the same time, but from themselves at different times. All of them, however, have some peculiar advantages, and I think this, on the whole, appeared preferable to any other I had ever seen. Not knowing whether you had heard of this instrument, and supposing it would amuse you, I have taken the liberty of detailing it to you.

I beg you to be a.s.sured of the sentiments of perfect esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, December 31, 1786.

SIR,--I had the honor of addressing you on the 12th of the last month; since which, your favor of October the 12th has been received, enclosing a copy of the resolution of Congress for recalling Mr. Lambe.

My letter by Mr. Randall informed you that we had put an end to his powers, and required him to repair to Congress. I lately received a letter from him, dated Alicant, October the 10th, of which I have the honor to enclose you a copy; by which, you will perceive that the circ.u.mstance of ill health, either true or false, is urged for his not obeying our call. I shall immediately forward the order of Congress. I am not without fear, that some misapplication of the public money may enter into the causes of his declining to return. The moment that I saw a symptom of this in his conduct, as it was a circ.u.mstance which did not admit the delay of consulting Mr. Adams, I wrote to Mr. Carmichael, to stop any moneys which he might have in the hands of his banker. I am still unable to judge whether he is guilty of this or not, as by the arrangements with Mr. Adams, who alone had done business with the bankers of the United States, in Holland, Mr. Lambe's drafts were to be made on him, and I know not what their amount has been. His drafts could not have been negotiated, if made on us both, at places so distant. Perhaps it may be thought, that the appointment of Mr. Lambe was censurable in the moment in which it was made. It is a piece of justice, therefore, which I owe to Mr. Adams, to declare that the proposition went first from me to him. I take the liberty of enclosing you a copy of my letter to Mr. Adams, of September the 24th, 1785, in which that proposition was made. It expresses the motives operating on my mind in that moment, as well as the cautions I thought it necessary to take. To these must be added, the difficulty of finding an American in Europe fit for the business, and willing to undertake it. I knew afterwards, that Dr. Bancroft (who is named in the letter) could not, on account of his own affairs, have accepted even a primary appointment. I think it evident, that no appointment could have succeeded without a much greater sum of money.

I am happy to find that Mr. Barclay's mission has been attended with complete success. For this we are indebted, unquestionably, to the influence and good offices of the court of Madrid. Colonel Franks, the bearer of this, will have the honor to put into your hands the original of the treaty, with other papers accompanying it. It will appear by these, that Mr. Barclay has conducted himself with a degree of intelligence and of good faith, which reflects the highest honor on him.

A copy of a letter from Captain O'Bryan to Mr. Carmichael, is also herewith enclosed. The information it contains will throw farther light on the affairs of Algiers. His observations on the difficulties which arise from the distance of Mr. Adams and myself from that place, and from one another, and the delays occasioned by this circ.u.mstance, are certainly just. If Congress should propose to revive the negotiations, they will judge whether it will not be more expedient to send a person to Algiers, who can be trusted with full powers; and also whether a mission to Constantinople may not be previously necessary. Before I quit this subject, I must correct an error in the letter of Captain O'Bryan. Mr. Lambe was not limited, as he says, to one hundred, but to two hundred dollars apiece for our prisoners. This was the price which has been just paid for a large number of French prisoners, and this was our guide.

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

TO SAMUEL OSGOOD.