Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson Volume III Part 30

LETTER CXIX.--TO MR. PINCKNEY, October 12,1792

TO MR. PINCKNEY.

Philadelphia, October 12,1792.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of August the 7th came to hand on the 6th instant, and gave me the first certain information of your safe arrival. Mr. Otto, being about to sail for London, furnishes me with an opportunity of sending the newspapers for yourself and Mr Barclay, and I avail myself of it, chiefly for this purpose, as my late return from Virginia and the vacation of Congress furnish little new and important for your information. With respect to the Indian war, the summer has been chiefly employed on our part in endeavoring to persuade them to peace, in an abstinence from all offensive operations, in order to give those endeavors a fairer chance, and in preparation for activity the ensuing season, if they fail. I believe we may say these endeavors have all failed, or probably will do so. The year has been rather a favorable one for our agriculture. The crops of small grain were generally good. Early frosts have a good deal shortened those of tobacco and Indian corn, yet not so as to endanger distress. From the south my information is less certain, but from that quarter you will be informed through other channels. I have a pleasure in noting this circ.u.mstance to you, because the difference between a plentiful and a scanty crop more than counterpoises the expenses of any campaign. Five or six plentiful years successively, as we have had, have most sensibly ameliorated the condition of our country, and uniform laws of commerce, introduced by our new government, have enabled us to draw the whole benefits of our agriculture.

I enclose you the copy of a letter from Messrs. Blow and Milhaddo, merchants of Virginia, complaining of the taking away of their sailors on the coast of Africa, by the commander of a British armed vessel. So many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite necessary that their government should explain themselves on the subject, and be led to disavow and punish such conduct. I leave to your discretion to endeavor to obtain this satisfaction by such friendly discussions as may be most likely to produce the desired effect, and secure to our commerce that protection against British violence, which it has never experienced from any other nation. No law forbids the seaman of any country to engage in time of peace on board a foreign vessel: no law authorizes such seaman to break his contract, nor the armed vessels of his nation to interpose force for his rescue. I shall be happy to hear soon, that Mr. B. has gone on the service on which he was ordered.

I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXX.--TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT, October 14,1792

TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT.

Philadelphia, October 14,1792.

Gentlemen,

Since my letters of March the 18th and April the 24th (which have been r.e.t.a.r.ded so unfortunately), another subject of conference-and convention with Spain has occurred. You know that the frontiers of her provinces, as well as of our States, are inhabited by Indians holding justly the right of occupation, and leaving to Spain and to us only the claim of excluding other nations from among them, and of becoming ourselves the purchasers of such portions of land, from time to time, as they choose to sell. We have thought that the dictates of interest as well as humanity enjoined mutual endeavors with those Indians to live in peace with both nations, and we have scrupulously observed that conduct.

Our agent with the Indians bordering on the territories of Spain has a standing instruction to use his best endeavors to prevent them from committing acts of hostility against the Spanish settlements. But whatever may have been the conduct or orders of the government of Spain, that of their officers in our neighborhood has been indisputably unfriendly and hostile to us. The papers enclosed will demonstrate this to you. That the Baron de Carondelet, their chief Governor at New Orleans, has excited the Indians to war on us, that he has furnished them with abundance of arms and ammunition, and promised them whatever more shall be necessary, I have from the mouth of him who had it from his own mouth. In short, that he is the sole source of a great and serious war now burst out upon us, and from Indians who, we know, were in peaceable dispositions towards us till prevailed on by him to commence the war, there remains scarcely room to doubt. It has become necessary that we understand the real policy of Spain in this point.

You will, therefore, be pleased to extract from the enclosed papers such facts as you think proper to be communicated to that court, and enter into friendly but serious expostulations on the conduct of their officers; for we have equal evidence against the commandants of other posts in West Florida, though, they being subordinate to Carondelet, we name him as the source. If they disavow his conduct, we must naturally look to their treatment of him as the sole evidence of their sincerity.

But we must look further. It is a general rule, that no nation has a right to keep an agent within the limits of another, without the consent of that other, and we are satisfied it would be best for both Spain and us, to abstain from having agents or other persons in our employ or pay among the savages inhabiting our respective territories, whether as subjects or independent. You are, therefore, desired to propose and press a stipulation to that effect. Should they absolutely decline it, it may be proper to let them perceive that, as the right of keeping agents exists on both sides or on neither, it will rest with us to reciprocate their own measures. We confidently hope that these proceedings are unauthorized by the government of Spain, and, in this hope, we continue in the dispositions formerly expressed to you, of living on terms of the best friends.h.i.+p and harmony with that country, of making their interests in our neighborhood our own, and of giving them every proof of this, except the abandonment of those essential rights which you are instructed to insist on.

I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXI.--TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS, October 15, 1792

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

Philadelphia, October 15, 1792.

Sir,

I have received your favor of July the 10th, No. 4, but no other number preceding or subsequent. I fear, therefore, that some miscarriage has taken place. The present goes to Bordeaux under cover to Mr. Fenwick, who I hope will be able to give it a safe conveyance to you. I observe that you say in your letter, that 'the marine department is to treat with you for supplies to St. Domingo.' I presume you mean 'supplies of money,' and not that our government is to furnish supplies of provisions, &c. specifically, or employ others to do it, this being a business into which they could not enter. The payment of money here, to be employed by their own agents in purchasing the produce of our soil, is a desirable thing. We are informed by the public papers, that the late const.i.tution of France, formally notified to us, is suspended, and a new convention called. During the time of this suspension, and while no legitimate government exists, we apprehend we cannot continue the payments of our debt to France, because there is no person authorized to receive it and to give us an un.o.bjectionable acquittal. You are therefore desired to consider the payment as suspended, until further orders. Should circ.u.mstances oblige you to mention this (which it is better to avoid if you can), do it with such solid reasons as will occur to yourself, and accompany it with the most friendly declarations that the suspension does not proceed from any wish in us to delay the payment, the contrary being our wish, nor from any desire to embarra.s.s or oppose the settlement of their government in that way in which their nation shall desire it; but from our anxiety to pay this debt justly and honorably, and to the persons really authorized by the nation (to whom we owe it) to receive it for their use. Nor shall the suspension be continued one moment after we can see our way clear out of the difficulty into which their situation has thrown us. That they may speedily obtain liberty, peace, and tranquillity, is our sincere prayer.

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

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXII.--TO M. DE TERNANT, October 16,1792

TO M. DE TERNANT.

Philadelphia, October 16,1792.

Sir,

I am to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, proposing a stipulation for the abolition of the practice of privateering in times of war. The benevolence of this proposition is worthy of the nation from which it comes, and our sentiments on it have been declared in the treaty to which you are pleased to refer, as well as in some others which have been proposed. There are in those treaties some other principles which would probably meet the approbation of your government, as flowing from the same desire to lessen the occasions and the calamities of war. On all of these, as well as on those amendments to our treaty of commerce which might better its conditions with both nations, and which the National a.s.sembly of France has likewise brought into view on a former occasion, we are ready to enter into negotiation with you, only proposing to take the whole into consideration at once.

And while contemplating provisions which look to the event of war, we are happy in feeling a conviction that it is yet at a great distance from us, and in believing that the sentiments of sincere friends.h.i.+p which we bear to the nation of France are reciprocated on their part.

Of these our dispositions, be so good as to a.s.sure them on this and all other occasions; and to accept yourself those sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXIII.--TO MESSRS. VIAR AND JAUDENES, November 1, 1792

TO MESSRS. VIAR AND JAUDENES, _Commissioners of Spain_

Philadelphia, November 1, 1792.

Gentlemen,

I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of October the 29th, which I have duly laid before the President of the United States: and in answer thereto, I cannot but observe that some parts of its contents were truly unexpected. On what foundation it can be supposed that we have menaced the Creek nation with destruction during the present autumn, or at any other time, is entirely inconceivable. Our endeavors, on the contrary, to keep them at peace, have been earnest, persevering, and notorious, and no expense has been spared which might attain that object. With the same views to peace, we have suspended, now more than a twelvemonth, the marking a boundary between them and us, which had been fairly, freely, and solemnly established with the chiefs whom they had deputed to treat with us on that subject: we have suspended it, I say, in the constant hope, that taking time to consider it in the councils of their nation, and recognising the justice and reciprocity of its conditions, they would at length freely concur in carrying it into execution. We agree with you, that the interests which either of us have in the proceedings of the other with this nation of Indians, is a proper subject of discussion at the negotiations to be opened at Madrid, and shall accordingly give the same in charge to our commissioners there.

In the mean time, we shall continue sincerely to cultivate the peace and prosperity of all the parties, being constant in the opinion, that this conduct, reciprocally observed, will most increase the happiness of all.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXIV.--TO THE PRESIDENT, November 2,1792