THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON



DEFINITIVE EDITION

CONTAINING HIS

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NOTES ON VIRGINA, PARLIAMENTARY MANUAL, OFFICIAL PAPERS,
MESSAGES AND ADDRESSES, AND OTHER WRITINGS, OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE, NOW COLLECTED
AND

PUBLISHED IN THEIR ENTIRETY FOR THE FIRST TIME

INCLUDING

ALL OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS, DEPOSITED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND
PUBLISHED IN 1853 BY ORDER OF THE JOINT COMMITTE OF CONGRESS

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

AND

A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX



ALBERT ELLERY BERGH

EDITOR



VOL. XI.



ISSUED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF

THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION

OF THE UNITED STATES

WASHINGTON, D.C.

1907



COPYRIGHT, 1905,

BY

THE THOMAS JEFFERSON MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION







JEFFERSON'S VERSATILITY.



          Its versatility was one of the most striking features of Thomas
Jefferson's exquisite mind, which was both telescopic and microscopic in its
range and operations.  Shakespeare has been denominated " the Myriad-Minded.  "
That description may be applied to Jefferson without exaggeration or bad taste.



        Lord Bacon declared that he took all knowledge for his province, which
Jefferson appears to have done also, although he never so stated or intimated. 
His bent was toward Philosophy, and the Philosophical Society of Paris voted
him a gold medal for inventing a plow with mould-board of least resistance.

         Sir Isaac Newton is much and justly lauded by historians for devising
a plan for milling the edge of coins; but Jefferson accomplished so many things
of importance in so many fields of human endeavor that little mention is made
of the fact that he invented our system of Coinage, Weights and Measures-based
on the Decimal Notation-thereby conferring an inestimable boon upon his
countrymen.

         Had he not been drawn by circumstances into the swirl of politics, he
would as a Scientist have ranked with the Father of Inductive Philosophy, with
the



          Jefferson's Versatility



        Discoverer of the Law of Gravitation and with the Captor of the
Lightning.

         It is conceded by all his associates, whether friend or foe-and he had
a full complement of both-that he thoroughly mastered the Law, to accomplish
which task Lord Eldon asserted that " one must live like a hermit and work like
a horse.  " Jefferson subscribed to the last half of Eldon's dictum, but
scorned the first half utterly, for all his days he was the most sociable of
mortals, being at home equally with the plain people and with the greatest of
the sons of men.

         While Mathematics were such a perpetual delight to him that he
habitually carried with him a pocketbook of Logarithms as an aid in intricate
calculations, he was thoroughly grounded in Greek, Latin, French and Italian,
and was in posse as universal a linguist as Elihu Burritt, " The Learned
Blacksmith.  " With much labor, indefatigable industry and infinite patience,
he collected fifty Indian vocabularies, the loss of which by theft he mourned
always.

         As a Presidential scholar, he stands in a class with John Quincy Adams
and James Abram Garfield.  He was so "cunning with his pen," to borrow a happy
phrase from John Adams, that in point of literary excellence his " Summary View
of the Rights of British America," his "Declaration of Independence " and his
first Inaugural Address rank with Milton's Prose, the Letters of Alexander Pope
and the Book of Common Prayer.

         To please a friend and as a mental recreation he



          Jefferson's Versatility                



wrote his " Notes on Virginia, " which is an authority to this day and which is
as pleasant reading as Goldsmith's "Animated Nature, " and much more
instructive. 

        He possessed fine musical talent and was a famous fiddler, drawing the
bow with the zest of Paganini and Ole Bull.

         He was familiar with all systems of architecture and knew more about
them than any other American of his generation.

         Agriculture was his hobby; he did more for its promotion than any
other statesman that ever lived, and deserves to be the perpetual Emeritus
President of the Patrons of Husbandry.  He was the first man on this continent
to reduce farming to a science.  He divided his lands into plots and kept an
accurate account with each, so that he could ascertain what sorts of crops were
suited to particular soils.  He obtained, for the planters of the South, Turin
rice, which has proved a source of vast wealth to that section.  He imported
the first Merino sheep, which are a great success, and experimented with
Fat-tail sheep, which did not flourish in our climate.  While controlling the
multitudinous and multifarious affairs of a nascent Republic, he somehow found
time to personally establish and conduct a miniature Agricultural Department,
Botanical Garden and Weather Bureau, to make Meteorological observations three
times a day through a long series of years, and to note minutely the first
appearance in the market and



          Jefferson's Versatility



upon the table of each particular species of vegetable, fruit and grain, grown
in this latitude.

         He had made a profound study of the fauna and flora of America, and
was a lover of flowers, shrubs, trees and animals.  He was a skilful horseman,
and until the day of his death, when past the Psalmist's extreme allotment of
fourscore years, he would ride nothing but the pick and choice of Virginia
thoroughbreds.  Some of his favorite saddle-horses, notably " Wildair " and "
Eagle, " have reputations as enduring as Alexander's " Bucephalus, " Napoleon's
" Marengo, " Wellington's " Copenhagen, " Robert E. Lee's "Traveler," Stonewall
Jackson's "Old Sorrel" or Philip H. Sheridan's "Rienzi."

         Believing with all his heart that the intelligence of the masses is
the true basis of free government, in his younger days he evolved the system of
Public Schools now in vogue, which we boast is the chief bulwark of our
liberties, and after retiring from the Presidency, founded the University of
Virginia one of the greatest institutions of learning on the whole face of the
earth.  By these two achievements-to say nothing of his political teachings-he
has perhaps exerted a wider influence over the minds of men than any of his
predecessors or successors in the Chief Magistracy of the Republic.

         He must be counted among the greatest Lawgivers of all time.  By
abolishing the unjust and unnatural rule of Primogeniture he conferred a
permanent benefaction upon his fellow citizens, and



          Jefferson's Versatility



his Statute of Religious Freedom is one of the three things on which he chose
to rest his fame in his celebrated epitaph and which he deemed his clearest
titles to the gratitude of future generations.  Had his scheme of Gradual and
Rational Emancipation been adopted, the chances are that we would have escaped
the countless horrors and calamities of the war between the States.  He, and
not Nathan Dane, was the real author of the ordinance for the government of the
Northwest Territory, although Daniel Webster undertook to give the honor to the
latter.  Jefferson was virtually the author of the first ten amendments to the
Constitution of the United States, which are in the nature of a Bill of Rights,
and which contain the essence of human freedom. 

        Napoleon declared that he would descend to posterity with his Code in
his hand.  Senator Hoar has said most felicitously that Jefferson comes down to
us with the Declaration of Independence in one hand and the Louisiana Purchase
in the other, but he will be largely and gratefully remembered for his wisdom
as a Legislator for both State and Nation. 

        He was so thoroughly grounded in the principles of government of the
people, by the people and for the people, that he was a potent factor in two
Revolutions-one in America, the other in France-the purpose of which was to
establish the twin propositions that " All men are created equal " and that "
Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, " So
clear was his vision



  vi            Jefferson's Versatility



as a Statesman that after a century of legislation we have not attained his
lofty standard of political conduct.  The strongest proof of his versatility is
the fact that he is more frequently quoted than any other Statesman the world
has ever known.




        CONTENTS.







                PAGE

JEFFERSON'S VERSATILITY. By Hon. Champ Clark.                        1



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826                1-448



To Jean Baptiste Say, February 1, 1804        1

To Rufus King, Esq., February 17, 1804        3

To the Secretary of the Treasury (Albert Galla-

tin), February 19, 1804                4

To  B. H. Latrobe, February 28, 1804        13

To  Elbridge Gerry, March 3, 1804                15

To  William Dunbar, March 13, 1804                17

To  Gideon Granger, April 16, 1804                24

To  Albert Gallatin, May 30, 1804                26

To  Baron Alexander von Humboldt, June 9, 1804        27

To  Mrs. John Adams, June 13, 1804                28

To  Governor John Page, June 25, 1804        30

To  judge John Tyler, June 28, 1804                32

To  James Madison, July 5, 1804                35

To  Governor W. C. C. Claiborne, July 7, 1804 ..        36

To  Philip Mazzei, July 18, 1804                38

To  Mrs. John Adams, July 22, 1804                42

To  James Madison, August 15, 1804                45

To  Governor W. C. C. Claiborne, August 13, 1804        47

To  Albert Gallatin, September 8, 1804        48

To  Mrs. John Adams, September 11, 1804        49

To  John F. Mercer, October 9, 1804                53

To  J. Lithgow, January 4, 1805

To  John Taylor, January 6, 1805                56



 

viii                      Contents



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES,  1789-1826-Continued.                PAGE



To Albert Gallatin, January 26, 1805                58

To Joseph H. Nicholson, January 29, 1805                59

To C. F. C. de Volney, February 8,  1805                62

To judge John Tyler, March 29, 1805                69

To Dr. George Logan, May 11, 1805                71

To judge James Sullivan, May 21,  1805                72

To William Dunbar, May 25, 1805                74

To Dr. John Sibley, May 27, 1805                79

To Thomas Paine, June 5,  1805                81

To James Madison, August 7, 1805                84

To James Madison, August 25, 1805                85

To James Madison, August 27, 1805                86

To James Madison, September  16, 1805                89

To Albert Gallatin, October 18, 1805                91

To Doctors Rogers and Slaughter, March 2, 1806        92

To William Duane, March 22, 1806                94

To Wilson C. Nicholas, March 24, 1806                97

To Wilson C. Nicholas, April 13, 1806                98

To Levett Harris, April 19, 1806                101

To the Emperor of Russia, April 19, 1806                103

To Colonel James Monroe, May 4, 1806                106

To General Samuel Smith, May 4, 1806                111

To Thomas Digges, July 1, 1806                113

To Barnabas Bidwell, July 5, 1806                114

To James Bowdoin, July 10, 1806                118

To W. A. Burwell, September 17, 1806                121

To Albert Gallatin, October 12, 1806                126

To General James Wilkinson, January 3, 1807        127

To Albert Gallatin, January 4, 1807                131

To Albert Gallatin, January 6, 1807                131

To Charles Clay, January 11, 1807                132

To Jonathan Williams and C. W. Peale, Judges of

Election for the A. P. Society, January 12, 1807        133



 

Contents        ix



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To Albert Gallatin, January 12, 1807        134

To John Dickinson, January 13, 1807        135

To  William W. Henning, January 14, 1807        138

To  Daniel Clarke, January 14, 1807        139

To  General John Shee, January 14, 1807        140

To  Captain Charles Christian, January 14, 1807        141

To  Governor Charles Pinckney, January 20, 1807        142

To  Albert Gallatin, January 24, 1807        143

To  Albert Gallatin, January 31, 1807        145

To  James Madison, February 1, 1807        146

To  Governor Edward Tiffin, February 2, 1807..        146

To  General James Wilkinson, February 3, 1807.        147

To  Governor W. C. C. Claiborne, February 3, 1807        150

To  Robert Smith, February 6, 1807        152

To  Albert Gallatin, February 9, 1807        153

To  Thomas Seymour, February 11, 1807        154

To  General Dearborn, February 14, 1807        156

To  Joseph Nicholson, February 20, 1807        157

To  Dr. Caspar Wistar, February 25, 1807        158

To  Chandler Price, February 28, 1807        159

To  the King of Holland, February 28, 1807        161

To  Wilson C. Nicholas, February 28, 1807        161

To  Albert Gallatin, March 7, 1807        163

To  Robert Brent, March 10, 1807        164

To  Albert Gallatin, March 26, 1807        165

To  the Governors of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio

and Mississippi, March 21, 1807                166

To  James Monroe, March 21, 1807        167

To  Robert R. Livingston, March 24, 1807        170

To ------ March 25, 1807                                                       
                         172

To Colonel George Morgan, March 26, 1807                                       
            173

To Tench Coxe, March 27, 1807                                                  
                   175

To Levett Harris, March 28, 1807                                               
                     177



 

x        Contents



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To  Albert Gallatin, March 29, 1807                                            
                              178

To  General Henry Dearborn, March 29, 1807                                     
             79

To  Robert Patterson, March 29, 11807                                          
                180

To  Monsieur le Comte Diodati, March 29, 1807                                  
             81

To  James Bowdoin, April 2, 1807                                               
                           183

To  William B. Giles, April 20, 1807                                           
                               187

To  the Secretary of State (James Madison), April

21, 1807                                                      192

To  Albert Gallatin, April 21, 1807                                            
                              194

To  Julian Niemcewicz, April 22, 1807                                          
                                196

To  James Madison, April 25, 1807                                              
           197

To  Thomas Moore, May 1, 1807                                                  
       198

To  James Madison, May 1, 1807                                                 
        198

To  Oliver Evans, May 2, 1807                                                  
                        200

To  James Madison, May 5, 1807                                                 
        202

To  the Honorable John Smith, May 7, 1807                                      
                                    203

To  James Madison, May 8, 1807                                                 
                         204

To  George Hay, May 20, 1807                                                   
                       205

To, G. C. de la Coste, May 24, 1807                                            
                              206

To  De Witt Clinton, May 24, 1807                                              
                            208

To  George Hay, May 26, 1807                                                   
      209

To  George Hay, May 28, 1807                                                   
                       210

To  Colonel James Monroe, May 29, 1807                                         
                                 211

To  Monsieur Silvestre, Sécretaire de la Société

d'Agriculture de Paris, May 29, 1807                                           
          212

To  George Hay, June 2,  1807                                                  
       213

To  Albert Gallatin, June 3, 1807                                              
                            215

To  George Hay, June 5, 1807                                                   
                       218

To  Isaac Weaver, Jr., June 7, 1807                                            
             219

To  Dr. Horatio Turpin, June 10, 1807                                          
                                221

To  John Norvell, June 11, 1807                                                
                          222

To  William Short, June 12, 1807                                               
                           227

To  George Hay, June 12, 1807                                                  
                                                          228



 

Contents        xi



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826 Continued.        PAGE



To  George Hay, June 17, 1807                230

To  George Hay, June 19, 1807                233

To  Governor James Sullivan, June 19, 1807        236

To George Hay, June 20, 1807                        239

To Dr. Caspar Wistar, June 21, 1807                        242

To General Wilkinson, June 21, 1807                        248

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), June

22, 1807                        251

To George Hay, June 23, 1807                          253

To George Blake, Esq., June 24, 1807                254

To General Dearborn, June 25, 1807                        255

To Albert Gallatin, June 25, 1807                        255

To Governor Cabell, June 29, 1807                        256

To Albert Gallatin, July 4, 1807                        257

To the Vice-President of the United States

(George Clinton), July 6, 1807                        258

To Colonel William Tatham, July 6, 1807        259

To the Secretary of War, July 7, 1807                260

To the Masters and other Officers sailing to and

from the Ports of Norfolk and Portsmouth, July

8, 1807                261

To Governor Cabell, July 8, 1807                262

To Captain J. Saunders, Fort Nelson, July 8,

1807                263

To  General Matthews, July 8, 1807                264

To  the Honorable Thomas Cooper, July 9, 1807.        265

To  the Secretary of War, July 9, 1807        266

To Albert Gallatin, July 10, 1807                        267

To James Bowdoin, July 10, 1807                        268

To Captain Beatty, for himself, the other Officers

and Privates of the Light Infantry Company of

Georgetown, July 11, 1807                        270

To Barnabas Bidwell, July 11, 1807                                             
 271



Contents



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), July

13, 1807                273

To  Monsieur Dupont de Nemours, July 14, 1807.        274

To  the Marquis de Lafayette, July 14, 1807        276

To  Governor Cabell, July 16, 1807                280

To  Madame de Stael de Holstein, July 16, 1807..        281

To  General Armstrong, July 17, 1807                283

To  the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), July

17, 1807                284

To  John Page, July 17, 1807                285

To  Benjamin Morgan, July 18, 1807                288

To  Governor William H. Cabell, July 19, 1807..        288

To  William Duane, July 20, 1807                290

To  Edmund Pendleton Gaines, July 23, 1807         293

To  Governor William H. Cabell, July 24, 1807        294

To  Governor William H. Cabell, July 27, 1807        296

To  Colonel William Tatham, July 28, 1807        299

To  General Samuel Smith, July 30, 1807                300

To  the Masters of Vessels in the Port of Charleston,

S. C., July 30, 1807                302

To Governor William H. Cabell, July 31, 1807..        303

To Colonel John Taylor, August 1, 1807                304

To General Dearborn, August 7, 1807                305

To His Excellency Governor Cabell, August 7, 1807        307

To Governor Meriwether Lewis, August 8, 1807 - -        310

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), 

August 9, 1807                                                           311

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Aug.

9, 1807                                                                        
                                     313

To Governor William H. Cabell, August 9, 1807.                                 
             314

To Thorndike Chase, August 9, 1807                                             
                   315

To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield),

 August 9,  1807                                                               
                              316



Contents        xiii



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Aug.11,  1807        317

To Governor William H. Cabell, August 11,1807        318

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Aug.12, 1807        324

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), Aug.16, 1807        326

To Colonel Robert Fulton, August 16, 1807        327

To Governor William H. Cabell, August 17,1807        329

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), August 18, 1807        330

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), August 18, 1807        331

To John Nicholas, August 18, 1807                332

To James Madison, August 19, 1807                333

To Governor William H. Cabell, August 19,1807        334

To Governor William H. Cabell, August 19,1807                  335

        To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield), August 20, 1807    
   336

To the Secretary of the Treasury (Albert Gallatin), August 20,  1807        337

To James Madison, August 20, 1807                338

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), August 20, 1807        340

To George Hay, August 20, 1807                341

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Aug. 28, 1807        342

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), Aug. 30, 1807        347

 

xiv                      Contents



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Cntinued.        PAGE



To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Aug.31, 1807        348

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), Sept.1, 1807        350

To Thomas Cooper, September 1, 1807                351

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Sept.2, 1807        354

        To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield), September 3, 1807  
     355

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), September 3, 1807        357

To the Secretary of State (James Madison), September 3, 1807        358

To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield), September 4, 1807       
358

To George Hay, September 4, 1807                360

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), September 6, 1807        361

To Thomas Paine, September 6, 1807                362

To George Hay, September 7, 1807                363

To Governor William H. Cabell, September 7,1807        364

To George Hay, September 7, 1807                365

To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield), Sept. 8, 1807        366

To John Crawford, September 8, 1807                367

To the Secretary of the Treasury (Albert Gallatin), Sept. 8 , 1807        368

To Governor William H. Cabell, September 18,1807        369

To James Madison, September 18, 1807                370

To the Secretary of the Navy (Jacob Crowninshield), Sept. 18, 1807             
   371



 

Contents        xv



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES,. 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To  Robert Brent, September 19, 1807                372

To  James Madison, September 20, 1807        373

To  George Hay, September 20, 1807                374

To  General James Wilkinson, September 20, 1807        375

To  Tench Coxe, September 21, 1807                376

To  the Attorney General (Robert Smith), October8, 1807        377

To Thomas Paine, October 9, 1807                378

To Governor William H. Cabell, October 1 2,1807        379

To Albert Gallatin, October 14, 1807                379

        To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), October 17, 1807        380

        To Governor James Sullivan, October 18, 1807..        381

To Dr. B. S. Barton, October 18, 1807        382

To James Gamble, Esq., October 21, 1807        383

To Governor William H. Cabell, October 25,1807        384

To the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Oct.27, 1807        385

To Albert Gallatin, October 28, 1807                386

To Albert Gallatin, October 31, 1807                387

To Governor William H. Cabell, November 1,1807        388

        To Governor Robert Williams, November 1, 1807         389

To Albert Gallatin, November 8, 1807        390

To William Short, November 15, 1807        391

To James Pemberton, November 16, 1807        394

To Daniel Eccleston, November 21, 1807        396

To James Maury, November 21, 1807        396

To Albert Gallatin, November 22, 1807        398

To Colonel John Minor, November 25, 1807        398

To Robert Fulton, December 10, 1807        400



 

xvi                       Contents



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826- Continued.        PAGE



To Joel Barlow, December 10, 1807                400

To General John Mason                401

To Dr. Caspar Wistar, December 19, 1807                403

To General William Clarke, December 19, 1807..        404

To General George Rogers Clarke, December 19,1807        406

To Albert Gallatin, December 24, 1807                406

To the Speaker of the House of Representatives

(Joseph B. Varnum), December 26, 1807                408

To  Albert Gallatin, December 29, 1807                410

To  Robert R. Livingston, Esq., January 3, 1808.        411

To  Doctor Benjamin Rush, January 3, 1808                412

To  John Taylor, Esq., January 6, 1808                413

To  Albert Gallatin, January 7, 1808                415

To  Robert Smith, January 7, 1808                416

To  the Secretary of War (Henry Dearborn), Jan.8, 1808        417

To Messrs. Mease, Leybert and Dickinson, of the

American Philosophical Society, January 9, 1808        419

To  Albert Gallatin, January 10, 1808                420

To  William Wirt, Esq., January 10, 1808                423

To  Robert Smith, January 14, 1808                425

To  Robert Smith, January 15, 1808                426

To  Mr. J. Dorsey, January 21, 1808                426

To  the Rev. Samuel Miller, January 23, 1808        428

To  Joel Barlow, January 24, 1808                430

To  Governor Daniel D. Tomkins, January 26, 1808        431

To  Jacob J. Brown, Esq., January 27, 1808                432

To  Jacob J. Brown, January 27, 1808                434

To  Edward Tiffin, January 30, 1808                435

To  William M'Intosh, January 30, 1808                435

To  Governor William H. Harrison, January 30,                                  
               437



 

        Contents        xvii



LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER His RETURN TO THE

UNITED STATES, 1789-1826-Continued.        PAGE



To  Albert Gallatin, February 8, 1808                438

To  Albert Gallatin, February 10, 1808                439

To  Robert Smith, February 14, 1808                439

To  Albert Gallatin, February 14, 1808                440

To  Daniel Salmon, February 15, 1808                440

To  Anthony G. Bettay, February 18, 1808        442

To  Colonel James Monroe, February 18, 1808        443

To  Joseph Bringhurst, February 24, 1808        445

To  the Speaker of the House of Representatives

(Joseph B. Varnum), February 27, 1808                446

To Albert Gallatin, February 28, 1808                448





  


JEFFERSON'S WORKS.



        LETTERS WRITTEN AFTER HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES. 1780-1826.



        TO JEAN BAPTISTE SAY.



        WASHINGTON, February 1, 1804.

          DEAR SIR,-I have to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging letter,
and with it, of two very interesting volumes on Political Economy.  These found
me engaged in giving the leisure moments I rarely find, to the perusal of
Malthus' work on population, a work of sound logic, in which some of the
opinions of Adam Smith, as well as of the economists, are ably examined.  I was
pleased, on turning to some chapters where you treat the same questions, to
find his opinions corroborated by yours.  I shall proceed to the reading of
your work with great pleasure.  In the meantime, the present conveyance, by a
gentleman of my family going to Paris, is too safe to hazard a delay in making
my acknowledgments for this mark of attention, and for having   



 2        Jefferson's Works



afforded to me a satisfaction, which the ordinary course of literary
communications could not have given me for a considerable time.

        The differences of circumstance between this and the old countries of
Europe, furnish differences of fact whereon to reason, in questions of
political economy, and will consequently produce sometimes a difference of
result.  There, for instance, the quantity of food is fixed,.or increasing in a
slow and only arithmetical ratio, and the proportion is limited by the same
ratio.  Supernumerary births consequently add only to your mortality.  Here the
immense extent of uncultivated and fertile lands enables every one who will
labor, to marry young, and to raise a family of , any size.  Our food, then,
may increase geometrically with our laborers, and our births, however
multiplied, become effective.  Again, there the best distribution of labor is
supposed to be that which places the manufacturing hands alongside the
agricultural; so that the one part shall feed both, and the other part furnish
both with clothes and other comforts.  Would that be best here?  Egoism and
first appearances say yes.  Or would it be better that all our laborers should
be employed in agriculture?  In this case a double or treble portion of fertile
lands would be brought into culture; a double or treble creation of food be
produced, and its surplus go to nourish the now perishing births of Europe, who
in return would manufacture and send us in exchange our clothes and other



        Correspondence                       3



comforts.  Morality listens to this, and so invariably do the laws of nature
create our duties and interests, that when they seem to be at variance, we
ought to suspect some fallacy in our reasonings.  In solving this question,
too, we should allow its just weight to the moral and physical preference of
the agricultural, over the manufacturing, man.  My occupations permit me only
to ask questions.  They deny me the time, if I had the information, to answer
them.  Perhaps, as worthy the attention of the author of the Traite d'Economie
Politique, I shall find them answered in that work.  If they are not, the
reason will have been that you wrote for Europe; while I shall have asked them
because I think for America.  Accept, Sir, my respectful salutations, and
assurances of great consideration.







         TO RUFUS KING, ESQ.



        WASHINGTON, February 17, 1804.

 DEAR SIR,-I now return you the manuscript history of Bacon's rebellion, with
many thanks for the communication.  It is really a valuable morsel in the
history of Virginia.  That transaction is the more marked, as it was the only
rebellion or insurrection which had ever taken place in the colony before the
American Revolution.  Neither its cause nor course have been well understood,
the public records containing little on the subject.  It is very long since I
read the several histories of Virginia,



        4                Jefferson's Works



        but the impression remaining on my mind was not at all that which the
writer gives; and it is impossible to refuse assent to the candor and
simplicity of history.  I have taken the liberty of copying it, which has been
the reason of the detention of it.  I had an opportunity, too, of communicating
it to a person who was just putting into the press a history of Virginia, but
all in a situation to be corrected.  I think it possible that among the ancient
manuscripts I possess at Monticello, I may be able to trace the author.  I
shall endeavor to do it the first visit I make to that place, and if with
success, I will do myself the pleasure of communicating it to you.  From the
public records there is no hope, as they were destroyed by the British, I
believe, very completely, during their invasion of Virginia.  Accept my
salutations, and assurances of high consideration and respect.



TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. (ALBERT GALLATIN.)



        February 19, 1804.



        Doctor Stevens having been sent by the preceding administration, in
1798, to St. Domingo , with the commission of consul-general, and also with
authorities as an agent additional to the consular powers, under a stipulation
that his expenses should be borne; an account of these is now exhibited to the
Secretary of State, and the questions arise whether



        Correspondence               5



the payment can be authorized by the Executive, and out of what fund?

         The Constitution has made the Executive the organ for managing our
intercourse with foreign nations.  It authorizes him to appoint and receive
ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls.  The term minister being
applicable to other agents as well as diplomatic, the constant practice of the
government, considered as a commentary, established this broad meaning; and the
public interest approves it; because it would be extravagant to employ a
diplomatic minister for a business which a mere rider would execute.  The
Executive being thus charged with the foreign intercourse, no law has
undertaken to prescribe its specific duties.  The permanent act of 1801,
however, first, where he uses the agency of a minister plenipotentiary, or
charge, restricts him in the sums to be allowed for outfit, salary, return, and
a secretary; and second, when any law has appropriated a sum for the contingent
expenses of foreign intercourse, leaves to his discretion to dispense with the
exhibition of the vouchers of its expenditure in the public offices.  Under
these two standing provisions there is annually a sum appropriated for the
expenses of intercourse with foreign nations.  The purposes of the
appropriation being expressed by the law, in terms as general as the duties are
by the Constitution, the application of the money is left as much to the
discretion of the Executive, as the performance of the duties saving always the
provisions of 1801.



         6               Jefferson's Works



        It is true that this appropriation is usually made on an estimate,
given by the Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury, and by him
reported to Congress.  But Congress, aware that too minute a specification has
its evil as well as a too general one, does not make the estimate a part of
their law, but gives a sum- in gross, trusting the Executive discretion for
that year and that sum only; so in other departments, as of war for instance,
the estimate of the Secretary specifies all the items of clothing, subsistence
pay, etc., of the army.  And Congress throws this into such masses-as they
think best, to wit, a sum in gross for clothing, another for subsistence, a
third for pay, etc., binding up the Executive discretion only by the sum, and
the object generalized to a certain degree.  The minute details of the-estimate
are thus dispensed with in point of obligation, and the discretion of the
officer is enlarged to the limits of the classification, which Congress thinks
it best for the public interest to make.  In the case before us, then, the sum
appropriated may be applied to any agency with a foreign nation, which the
Constitution has made a part of the duty of the President, as the organ of
foreign intercourse.         The sum appropriated is generally the exact amount
of the estimate, but not always.  In the present instance the estimate, being
for 1803, was only of $62 550, (including two outfits,) and the appropriation
was Of $75,562 leaving a difference





        correspondence    7





        Of $13,012. If indeed, there be not enough of this appropriation left
to pay Dr. Stevens' just demands, they cannot be paid until Congress shall make
some appropriation applicable to them.  I say his just demands, because by the
undertaking of the then administration to pay his expenses, justice as well as.
law will understand his reasonable expenses.  These must be tried by the scale
which law and usage have established, whereon the Minister, Chargé, and
Secretary, are given as fixed terms of comparison.  The undefined agency of Dr.
Stevens must be placed opposite to that term of the scale, with which it may
fairly be thought to correspond; and if he has gone beyond that, his expenses
should be reduced to it.  I think them beyond it, and suppose that Dr. Stevens,
viewing himself as a merchant, as well as a public agent, found it answer his
purposes as a merchant to apply a part of his receipts in that character in
addition to what he might reasonably expect from the public, not then meaning
to charge to his public character the extraordinary style of expense which he
believed at the time he could afford out of his mercantile profits.



        [Statement of Dr. Stevens' case, referred to in preceding letter.]



        The Constitution having provided that the President should appoint
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and all other officers which
shall be established by law, the first Congress which



8        Jefferson's Works



met passed a law (July 1, 1790) authorizing him to draw from the treasury
$40,000 annually for the support of such persons as he shall commission to
serve the United States in foreign parts, and for the expense incident to the
business in which they may be employed; with a proviso that, exclusive of an
outfit to a Minister Plenipotentiary or Chargé, not exceeding a year's salary,
he should allow to any Minister Plenipotentiary not more than $9,000 a year,
for all his personal services and other expenses; to a Chargé not more than
$4,500; to a Secretary not more than $1,350; and with a second proviso as to
the mode of settlement.  This act, which was temporary, was continued by those
of 1793, February 9, 1794, March 20, 1796, May 30, 1798, March 19, till 1800,
May 10, when they turned the two provisos into enacting clauses, and made them
permanent, and the appropriating clause which made the body of the law before,
is now annually inserted in the general appropriating law.  See 1800, May 7,
1801, March 1802, May 1, 1803, March 2, and 1804, March ---. As Congress, in
order to limit the discretion of officers as far as is safe, is in the practice
of throwing the objects of appropriations into groups, e. g., to the Secretary
of State, and clerks, and other persons in that department so much; Secretary
of Treasury, etc., so much; clothing for the army so much; subsistence so much;
pay so much, etc.  So they might have analyzed the foreign appropriation by
allowing



        Correspondence                        9



for outfits of ministers so much; salaries of ministers so much; contingent
expenses so much, etc.  But they chose to throw it all into one mass, only
providing that no outfit should exceed a year's salary, and no salary of a
Minister be more than $9,000; of a Chargé $4,500; Secretary $1,350, etc.;
leaving the President free to give them less if he chose, and to give to
Ambassadors, Envoys, and other agents, what he thought proper.  From the origin
of the present government to this day, the construction of the laws, and the
practice under them, has been to consider the whole fund (with only the
limitations before mentioned) as under the discretion of the President as to
the persons he should commission to serve the United States in foreign parts,
and all the expenses incident to the business in which they may be employed. 
The grade consequently or character in which they should be employed, their
allowance, etc.  Thus Governor Morris was appointed by General Washington
informally and without a commission to confer with the British ministers, and
was allowed for eight months (I think) $1,300.  Colonel Humphreys was appointed
in 1790, to go as an agent to Madrid, and was allowed at the rate of $2,250 per
annum.  Dumas was kept at the Hague many years as an agent at $1,300 a year. 
Mr. Cutting was allowed disbursements for sailors in London in 1791, $233.33.
Presents were made to the Chevalier Luzerne, on taking leave, worth $1,062.



 10            Jefferson's Works



Van Berhel $697.  Du Moustier $555, in 1791.   Mr. Short was sent to Amsterdam
as an agent in 1792, and allowed $444.43.  James Blake was sent as agent to
Madrid in 1793, and received an advance Of $800.  I know not how much
afterwards, as I left the office of Secretary of State at the close that year.
In 1794, Mr. Jay was appointed Envoy that year.  Extraordinary, a grade not
particularly named in the Constitution, or any law, yet General Washington
fixed his allowance.  During the present administration Mr. Dawson and
Lieutenant Leonard have been sent on special agencies.  From the beginning of
the government it has been the rule when one of our ministers is ordered to
another place on a special business, to allow his expenses on that special
mission, his salary going on at his residence where his family remains.  Mr.
Short's mission from Paris to Amsterdam, from Paris to Madrid; Mr. Pinckney
from London to Madrid; Mr. Murray's from the Hague to Paris, and others not
recollected by me, are instances of this.  These facts are stated to show that
it has been the uniform opinion and practice that the whole foreign fund was
placed by the Legislature on the footing of a contingent fund, in which they
undertake no specifications, but leave the whole to the discretion of the
President.  The whole is but from forty to sixty or seventy thousand dollars. 
After the establishment of the general fund for foreign intercourse, Congress
found it necessary to make a separate 



        Correspondence    11



branch for the Barbary powers.  This was done covertly in the beginning, to
wit, in 1792, they gave $50,000 additional to the foreign fund, in 1794,
$1,000,000 additional without limiting it to Barbary.  Yet it was secretly
understood by the President, and his discretion was trusted.  In 1796, they
gave $260,000 for treaties with the Mediterranean powers, in 1797, $280,259.03,
for the expenses of negotiation with Algiers.  They did not undertake a more
minute analysis or specification, but left it to the President.  The laws of
1796, May 6, 1797, March 3, 1799, March 2, give sums for specific purposes
because these purposes were simple and understood by the Legislature.  But in
general, in this branch@ of the foreign expenses, as in the former one, the
Legislature has thought that to cramp the public service by too minute
specifications in cases which they could not foresee, might do more evil than a
temporary trust to the President, which could be put an end to if abused.

In our western governments, heretofore established, they were so well
understood by Congress, that they could and did specify every item of expense,
except a very small residuum for which they made contingent appropriations. 
But when they came provide at this session for the Louisiana government, with
which they were not acquainted, they gave twenty thousand dollars for
compensation to the officers of the government employed by the President, and
for other civil expenses under the



  12               Jefferson's Works



direction of the President.  And their first step towards the acquisition of
that country was to confide to the President two millions of dollars under the
general appropriation for foreign intercourse.  These facts show that so far
from having experienced evil from confiding the forty thousand dollars, foreign
fund, to the discretion of the Executive without a specific analysis of its
application, they have continued it on that footing, and in many other great
cases where analysis was difficult or inexpedient they have given the sums in
mass, and left the analysis to him, only requiring an account to be rendered. 



This statement has been made in order to place on its true ground the case of
Doctor Stevens.  He was employed by Mr. Adams as agent to St. Domingo, and was
to be allowed his expenses, though these were not limited, yet the law limits
them in such case to what were reasonable.  Doubts have arisen at the treasury
whether the Executive had a right to make such a contract, and whether there be
any fund out of which it can be paid?  Some doubt has been expressed whether an
appropriation law gives authority to pay for the purpose of the appropriation
without some particular law authorizing it.  If this be the case, the forty
thousand dollar fund has been paid away without authority from its first
establishment; for it never has been given but by a clause of appropriation. 
The Executive believes this sufficient authority, and so we presume did the
Legislature, or they would have given



        Correspondence                      13



authority in some other sufficient form.  And where is the rule of legal
construction to be found which ascribes less effect to the words of an
appropriation law, than of any other law?  It is also doubted whether the
estimate on which an appropriation is founded does not restrain the application
to the specific articles, their number and amount as stated in the estimate? 
Were an appropriation law to come before a judge would he decide its meaning
from its text, or would he call on the officer to produce their estimates as
being a part of the law?  On the whole, the following questions are to be
determined: 1. Whether the laws do not justify the construction which has been
uniformly given, either strictly, or at least so ambiguously, that, as in
judiciary cases, the decisions which have taken place have fixed their meaning
and made it law? 2. Whether they are so palpably against law that the practice
must be arrested? 3. Whether it shall be arrested retrospectively as to moneys
engaged but not yet actually p aid, or only as to future contracts? 4. Whether
any circumstances take Dr. Stevens' case out of the conditions and rights of
other foreign agencies?



March 23, 1804.



        TO B. H. LATROBE.



        WASHINGTON, February 28, 1804

DEAR SIR-I am sorry the explanations attempted between Dr. Thornton and
yourself, on the manner





  14             Jefferson's Works





of finishing the chamber of the House of Representatives, have not succeeded. 
At the original establishment of this place advertisements were published many
months offering premiums for the best plans for a Capitol and a President's
house.  Many were sent in.  A council was held by General Washington with the
Board of Commissioners, and after very mature examination two were preferred,
and the premiums given to their authors, Doctor Thornton and Hobens, and the
plans were decided on. Hobens' has been executed.  On Doctor Thornton's plan of
the Capitol the north wing has been extended, and the south raised one story. 
In order to get along with any public undertaking it is necessary that some
stability of plan be observed -- nothing impedes progress so much as perpetual
changes of design.  I yield to this principle in the present case more
willingly because the plan begun for the Representative room will, in my
opinion, be more handsome and commodious than anything which can now be
proposed on the same area.  And though the spheroidical dome presents
difficulties to the executor, yet they are not beyond his art; and it is to
overcome difficulties that we employ men of genius.  While, however, I express
my opinion that we had better go through with this wing of the Capitol on the,
plan which has been settled, I would not be understood to suppose there does
exist sufficient authority to control the original plan in any of its parts,
and to accommodate it to



        Correspondence                      15



changes of circumstances.  I only mean that it is not advisable to change that
of this wing in its present stage.  Though I have spoken of a spheroidical
roof, that will not be correct by the figure.  Every rib will be a portion of a
circle of which the radius will be determined by the span and rise of each rib.
 Would it not be best to make the internal columns of well-burnt brick, moulded
in portions of circles adapted to the diminution of the columns?  Burlington,
in his notes on Palladio, tells us that he found most of the buildings erected
under Palladio's direction, and described in his architecture, to have their
columns made of brick in this way and covered over with stucco.  I know an
instance of a range of six or eight columns in Virginia, twenty feet high, well
proportioned and properly diminished, executed by a common bricklayer.  The
bases and capitals would of course be of hewn stone.  I suggest this for your
consideration, and tender you my friendly salutations.



         TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.



        WASHINGTON, March 3, 1804.



DEAR SIR, -- Although it is long since I received your favor of October the
27th, yet I have not had leisure sooner to acknowledge it.  In the middle and
southern States, as great an union of sentiment has now taken place as is
perhaps desirable.  For as there will always be an opposition, I believe it had



  16               Jefferson's Works





better be from avowed monarchists than republicans New York seems to be in
danger of republican division; Vermont is solidly with us; Rhode Island with us
on anomalous grounds; New Hampshire on the verge of the republican shore;
Connecticut advancing towards it very slowly, but with steady step; your State
only uncertain of making port at all.  I had forgotten Delaware, which will be
always uncertain, from the divided character of her citizens.  If the amendment
of the Constitution passes Rhode Island, (and we expect to hear in a day or
two,) the election for the ensuing four years seems to present nothing
formidable.  I sincerely regret that the unbounded calumnies of the federal
party have obliged me to throw myself on the verdict of my country for trial,
my great desire having been to retire, at the end of the present term, to a
life of tranquillity; and it was my decided purpose when I entered into office.
 They force my continuance.  If we can keep the vessel of State as steadily in
her course for another four years, my earthly purposes will be accomplished,
and I shall be free to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my farm, and my
books.  That your enjoyments may continue as long as you shall wish them, I
sincerely pray, and tender you my friendly salutations, and assurances of great
respect and esteem.





Correspondence                        17



        TO  WILLIAM DUNBAR, ESQ. 



WASHINGTON, March 13, 1804. 



DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of January 28 has been duly received, and I have read
with great satisfaction your ingenuous paper on the subject of the Mississippi,
which I shall immediately forward to the Philosophical Society, where it will
be duly prized.  To prove the value I set on it, and my wish that it may go to
the public without any imperfection about it, I will take the liberty of
submitting to your consideration the only passage which I think may require it.
 You say, page 9, " The velocity of rivers is greatest at the surface, and
gradually diminishes downwards." And this principle enters into some subsequent
parts of the paper, and has too much effect on the phenomena of that river not
to merit mature consideration.  I can but suppose it at variance with the law
of motion in rivers.  In strict theory, the velocity of water at any given
depth in a river is (in addition to its velocity at its surface) whatever a
body





 18                     Jefferson's Works





would have acquired by falling through a space equal to that depth.  If, in the
middle of a river, we drop a vertical line, a e, from its surface to its
bottom, and (using a perch, or rather a measure of 16.125 feet, for our unit of
measure) we draw, at the depths, b c d e, (which suppose = 1.4 9.16 perch
ordinates in the direction of the stream, equal to the odd numbers, 3, 5, 7, 9
perch, these ordinates will represent the additional velocities of the water
per second of time, at the depth of their respective abscissa, and will
terminate in a curve, a f g h i,) which will represent the velocity of their
current in every point, and the whole mass of water passing on in a second of
time.(1)  This would be the theory of the motion of rivers, were there no
friction; but the bottom being rough, its friction with the lower sheet or
lamina of water will retard that lamina; the friction or viscosity of the
particles of which, again, with those of the one next above, will retard that
somewhat less, the 2d' retard the 3d, the 3d the 4th, and so on upwards,
diminishing till the retardation becomes insensible; and the theoretic curve
will be modified by that cause, as at n o, removing the maximum of motion 



@#(1) These ordinates are arithmetical progressionals, each of which is double
the root of its abscissa, plus unit.  The equation, therefore,  

expressing the law of the curve is y = 2 N x + 1; that is, the velocity of the
water of any depth will be double the root of that depth, plus unit.  Were the
line a e a wall, and b f e g d h e i troughs, along which water spouted from
apertures at b c d e, their intersections with the curve at f g h i would mark
the point in each trough to which the water would flow in a second of time,
abating for friction.@%





         Correspondence                                     19 





from the bottom somewhere upwardly.  Again, the same circumstances of friction
and viscosity of the particles of water among themselves, will cause the lamina
at the surface to be accelerated by the quicker motion of the one next below
it, the 2d still more by the 3d, the 3d by the 4th, and so on downwards, the
acceleration always increasing till it reached the lamina of greatest motion. 
The exact point of the maximum of motion cannot be calculated, because it
depends on friction; but it is probably much nearer the bottom than top,
because the greater power of the current there sooner overcomes the effect of
the friction.  Ultimately, the curve will be sensibly varied by being swelled
outwardly above, and retracted inwardly below, somewhat like a k l m n o, in
the preceding diagram.



Indulging corollaries on this theory, let us suppose a plane surface, as a
large sheet of cast-iron, let down by a cable from a boat, and made to present
its surface to the current by a long vane fixed on its axis in the direction of
the current.  Would not the current below, laying hold of this plate, draw the
boat down the stream with more rapidity than that with which it otherwise moves
on the surface of the water?  Again, at the cross current of the surface which
flows into the Chafaleya, and endangers the drawing boats into that river, as
you mention, page 18, would not the same plane surface, if let down into the
under current, which moves in the direction of the bed of the main river, have
the effect of drawing the vessel





          20               Jefferson's Works





across the lateral current prevailing at its surface, and conduct the boat with
safety along the channel of the river?



The preceding observations are submitted to your consideration.  By drawing
your attention to the subject, they will enable you, on further reflection, to
confirm or correct your first opinion.  If the latter, there would be time,
before we print a volume, to make any alterations or additions to your paper
which you might wish.  We were much indebted for Your communications on the
subject of Louisiana.  The Substance of what was received from you, as well as
others, was digested together and printed, without letting it be seen from whom
the particulars came, as some were of a nature to excite ill-will.  Of these
Publications I sent you a copy.  On the subject of the limits of Louisiana,
nothing was said therein, because we thought it best first to have explanations
with Spain.  In the first visit, after receiving the treaty, which I paid to
Monticello, which was in August, I availed myself of what I have there, to
investigate the limits.  While I was in Europe, I had purchased everything I
could lay my hands on which related to any part of America, and particularly
had a pretty full collection of the English, French and Spanish authors, on the
subject of Louisiana.  The information I got from these was entirely
satisfactory and I threw it into a shape which would easily take the form of a
memorial.  I now enclose you a copy of it.  One single fact in it was taken
from a publication





        Correspondence                       21





in a newspaper, supposed to be written by judge Bay, who had lived in West
Florida.  This asserted that the country from the Iberville to the Perdido was
to this day called Louisiana, and a part of the government of Louisiana.  I
wrote to you to ascertain that fact, and received the information you were so
kind as to send me; on the receipt of which, I changed the form of the
assertion, so as to adapt it to what I suppose to be the fact, and to reconcile
the testimony I have received, to wit, that though the name and division of
West Florida have been retained; and in strictness, that country is still
called by that name; yet it is also called Louisiana in common parlance, and
even in some authentic public documents.  The fact, however, is not of much
importance.  It would only have been an argumentum ad hominem.  Although I
would wish the paper enclosed never to be seen by anybody but yourself, and
that it should not even be mentioned that the facts and opinions therein stated
are founded in public authority, yet I have no objections to their being freely
advanced in conversation, and as private and individual opinion, believing it
will be advantageous that the extent of our rights should be known to the
inhabitants of the country; and that however we may compromise on our Western
limits, we never shall on the Eastern.



I formerly acquainted you with the mission of Captain Lewis up the Missouri,
and across from its head to the Pacific.  He takes about a dozen men





          22               Jefferson's Works





with him, is well provided with instruments, and qualified to give us the
geography of the line he passes along with astronomical accuracy.  He is now
hutted opposite the mouth of the Missouri, ready to enter it on the opening of
the season.  He will be at least two years on the expedition.  I propose to
charge the Surveyor-General N. of Ohio, with a survey of the Mississippi from
its source to the mouth of the Ohio, and with settling some other interesting
points of geography in that quarter.  Congress will probably authorize me to
explore the greater waters on the western side of the Mississippi and Missouri,
to their sources.  In this case I should propose to send one party up the Panis
river to its source, thence along the highlands to the source of the Radoncas
river and down it to its mouth, giving the whole course of both parties,
corrected by astronomical observation.  These several surveys will enable us to
prepare a map of Louisiana, which in its contour and main waters will be
perfectly correct, and will give us a skeleton to be filled up with details
hereafter.  For what lies north of the Missouri, we suppose British industry
will furnish that.  As you live so near to the point of departure of the lowest
expedition, and possess and can acquire so much better the information, which
may direct that to the best advantage, I have thought, if Congress should
authorize the enterprise, to propose to you the unprofitable trouble of
directing it.  The party would consist of ten or twelve picked soldiers,
volunteers  with an





        Correspondence     23





officer, under the guidance of one or two persons, qualified to survey and
correct by observations of latitude and longitude, the latter lunar, and as
well informed as we can get them in the departments of botany, natural history,
and mineralogy.  I am told there is a Mr. Walker in your town, and a Mr.
Gillespie in North Carolina, possessing good qualifications.  As you know them
both, you can judge whether both are qualified, should two persons go, or which
is best, should. but one be sent, or whether there is any other person better
qualified than either.  Their pay would probably not exceed $1000 a year, to
which would be added their subsistence.  All preparations would be to be made
at Natchez and New Orleans on your order.  Instructions similar to those of
Captain Lewis would go from here, to be added to by what should occur to
yourself, and you would be the centre for the communications from the party to
the government.  Still this is a matter of speculation only, as Congress are
hurrying over their business for adjournment, and may leave this article of it
unfinished.  In that case what I have said will be as if I had not said it. 



There is such a difference of opinion in Congress as to the government to be
given to Louisiana, that they may continue the present one another year.  I
hope and urge their not doing it, and the establishment of a government on the
spot capable of meeting promptly its own emergencies.  Accept my friendly
salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.





          24              Jefferson's Works



        TO GIDEON GRANGER.



        MONTICELLO,,April 16, 1804.



DEAR SIR, --

In our last conversation you mentioned a federal scheme afloat, of forming a
coalition between the federalists and republicans, of what they called the
seven eastern States.  The idea was new to me, and after time for reflection I
had no opportunity of conversing with you again.  The federalists know, that,
eo nomine, they are gone forever.  Their object, therefore, is, how to return
into power under some other form.  Undoubtedly they have but one means, which
is to divide the republicans, join the minority, and barter with them for the
cloak of their name.  I say, join the minority; because the majority of the
republicans not needing them, will not buy them.  The minority, having no other
means of ruling the majority, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price
must be principle.  It is true that the federalists, needing their numbers
also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must pay in.  Thus
a bastard system of federo-republicanism will rise on the ruins of the true
principles of our revolution.  And when this party is formed, who will
constitute the majority of it, which majority is then to dictate?  Certainly
the federalists.  Thus their proposition of putting themselves into gear with
the republican minority, is exactly like Roger Sherman's proposition to add
Connecticut to Rhode Island.  The idea





          Correspondence                       25





of forming seven eastern States is moreover clearly to form the basis of a
separation of the Union.  Is it possible that real republicans can be gulled by
such a bait?  And for what?  What do they wish that they have not?  Federal
measures?  That is impossible.  Republican measures?  Have they them not?  Can
any one deny, that in all important questions of principle, republicanism
prevails?  But do they want that their individual will shall govern the
majority?  They may purchase the gratification of this unjust wish, for a
little time, at a great price; but the federalists must not have the passions
of other men, if, after getting thus into the seat of power, they suffer
themselves to be governed by their minority.  This minority may say, that
whenever they relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw
the seat from under them.  They may quit them, indeed, but, in the meantime,
all the venal will have become associated with them, and will give them a
majority sufficient to keep them in place, and to enable them to eject the
heterogeneous friends by whose aid they get again into power.  I cannot believe
any portion of real republicans will enter into this trap; and if they do, I do
not believe they can carry with them the mass of their States, advancing so
steadily as we see them, to an union of principle with their brethren.  It will
be found in this, as in all other similar cases, that crooked schemes will end
by overwhelming their authors and coadjutors in disgrace, and that he alone who
walks strict and





  26               Jefferson's Works





upright, and who, in matters of opinion, will be contented that others should
be as free as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly overruled, will
attain his object in the end.  And that this may be the conduct of us all, I
offer my sincere prayers, as well as for your health and happiness.



         TO ALBERT GALLATIN.





        May 30, 1804.



Although I know that it is best generally to assign no reason for a removal
from office, yet there are also times when the declaration of a principle is
advantageous.  Such was the moment at which the New Haven letter appeared.  It
explained our principles to our friends, and they rallied to them.  The public
sentiment has taken a considerable stride since that, and seems to require that
they should know again where we stand.  I suggest therefore for your
consideration, instead of the following passage in your letter to Bowen, " I
think it due to candor at the same time to inform you, that I had for some time
been determined to remove you from office, although a successor has not yet
been appointed by the President, nor the precise time fixed for that purpose
communicated to me; " to substitute this, " I think it due to candor at the
same time to inform you, that the President considering that the patronage of
public office should no longer be confided to one who uses it for active
opposition to' the national will, had, some





        Correspondence                     27



time since, determined to place your office in other hands.  But a successor
not being yet fixed on, I am not able to name the precise time when it will
take place."         My own opinion is, that the declaration of this principle
will meet the entire approbation of all moderate republicans, and will extort
indulgence from the warmer ones.  Seeing that we do not mean to leave arms in
the hands of active enemies, they will care the less at our tolerance of the
inactive.  Nevertheless, if you are strongly of opinion against such a
declaration, let the letter go as you had written it.





        TO BARON ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



June 9, 1804.



Thomas Jefferson asks leave to observe to Baron de Humboldt that the question
of limits of Louisiana, between Spain and the United States is this.  They
claim to hold to the river Mexicana or Sabine, and from the head of that
northwardly along the heads of the waters of the Mississippi, to the head of
the Red river and so on.  We claim to the North river from its mouth to the
source either of its eastern or western branch, thence to the head of Red
river, and so on.  Can the Baron inform me what population may be between those
lines, of white, red, or black people?  And whether any and what mines are
within them?  The information will be thankfully received.  He tenders him his
respectful salutations.





28        Jefferson's Works



        TO MRS. JOHN ADAMS.



WASHINGTON, June 13, 1804.



DEAR MADAM, -- The affectionate sentiments which you have had the goodness to
express in your letter of May the 20th, towards my dear departed daughter, have
awakened in me sensibilities natural to the occasion, and recalled your
kindnesses to her, which I shall ever remember with gratitude and friendship. 
I can assure you with truth, they had made an indelible impression on her mind,
and that to the last, on our meetings after long separations, whether I had
heard lately of you, and how you did, were among the earliest of her inquiries.
 In giving you this assurance I perform a sacred duty for her, and, at the same
time, am thankful for the occasion furnished me, of expressing my regret that
circumstances should have arisen, which have seemed to draw a line of
separation between us.  The friendship with which you honored me has ever been
valued, and fully reciprocated; and although events have been passing which
might be trying to some minds, I never believed yours to be of that kind, nor
felt that my own was.  Neither my estimate of your character, nor the esteem
founded in that, has ever been lessened for a single moment, although doubts
whether it would be acceptable may have forbidden manifestations of it. 

Mr. Adams' friendship and mine began at an earlier date.  It accompanied us
through long and important scenes.  The different conclusions we had





        Correspondence                      29





drawn from our political reading and reflections, were not permitted to lessen
personal esteem; each party being conscious they were the result of an honest
conviction in the other.  Like differences of opinion existing among our fellow
citizens, attached them to one or the other of us, and produced a rivalship in
their minds which did not exist in ours.  We never stood in one another's way;
for if either had been withdrawn at any time, his favorers would not have gone
over to the other, but would have sought for some one of homogeneous opinions. 
This consideration was sufficient to keep down all jealousy between us, and to
guard our friendship from any disturbance by sentiments of rivalship; and I can
say with truth, that one act of Mr. Adams' life, and one only, ever gave me a
moment's personal displeasure.  I did, consider his last appointments to office
as personally unkind.  They were from among my most ardent political enemies,
from whom no faithful co-operation could ever be expected; and laid me under
the embarrassment of acting through men whose views were to defeat mine, or to
encounter the odium of putting others in their places.  It seems but common
justice to leave a successor free to act by instruments of his own choice.  If
my respect for him did not perm it me to ascribe the whole blame to the
influence of others, it left something for friendship to forgive, and after
brooding over it for some little time, and not always resisting the expression
of it, I forgave it cordially, and returned to the same state of esteem





30              Jefferson's Works





and respect for him which had so long subsisted.  Having come into life a
little later than Mr. Adams, his career has preceded mine, as mine is followed
by some other; and it will probably be closed at the same distance after him
which time originally placed between us.  I maintain for him, and shall carry
into private life, an uniform and high measure of respect and good will, and
for yourself a sincere attachment. 



I have thus, my dear Madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which I have
long wished an opportunity of doing; and without knowing how it will be
received, I feel relief from being unbosomed.  And I have now only to entreat
your forgiveness for this transition from a subject of domestic affliction, to
one which seems of a different aspect.  But though connected with political
events, it has been viewed by me most strongly in its unfortunate bearings on
my private friendships.  The injury these have sustained has been a heavy price
for what has never given me equal pleasure.  That you may both be favored with
health, tranquillity and long life, is the prayer of one who tenders you the
assurance of his highest consideration and esteem.





TO GOVERNOR JOHN PAGE. 

WASHINGTON, June 25, 1804.

Your letter, my dear friend, of the 25th ultimo, is a new proof of the goodness
of your heart, and the part you take in my loss marks an affectionate concern





          Correspondence                          31



for the greatness of it.  It is great indeed.  Others may lose of their
abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even the half of all I had.  My evening
prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life.  Perhaps I may be
destined to see even this last cord of parental affection broken!  The hope
with which I had looked forward to the moment, when, resigning public cares to
younger hands, I was to retire to that domestic comfort from which the last
great step is to be taken, is fearfully blighted.  When you and I look back on
the country over which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does it
exhibit!  Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under all the
inspiring energies of health and hope?  As if pursued by the havoc of war, they
are strewed by the way, some earlier, some later, and scarce a few stragglers
remain to count the numbers fallen, and to mark yet, by their own fall, the
last footsteps of their party.  Is it a desirable thing to bear up through the
heat of the action, to witness the death of all our companions, and merely be
the last victim?  I doubt it.  We have, however, the traveller's consolation. 
Every step shortens the distance we have to go; the end of our journey is in
sight, the bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the midst of the friends
we have lost.  " We sorrow not then as others who have no hope;" but look
forward to the day which "joins us to the great majority."  But whatever is to
be our destiny, wisdom, as well as duty, dictates that we should acquiesce





  32              Jefferson's Works





in the will of Him whose it is to give and take away, and be contented in the
enjoyment of those who are still permitted to be with us.  Of those connected
by blood, the number does not depend on us.  But friends we have, if we have
merited them.  Those of our earliest years stand nearest in our affections. 
But in this too, you and I have been unlucky.  Of our college friends (and they
are the dearest) how few have stood with us in the great political questions
which have agitated our country; and these were of a nature to justify
agitation.  I did not believe the Lilliputian fetters of that day strong enough
to have bound so many.  Will not Mrs. Page, yourself and family, think it
prudent to seek a healthier region for the months of August and September?  And
may we not flatter ourselves that you will cast your eye on Monticello?  We
have not many summers to live.  While fortune places us then within striking
distance, let us avail ourselves of it, to meet and talk over the tales of
other times. Present me respectfully to Mrs. Page, and accept yourself my
friendly salutations, and assurances of constant affection.





TO JUDGE JOHN TYLER.



WASHINGTON, June 28, 1804.

DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of the 10th instant has been duly received.   Amidst
the direct falsehoods, the misrepresentations of truth, the calumnies and





Correspondence                       33





the insults resorted to by a faction to mislead the public mind, and to
overwhelm those entrusted with its interests, our support is to be found in the
approving voice of our conscience and country, in the testimony of our fellow
citizens, that their confidence is not shaken by these artifices.  When to the
plaudits of the honest multitude, the sober approbation of the sage in his
closet is added, it becomes a gratification of an higher order.  It is the
sanction of wisdom superadded to the voice of affection.  The terms, therefore,
in which you are so good as to express your satisfaction with the course of the
present administration cannot but give me great pleasure.  I may err in my
measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to fortify the public
liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the power of the few to
riot on the labors of the many.  No experiment can be more interesting than
that we are now trying, and which we trust will end in establishing the fact,
that man may be governed by reason and truth.  Our first object should
therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth.  The most
effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press.  It is, therefore, the
first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions.  The
firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the
discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they
may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct
judgment between them.  As





          34               Jefferson's Works





little is it necessary to impose on their senses, or dazzle their minds by
pomp, splendor, or forms.  Instead of this artificial, how much surer is that
real respect, which results from the use of their reason, and the habit of
bringing everything to the test of common sense. 



I hold it, therefore, certain, that to open the doors of truth, and to fortify
the habit of testing everything by reason, are the most effectual manacles we
can rivet on the hands of our successors to prevent their, manacling the people
with their own consent.  The panic into which they were artfully thrown in
1798, the frenzy which was excited in them by their enemies against their
apparent readiness to abandon all the principles established for their own
protection, seemed for awhile to countenance the opinions of those who say they
cannot be trusted with their own government.  But I. never doubted their
rallying; and they did rally much sooner than I expected.  On the whole, that
experiment on their credulity has confirmed my confidence in their ultimate
good sense and virtue. 



I lament to learn that a like misfortune has enabled you to estimate the
afflictions of a father on the loss of a beloved child.  However terrible the
possibility of such another accident, it is still a blessing for you of
inestimable value that you would not even then descend childless to the grave. 
Three sons, and hopeful ones too, are a rich treasure.  I rejoice when I hear
of young men of virtue and talents, worthy





          Correspondence                        35





to receive, and likely to preserve the splendid inheritance of self-government,
which we have acquired and shaped for them. 



The complement of midshipmen for the Tripoline squadron, is full; and I hope
the frigates have left the Capes by this time.  I have, however, this day,
signed warrants of midshipmen for the two young gentlemen you recommended. 
These will be forwarded by the Secretary of the Navy.  He tells me that their
first services will be to be performed on board the gun boats.



Accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and respect.





         TO JAMES    MADISON.



        July 5, 1804.



We did not collect the sense of our brethren the other day by regular
questions, but as far as I could understand from what was said, it appeared to
be, -- 1. That an acknowledgment of our right to the Perdido, is a sine qua
non, and no price to be given for it. 2. No absolute and perpetual
relinquishment of right is to be made of the country east of the Rio Bravo del
Norte, even in exchange for Florida. [I am not quite sure that this was the
opinion of all.] 3. That a country may be laid off within which no further
settlement shall be made by either party for a given time, say thirty years. 
This country to be from the Nor river eastwardly towards the Colorado, or even





  36               Jefferson's Works





to, but not beyond the Mexican or Sabine river.  To whatever river it be
extended, it might from its source run northwest, as the most eligible
direction; but a due north line would produce no restraint that we should feel
in twenty years.  This relinquishment, and two millions of dollars, to be the
price of all the Floridas east of the Perdido, or to be apportioned to whatever
part they will cede. 



But on entering into conferences, both parties should agree that, during their
continuance, neither should strengthen their situation between the Iberville,
Mississippi, and Perdido, nor interrupt the navigation of the rivers therein. 
If they will not give such an order instantly, they should be told that we have
for peace sake only, forborne till they could have time to give such an order,
but that as soon as we receive notice of their refusal to give the order we
shall intermit the exercise Of' our right of navigating the Mobile, and protect
it, and increase our force there Pari Passu with them.



 

        TO GOVERNOR W. C. C. CLAIBORNE.



        WASHINGTON, July  7, 1804.



DEAR SIR, -- In a letter of the 17th of April, which I wrote you from
Monticello, I observed to you that as the legislative council for the territory
of Orleans, was to be appointed by me, and our distance was great, and early
communication on the subject was necessary, that it ought to be composed of men
of





        Correspondence                       37





integrity, of understanding, of clear property and influence among the people,
well acquainted with the laws, customs, and habits of the country, and drawn
from the different parts of the territory, whose population was considerable. 
And I asked the favor of you to inform me of the proper characters, with short
sketches of the material outlines for estimating them; and I observed that a
majority should be of sound American characters long established and esteemed
there, and the rest of French or Spaniards, the most estimable and well
affected.  When in daily expectation of an answer from you, I received your
favor of May 29th, whereby I perceive that my letter to you has never got to
hand.  I must therefore, at this late day, repeat my request to you, and ask an
early answer, because after receiving it, I may perhaps have occasion to
consult you again before a final determination.  A letter written any time in
August will find me at Monticello, near Milton, and had better be so directed. 
A blank commission for a Surveyor and Inspector for the port of Bayou St. John,
will be forwarded to you to be filled up with any name you approve.  I would
prefer a native Frenchman, if you can find one proper and disposed to
co-operate with us in extirpating that corruption which has prevailed in those
offices under the former government, and had so familiarized itself as that
men, otherwise honest, could look on that without horror.  I pray you to be
alive to the suppression of this odious practice, and that you bring to
punishment and brand



          38               Jefferson's Works





with eternal disgrace every man guilty of it, whatever be his station.





         TO  PHILIP MAZZEI.



        WASHINGTON, July 18, 1804.



My DEAR SIR, -- It is very long, I know, since I wrote you.  So constant is the
pressure of business that there is never a moment, scarcely, that something of
public importance is not waiting for me.  I have, therefore, on a principle of
conscience, thought it my duty to withdraw almost entirely from all private
correspondence, and chiefly the trans-Atlantic; I scarcely write a letter a
year to any friend beyond sea.  Another consideration has led to this, which is
the liability of my letters to miscarry, be opened, and made ill use of. 
Although the great body of our country are perfectly returned to their ancient
principles, yet there remains a phalanx of old tories and monarchists, more
envenomed, as all their hopes become more desperate.  Every word of mine which
they can get hold of, however innocent, however orthodox even, is twisted,
tormented, perverted, and, like the words of holy writ, are made to mean
everything but what they were intended to mean.  I trust little, therefore,
unnecessarily in their way, and especially on political subjects.  I shall not,
therefore, be free to answer all the several articles of your letters.



        On the subject of treaties, our system is to have





        Correspondence                        39





none with any nation, as far as can be avoided.  The treaty with England has
therefore not been renewed, and all overtures for treaty with other nations
have been declined.  We believe, that with nations as with individuals,
dealings may be carried on as advantageously, perhaps more so, while their
continuance depends on a voluntary good treatment, as if fixed by a contract,
which, when it becomes injurious to either, is made, by forced constructions,
to mean what suits them, and becomes a cause of war instead of a bond of peace.
 We wish to be on the closest terms of friendship with Naples, and we will
prove it by giving to her citizens, vessels and goods all the privileges of the
most favored nation; and while we do this voluntarily, we cannot doubt they
will voluntarily do the same for us.  Our interests against the Barbaresques
being also the same, we have little doubt she will give us every facility to
insure them, which our situation may ask and hers admit.  It is not, then, from
a want of friendship that we do not propose a treaty with Naples , but because
it is against our system to embarrass ourselves with treaties, or to entangle
ourselves at all with the affairs of Europe.  The kind offices we receive from
that government are more sensibly felt, as such, than they would be, if
rendered only as due to us by treaty.

Five fine frigates left the Chesapeake the 1st instant for Tripoli, which, in
addition to the force now there, will, I trust, recover the credit which
Commodore Morris' two years' sleep lost us, and for which he has





  40                 Jefferson's Works





been broke.  I think they will make Tripoli sensible, that they mistake their
interest in choosing war with us; and Tunis also, should she have declared war
as we expect, and almost wish.



Notwithstanding this little diversion, we pay seven or eight millions of
dollars annually of our public debt, and shall completely discharge it in
twelve years more.  That done, our annual revenue, now thirteen millions of
dollars, which by that time will be twenty-five, will pay the expenses of any
war we may be forced into, without new taxes or loans.  The spirit of
republicanism is now in almost all its ancient vigor, five-sixths of the people
being with us.  Fourteen of the seventeen States are completely with us, and
two of the other three will be in one year.  We have now got back to the ground
on which you left us. I should have retired at the end of the first four years,
but that the immense load of tory calumnies which have been manufactured
respecting me, and have filled the European market, have obliged me to appeal
once more to my country for a justification.  I have no fear but that I shall
receive honorable testimony by their verdict on those calumnies.  At the end of
the next four years I shall certainly retire.  Age, inclination and principle
all dictate this.  My health, which at one time threatened an unfavorable turn,
is now firm.  The acquisition of Louisiana, besides doubling our extent, and
trebling our quantity of fertile country, is of incalculable value, as
relieving us from the danger of war.  It has enabled





        Correspondence                         41





us to do a handsome thing for Fayette.  He had received a grant of between
eleven and twelve thousand acres north of Ohio, worth, perhaps, a dollar an
acre.  We have obtained permission of Congress to locate it in Louisiana. 
Locations can be found adjacent to the city of New Orleans, in the island of
New Orleans and in its vicinity, the value of which cannot be calculated.  I
hope it will induce him to come over and settle there with his family.  Mr.
Livingston having asked. leave to return, General Armstrong, his
brother-in-law, goes in his place: he is of the first order of talents.



Remarkable deaths lately, are, Samuel Adams, Edmund Pendleton, Alexander
Hamilton, Stephens Thompson Mason, Mann Page, Bellini, and Parson Andrews.  To
these I have the inexpressible grief of adding the name of my youngest
daughter, who had married a son of Mr. Eppes, and has left two children.  My
eldest daughter alone remains to me, and has six children.  This loss has
increased my anxiety to retire, while it has dreadfully lessened the comfort of
doing it.  Wythe, Dickinson, and Charles Thompson are all living, and are firm
republicans.  You informed me formerly of your marriage, and your having a
daughter, but have said nothing in your late letters on that subject.  Yet
whatever concerns your happiness is sincerely interesting to me, and is a
subject of anxiety, retaining as I do,





          42        Jefferson's Works





cordial sentiments. of esteem and affection for you.  Accept, I pray you, my
sincere assurances of this, with my most friendly salutations.





TO MRS. JOHN ADAMS.



WASHINGTON, July 22, 1804.



DEAR MADAM, -- Your favor of the 1st instant was  duly received, and I would
not have again intruded on you, but to rectify certain facts which seem not to
have been presented to you under their true aspect.  My charities to Callendar
are considered as rewards for his calumnies.  As early, I think, as 1796, I was
told in Philadelphia that Callendar, the author of the Political Progress of
Britain, was in that city, a fugitive from persecution for having written that
book, and in distress.  I had read and approved the book; I considered him as a
man of genius, unjustly persecuted.  I knew nothing of his private character,
and immediately expressed my readiness to contribute to his relief, and to
serve him.  It was a considerable time after, that, on application from a
person who thought of him as I did, I contributed to his relief, and afterwards
repeated the contribution.  Himself I did not see till long after, nor ever
more than two or three times.  When he first began to write, he told some
useful truths in his coarse way; but nobody sooner disapproved of his writing
than I did, or wished more that he would be silent.  My charities to him were
no more meant as encouragements to his





43         Correspondence





scurrilities, than those I give to the beggar at my door are meant as rewards
for the vices of his life, and to make them chargeable to myself.  In truth,
they would have been greater to him, had he never written a word after the work
for which he fled from Britain.  With respect to the calumnies and falsehoods
which writers and printers at large published against Mr. Adams, I was as far
from stooping to any concern or approbation of them, as Mr. Adams was
respecting those of Porcupine, Fenno, or Russel, who published volumes against
me for every sentence vended by their opponents against Mr. Adams.  But I never
supposed Mr. Adams had any participation in the atrocities of these editors, or
their writers.  I knew myself incapable of that base warfare, and believed him
to be so.  On the contrary, whatever I may have thought of the acts of the
administration of that day,  I have ever borne testimony to Mr. Adams' personal
worth; nor was it ever impeached in my presence, without a just vindication of
it on my part.  I never supposed that any person who knew either of us, could
believe that either of us meddled in that dirty work.  But another fact is,
that I "liberated a wretch who was suffering for a libel against Mr. Adams."  I
do not know who was the particular wretch alluded to; but I discharged every
person under punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I
considered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and as
palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship a





          44               Jefferson's Works





golden image; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its execution in every
stage, as it would have been to have rescued from the fiery furnace those who
should have been cast into it for refusing to worship the image.  It was
accordingly done in every instance, without asking what the offenders had done,
or against whom they had offended, but whether the pains they were suffering
were inflicted under the pretended sedition law.  It was certainly possible
that my motives for contributing to the relief of Callendar, and liberating
sufferers under the sedition law, might have been to protect, encourage, and
reward slander; but they may also have been those which inspire ordinary
charities to objects of distress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of an
oath to protect the Constitution, violated by an unauthorized act of Congress. 
Which of these were my motives, must be decided by a regard to the general
tenor of my life.  On this I am not afraid to appeal to the nation at large, to
posterity, and still less to that Being who sees himself our motives, who will
judge us from his own knowledge of them, and not on the testimony of Porcupine
or Fenno.



You observe, there has been one other act of my administration personally
unkind, and suppose it will readily suggest itself to me.  I declare on my
honor, Madam, I have not the least conception what act was alluded to.  I never
did a single one with an unkind intention.  My sole object in this letter being
to place before your attention, that the acts imputed





        Correspondence                    45



to me are either such as are falsely imputed, or as might flow from good as
well as bad motives, I shall make no other addition, than the assurances of my
continued wishes for the health and happiness of yourself and Mr. Adams.





         TO JAMES MADISON.



MONTICELLO, August 15, 1804.



DEAR SIR, -- Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th,
as I received it only by that day's post.  I return you Monroe's letter, which
is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it contains
made some impression on him.  To a person placed in Europe, surrounded by the
immense resources of the nations there, and the greater wickedness of their
courts, even the limits which nature imposes on their enterprises are scarcely
sensible.  It is impossible that France and England should combine for any
purpose; their mutual distrust and deadly hatred of each other admit no
co-operation.  It is impossible that England should be willing to see France
re-possess Louisiana, or get footing on our continent, and that France should
willingly see the United States re-annexed to the British dominions.  That the
Bourbons should be replaced on their throne and agree to any terms of
restitution, is possible; but that they and England joined, could recover us to
British dominion, is impossible.  If these things are not so, then human





        46                Jefferson's Works





reason is of no aid in conjecturing the conduct of nations.  Still, however, it
is our Unquestionable interest and duty to conduct ourselves with such sincere
friendship and impartiality towards both nations, as that each may see
unequivocally, what is unquestionably true, that we may be very possibly driven
into her scale by unjust conduct in the other.  I am so much impressed with the
expediency of putting a termination to the right of France to patronize the
rights of Louisiana, which will cease with their complete adoption as citizens
of the United States, that I hope to see that take place on the meeting of
Congress.  I enclosed you a paragraph from a newspaper respecting St. Domingo,
which gives me uneasiness.  Still I conceive the British insults in our harbor
as more threatening.  We cannot be respected by France as a neutral nation, nor
by the world ourselves as an independent one, if we do not take effectual
measures to support, at every risk, our authority in Our own harbors.  I shall
write to Mr. Wagner directly (that a post may not be lost by passing through
you) to send us blank commissions for Orleans and Louisiana, ready sealed, to
be filled up, signed and forwarded by us.  Affectionate salutations and
constant esteem.





        Correspondence                                47





TO GOVERNOR W. C. C. CLAIBORNE.



MONTICELLO, August 13, 1804.



DEAR SIR, -- Various circumstances of delay have prevented my forwarding till
now, the general arrangements of the government of the territory of Orleans. 
Enclosed herewith you will receive the commissions.  Among these is one for
yourself as Governor.  With respect to this I will enter into frank
explanations.  This office was originally destined for a person(1) whose great
services and established fame would have rendered him peculiarly acceptable to
the nation at large.  Circumstances, however, exist, which do not now permit
his nomination, and perhaps may not at any time hereafter.  That, therefore,
being suspended and entirely contingent, your services have been so much
approved as to leave no desire to look elsewhere to fill the office.  Should
the doubts you have sometimes expressed, whether it would be eligible for you
to continue, still exist in your mind, the acceptance of the commission gives
you time to satisfy yourself by further experience, and to make the time and
manner of withdrawing, should you ultimately determine on that, agreeable to
yourself.  Be assured that whether you continue or retire, it will be with
every disposition on my part to be just and friendly to you.



I        salute you with friendship and respect.



@#(1) In the margin is written by the author, "La Fayette."@%





 48              Jefferson's Works



TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY (ALBERT GALLATIN).



MONTICELLO, September 8, 1804.



DEAR SIR, -- As we shall have to lay before Congress the proceedings of the
British vessels at New York, it will be necessary for us to say to them with
certainty which specific aggressions were committed within the common law,
which within the admiralty jurisdiction, and which on the high seas.  The rule
of the common law is that wherever you can see from land to land, all the Water
within the line of sight is in the bo I dy of the adjacent county and within
common law jurisdiction.  Thus, if in this curvature you can see from a to b,
all the water within the line of sight is within common law jurisdiction, and a
murder committed at c is to be tried as at common law.  Our coast is generally
visible, I believe, by the time you get within about twenty-five miles.  I
suppose that at New York you must be some miles out of the Hook before the
opposite shores recede twenty-five miles from each other.  The three miles of
maritime jurisdiction is always to be counted from this line of sight.  It will
be necessary we should be furnished with the most accurate chart to be had of
the shores a@d waters in the neighborhood of the Hook; and that we may be able
to ascertain on it the spot of every aggression.  I presume it would be within
the province of Mr. Gelston to procure such a chart, and to ascertain the
positions of the offending





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vessels.  If I am right in this, will you be so good as to instruct him so to
do?         I think the officers of the federal government are meddling too
much with the public elections.  Will it be best to admonish them privately or
by proclamation?  This for consideration till we meet.  I shall be at
Washington by the last day of the month.  I salute you with affection and
respect.





         TO MRS. JOHN ADAMS.



        MONTICELLO, September 11, 1804.



Your letter, Madam, of the 18th of August has been some days received, but a
press of business has prevented the acknowledgment of it: perhaps, indeed, I
may have already trespassed too far on your attention.  With those who wish to
think amiss of me, I have learned to be perfectly indifferent; but where I know
a mind to be ingenuous, and to need only truth to, set it to rights, I cannot
be as passive . The act of personal unkindness alluded to in your former
letter, is said in your last to have been the removal of your eldest son from
some office to which the judges had appointed him.  I conclude then he must
have been a commissioner of bankruptcy.  But I declare to you, on my honor,
that this is the first knowledge I have ever had that he was so.  It may be
thought, perhaps, that I ought to have inquired who were such, before I
appointed others.  But it is to be observed, that the former law permitted the
judges to name 





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commissioners occasionally, only for every case as it arose, and not to make
them permanent officers.  Nobody, therefore, being in office, there could be no
removal.  The judges, you well know, have been considered as highly federal;
and it was noted that they confined their nominations exclusively to
federalists.  The Legislature, dissatisfied with this, transferred the
nomination to the President, and made the offices permanent.  The very object
in passing the law was, that he should correct, not confirm, what was deemed
the partiality of the judges.  I thought it therefore proper to inquire, not
whom they had employed, but whom I ought to appoint to fulfils the intentions
of the law.  In making these appointments, I put in a proportion of
federalists, equal, I believe, to the proportion they bear in numbers through
the Union generally.  Had I known 'that your son had acted, it would have been
a real pleasure to me to have preferred him to some who were named in Boston,
in what was deemed the same line of politics.  To this I should have been led
by ray knowledge of his integrity, as well as my sincere dispositions towards
yourself and Mr. Adams. 



You seem to think it devolved on the judges to decide on the validity of the
sedition law.  But nothing in the Constitution has given them a right to decide
for the Executive, more than to the Executive to decide for them.  Both
magistrates are equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them. 
The judges, believing the law constitutional, had a





Correspondence                        51



right to pass a sentence of fine and imprisonment; because the power was placed
in their hands by the Constitution.  But the executive, believing the law to be
unconstitutional, were bound to remit the execution of it; because that power
has been confided to them by the Constitution.  That instrument meant that its
co-ordinate branches should be checks on each other.  But the opinion which
gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what
not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the
legislature and executive also, in their spheres, would make the judiciary a
despotic branch.  Nor does the opinion of the unconstitutionality, and
consequent nullity of that law, remove all restraint from the overwhelming
torrent of slander, which is confounding all vice and virtue, all truth and
falsehood, in the United States.  The power to do that is fully possessed by
the several State Legislatures.  It was reserved to them, and was denied to the
General Government, the Constitution, according to our construction of it. 
While we deny that Congress have a right to control the freedom of the press,
we have ever asserted the right of the States, and their exclusive right, to do
so.  They have accordingly, all of them, made provisions for punishing slander,
which those who have time and inclination, resort to for the vindication of
their characters.  In general, the State laws appear to have made the presses
responsible for slander as far as is consistent with its useful freedom





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In those States where they do not admit even the truth of allegations to
protect the printer, they have gone too far.



The candor manifested in your letter, and which I ever believed you to possess,
has alone inspired the desire of calling your attention, once more, to those
circumstances of fact and motive by which I claim to be judged.  I hope you
will see these intrusions on your time to be, what they really are, proofs of
my great respect for you.  I tolerate with the utmost latitude the right of
others to differ from me in opinion without imputing to them criminality.  I
know too well the weakness and uncertainty of human reason to wonder at its
different results.  Both of our political parties, at least the honest part of
them, agree conscientiously in the same object - the public good; but they
differ essentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good.  One
side believes it best done by one composition of the governing powers; the
other, by a different one.  One fears most the ignorance of the people; the
other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them.  Which is right, time and
experience will prove.  We think that one side of this experiment has been long
enough tried, and proved not to promote the good of the many; and that the
other has not been fairly and sufficiently tried.  Our opponents think the
reverse.  With whichever opinion the body of the nation concurs, that must
prevail.  My anxieties on this subject will never carry me beyond the use of
fair and honorable



        Correspondence                      53





means, of truth and reason; nor have they ever lessened my esteem for moral
worth, nor alienated my affections from a single friend, who did not first
withdraw himself.  Whenever this has happened, I confess I have not been
insensible to it; yet have ever kept myself open to a return of their justice. 
I conclude with sincere prayers for your health and happiness, that yourself
and Mr. Adams may long enjoy the tranquillity you desire and merit, and see in
the prosperity of your family what is the consummation of the last and warmest
of human wishes.



         TO JOHN F. MERCER, ESQ.



        WASHINGTON, October 9, 1804.

DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of September 28th, in behalf of Mr. Harwood, was duly
received; the grounds on which one of the competitors stood, set aside of
necessity all hesitation.  Mr. Hall's having been a member of the Legislature,
a Speaker of the Representatives, and a member of the Executive.  Council, were
evidences of the respect of the State towards him, which our respect for the
State could not neglect.  You say you are forcibly led to say something on
another subject very near your heart, which you defer to another opportunity. 
I presume it to be on your political situation, and perhaps the degree in which
it may bear on our friendship.  In the first case I declare to you that I have
never suffered political opinion to enter into the estimate of





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my private friendships; nor did I ever abdicate the society of a friend on that
account till he had first withdrawn from mine.  Many have left me on that
account, but with many I still preserve affectionate intercourse, only avoiding
to speak on politics, as with a Quaker or Catholic I would avoid speaking on
religion.  But I do not apply this to you; for however confidently it has been
affirmed, I have not supposed that you have changed principles.  What in fact
is the difference of principle between the two parties here?  The one desires
to preserve an entire independence of the executive and legislative branches on
each other, and the dependence of both on the same source - the free election
of the people.  The other party wishes to lessen the dependence of the
Executive and of one branch of the Legislature on the people, some by making
them hold for life, some hereditary, and some even for giving the Executive an
influence by patronage or corruption over the remaining popular branch, so as
to reduce the elective franchise to its minimum.  I shall not believe you gone
over to the latter opinions till better evidence than I have had.  Yet were it
the case, I repeat my declaration that exclusive of political coincidence of
opinion, I have found a sufficiency of other qualities in you to value and
cherish your friendship,





        Correspondence                       55





TO MR. LITHSON. 

WASHINGTON, January 4, 1805.

DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 4th has been duly received.  Mr. Duane
informed me that he meant to publish a new edition of the Notes on Virginia,
and I had in contemplation some particular alterations which would require
little time to make.  My occupations by no means permit me at this time to
revise the text, and make those changes in it which I should now do.  I should
in that case certainly qualify several expressions in the nineteenth chapter,
which have been construed differently from what they were intended.  I had
under my eye, when writing, the manufacturers of the great cities in the old
countries, at the time present, with whom the want of food and clothing
necessary to sustain life, has begotten a depravity of morals, a dependence and
corruption, which renders them an undesirable accession to a country whose
morals are sound.  My expressions looked forward to the time when our own great
cities would get into the same state.  But they have been quoted as if meant
for the present time here.  As yet our manufacturers are as much at their ease,
as independent and moral as our agricultural inhabitants, and they will
continue so as long as there are vacant lands for them to resort to; because
whenever it shall be attempted by the other classes to reduce them to the
minimum of subsistence, they will quit their trades and go to laboring. the
earth.  A





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first question is, whether it is desirable for us to receive at present the
dissolute and demoralized handicraftsman of the old cities of Europe?  A second
and more difficult one is, when even good handicraftsmen arrive here, is it
better for them to set up their trade, or go to the culture of the earth? 
Whether their labor in their trade is worth more than their labor on the soil,
increased by the creative energies of the earth?  Had I time to revise that
chapter, this question should be discussed, and other views of the subject
taken, which are presented by the wonderful changes which have taken place here
since 1781, when the Notes on Virginia were written.  Perhaps when I retire, I
may amuse myself with a serious review of this work; at present it is out of
the question.  Accept my salutations and good wishes.



TO JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ.



WASHINGTON, January 6, 1805. 

DEAR SIR, -- Your favor of December 26th has been duly received, as a proof of
your friendly partialities to me, of which I have so often had reason to be
sensible.  My opinion originally was that the President of the United States
should have been elected for seven years, and forever ineligible afterwards.  I
have since become sensible that seven years is too long to be irremovable, and
that there should be a peaceable way of withdrawing a man in midway who is
doing wrong.  The service for eight years, with a





        Correspondence                        57





power to remove at the end of the first four, comes nearly to my principle as
corrected by experience; and it is in adherence to that, that I determine to
withdraw at the end of my second term.  The danger is that the indulgence and
attachments of the people will keep a man in the chair after he becomes a
dotard, that re-election through life shall become habitual, and election for
life follow that.  General Washington set the example of voluntary retirement
after eight years.  I shall follow it.  And a few more precedents will oppose
the obstacle of habit to any one after awhile who shall endeavor to extend his
term.  Perhaps it may beget a disposition to establish it by an amendment of
the Constitution.  I believe I am doing right therefore in pursuing my
principle.  I had determined to declare my intention, but I have consented to
be silent on the opinion of friends, who think it best not to put a continuance
out of my power in defiance of all circumstances.  There is, however, but one
circumstance which could engage my acquiescence in another election; to wit,
such a division about a successor, as might bring in a. monarchist.  But that
circumstance is impossible.  While, therefore, I shall make no formal
declaration to the public of my purpose, I have freely let it be understood in
private conversation.  In this I am persuaded yourself and my friends generally
will approve of my views.  And should I, at the end of a second term, carry
into retirement all the favor which the first has acquired, I shall feel the
consolation





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of having done all the good in my power, and expect with more than composure
the termination of a life no longer valuable to others or of importance to
myself.  Accept my affectionate salutations, and assurances of great esteem and
respect.





         TO ALBERT GALLATIN.



January 26, 1805.



        The question arising on Mr. Simons' letter of January 10th is whether
sea-letters shall be given to the vessels of citizens neither born nor residing
in the United States.  Sea-letters are the creatures, of treaties.  No act of
the ordinary legislature requires them.  The only treaties now existing with
us, and calling for them, are those with Holland, Spain, Prussia, and France. 
In the two former we have stipulated that when the other party shall be at war,
the vessels belonging to our people shall be furnished with sea-letters; in the
two latter that the vessels of the neutral party shall be so furnished.  France
being now at war, the sea-letter is made necessary for our vessels; and
consequently it is our duty to furnish them.  The laws of the United States
confine registers to home-built vessels belonging to citizens; but they do not
make it unlawful for citizens to own foreign-built vessels; and the treaties
give the right of sea-letters to all vessels belonging to citizens.

         But who are citizens?  The laws of registry consider a citizen ship
obtained by a foreigner who comes





        Correspondence                        59





merely for that purpose, and returns to reside in his own country, as
fraudulent, and deny a register to such an one, even owning home-built vessels.
 I consider distinction as sound and safe, and that we ought not to give
sea-letters to a vessel belonging to such a pseudo-citizen.  It compromises our
peace, by lending our flag to cover the goods of one of the belligerents to the
injury of the other.  It produces vexatious searches on the vessels of our real
citizens, and gives to others the participation of our neutral advantages,
which belong to the real citizen only.  And inasmuch as an uniformity of rule
between the different branches of the government is convenient and proper, I
would propose as a rule that sea-letters be given to all vessels belonging to
citizens under whose ownership of a registered vessel such vessel would be
entitled to the benefits of her register.  Affectionate salutations.



TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON. 

WASHINGTON, January 29, 1805.

 DEAR SIR, -- Mr. Eppes has this moment put into my hands your letter of
yesterday, asking information on the subject of the gunboats proposed to be
built.  I lose no time in communicating to you fully my whole views respecting
them, premising a few words on the system of fortifications.  Considering the
harbors which, from their situation and importance, are entitled to defence,
and the estimates we





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have seen of the fortifications planned for some of them, this system cannot be
completed on moderate scale for less than fifty millions of dollars, nor manned
in time of war, with less than fifty thousand men, and in peace, two thousand. 
And when done they avail little; because all military men agree wherever a
vessel may pass a fort without tacking under her guns, which is the case at all
our seaport towns, she may be annoyed more or less, according to the advantages
of the position, but can never be prevented.  Our own experience during the war
proved this on different occasions.  Our predecessors have, nevertheless,
proposed to go into this system, and had commenced it.  But. no law requiring
us to proceed, we have suspended it. 



If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we should turn our
attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, or come to, before a
town to injure it.  Two means of doing this may be adopted in aid of each
other.  1. Heavy cannon travelling carriages, which may be moved to any point
on the bank or beach most convenient for dislodging the vessel.  A sufficient
number of these should be lent to each seaport town, and their militia trained
to them.  The executive is authorized to do this; it has been done in a small
degree, and will now be done more competently.  



        2.        Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be so
stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her, after
entering, to





        Correspondence                       61





depart.  There are about fifteen harbors in the United States which ought to be
in a state of substantial defence.  The whole of these would require, according
to the best opinions, two hundred and forty gunboats.  Their cost was estimated
by Captain Rogers at two thousand dollars each; but we had better say four
thousand dollars.  The whole would cost one million of dollars. . But we should
allow ourselves ten years to complete it, unless circumstances should force it
sooner.  There are three situations in which the gunboat may be.  1. Hauled up
under a shed, in readiness to be launched and manned by the seamen and militia
of the town on short notice.  In this situation she costs nothing but an
enclosure, or a sentinel to see that no mischief is done to her.  2. Afloat,
and with men enough to navigate her in harbor and take care of her, but
depending on receiving her crew from the town on short warning.  In this
situation, her annual expense is about two thousand dollars, as by an official
estimate at the end of this letter.  3. Fully manned for action.  Her annual
expense in this situation is about eight thousand dollars, as per estimate
subjoined.  When there is general peace, we should probably keep about six or
seven afloat in the second situation; their annual expense twelve to fourteen
thousand dollars; the rest all hauled up.  When France and England are at war,
we should keep, at the utmost, twenty-five in the second situation; their
annual expense, fifty thousand dollars.  When





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we should be at war ourselves, some of them would probably be kept in the third
situation, at an annual expense of eight thousand dollars; but how many, must
depend on the circumstances of the war.  We now possess ten, built and
building.  It is the opinion of those consulted, that fifteen more would enable
us to put every harbor under our view into a respectable condition; and that
this should limit the views of the present year.  This would require an
appropriation of sixty thousand dollars; and I suppose that the best way of
limiting it, without declaring the number, as perhaps that sum would build
more.  I should think it best not to give a detailed report, which exposes our
policy too much.  A bill, with verbal explanations, will suffice for the
information of the House.  I do not ow whether General Wilkinson would approve
the printing his paper.  If he would, it would be useful. 



Accept affectionate and respectful salutations.



         TO C. F. C.  DE VOLNEY.



WASHINGTON, February 8, 1805



DEAR SIR, -- Your letter of November the 26th came to hand May the 14th; the
books some time after, which were all distributed according to direction.  The
copy for the East Indies went immediately by a, safe conveyance.  The letter of
April the 28th, and the copy of your work accompanying that, did not come to
hand till August, That copy was





        Correspondence                       63





deposited in the Congressional library.  It was not till my return here from my
autumnal visit to Monticello, that I had an opportunity of reading your work. 
I have read it, and with great satisfaction.  Of the first part I am less a
judge than most people, having never travelled westward of Staunton, so as to
know anything of the face of the country; nor much indulged. myself in
geological inquiries, from a belief that the skin-deep scratches which we can
make or find on the surface of the earth, do not repay our time with as certain
and useful deductions as our pursuits in some other branches.  The subject of
our winds is more familiar to me.  On that, the views you have taken are always
great, supported in their outlines by your facts; and though more extensive
observations, and longer continued, may produce some anomalies, yet they will
probably take their place in this first great canvas which you have sketched. 
In no case, perhaps, does habit attach our choice or judgment more than in
climate.  The Canadian glows with delight in his sleigh and snow; the very idea
of which gives me the shivers.  The comparison of climate between Europe and
North America, taking together its corresponding parts, hangs chiefly on three
great points.  1. The changes between heat and cold in America are greater and
more frequent, and the extremes comprehend a greater scale on the thermometer
in America than in Europe.  Habit,. however, prevents these from affecting us
more than the smaller changes of Europe





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affect the European.  But he is greatly affected by ours.  2. Our sky is always
clear; that of Europe always cloudy.  Hence a greater accumulation of heat here
than there, in the same parallel.  3. The changes between wet and dry are much
more frequent and sudden in Europe than in America.  Though we have double the
rain, it falls in half the time.  Taking all these together, I prefer much the.
climate of the United States to that of Europe.  I think it a more cheerful
one.  It is our cloudless sky which has eradicated from, our constitutions all
disposition to hang ourselves, which we might otherwise have inherited from our
English ancestors.  During a residence of between six and seven years in Paris,
I never, but once, saw the sun shine through a whole day, without being
obscured by a cloud in any part of it; and I never saw the moment, in which,
viewing the sky through its whole Hemisphere, I could say there was not the
smallest speck of a cloud in it.  I arrived at Monticello, on my return from
France, in January; and during only two months' stay there, I observed to my
daughters, who had been with me to France, that, twenty odd times within that
term, there was not a speck of a cloud in the whole hemisphere.  Still I do not
wonder that an European should prefer his gray to our azure sky.  Habit decides
our taste in this, as in most other cases.

         The account you give of the yellow fever, is entirely agreeable to
what we then knew of it.  Further experience has developed more and more its
peculiar





        Correspondence                      65





character.  Facts appear to have established that it is originated here by a
local atmosphere, which is never generated but in the lower, closer, and
dirtier parts of our large. cities, in the neighborhood of the water; and that,
to catch the disease, you must enter the local atmosphere.  Persons having
taken the disease in the infected quarter, and going into the country, are
nursed and buried by their friends. without an example of communicating it.  A
vessel going from the infected quarter,. and carrying its atmosphere in its
hold into another State, has given the disease to every person who there
entered her.  These have died in the arms of their families, without a single
communication of the disease.  It is certainly, therefore, an epidemic, not a
contagious disease; and calls on the chemists for some mode of purifying the
vessel by a decomposition of its atmosphere, if ventilation be found
insufficient.  In the long scale of bilious fevers, graduated by many shades,
this is probably the last and most mortal term.  It seizes the native of the
place equally with strangers. it has not been long known in any part of the
United States.  The shade next above it, called the stranger's fever, has been
coeval with the settlement of the larger cities in the Southern parts, to wit,
Norfolk, Charleston, New Orleans.  Strangers going to these places in the
months of July, August, or September, find this fever as mortal as the genuine
yellow fever.  But it rarely attacks those who have resided in them some time. 
Since we have known that kind of yellow





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fever which is no respecter of persons, its name, has been extended to the
stranger's fever, and every species of bilious fever which produces a black
vomit, that is to say, a discharge of very dark bile.  Hence we hear of yellow
fever on the Alleghany mountains, in Kentucky, etc.  This is a matter of
definition only; but it leads into error those who do not know how loosely and
how interestedly some physicians think and speak.  So far as we have yet seen,
I think we are correct in saying, that the yellow fever, which seizes on all
indiscriminately, is an ultimate degree of bilious fever never known in the
United States till lately, nor farther South, as yet, than Alexandria; and that
what they have recently called the yellow fever in New Orleans, Charleston and
Norfolk, is what has always been known in those places as confined chiefly to
strangers, and nearly as mortal to them, as the other is to all its subjects. 
But both grades are local; the stranger's fever less so, as it sometimes
extends a little into the neighborhood; but the yellow fever rigorously so,
-confined within narrow and well-defined limits, and not communicable out of
those limits.  Such a constitution of atmosphere being requisite to originate
this disease as is generated only in low, close, and ill-cleansed parts of a
town, I have supposed it practicable to prevent its generation by building our
cities on a more open plan.  Take, for instance, the chequer board for a pla