THE WRITINGS OF



        THOMAS JEFFERSON



         Definitive Edition



        CONTAINING HIS



        AUTOBIOGRAPHY, NOTES ON VIRGINIA, 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 :85; BY ORDER OF THE            JO

INT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS



        WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS



        AND A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYTICAL INDEX







        ALBERT ELLERY BURGH EDITOR



VOL. XVII.





         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 RELIGION.







" Rebellion to tyrants_is obedience to God." Motto on Jefferson's Seal



 To attempt to pry into the heart of any man and analyze his religious
convictions was the last thing Thomas Jefferson would have done. "Religion is a
.subject on which I have been most scrupulously reserved, " he wrote in a
letter to Richard Rush,; "I have considered that it is a matter between a man
and his Maker in which no other, and far less the public, had a right to
intermeddle." For this reason the writer was somewhat reluctant to enter into
the arcana of Jefferson's religious beliefs. But the memory and influence of
Jefferson are so precious an heritage to the American people that any effort to
defend them from slander and misinterpretation is its own justification.
Over-zealous partisans of religious conceptions have made bitter attacks upon
Jefferson, both while he was alive and since his death. He has been called an
atheist and infidel, and the fiercest denunciations of his life and character,
based upon this thought, have been hurled against him. While not altogether
undisturbed by these attacks he felt, as he has himself



VOL XVII-A  







ii        Jefferson's Religion







expressed it, that the patriot, like the Christian, must learn that to bear
revilings and persecutions is a part of his duty. " " I know I might have
filled the courts of the United States with actions 'for these slanders, " he
adds, " and have ruined, perhaps, many persons who are not innocent. But this
would be no equivalent to the loss of character. I leave them to the reproof of
their own consciences. If these do not condemn them, there will yet come a day
when the false witness will meet a Judge who has not slept over his slander. "



  Both Jefferson and his defamers of his day have long gone to meet that
sleepless Judge. The attacks upon him did not cease when his mighty mind rested
from its. work and his noble soul ' left its tenement of clay. But "though
being dead, he yet speaketh, " and his words, treasured in the pantheon of
humanity's most splendid utterances do tell to-day of his abiding faith and his
reverent obedience to the Divine Will. I purpose to let his own words speak for
him, and himself to express what, he being silent, no other man would have
right to affirm or deny.



  Far from being an infidel or an atheist Thomas Jefferson was a deeply
reverent and religious spirit, a firm believer in God and in the supreme
justice of His overruling providence. Jefferson's religion was that of an
earnest, serious character, the result of many hours of profound. study and
meditation. Its very nature forbade its display, much more its  







        Jefferson's Religion      iii



constant protestation. He did not feel that it was necessary for him to "wear
his heart upon his sleeve, " nor did he ask any other man to do so. But he was
not a dogmatist: His religion was a rational faith and not a theological creed.
He believed firmly in the existence of God; and he believed just as firmly that
every human being had the right to believe as he chose, or to' disbelieve if he
chose. This faith he gave evidence of on many occasions and in many documents,
both of public and private nature. In an address which he prepared for the
Virginia House of Burgesses to be presented to Lord Dunmore, in 1775, he uses
this language: " We commit our injuries to the evenhanded justice of that
Being, Who doth no wrong, earnestly beseeching Him to illuminate the councils,
and prosper the endeavors of those to whom America has confided her hopes. " In
his first inaugural address he said, " May that infinite Power which rules the
destinies of the universe, lead our councils to what is best and give them a
favorable issue for your peace and prosperity. " In an address of Congress to
General Washington, prepared by Jefferson, are these words, "We join you in
commending the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty
God, beseeching Him to dispose the hearts and minds of its citizens to improve
the opportunity afforded them of becoming a happy and respectable nation: And
for you we address to Him our earnest prayers, that a life so  







iv        Jefferson's Religion



beloved may be fostered with all His care; that your days may be happy as they
have been illustrious ; and that He will finally give you that reward which
this world cannot give: " In a letter to John Adams, written in 1823, he
upholds the teleological argument for the existence of God, and declares that
he holds, without an appeal to revelation, the belief that the consummate skill
and infinite power exhibited in the universe support the hypothesis of an
eternally pre-existent Creator.



 He did not hesitate to seek, publicly in prayer, the help of God. In his first
inaugural address he invokes the help of that `` Infinite power which rules the
destinies of the universe." In his second inaugural address he says, " I shall
need the favor of that Being in Whose hands we are, Who led our forefathers, as
Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a land flowing with
all the necessaries and comforts of life; Who has covered our infancy with His
providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power; and to Whose goodness
I ask you to join me in supplications, that He will so enlighten the minds of
your servants ; guide their councils and prosper their measures that whatsoever
they shall do shall result in your good, and secure the peace, friendship and
approbation of all nations " '



  His belief in immortality he voiced a number of times, and very clearly so in
a letter to John Adams, written toward the close of his life. He wrote,  







        Jefferson's Religion       v



"The term is not very distant when we are to deposit in the same cerement our
sorrows and our suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic
meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love
and never lose again. "



 Thomas Jefferson was neither a hypocrite nor a coward. These utterances were
not thus made to curry favor' or to cater to an unreasoning public, nor to ward
off attack. They were given in private letters to personal friends, and most of
those that w ere incorporated in public documents were done so after he had
attained to the Presidency, the highest gift at the hands of the people, and
when he had nothing more of public honor to await. They are the sincere
outpourings of a brave and reverent soul, of an earnest heart that beat in full
sympathy with his fellow-men and in humble concord with the throbbing pulse of
the omnipresent and omniscient Spirit that permeates the universe.



 It is possible that the charge of atheism; where it was not the fruit of
malice, grew out of a misunderstanding of the noble tolerance and breadth of
view that  characterized the sage of Monticello. He was utterly free from every
form of cant. His constant struggle was for liberty. Liberty was the passion of
his life. He could not abide anything that savored in the slightest of any form
of tyranny or compulsion. The said, "I have sworn, on the altar of God, eternal
hostility against every form, of  







vi        Jefferson's Religion



tyranny ever the mind of man. " Full seventy-five years before the great
conflict that finally. cut the Gordian knot of slavery, Jefferson endeavored to
obtain its abolition by the gradual emancipation of the slave. He deplored
slavery on the high ground of justice and morality, and he fought for its
destruction on the lofty basis of liberty and human right. It was a thing dear
to his heart and a life-long anxiety; and on it he speaks with the sentiment of
a patriot and a God-fearing man. He wrote, "Can the liberties of a nation be
thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God ? That they are
not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I
reflect that God is just ; that His justice cannot sleep forever ; that
considering numbers, nature and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel
of fortune, an. exchange of situation is among possible events; that it may
become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute
which can take side with us in such a contest."



 Shortly before his death he sketched the simple design that has served as the
model for his tombstone, and he selected the epitaph which he desired to be
placed thereon. He had been Governor of Virginia, he had been Ambassador to
France. He had been Vice-President and twice President of the United States.
But he made no mention of these.  







        Jefferson's Religion      vii



He wished to be remembered as the "Author of the Declaration of American
Independence, and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and as Father
of the University of Virginia. " These were his achievements in behalf of human
liberty. They comprise civil freedom, religious freedom and intellectual
freedom. If he laid stress upon any one of these, it was upon religious
freedom, the freedom of conscience. To him conscience was the voice of God
within the human breast. It was the final guide, the ultimate arbiter of all
things. It was too intimate, too sacred a thing to be made to suffer the least
coercion. It was the fountain of all other liberties and its untrammeled
activity was to be maintained at all hazard. It was this view of conscience
that made him so reserved in the matter of religion. "I am averse to the
communication of my religious tenets to the public, " he said " because it
would countenance the presumption of those who have endeavored to draw them out
before that tribu- nal, and to reduce public opinion to erect itself into that
inquisition over the rights of conscience which the laws so justly prescribe. "



 A misinterpretation of these utterances in behalf of religious freedom may
have given rise to the attacks made upon him. But he did not deny God. He
denied the dogmatic statements that men had made about God.  He was no enemy of
religion, but he was a bitter opponent to the bigotry of sectarianism. Tyranny
was tyranny, whether



POL. XVII-H  







viii        Jefferson's Religion



it was the tyranny of the throne or the tyranny of theology, and against every
form of tyranny he had sworn eternal hostility. He was consistently an untiring
advocate of the separation of church and state. Their union is an illogical and
a dangerous one. No one saw this more clearly than Jefferson, and no one.
argued against it more cogently or logically than he. Like all his reasoning on
earnest topics, his arguments are based on the high ground of morality and pure
religion itself. " To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into
the field of opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of
principles on the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy,
which at once destroys all religious liberty. I cannot give up my guidance to
the magistrate, because he knows no more the way to Heaven than I do, and is
less concerned to direct me right, than I am .to go right. If a magistrate
command me to bring my commodity to a public storehouse, I bring it because he
can indemnify .me if he erred, and I thereby lose it; but what indemnification
can he give one for the kingdom of Heaven? Believing that religion is solely a
matter that lies between a man and his God, that he owes account to none other
for his faith and his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach
actions only and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act
of the whole American people, which declared that their legislature should make
no law  







        Jefferson's Religion      ix



respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state. " These
are some of the sentiments which he expressed relative to the union of the
church and the state.



 His attitude toward the church itself is best given in the definition of a
church which he set forth, that it is "a voluntary society of men joining
themselves of their own accord in order to the public worshiping of God in such
a manner as they judge acceptable to Him and effectual to the salvation of
their souls. It is voluntary, because no man is by nature bound to any church.
The hope of salvation is the cause of his entering into it. If he find anything
wrong about it he should be as free to go out as he was to come in." As to the
jurisdiction of the church he added, " Each church being free, no one can have
jurisdiction over another one, not even when the civil magistrate joins it. It
neither acquires the right of the sword by the magistrate's coming into it, nor
does it lose the right of instruction or excommunication by his going from it.
"



 Of his attitude toward the Christian church specifically he gave a statement,
in a letter written to Dr. Rush, in 1813. His views, he says, are " the result
of a life of enquiry and reflection and very different from that anti-Christian
system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. To the
corruptions of Christianity I 'am indeed  







x        Jefferson's Religion



opposed, but not to the precepts of Jesus Himself. I am a Christian in the only
sense in which He wished any one to be ; sincerely 'attached to His doctrines
in preference to all others; ascribing to Himself every human excellence, and
believing He never claimed any other." To this letter he added a short
syllabus, in which, after reviewing the ethics of ancient philosophy and of the
Hebrew code, and giving a brief history of the life of Jesus, he says that in
spite of imperfections, due to various causes, the moral doctrines taught by
Jesus surpass those of the other philosophies, give juster notions of the
attributes and government of God and that whereas the " Precepts of philosophy
and of the Hebrew code laid hold of actions only, He (Jesus) pushed His
scrutinies into the heart of man, erected his tribunal in the region of his
thoughts and purified the waters at the fountain head. "



 In his own words Jefferson has given his religious views. To have charged him
with being an atheist, or an infidel, or an enemy of religion, was simply
folly, where it was not malicious invention. Jeffer- son had far more religion
than his detractors, I care not how orthodox their views or how frequent their
church attendance. Jefferson devoted his life, the whole energy of his splendid
moral strength and his finely equipped mind, to the service of his fellow men.
Humanity has had no more loyal servant and pure religion no truer defender.



 Men are beginning to differentiate between theol 







        Jefferson's Religion     xi



ogy and religion, between creed and faith. The throne of dogmatism has been
shaken and the rule of sectarianism is nigh unto its end. In the light of a
nobler vision men are beginning to see that deed is better than dogma, that
character and conduct are more than theological finesse; that the eternal God
is the Father of all human beings; that He understands the language of every
prayer and hears and heeds the moan of every heart. To serve humanity is to
serve humanity's God. Like Ben Adhem's name, when the roll is called of those
who loved God best, the name of Thomas Jefferson will lead all the rest, for he
loved his fellow-men and worked and suffered for them.  







         CONTENTS.







                                                                               
                                                               page 

JEFFERSON'S RELIGION.  By Edward N. Calisch, B. L.
M.A............................................................i



MISCELLANEOUS
PAPERS.........................................................................
................................1 - 470



Extract from Diary Relative to the Invasion of Virginian 1780,
1791..................................................1



Memorandum Relative to Invasion of Virginia in 1780,
1781.............................................................13



Instructions to the Ministers Plenipotentiary Appointed to Negotiate Treaties
of Commerce 

with the European Nations. May 7,
1784...........................................................................
....................21



Report of a Conference with the Count de Vergennes on the Subject of the
Commerce of 

the United States with
France.........................................................................
........................................28



Explanations on some of the Subjects of Conversation which I had the honor of
having 

with his Excellency, the Count de Vergennes, when `I was last at
Versailles'.................................36



Answers by Mr. Jefferson, to Questions addressed to him by Monsieur de
Meusnier, Author 

of that Part of the Encyclopedie Methodique, entitled Economie 

Politique et
Diplomatique...................................................................
.....................................................49



Answers to Questions Propounded by Monsieur de Meusnier, January 24th,
1786.................107

Notes on Monsieur Soules'
Work...........................................................................
............................123



Observations on the Letter of Monsieur  de Galonnes,to Monsieur Jefferson,
dated 

Fontainebleau,  October  22d,
1786...........................................................................
..........................141 



 



xiv        Contents



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS-Continued.



Proposals for Concerted Operation among the Powers at War with the Piratical
States

 of Barbary, November,
1786...........................................................................
.....................................145



To the Editor of the Journal de Paris, August 29,
1787....................................................................148



Memoranda Taken on a Journey from Paris into the Southern Parts of France, and

 Northern Parts of Italy, in the Year
1787...........................................................................
.................153



A Tour to Some of the Gardens of
England........................................................................
...............236



Memorandums on a Tour from Paris to Amsterdam, Strasburg, and back to Paris,
March 3d,
1788...........................................................................
...............................................................................
.244



ling Notes for Mr. Rutledge and Mr. Shippen,  June 3, 1788
..........................................................290



Queries as to the Rights and Duties of the United States under her Treaties
with France, and 

the Laws of
Neutrality.....................................................................
.......................................................290



Heads of Consideration on the Conduct we are to Observe in the War between
Spain and Great Britain, and Particularly should the Latter Attempt the
Conquest of Louisiana and the
Floridas.......................................................................
.............................................................................29
9



Heads of Consideration on the Navigation of the Mississippi, for Mr.
Carmichael, Aug. 22
1790...........................................................................
...............................................................................
.302



Questions to be Considered
of.............................................................................
................................307



Plan of a Bill Concerning
Consuls........................................................................
................................309



Matters to be Arranged Between the Governments of England and the United
States, December 12th, 1791
...............................................................................
..................................................................313



Memorandum of Communications made to a Committee of the Senate on the Subject
of the Diplomatic Nominations to Paris, London and the Hague, January 4,
1792...................................314 



 



        Contents             xv



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS-Continued



Considerations on the Subjects of Ransom and Peace with the Algerines, April
1st,
1792...........................................................................
...............................................................................
.320



Notes of a Conversation with George Hammond, June 3d,
1792....................................................322



Extempore Thoughts and Doubts, on very Superficially Running over the Bankrupt
Bill...........................................................................
...............................................................................
...331



Heads of Conversation with George
Hammond........................................................................
........333



Instructions to Andrew Michaud for Exploring the Western Boundary, January,
1793...........................................................................
...............................................................................
335



Memorandum Relative to Commissioners for Laying off the Federal City, March
11th,
1793...........................................................................
...............................................................................
339



Note Given to the President Relative to
Genet..........................................................................
.......340



Rules for the Regulation of our Conduct towards the Belligerent Powers
recommended to the President for his
Adoption.......................................................................
...........................................344



Opinion Relative to the Propriety€ of Convening the Legislature at an Earlier
Period than that Fixed by Law. August 4th,
1793...........................................................................
...............................346



Communication Relative to our French Relations: August  22d, 1793
.........................................347



Explanation of the Origin of the Principle that "Free bottoms make free goods."
December 20th, 1793
...............................................................................
.........................................................................349



An Account of the Capitol in
Virginia.......................................................................
........................353



To the Speaker and House of Delegates of Commonwealth of Virginia, being a
Protest against Interference of Judiciary between Representative and
Constituent; 1797...................................355



Etiquette......................................................................
............................................. ..............................365



Charges Exhibited to the President of the United States against .the Honorable
Arthur Sinclair, as Governor of the Territory of the United States Northwest of
the River Ohio.........................367 



 



xvi        Contents



MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS--Continued.                                               
                             page



Hints on the Subject of Indian Boundaries, Suggested for Consideration,
December 29th,
1802...........................................................................
...............................................................................
373



Notes on the Subject of the Consular Convention Between the United States and
France. May 3d,
1803...........................................................................
..........................................................................377



Resolutions Relative to the Alien and Sedition Laws (Kentucky
Resolutions)...........................379



Dr. Stevens' Case. June 12th,
1804...........................................................................
............................391       



Notes on a Draught for a Second Inaugural
Acidress.....................................................................39
7



Farewell Address to Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, February
7, 

1809...........................................................................
............................................................
.................398



Notes on Fifth Volume of Marshall's "Life of Washington"
........................................................400



Scheme for a System of Agricultural Societies, March,
1811........................................................404



Observations on the Force and Obligation of the Common Law in the United
States, on the Occasion of Hardin's case, in Kentucky. November 11th,
1812:...................................................410



Plan for Elementary Schools, Sept. 9th,
1817...........................................................................
........417



The Solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia on the
Principles of the Constitution of the United States of America, and on the
Violations of Them..........................442



Thoughts on Lotteries, February,
1826...........................................................................
..................448



Thomas Jefferson's Will, March 16,
1826...........................................................................
...............465 





 



         MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.



         INTRODUCTORY NOTES.







  Aside from the official documents drawn by Jefferson in connection with his
political positions, he left, at his death, among his voluminous manuscripts, a
mass of material that he€ had prepared for special or private purposes. Of such
the Miscellaneous Papers are composed together with rough drafts and extempore
notes made for future elaboration, and evidently for some final and effective
use. The papers presented under this head cover a period of nearly half a
centary, from the time Jefferson was Governor of Virginia right up to the year
of his death. , At the beginning of this series will be found the extracts from
Jefferson's diary during the years 1780-81-excerpts he Selected to vindicate
his conduct as Executive of his State during the invasion of Virginia under
Benedict Arnold. Jefferson retired from the Governorship of Virginia amid a
storm of criticism and censure and determined never to fill another public
office. Subsequently, however, he was mollified by the apology extended by the
Legislature for the obloquy cast upon him, and accepted a reappointment to
Congress. Due to his efforts there are the humane measures, promulgated in the
Instructions to American Ministers for negotiating commercial treaties with
European nations.



  These " Instructions " are followed by a group of unclassified papers written
while Jefferson was Minister to France. At the close of this group we have
daily memoranda jotted down by Jefferson on trips made in the early spring
through the southern part of France and northern section of Italy; chiefly
interesting as exhibiting the minuteness of his observation and his examination
of anything in the line of agricultural, mechanical or industrial improvements
that might prove of value to his country.



  Many of these Miscellaneous Papers were written while Jefferson was '
Secretary of State, and bear evidence of his powers as a diplomat in
maintaining peaceful relations with war-waging foreign countries. They also
present his successful arguments in securing the right to navigate the
Mississippi-one of the first steps to reveal the importance and worth of the
Louisiana territory.



  Probably one of the most interesting papers in the entire collection is the
draft of the famous Kentucky Resolutions from the pen of Jefferson  







XXII       Introductory Notes



 while Vice-President. These Resolutions were drawn as a protest against the
Alien and Sedition Laws as " palpable and alarming infractions of the
Constitution." They were passed with some changes by the Kentucky Legislature
on November 14, 1798. Jefferson's authorship of these Resolutions was kept a
secret for many years. In 1821 he wrote a brief history of their inception in
a-letter to the son of his friend, Colonel W. C. Nicholas. He says in this
letter: "At the time when the republicans of our country were so much alarmed
at the proceedings of the Federal ascendancy in Congress, in the Executive and
Judiciary departments, it became a matter of serious consideration how head
could be made against their enterprises on the Constitution. The leading
republicans in Congress found themselves of no use there, browbeaten as they
were by a bold and overwhelming majority. They concluded to retire from that
field, take a stand in their State legislatures, and endeavor there to arrest
their progress. The Alien and Sedition Laws furnished the particular occasion.
The sympathy between Virginia and Kentucky was more cordial and more intimately
confidential than between any other two States of republican policy. Mr.
Madison came into the Virginia Legislature. I was then in the Vice-Presidency,
and could not leave my station; but your father, Colonel W. C. Nicholas, and
myself, happening to be together, the engaging cooperation of Kentucky in an
energetic protestation against the constitutionality of those laws became a
subject of consultation. Those gentlemen pressed me strongly to sketch
resolutions for that purpose, your father undertaking to introduce them to that
legislature, with a solemn assurance which I strictly required, that it should
not be known from what quarter they came. I drew and delivered them to him, and
in keeping their origin secret he fulfilled his pledge of honor."



There are at least two remaining numbers of the Miscellaneous Papers which will
awaken the interest of even the casual reader. Namely the scheme for organizing
agricultural societies devised by Jefferson in his retirement at Monticello, in
1811, as an early expression of such a project ; 'and the construction of a
plan for establishing elementary schools in the form of a bill outlining a
system of education incorporating principles not improved upon in this day of
eclectic and synthetic instruction. Attention is called to the fact that this
farreaching educational thesis of Jefferson is given for the first time in its
entirety in the present edition of his Writings. The Congressional edition of
1853 gave it in part, while the Ford collection of 1892 omitted it altogether.



 







        JEFFERSON'S WORKS.



        MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.







         _______________



Extract from Diary relative to the Invasion of Vi-ginia in 1780, 1781. 



        _______________







  Saturday, December the  31st, 1780, eight o'clock, A. M. Received first
intelligence that twenty-seven sail were, on the morning of December the 29th,
just below Willoughby's Point. Sent off General Nelson, with full powers.



  1781. January the 1st.    No intelligence.



  January the 2d, ten o'clock, A. M. Information from N. Burwell, that their
advance was at Warrasqueak Bay. Gave orders for militia, a quarter from some,
and half from other counties. Assembly rose.



 Wednesday, January the 3d, eight o'clock, P. M. Received a letter from E.
Archer, Swan's Point that at twelve o'clock that day they were at anchor a
little below Jamestown. At five o'clock, P. M., of the same day, I had received
a letter from R. Andrews for General Nelson, that they were at Jamestown the
evening of the 2d.



   VOL. XVII--I  







2        Jefferson's Works



 Thursday, January the 4th, five o'clock, A. M. Mr. Eppes and family, etc.,
came and informed me from the Speaker,that they had passed Kennon's and Hood's
the evening before ; the tide having made for them at one o'clock, P. M., of
the 3d, and the wind shifted to the east strong. They had not, however, passed
Hood's, but anchored at Kennon's. Called whole militia from adjacent counties.
I was then anxious to know whether they would pass Westover, or not, as that
would show the side they would land.



  Five o'clock, P. M. Learned by Captain De Ponthiere, that at two o'clock, P.
M., they were drawn up at Westover. Then ordered arms, and stores, etc., (which
till then had been carrying to Westham,) to be thrown across the river at
Richmond; and at half-past seven o'clock, P. M., set out to the foundry and
Westham, and set Captain Brush, Captain Irish, and Mr. Hylton, to see
everything wagoned from the magazine and laboratory to Westham, and there
thrown over; to work all night. The enemy encamped at Four-Mile Creek. I went
to Tuckahoe and lodged.



 January the 5th. Went early over the river with my family ; sent them up to
Fine Creek ; went myself to Westham; gave orders for withdrawing ammunition and
arms (which lay exposed on. the bank to the effect of artillery from opposite
shore), behind a point. Then. went to Manchester ; had a view of the enemy. My
horse sunk under me with  







        Miscellaneous Papers              3



fatigue ; borrowed one, went to Chetwood's, appointed by Baron Steuben as a
rendezvous and headquarters; but finding him not there, and understanding he
would go to Colonel Henry's, I proceeded there for quarters. The enemy arrived
in Richmond at one 'o'clock, P. M. One regiment of infantry and thirty horse
proceeded, without stopping, to the foundry ; burned that and the magazine and
Ballendine's house, and went as far as Westham. They returned that evening to
Richmond. Sent me a proposition to compound for property. Refused. 



  January the 6th. In the morning they burned certain houses and stores, and at
twelve o'clock of that day left Richmond, and encamped at FourMile Creek. I
went to Westham, ordered books and papers particularly from magazine. In the
evening I went up to Fine Creek.



  January the 7th. I returned to Westham, and then came down to Manchester,
where I lodged. The enemy encamped at Westover and Berkley. It had rained
excessively the preceding night, and continued to do so till about noon. Gibson
has one thousand ; Steuben, eight hundred ; Davis, two hundred; Nelson, two
hundred and fifty.



  January the 8th, at half-past seven o'clock,-A. M. I returned to Richmond.
The wind gets, about this time, to northwest ; a good gale ; in the afternoon
becomes easterly. The enemy remain in their last encampment. General Nelson at
Charles City C, H,  







4        Jefferson's Works



Colonel Nicholas with three hundred men at the Forest.



 January the 9th, eleven o'clock. The wind is southeast, but almost nothing.
The enemy remain in their last encampment, except embarking their horse.



 January the 10th, at one' o'clock, P. M. They embark infantry, and fall down
the river, the wind having shifted a little north of west, and pretty fresh.
Baron Steuben gets to Bland's Mills to-night nine miles short of Hood's.



 January the 11th, eight o'clock, A. M. The wind due west, and strong.



        Loss sustained by the public.



 The papers and books of the Council since the Revolution. The papers of the
auditors, but not their books. Five brass field-pieces, four-pounders, which
had been sunk in the river, but were weighed by the enemy. About one hundred
and fifty arms in the Capitol loft. About one hundred and fifty in a wagon on
the Brook road. About five tons of powder, and some made ammunition at
magazine. Some small proportion of the linens; cloths, etc., in the public
store. Some quartermasters ' stores ; the principal articles was one hundred
and twenty sides of leather. Some of the tools in the artificers' shops.
Foundry, magazine, four artificers' shops, public store, quartermasters' store,
one artificers' shop, three wagons.  







        Miscellaneous Papers          5



 The legislature was sitting when the entrance of the enemy into James river
was made known. They were informed, without reserve, of the measures adopted.
Every suggestion from the members was welcomed and weighed, and their
adjournment on the 2d of January furnished the most immediate and confidential
means of calling for the militia of their several counties. They accordingly
became the bearers of those calls, and they were witnesses themselves, that
every preparation was making which the exhausted and harassed state of the
country admitted.



 They met again at Richmond in May, and adjourned to Charlottesville, where
they made a House on the 28th. My office of Governor expired on the 2d of June,
being the fifth day of the session; and no successor had been appointed, when
an enter-



rise on the 4th by Tarleton's cavalry drove them thence, and they met again at
Staunton on the 7th. Some members attended there who had not been at Richmond
at the time of Arnold's enterprise. One of these, George Nicholas, a very
honest and able man,then, however, young and ardent, supposing there had been
some remissness in the measures of the Executive on that occasion, moved for an
inquiry into them, to be made at the succeeding session. The members who had
been present and privy to the transactions, courted the inquiry on behalf of
the executive. Mr. Nicholas, as 'a candid and honorable man, sent me, through a
friend, a  







6        Jefferson's Works



copy of the topics of inquiry he proposed to go into ; and I communicated to
him, with the sam e frankness, the justifications I should offer, that he might
be prepared to refute them if not founded in fact.



The following is a copy of both :



   1st Objection.-That General Washington's information was, that an
embarcation was taking place, destined for this State.



  Answer.-His information was, that it was destined for the southward, as was
given out at New York. Had similar informations from General Washington, and
Congress, been considered as sufficient ground at all times for calling the
militia into the field, there would have been a standing army of militia kept
up; because there has never been a time, since the invasion expected in
December, 1779, but what we have had those intimations hanging over our heads.
The truth is, that General Washington always considered as his duty to convey
every rumor of an embarkation ; but we (for some time past, at least) never
thought anything but actual invasion should induce us to the expense and
harassment of calling the militia into the field ; except in the case. of
December, 1799, when it was thought proper to do this in order to convince the
French of our disposition to protect their ships. Inattention to this necessary
economy, in the beginning, went far towards that ruin of our finances which
followed.  







        Miscellaneous Papers       7



  2d Objection. Where were the post-riders, established last summer?



  Answer.-They were established at Continental expense, to convey speedy
information to, Congress of the arrival of the French fleet, then expected
here. When that arrived at Rhode Island, these expenses were discontinued. They
were again established on the invasion in October, and discontinued when that
ceased. And again on the first intimation of the invasion of December. But it
will be asked, why were they not established on General Washington's letters ?
Because those letters were no more than we had received upon many former
occasions, and would have led to a perpetual establishment of post-riders.



  3d Objection.-If a proper number of men had been put into motion on Monday;
for the relief of the lower country, and ordered to march to Williamsburg, that
they would at least have been in the neighborhood of Richmond on Thursday.



  Answer.-The order could not be till Tuesday, because we then received our
first certain information. Half the militia of the counties round about
Richmond were then ordered out, and the whole of them on the 4th, and ordered
not to wait to come in a body, but in detachments as they could assemble. Yet
were there not on Friday more than two hun- dred collected, and they were
principally of the town of Richmond.



  4th Objection.-That we had not the signals.  







8        Jefferson's Works



 Answer.-This, though a favorite plan of some gentlemen, and perhaps a
practicable one, has hitherto been thought too difficult.



  5th Objection.-That we had not look-outs.



Answer.-There had been no cause to order lookouts more than has been ever
existing. This is only in fact asking why we do not always keep look-outs.



 6th Objection.-That we had not heavy artillery on travelling carriages.



 Answer.-The gentlemen who acted as members of the Board of War a twelvemonth
can answer this question, by giving the character of the artificers whom,
during that time, they could never get to mount the heavy artillery. The same
reason prevented their being mounted from May, 1780, to December. We have even
been unable to get those heavy cannon moved from Cumberland by the whole energy
of government. A like difficulty which occurred in the removal of those at
South Quay, in their day, will convince them of the possibility of this. 



  7th Objection.-That there was not a body of militia thrown into Portsmouth,
the great bridge, Suffolk.



 Answer.-In the sumner of 1780, we asked the favor of General Nelson, to call
together the County Lieutenants of the lower counties, and concert the general
measures which should be taken fox instant opposition; on any invasion, until
aid could be ordered by the Executive ; and the County Lieuten 







        Miscellaneous Papers       9



ants were ordered to obey his call ; he did so the first moment, to wit, on
Saturday, December the 31st; at 8 o 'clock A. M. , of our receiving information
of the appearance of a fleet in the bay. We, asked the favor of General Nelson
to go down, which he did, with full powers to call together the militia of any
counties he thought proper, to call on the keepers of any public arms or
stores, and to adopt for the instant such measures as exigencies required, till
we could be better informed.



  Query.-Why were not General Nelson, and the brave officers with him,
particularly mentioned?



  Answer. What should have been said of them? The enemy did not land, nor give
them an opportunity of doing what nobody doubts they would have done; that is,
something worthy of being minutely recited.



  Query.-Why publish Arnold's letter without General Nelson 's answer ?



  Answer.-Ask the printer: He got neither from the Executive.



  Objection. As to the calling out a few militia, and that late.



 Answer.-It is denied that they were few or late. Four thousand and seven
hundred men (the number required by Baron Steuben) were called out the moment
an invasion was known to have taken place, that is on Tuesday, January 2d.



  Objection.-The abandonment of York and Portsmouth fortifications.  







10        Jefferson's Works



 Answer.-How can they be kept without regulars, on the large scale on which
they were formed? Would it be approved of to harass the militia with
garrisoning them ?



  To place me on equal ground for meeting the inquiry, one of the
representatives of my county resigned his seat, and I was unanimously elected
in his place. Mr. Nicholas; however, before the day,. became better satisfied
as to what had been done, and did not appear, to bring forward the inquiry; and
in a publication, several years after, he made honorable acknowledgment of the
erroneous views he had entertained on those transactions. I therefore read in
my place the inquiries he had proposed to make, and stated the justifications
of the Executive. And nearly every member present having been a witness to
their truth, and conscious all was done which could have been done, concurred
at once in the following resolution:



  " The following resolution was unanimously agreed to by both Houses of the
General Assembly of Virginia, December the 19th, 1781.



  " Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the General Assembly be given to our
former Governor, Thomas Jefferson, Esquire, for his impartial, upright, and
attentive administration whilst in office. The Assembly wish in the strongest
manner to declare the high opinion they entertain of Mr. Jefferson's ability,
rectitude, and integrity as Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, and mean, by
thus publicly avow 







        Miscellaneous Papers       11



ing their opinion, to obviate and to remove all unmerited censure. "           
    



 And here it is but proper to notice the parody of these transactions which
General Lee has given as their history. He was in a distant State at the time,
and seems to have made up a random account from the rumors which were afloat
where he then was. It is a tissue of errors from beginning to end.



 The nonsense which has been uttered on the coup de main of Tarleton on
Charlottesville is really so ridiculous, that it is almost ridiculous seriously
to notice it. I will briefly, however, notice facts and dates. It has been said
before, that the legislature was driven from Charlottesville by an incursion
.of the enemy's cavalry. Since the adjournment from Richmond, their force in
this country had been greatly augmented by reinforcements under Lord Cornwallis
and General Phillips; and they had advanced up into the country as far as Elk
Island, and the Fork of James river. Learning that the legislature was in
session at Charlottesville, they detached Colonel Tarleton with his legion of
horse to surprise them. As he was passing .through Louisa on the evening of the
3d of June, he was observed by a Mr. Gouett, who, suspecting the object, set
out immediately for Charlottesville, and knowing the byways of the
neighborhood, passed the enemy's encampment, rode all night, and before sunrise
of the 4th, called at Monticello with notice af what he had seen, and passed on
to Charlottes 







12        Jefferson's Works



ville to notify the members of the legislature. The Speakers of the two Houses,
and some other members were lodging with us. I ordered a carriage to be ready
to carry off my family ; we breakfasted at leisure with our guests, and after
breakfast they had gone to Charlottesville; when a neighbor rode up full speed
to inform me that a troop of horse was then ascending the hill to the house. I
instantly sent off my family, and after a short delay for some pressing
arrangements, I mounted my horse; and knowing that in the public road I should
be liable to fall in with the enemy, I went through the woods, and joined my
family at the house of a friend, where we dined. Would it be believed, were it
not known, that this flight from a troop of horse whose whole legion, too, was
within supporting distance, has been 'the subject, with party writers, of
volumes of reproach on me, serious or sarcastic? That it has been sung in
verse, and said in humble prose, that forgetting the noble example of the hero
of La Mancha; and his wind-mills, I declined a combat singly against a troop,
in which victory would have been so glorious ? Forgetting, themselves, at the
same time, that I was not provided with the enchanted arms of the Knight, nor
even with his helmet of Mambrino. These closet heroes, forsooth, would .have
disdained the shelter of a wood, even singly and unarmed, against a legion of
armed enemies.



 Here, too, I must note another instance of the want of that correctness in 
writing history, without  







        Miscellaneous Papers     13



which it becomes romance. General Lee says that Tarleton, in another enterprise
some time after, penetrated up the south side of James river to New London; in
Bedford county. To that neighborhood precisely, where I had a possession, I had
carried my family, and was confined there several weeks by the effects of a
fall from my horse ; and I can assure the readers of General Lee's history,
that no enemy ever came within forty miles of New London.







         _______________



  Memorandum relative to invasion of Virginia



              in 1780, 1781.



 Among the manuscripts of Mr. Jefferson, and in his own handwriting, is the
following paper in relation to the invasion of Virginia in 1780-1781. It is,
therefore, inserted here, in connection with the foregoing extract from his
diary. 



        _______________







  Richmond, 1780. Dec. 31st; at 8 A. M. The Governor received the first
intelligence that twentyseven sail of ships had entered Chesapeake Bay, and
were in the morning of the 29th just below Willoughby's Point, [the southern
cape of James river,] their destination unknown.



  1781. January 2, at 10 A. M. Information received that they had entered James
river, their `advance being at Warrasqueak Bay. Orders were immediately given
for calling in the militia, onefourth from some, and half from other counties.
The members of the legislature, which rises this day, are the bearers of the
orders to their respective  







14        Jefferson's Works



counties. The Governor directs the removal of the records into the country, and
the transportation of the military stores from Richmond to Westham; (on the
river seven miles above,] there to be carried across the river.



  January 3d, 8 P. M. The enemy are said to be a little below Jamestown ;
convenient for landing, if Williamsburg is their object.



  January 4th, at 5 A. M. . Information is received that they had passed Kennon
's and Hood 's the evening before with a strong easterly wind, which determines
their object to be either Petersburg or Richmond. The Governor now calls in the
whole militia from the adjacent counties.



  At 5 P. M. Information that at 2 P. M. they were landed and drawn up at
Westover, (on the north side of the river, and twenty-five miles below
Richmond,) and consequently Richmond was their destination. Orders are now
given to discontinue wagoning the military stores from Richmond to Westham, and
to throw them across directly at Richmond.



  The Governor having attended to this till an hour and a half in the night,
then rode up to the foundry, (one mile below Westham,] ordered Captains Brush
and Irish, and Mr. Hylton to continue all night wagoning to Westham the arms
and stores still at the foundry, to be thrown across the river at Westham, then
proceeded to Westham to urge the pressing the transportation there across the
river, and  







        Miscellaneous Papers       15



thence went to Tuckahoe (eight miles above, and on the same side of the river)
to see after his family-, which he had sent that far in the course of the day.
He arrived there at 1 o'clock in the night.



  Early in the morning he carried his family across the river there, and
sending them to Fine Creek, (eight miles higher up,] went himself to Breton's
on the south side of the river, [opposite to Westham,) finding the arms, etc.,
in a heap near the shore, and exposed to be destroyed by cannon from the north
bank. He had them removed under cover of a point of land near by. He proceeded
to Manchester [opposite to, Richmond]. The enemy had arrived at Richmond at 1
P. M. Having found that nearly the whole arms had been got there from Richmond,
he set out for Chetwood's to meet with Baron Steuben, who had appointed that
place as a rendezvous and headquarters ; but not finding him there, and
understanding that he would be at Colonel Fleming's, (six miles above
Breton's,) he proceeded thither. The enemy had now a detachment at Westham, and
sent a deputation from the city of Richmond to the Governor at Colonel
Fleming's to propose terms for ransoming the safety of the city, which terms
'he rejected. The Governor returned to Breton's, had measures taken more
effectually to secure the books and papers there. The enemy having burnt some
houses and stores, left Richmond, after twenty-four hours' stay there, and
encamped at Four-Mile Creek, [eight or ten miles below,) and  







16        Jefferson's Works



the Governor went to look to his family at Fine Creek.



 He returned to Breton's to see further to the arms there, exposed on the
ground to heavy rains which had fallen the night before, and then proceeded to
Manchester, and lodged there. The enemy encamped at Westover.



 At half-past 7 A. M. he crossed over to Richmond, and resumed his residence
there. The enemy are still retained in their encampment at Westover by an
easterly wind. Colonel John Nicholas has now three hundred militia at the
Forest, [six miles off from Westover,] General Nelson two hundred at Charles
City Court House, [eight miles below Westover,) Gibson, one thousand, and Baron
Steuben eight hundred on the south side the river.



January 9th. The enemy are still encamped at Westover.



 January 10th. At 1 P. M. they embark ; and the wind having shifted a little to
the north of the west, and pretty fresh, they fall down the river. Baron
Steuben marches for Hood's, where their passage may be checked. He reaches
Bland's Mills in the evening, within. nine miles of Hood's.



 January 11th. At 8 A. M. the wind due west and strong, they may make good
their retreat. During this period time and place have been minutely cited, in
order that those who think there was any remissness in the movements of the
Governor, may lay their finger on the point,  







        Miscellaneous Papers    17



and say when and where it was. Hereafter less detail will suffice.



 Soon after this General Phillips having joined Arnold with a reinforcement of
two thousand men, they advanced again up to Petersburg, and about the last of
April to Manchester. The Governor had remained constantly in and about
Richmond, exerting all his powers collecting militia, and providing such means
for the defence of the State as its exhausted resources admitted. Never
assuming a guard, and with only the river between him and the enemy, his
lodgings were frequently within four, five, or six miles of them.



 M. de la Fayette, about this time, arrived at Richmond with some Continental
troops, with which, and the militia collected, he continued to occupy that
place, and the north bank of the river, while Phillips and Arnold held
Manchester and the south bank. But Lord Cornwallis, about the middle of May,
joining the main southern armies, M. de la Fayette was obliged to retire. The
enemy crossed the river; and advanced up into the country about fifty miles,
and within thirty miles of Charlottesville, at which place the legislature
being to meet in June, the Governor proceeded to his seat at Monticello, two or
three miles from it. His office was now near expiring, the country under
invasion by a powerful army, no services but military of any avail, unprepared
by his line of life and education for the command of armies, he believed it
right



  VOL. XVII-?  







18        Jefferson's Works



not to stand in the way of talents better fitted than his own to the
circumstances under which the country was placed. He therefore himself proposed
to his friends in the legislature that General Nelson, who commanded the
militia of the State, should be appointed Governor, as he was sensible that the
union of the civil and military power in the same hands at this time, would
greatly facilitate military measures. This appointment accordingly took place
on the 12th of June, 1781.



  This was the state of things when, his office having actually expired, and no
successor as yet in place, Colonel Tarleton, with his regiment of horse, was
detached by Lord Cornwallis to surprise Mr. Jefferson (whom they thought still
in office) and the legislature now sitting in Charlottesville. The Speakers of
the two Houses, and some other members of the legislature, were lodging with
Mr. Jefferson at Monticello. Tarleton, early in the morning, when within ten
miles of that place, detached a company of horse to secure him and his guests,
and proceeded himself rapidly with his main body to Charlottesville, where he
hoped to find the legislature unapprized of his movement. Notice of it,
however, had been brought, both to Monticello and Charlottesville, about
sunrise. The Speakers, with their colleagues, returned to Charlottesville, and
with the other members of the legislature, had barely time to get out of his
way. Mr. Jefferson sent off his family to secure them from danger, and  







        Miscellaneous Papers     19



was himself still at Monticello making arrangements for his own departure, when
a Lieutenant Hudson arrived there at half speed, and informed him that the
enemy were then ascending the hill of Monticello. He departed immediately, and
knowing that he would be pursued if he took the high road, he plunged into the
woods of the adjoining mountain, where being at once safe, he proceeded to
overtake his family. This is the famous adventure of Carter's mountain, which
has been so often resounded through the slanderous chronicles of federalism.
But they have taken care never to detail the facts, lest these should show that
this favorite charge amounted to nothing more than that he did not remain in
his house, and there singly fight a whole troop of horse, or suffer himself to
be taken prisoner. Having accompanied his family one day's journey, he returned
to Monticello. Tarleton had retired after eighteen hours' stay in
Charlottesville. Mr. Jefferson then rejoined his family, and proceeded with
them to an estate he had in Bedford, about eighty miles southwest, where,
riding on his farm some time after, he was thrown from his horse, and disabled
from riding on horseback for a considerable time. But Mr. Turner finds it more
convenient to give him this fall in his retreat before Tarleton, which had
happened some weeks before, as a proof that he withdrew from a troop of horse
with a precipitancy which Don Quixote would not have practiced.  







20        Jefferson's Works



 The facts here stated most particularly, with date of time and place, are
taken, from the notes made by the writer hereof. for his own satisfaction at
the time. The others are from memory, but so well recollected that he is
satisfied there is no material fact misstated. Should any person under- take to
contradict any particular on evidence which may at all merit the public
respect, the writer will take the trouble (though not at all in the best
situation for it) to produce the proof in support of it. He finds, indeed, that
of the persons whom he recollects to have been present on these occasions, few
have survived the intermediate lapse of four and twenty years. Yet he trusts
that some, as well as himself, are yet among the living; and he is positively
certain that no man can falsify any material fact here stated. He well
remembers, indeed, that there were then, as there are at all times, some who
blamed everything done contrary to their own opinion, although their opinions
were formed on a very partial knowledge of facts. The censures which have been
heralded by such men as Wm. Turner, are nothing but revivals of these
half-informed opinions. Mr. George Nicholas, then a very young man, but always
a   very honest one, was prompted by these persons to bring specific charges
against Mr. Jefferson; the heads of these in writing were communicated through
a mutual friend to Mr. Jefferson, who committed to writing also the heads of
justification on  







        Miscellaneous Papers    21



each of them. I well remember this paper, and believe the original of it still
exists; and though framed when every real fact was fresh in the knowledge of
every one, ,this fabricated flight from Richmond was not among the charges
stated in this paper, nor any charge against Mr. Jefferson for not fighting
singly the troop of horse. Mr. Nicholas candidly relinquished further
proceeding. The House of Representatives of Virginia pronounced an honorable
sentence of entire approbation of Mr. Jefferson's conduct, and so much the more
honorable as themselves had been witness to it. And Mr. George, Nicholas took a
conspicuous occasion afterwards, of his own free will, and when the matter was
entirely at rest, to retract publicly the erroneous opinions he had been led
into on that occasion, and to make just reparation by a candid acknowledgment
of them.



Instructions to the Ministers Plenipotentiary appointed to negotiate Treaties
of Commerce with the European nations. May 7, 1784.



 WHEREAS, instructions bearing date the 29th day of October, 1783, were sent to
the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of
Versailles, empowered to negotiate a peace, or to any one or more of them, for
concerting drafts or propositions for treaties of amity and commerce with the
commercial powers of Europe:  







22        Jefferson's Works



 Resolved, That it will be advantageous to these United States to conclude such
treaties with Russia, the Court of Vienna, Prussia, Denmark, Saxony, Hamburg,
Great Britain, Spain, Portugal, Genoa, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Venice, Sardinia,
and the Ottoman Porte.



  Resolved, That in the formation of these treaties the following points be
carefully stipulated:



  1st. That each party shall have a right to carry their own produce,
manufactures, and merchandise, in their own bottoms to the ports of the other,
and thence the produce and merchandise of the other, paying, in both cases,
such duties only as are paid by the most favored nation, freely, where it is
freely granted to such nation, or paying the compensation where such nation
does the same.



  2. That with the nations holding territorial possessions in America, a direct
and similar intercourse€ be admitted between the United States and such
possessions; or if this cannot be obtained, then a direct and similar
intercourse between the United States and certain free ports within such
possessions ; that if this neither can be obtained, permission be stipulated to
bring from such possessions, in their own bottoms, the produce and .merchandise
thereof to their States directly ; and for these States to carry in their own
bottoms their produce and merchandise to such possessions directly.



  3. That these United States be considered in all such treaties, and in every
case arising under them,  







        Miscellaneous Papers       23



as one nation, upon the .principles of the federal constitution.



  4. That it be proposed, though not indispensably required, that if war should
hereafter arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants of either
country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to
collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying
off all their effects, without molestation or hindrance; and all fishermen, all
cultivators of the earth, and all artisans or manufacturers, unarmed and
inhabiting unfortified towns, villages or places, who labor for the common
Subsistence and benefit of mankind, and peaceably following their respective
employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested
by the armed force of the enemy, in whose power, by the events of war, they may
happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to be taken from them, for the use
of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price; and all
merchants and traders, exchanging the products of different places, and thereby
rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy
to obtain and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested; and
neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any
private armed vessels empowering them to take or destroy such trading ships, or
interrupt such commerce.



  5.  And in case either of the contracting parties  







24        Jefferson's Works



shall happen to be engaged in war with any other nation, it be further agreed,
in order to prevent all the difficulties and misunderstandings that usually
arise respecting the merchandise heretofore called contraband, such as arms,
ammunition, and military stores of all kinds, that no such articles, carrying
by the ships or subjects of one of the parties to the enemies of the other,
shall, on any account, be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation, and
a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful to stop
such ships and detain them,for such length of time as the captors may think
necessary, to prevent the inconvenience or damage that might ensue, from their
proceed ing on their voyage, paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the
loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors; and it shall be further
allowed to use in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the
military stores so detained, paying the owners the full value of the same, to
be ascertained by the current price at the place of its destination. But if the
other contracting party will not consent to discontinue the confiscation of
contraband goods, then that it be stipulated, that if the master of the vessel
stopped, will deliver out the goods charged to be contraband, he shall be
admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not in that case be curried into any
port; but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.



  6. That in the same case, when either of the con 







        Miscellaneous Papers       25



tracting parties shall happen to be engaged in war with any other power, all
goods, not contraband, belonging to the subjects of that other power, and
shipped in the bottoms of the party hereto, who is not engaged in the war,
shall be entirely free. And that to ascertain what shall constitute the
blockade of any place or port, it shall be understood to be in such
predicament, when the assailing power shall have taken such a station as to
expose to imminent danger any ship or ships, that would attempt to sail in or
out of the said port; and that no vessel of the party, who is not engaged in
the said war, shall be stopped without a material and wellgrounded cause; and
in such cases justice shall be done, and an indemnification given, without loss
of time to the persons aggrieved, and thus stopped without sufficient cause.



  7. That no right be stipulated for aliens to hold real property within these
States, this being utterly inadmissible by their several laws and policy; but
when on the death of any person holding real estate within the territories of
one of the contracting parties, such real estate would by their laws descend on
a subject or citizen of the other, were he not disqualified by alienage, then
he shall be allowed a reasonable time to dispose of the same, and withdraw the
proceeds without molestation.



 8. That such treaties be made for a term not exceeding ten years from the
exchange of ratification.



 9. That these instructions be considered as sup 







26        Jefferson's Works



plementary to those of October 29th, 1783; and not as revoking, except when
they contract them. That where in treaty with a particular nation they can
procure particular advantages, to the specifi- cation of which we have been
unable to descend, our object in these instructions having been to form
outlines only and general principles of treaty with many nations, it is our
expectation they will procure them, though not pointed out in these
instructions ; and where they may be able to form treaties on principles which,
in their judgment, will be more beneficial to the United States than those
herein directed to be made their basis, they are permitted to adopt such
principles. That as to the duration of treaties, though we have proposed to
restrain them to the term of ten years, yet they are at liberty to extend the
same as far as fifteen years with any nation which may pertinaciously insist
thereon. And that it will be agreeable to us to have supplementary treaties
with France, the United Netherlands and Sweden, which may bring the treaties we
have entered into with them as nearly as may be t o the principles of those now
directed ; but that this be not pressed, if the proposal should be found
disagreeable.



  Resolved, That treaties of amity, or of amity and commerce, be entered into
with Morocco, and the Regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, to continue for
the same term of ten years, or for a term as much longer as can be procured.  







        Miscellaneous Papers     27







That our Ministers, to be commissioned for treating with foreign nations, make
known to the Emperor of Morocco the great satisfaction which Congress feel from
the amicable disposition he has shown towards these States, and his readiness
to enter into alliance with them. That the occupations of the war, and distance
of our situation have prevented our meeting his friendship so early as we
wished. But the powers are now delegated to them for entering into treaty with
him, in the execution of which they are ready to proceed, and that as to the
expenses of his Minister, they do therein what is for the honor and interest of
the United States.



 Resolved, That a commission be issued to Mr. J. Adams, Mr. B. Franklin, and
Mr. T. Jefferson, giving powers to them, or the greater part of them, to make
and receive propositions for such treaties of amity and commerce, and to
negotiate and sign the same, transmitting them to Congress for their final
ratification; and that such commission be in force for a term not exceeding two
years.  







28        Jefferson's Works



 Report of a Conference with the Count de Vergennes on the subject of the
Commerce of the United States with France. (1)



 The next levee day at Versailles, I meant to bring again under the view of the
Count de Vergennes, the whole subject of our commerce with France ; but the
number of audiences of ambassadors and other ministers, which take place, of
course, before mine, and which seldom, indeed, leave me an opportunity of
audience at all, prevented me that day. I was only able to ask the Count de
Vergennes, as a particular favor, that he would permit me to wait on him some
day that week. He did so, and I went to Versailles the Friday following, (the
9th of December). M. de Reyneval was with



            



        _______________



   (1) to John Jay.



                       Paris, January 2d, 1786.



 SIR,-Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de
Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of. this country with the
United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to
Congress. They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed. The
length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology. Yet I have not been able to
abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would
rather choose to know. Some of the objects of these conferences present but
small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at
some future moment.



    *   *   *   *  *   *   *   *   *



I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.



 The above extract from the report referred to in the preceding letter embraces
everything interesting therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous
correspondence. 



        _______________



  







        Miscellaneous Papers      29



the Count. Our conversation began with the usual topic; that the trade of the
United States had not yet learned the way to France, but continued to centre in
England, though no longer obliged by law to go there. I observed, that the real
cause of this was to be found in the difference of. the commercial arrangements
in the two countries; that merchants would not, and could not trade but where
there was to be some gain; that the commerce between two countries could not be
kept up, but by an exchange of commodities; that, if an American merchant was
forced to carry his produce to London, it could not be expected he would make a
voyage from thence to France, with the money, to lay it out here; and, in like
manner, that if he could bring his commodities, with advantage, to this
country, he would not make another voyage to England, with the money, to lay it
out there, but would take in exchange the merchandise of this country. The
Count de Vergennes agreed to this, and particularly that where there was no
exchange of merchandise, there could be no durable commerce ; and that it was
natural for merchants to take their returns in the port where they sold their
cargo. I desired his permission, then, to take a summary view of the
productions of the United States, that we might see which of them could be
brought here to advantage.



  1. Rice. France gets from the Mediterranean a rice not so good indeed, but
cheaper than ours. He said that they bought of our rice, but that they  







30        Jefferson's Works



got from Egypt also, rice of a very fine quality. I observed that such was the
actual state of their commerce, in that article, that they take little from us.
2. Indigo. They make a plenty in their own colonies. He observed that they did,
and that they thought it better than ours. 3. Flour, fish, and provisions of
all sorts, they produce for themselves. That these articles might, therefore,
be considered as not existing, for commerce, between the United States and the
kingdom of France.



  I proceeded to those capable of becoming objects of exchange between the two
nations. 1. Peltry and furs. Our posts being in the hands of the English, we
are cut off from that article. I am not sure even, whether we are not obliged
to buy of them, for our own use. When these posts are given up, if ever they
are, we shall be able to furnish France with skins and furs, to the amount of
two millions of livres, in exchange for her merchandise; but at present, these
articles are to be counted as nothing. 2. Potash. An experiment is making
whether this can be brought here. We hope it may, but at present it stands for
nothing. He observed that it was much wanted in France, and he thought it would
succeed. 3. Naval stores. Trials are also making on these, as subjects of
commerce with France. They are heavy, and the voyage long. The result,
therefore, is doubtful. At present, they are as nothing in our commerce with
this country. 4. Whale oil. I told him I had great hopes that the  







        Miscellaneous Papers     31



 late diminution of duty would enable us to bring this article, with advantage,
to France ; that a merchant was just arrived (Mr. Barrett) who proposed to
settle at L'Orient, for the purpose of selling the cargoes of this article, and
choosing the returns. That he had informed me, that in the first year, it would
be necessary to take one-third in money, and the remainder only in merchandise;
because the fishermen require, indispensably, some money. But he thought that
after the first year, the merchandise of the preceding year, would always
produce money for the ensuing one, and that the whole amount would continue to
be taken annually afterwards, in merchandise. I added, that though the
diminution of duty was expressed to be but for one year, yet I hoped they would
find their advantage in renewing and continuing it ; for that if they intended
really to admit it for one year only, the fishermen would not find it worth
while to rebuild their vessels, and to prepare themselves for the business. The
Count expressed satisfaction on the view of commercial exchange held up by this
article. He made no answer as to the continuance of it; and I did not choose to
tell him, at that time, that we should claim its continuance under their treaty
with the Hanseatic towns, which fixes this duty for them, and our own treaty,
which gives us the rights of the most favored nation. 5. Tobacco. I recalled to
the memory of the Count de Vergennes, the letter I had written to him on  







32        Jefferson's Works



this article ; and the object of the present conversation being, how to
facilitate the exchange of com- merciable articles between the two countries, I
pressed that of tobacco, in this point of view; observed that France, at
present, paid us two millions of livres for this  article ; that for such
portions of it as were bought in London, they sent the money directly there,
and for what they bought in the United States, the money was stili remitted to
London, by bills of exchange; whereas, if they would permit our merchants to
sell€ this article freely, they would bring it here, and take the returns on
the spot, in merchandise, not money. The Count observed, that my proposition
contained what was doubtless useful, but that the King received on this
article, at present; a revenue of twenty-eight millions, which was so
considerable, as to render them fearful of tampering with it ; that the
collection of this revenue by way of Farm, was of very ancient date, and that
it was always hazardous to alter arrangements of long standing, and of such €
infinite combinations with the fiscal system. I answered, that the simplicity
of the mode of collection proposed for this article, withdrew it from all fear
of deranging other parts of their system; that I supposed they would confine
the importation to some of their principal ports, probably not more than five
or six; that a single collector in each of these, was the only new officer
requisite; that he could get rich himself on six livres a hogshead,  







        Miscellaneous, Papers       33



and would receive the whole revenue, and pay it into the treasury, at short
hand. M. de Reyneval entered particularly into this part of the conversation,
and explained to the Count, more in detail, the advantages and simplicity of
it, and concluded by observing to me, that it sometimes happened that useful
propositions, though not practicable at one time, might become so at another. I
told him that that consideration had induced me to press the matter when I did,
because I had understood the renewal of the Farm was then on the carpet, and
that it was the precise moment when I supposed that this portion might be
detached from the mass of the Farms. I asked Count de Vergennes whether, if the
renewal of the Farm was pressing, this article might not be separated, merely
in suspense, till government should have time to satisfy themselves on the
expediency of renewing it. He said no promises could be made.



  In the course of this conversation, he had mentioned the liberty we enjoyed
of carrying our fish to the French islands. I repeated to him what I had hinted
in my letter, of November the 20th, 1785, that I considered as a prohibition
the laying such duties on our fish, and giving such premiums on theirs, as made
a difference between their and our fishermen of fifteen livres the quintal, in
an article which sold for but fifteen livres. He said it would not have that
effect, for two reasons : 1. That their fishermen could not furnish supplies
sufficient for



   vol. xvii-3  







34        Jefferson's Works



their islands, and, of course, the inhabitants must, of necessity, buy our
fish. a. That from the constancy of our fishery, and the short season during
which theirs continued, and also from the economy and management of ours,
compared with the expense of theirs, we had always been able to sell our fish,
in their islands, at twenty-five livres the quintal, while they were obliged to
ask thirty-six livres. (I suppose he meant the livre of the French islands.)
That thus, the duty and premium had been a necessary operation on their side,
to place the sale of their fish on a level with ours, and that without this,
theirs could not bear the competition.



  I have here brought together the substance of what was said on the preceding
subjects, not pretending to give it verbatim, which my memory does not enable
me to do. I have, probably, omitted many things which were spoken, but have
mentioned nothing which was not. It was interrupted, at times, with collateral
matters. One of these was important. The Count de Vergennes complained, and
with a good deal of stress, that they did not find a sufficient dependence on
arrangements taken with us. This was the third time too, he had done it; first,
in a conversation at Fontainebleau, when he first complained to me of the
navigation acts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire; secondly, in his letter of
October the 30th, 1785 ; on the same subject; and now, in the present
conversation, wherein he added, as another instance, the case of the Che 







        Miscellaneous Papers       35



valier de Mezieres, heir of General Oglethorpe, who; notwithstanding that the
11th article of the treaty provides, that the subjects or citizens of either
party shall succeed, ab intestato, to the lands of their ancestors, within the
dominions of the other, had been informed from Mr. Adams, and by me also, that
his right of succession to the General's estate in Georgia was doubtful. He
observed too, that the administration of justice with us was tardy, insomuch
that their merchants, when they had money due to them within our States,
considered it as desperate; and that our commercial regulations, in general,
were disgusting to them. These ideas were new, serious and delicate. I decided,
therefore, not to enter into them at that moment, and the rather, as we were
speaking in French, in which language I did not choose to hazard myself. I
withdrew from the objections of the tardiness of justice with us, and the
disagreeableness of our commercial regulations, by a general observation, that
I was not sensible they were well founded. With respect to the case of the
Chevalier de Mezieres, I was obliged to enter into some explanations. They
related chiefly to l,he legal operation of our Declaration of Independence, to
the undecided question whether our citizens and British subjects were thereby
made aliens to one another, to the general laws as to conveyances of land to
aliens, and the doubt whether an act of the Assembly of Georgia might not have
been passed,_ to confiscate General Oglethorpe's property, which  







36        Jefferson's Works



would of course prevent its devolution on any heir. Mr. Reyneval observed, that
in this case" it became a mere question of fact, whether a confiscation of
these lands had taken place before the death of General Oglethorpe, which fact
might be easily known by inquiries in Georgia, where the possessions lay. I
thought it very material, that the opinion of this court should be set to
rights on these points. On my return, therefore, I wrote the following
observations on them, which, the next time I went to Versailles, (not having an
opportunity of speaking to the Count de Vergennes,) I put into the hands of M.
Reyneval, praying him to read them, and to ask the favor of the Count to do the
same.



Explanations on some of the subjects of conversation which I had the honor of
having with his Excellency, the Count de Vergennes, when I was last at
Versailles.



 The principal design of that conversation was, to discuss those articles of
commerce which the United States could spare, ,which are wanted in France, and
if received there on a convenient footing, would be exchanged for the
productions of France. But in the course of the conversation, some
circumstances were incidentally mentioned by the Count de Vergennes, which
induced me to suppose he had received impressions, neither favorable to us, nor
derived from perfect information.



 The case of the Chevalier de Mezieres was supposed to furnish an instance of
our disregard to  







        Miscellaneous Papers       37



treaties ; and the event of that case was inferred from opinions supposed to
have been given by Mr. Adams and myself. This is ascribing's weight to our
opinions, to which they are not entitled. They will have no influence on the
decision of the case. The judges in our courts, would not suffer them to be
read. Their guide is the law of the land, of which law its treaties make a
part. Indeed, I know not what opinion Mr. Adams may have given on the case.
And, if any be imputed to him derogatory of our regard to the treaty with
France, I think his opinion has been misunderstood. With respect to myself, the
doubts which I expressed to the Chevalier de Mezieres, as to the success of his
claims, were not founded on any question whether the treaty between France and
the United States would be observed. On the contrary, I venture to pronounce
that it will be religiously observed, if his case comes under it. But I doubted
whether it would come under the treaty: The case, as I understand it, is this:
General Oglethorpe, a British subject, had lands in Georgia. He died since '
the peace, having devised these lands to his wife. His heirs are the Chevalier
de Mezieres, son of his elder sister, and the Marquis de Bellegarde, son of his
younger sister. This case gives rise to legal questions, some of which have not
yet been decided, either in England or America, the laws of which countries are
nearly the same.



  1. It is a question under the laws of those countries, whether persons born
before their separation;  







38        Jefferson's Works



and once completely invested, in both, with the character of natural subjects,
can ever become aliens in either? There are respectable opinions on both sides.
If the negative be right, then General Oglethorpe having never become an alien,
and having devised his lands to his wife, who, on this supposition, also, was
not an alien, the devise has transferred the lands to her, and there is nothing
left for the treaty to operate on.



  2. If the affirmative opinion be right, and the inhabitants of Great Britain
and America, born before the Revolution, are become aliens to each other, it
follows by the laws of both, that the lands which either possessed, within the
jurisdiction of the other, became the property of the State in which they are.
But a question arises, whether the transfer of the property took place on the
Declaration of Independence, or not till an office, or an act of Assembly, had
declared the transfer. If the property passed to the State on the Declaration
of Independence, then it did not remain in General Oglethorpe, and, of course,
at the time of his death, he having nothing, there was nothing to pass to his
heirs, and so, nothing for the treaty to operate on.



  3. If the property does not pass till declared by an office found by jury, or
an act passed by the Assembly, the question then is, whether an office had been
found, or an act of Assembly been passed for that purpose, before the peace? If
there was, the lands had passed to the State during his life, and  







        Miscellaneous Papers       39



nothing being left in him, there is nothing for his heirs to claim under the
treaty.



 4. If the property had not been transferred to the State before the peace,
either by the Declaration of Independence, or an office; or an act of Assembly,
then it remained in General Oglethorpe at the epoch of the peace; and it will
be insisted, no doubt, that, by the sixth article of the treaty of peace,
between the United States and Great Britain, which forbids future
confiscations, General Oglethorpe acquired a capacity of holding and of
conveying his lands. He has conveyed them to his wife. But she being an alien,
it will be decided by the laws of the land, whether she took them for her own
use, or for the use of the State. For it is a general principle of our law,
that conveyances to aliens pass the lands to the State; and it may be urged,
that though, by the treaty of peace, General Oglethorpe could convey, yet that
treaty did not mean to give him a greater privilege of conveyance than natives
hold, to wit: a privilege of transferring the property to persons incapable, by
law, of taking it. However, this would be a question between the State of
Georgia and the widow of General Oglethorpe, in the decision of which the
Chevalier de Mezieres is not interested, because, whether she takes the land by
the will, for her own use, or for that of the State, it is equally prevented
from descending to him: there is neither a conveyance to him, nor a succession
ab intestato devolving on him, which are the cases provided for



 



 40        Jefferson's Works



by our treaty with France. To sum up the matter in a few words ; if the lands
had passed to the State before the epoch of peace, the heirs of General
Oglethorpe cannot say they have descended on them, and if they remained in the.
General at that epoch, the treaty saving them to him, he could convey them away
from his heirs, and he has conveyed them to his widow, either for her own use,
or for that of the State.



  Seeing no event in which, according to the facts stated to me, the treaty
could be applied to this case, or could give any right whatever, to the heirs
of General Oglethorpe, I advised the Chevalier de Mezieres not to urge his
pretensions on the footing of right, nor under the treaty, but to petition the
Assembly of Georgia for a grant of these lands. If, in the question between the
State and the widow of General Oglethorpe, it should be decided that they were
the property of the State, I expected from their generosity, and the friendly
disposition in America towards the subjects of France, that they would be
favorable to the Chevalier de Mezieres. There is nothing in the preceding
observations which would not have applied against the heir of General
Oglethorpe, had he been a native citizen of Georgia, as it now applies against
him, being a subject of France. The treaty has placed the subjects of France on
a footing with natives, as to conveyances and descent of property. There was no
occasion for the Assemblies to pass laws on this subject; the treaty being a
law, as I conceive, superior to those of particular  







        Miscellaneous Papers     41



  Assemblies, and repealing them, when they stand in the way of its operations.



    The supposition that the treaty was disregarded on our part, in the
instance of the acts of Assembly of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, which made
a distinction between natives and foreigners, as to the duties to be paid on
commerce, was taken notice of in the letter of November the 20th, which I had
the honor of addressing to the Count de Vergennes. And while I express my hopes
that, on a revision of these subjects, nothing will be found in them derogatory
from either the letter or spirit of our treaty, I will add assurances that the
United States will not be behindhand in going beyond both, whenever. occasions
shall offer of manifesting their sincere attachment to this country.



    I will pass on to the observation, that our commercial regulations are
difficult, and repugnant to the French merchants. To detail these regulations
minutely, as they exist in every State, would be beyond my information. A
general view of them, however, will suffice, because the States differ little
in their several regulations. On the arrival of a ship in America, her cargo
must be reported at the proper office. The duties on it are to be paid.



  These are commonly from two and a half to five per cent. on its value. On
many articles, the value of which is tolerably uniform, the precise sum is
fixed: by law. A tariff of these is presented to the importer, and he can see
what he has to pay, as well  







42        Jefferson's Works



as the officer. For other articles, the duty is such a per cent. on their
value. That value is either shown by the invoice, or by the oath of the
importer. This operation being once over, and it is a very short one, the goods
are considered as entered, and may then pass through the whole thirteen States
without their being ever more subject to a question, unless they be reshipped.
Exportation is still more simple ; because, as we prohibit the exportation of
nothing, and very rarely lay a duty on any article of export, the State is
little interested in examining outwardbound vessels. The captain asks a
clearance for his own purposes. As to the operations of internal commerce, such
as matters of exchange, of buying, selling, bartering, etc. , our laws are the
same as the English. If they have been altered in any instance, it has been to
render them more simple.



  Lastly, as to the tardiness of the administration of justice with us, it
would be equally tedious and impracticable for me to give a precise account of
it in every State. But I think it probable that it is much on the same footing
through all the States, and that an account of it in any one of them may found
a general presumption of it in the others. Being best acquainted with its
administration in Virginia, I shall confine myself to that. Before the
Revolution, a judgment could not be obtained under eight years in the Supreme
Court, where the suit was in the department of the common law, which department
embraces about nine-tenths of the subject of  







        Miscellaneous Papers       43



legal contestation. In that of the chancery, from twelve to twenty years were
requisite. This did not proceed from any vice in the laws, but from the
indolence of the judges appointed by the King; and these judges holding their
office during his will only, he could have reformed the evil at any time. This
reformation was among the first works of the legislature after our
independence. A judgment can now be obtained in the Supreme Court in one year
at the common law, and in about three years in the chancery. But more
particularly to protect the commerce of France, which, at that moment, was
considerable with us, a law was passed, giving all suits wherein a foreigner
was a party, a privilege to be tried immediately, on the return of his process,
without waiting till those of natives, which stand before them, shall have been
decided on. Out of this act, however, the British stand excluded by a
subsequent one. This, with its causes, must be explained. The British army,
after ravaging the State of Virginia, had sent off a very great number of
slaves to New York. By the seventh article of the treaty of peace, they
stipulated not to carry away any of these. Notwithstanding this, it was known,
when they were evacuating New York, that they were carrying away the slaves.
General Washington made an official demand of Sir Guy Carleton, that he should
cease to send them away. He answered, that these people had come to them under
promise of the King's protection, and that that  







44        Jefferson's Works



promise should be fulfilled in preference to the stipulation in the treaty. The
State of Virginia, to which nearly the whole of these slaves belonged, passed a
law to forbid the recovery of debts due to British subjects. They declared, at
the same time, they would repeal the law, if Congress were of opinion they
ought to do it. But, desirous that their citizens should be discharging their
debts, they afterwards permitted British creditors to prosecute their suits,
and to receive their debts in seven equal and annual payments; relying that the
demand for the slaves would be either admitted or denied in time to lay their
hands on some of the latter payments for reimbursement. The immensity of this
debt was another reason for forbidding such a mass of property to be offered
for sale under execution at once, as, from the small quantity of circulating
money, it must have sold for little or. nothing, whereby the creditor would
have failed to receive his money, and the debtor would have lost his whole
estate without being discharged of his debt. This is the history of the delay
of justice in that country in the case of British creditors. As to all others,
its administration is as speedy as justice itself will admit. I presume it is
equally so in all the other States, and can add, that it, is administered in
them all, with a purity and integrity of which few counties afford an example.



 I cannot take leave altogether of the subjects of this conversation without
recalling the attention of the Count de Vergennes to what had been its princi 







        Miscellaneous Papers     45



cipal drift. This was to endeavor to bring about a direct exchange between
France and the United States (without the intervention of a third nation), of
those productions with which each could furnish the other. We can furnish to
France (because we have heretofore furnished to England), of whale oil and
spermaceti, of furs and peltry, of ships and naval stores, and of potash, to
the amount of fifteen millions of livres; and the quantities will admit of
increase. Of our tobacco, France consumes the value of ten millions more.
Twenty-five millions of livres, then, mark the extent of that commerce of
exchange, which is, at present, practicable between us. We want, in return,
productions and manufactures; not money. If the duties on our produce are
light, and the sale free, we shall undoubtedly bring it here, and lay out the
proceeds on the spot in the productions and manufactures which we want. The
merchants of France will, on their part, become active in the same business. We
shall no more think, when we shall have sold our produce here, of making an
useless voyage to another country to lay out the money, than we think at
present, when we have sold it elsewhere, of coming here to lay out the money.
The conclusion is, that there are commodities which form a basis of exchange to
the extent of a million of guineas annually; it is for the wisdom of those in
power to contrive that the exchange shall be made.



 Having put this paper into the hands of Monsieur  







46        Jefferson's Works



Reyneval, we entered into conversation again; on the subject of the Farms,
which were now understood to be approaching to a conclusion. He told me, that
he was decidedly of opinion, that the interest of the State required the Farm
of tobacco to be discontinued, and that he had, accordingly, given every aid to
my proposition, which lay within his sphere; that the Count de Vergennes was
very clearly of the same opinion, and had supported it strongly with reasons of
his own, when he transmitted it to the Comptroller General; but that the
Comptroller, in the discussions of this subject which had taken place, besides
the objections which the Count de Vergennes had repeated to me, and which are
before mentioned, had added, that the contract with the Farmers General was now
so far advanced, that the article of tobacco could not be withdrawn from it,
without unravelling the whole transaction. Having understood that, in this
contract, there was always reserved to the crown a right to discontinue it at
any moment, making just reimbursements to the Farmers, I asked M. Reyneval, if
the contract should be concluded in its present form, whether it might still be
practicable to have it discontinued, as to the article of tobacco, at some
future moment. He said it might be possible.



  Upon the whole, the true obstacle to this proposition has penetrated, in
various ways, through the veil which covers it. The influence of the Farmers
General has been heretofore found sufficient to  







        Miscellaneous Papers       47



shake a minister in his office. Monsieur de Calonnes' continuance or
dismission, has been thought for some time, to be on a poise. Were he to shift
this great weight, therefore, out of his own scale into that of his
adversaries, it would decide their preponderance. The joint interests of France
and America would be insufficient counterpoise in his favor.



  It will be observed that these efforts to improve the commerce of the United
States, have been confined to that branch only which respects France itself,
and t,hat nothing passed on the subject of our commerce with the West Indies,
except an incidental conversation as to our fish. The reason of this, was no
want of a due sense of its importance. Of that, I am thoroughly sensible. But
efforts in favor of this branch would, at present, be desperate: To nations
with which we have not yet treated, and who have possessions in America, we may
offer a free vent of their manufactures in the United States, for a full or
modified admittance into those possessions. But to France, we are obliged to
give that freedom for a different compensation; to wit, for her aid in
effecting our independence. It is difficult, therefore, to say what we have now
to offer her, for an admission into her West Indies. Doubtless, it has its
price. But the question is, what this would be, and whether worth our while to
give it. Were we to propose to give to each other 's citizens all the rights of
natives, they would, of course, count what they should gain by  







48        Jefferson's Works



this enlargement of right, and examine whether it would be worth to them as
much as their monopoly of their West India commerce. If not, that commercial
freedom which we wish to preserve, and which, indeed, is so valuable, leaves us
little to offer. An expression in my letter to the Count de Vergennes, of
November the 20th, wherein I hinted that both nations might, perhaps, come into
the opinion, that the condition of natives might be a better ground of
intercourse for their citizens, than that of the most favored nation, was
intended to furnish an opportunity to the minister of parleying on that
subject, if he was so disposed, and to myself, of seeing whereabouts they would
begin, that I might communicate it to Congress, and leave them to judge of the
expediency of pursuing the subject. But no overtures have followed; for I have
no right to consider as coming from the minister, certain questions which were,
very soon after, proposed to me by an individual. It sufficiently accounts for
these questions, that that individual had written a memorial on the subject,
for the consideration of the minister, and might wish to know what we would be
willing to do. The idea that I should answer such questions to him, is equally
unaccountable, whether we suppose them originating with himself, or coming from
the minister. In fact, I must suppose them to be his own; and I transmit them,
only that Congress may see what one Frenchman, at least, thinks on the subject.
 







        Miscellaneous Papers       49



If we can obtain from Great Britain reasonable conditions of commerce, (which,
in my idea, must forever include an admission into her islands), the freest
ground between these two nations would seem to be the best. But if we can
obtain no equal terms from her, perhaps Congress might think it prudent, as
Holland has done, to connect us unequivocally with France. Holland has
purchased the protection of France. The price she pays, is aid in time of war.
It is interesting for us to purchase a free commerce with the French islands.
But whether it is best to pay for it, by aids in war, or by privileges in
commerce, or not to purchase it at all, is the question.



Answers by Mr. Jefferson, to Questions. addressed to him by Monsieur de
Meusnier, author of that part of the Encyclopedie Methodique, entitled Economic
Politique et Diplomatique.



 1. What has led Congress to determine, that the concurrence of seven votes is
requisite in questions which, by the Confederation, are submitted to the
decision of a majority of the United States, in Congress assembled ?



 The ninth article of Confederation, section six, evidently establishes three
orders of questions in Congress. 1.. The greater ones, which relate to making
peace or war, alliances, coinage, requisitions for money, raising military
force, or appointing its commander-in-chief. z. The lesser ones, which



   VOL. xvii-4  







50        Jefferson's Works



comprehend all other matters submitted by the Confederation to the federal
head. 3. The. single question of adjourning from day to day. This gradation of
questions is distinctly characterized by the article.



  In proportion to the magnitude of these questions, a greater concurrence. of
the voices composing the Union was thought necessary. Three degrees of
concurrence, well distinguished by substantial circumstances, offered
themselves to notice. 1. A concurrence of a majority of the people of the
Union. It was thought that this would be insured, by requiring the voices of
nine States; because, according to the loose estimates which had been made of
the inhabitants, and the proportion of them which were free, it was believed
that even the nine smallest would include a majority of the free citizens of
the Union. The voices, therefore, of nine States were required in the greater
questions. 2. A concurrence of the majority of the States. Seven constitute
that majority. This number, therefore, was required in the lesser questions. 3.
A concurrence of the majority of Congress, that is to say, of the States
actually present in it. As there is no Congress, when there are not seven
States present, this concurrence could never be of less than four States. But
these might happen to be the four smallest, which would not include one-ninth
part of the free citizens of the Union. This kind of majority, therefore, was
entrusted  







        Miscellaneous Papers        51



with nothing but the power of adjourning themselves from day to day.



  Here then are three kind of majorities. 1. Of the people. z. Of the States.
3. Of the Congress: each of which is entrusted to a certain length.



  Though the paragraph in question be clumsily expressed, yet it strictly
announces its own intentions. It defines with precision, the greater questions,
for which nine votes shall be requisite. In the lesser questions, it then
requires a majority of the United States in Congress assembled: a term which
will apply either to the number seven, as being a majority of the States, or to
the number four as being a majority of Congress. Which of the two kinds of
majority, was meant? Clearly, that which would leave a still smaller kind, for
the decision of the question of adjournment. The contrary construction would be
absurd.



  This paragraph, therefore, should be understood, as if it had been expressed
in the following terms: "The United States, in Congress assembled, shall never
engage in war, etc. , but with the consent of nine States: nor determine any
other question, but with the consent of a majority of the whole States, except
the question of adjournment from day to day, which may be determined by a
majority of the States actually present in Congress."



  2. How far is it permitted, to bring on the reconsideration of a question
which Congress has once determined ?  







52        Jefferson's Works



  The first Congress which met, being composed mostly of persons who had been
members of the legislatures of their respective States, it was natural for them
to adopt those rules in their proceedings, to which they had been accustomed in
their legislative Houses; and the more so, as these happened to be nearly the
same, as having been copied from the same original, those of the British
Parliament. One of those rules of proceeding was, that "a question once
determined, cannot be proposed, a second time, in the same session." Congress,
during their first session, in the autumn of 1774, observed this rule strictly.
But before their meeting in the spring of the following year, the war had
broken out. They found themselves at the head of that war, in an executive as
well as legislative capacity. They found that a rule, wise and necessary for a
legislative body, did not suit an executive one, which, being governed by
events, must change their purposes as those change. Besides, their session was
then to become of equal duration with the war; and a rule, which should render
their legislation immutable, during all that period, could not be submitted to.
They, therefore, renounced it in practice, and have ever since continued to
reconsider their questions freely. The only restraint as yet' provided against
the abuse of this permission to reconsider, is, that when a question has been
decided, it cannot be proposed for reconsideration, but by some one who voted  







        Miscellaneous Papers       53



in favor of the former decision, and declares that he has since changed his
opinion. I do not recollect accurately enough, whether it be necessary that his
vote should have decided that of his State, and the vote of his State have
decided that of Congress.



  Perhaps it might have been better, when they were forming the federal
Constitution, to have assimilated it, .as much as possible, to the particular
Constitutions of the States. All of these have distributed the legislative,
executive and judiciary powers, into different departments. In the federal
Constitution, the judiciary powers are separated from the others; but the
legislative and executive are both exercised by Congress. A means of amending
this defect has been thought of. Congress having a power to establish what
committees of their own body they please, and to arrange among them the
distribution of their business, they might, on the first day of their annual
meeting, appoint an executive committee, consisting of a member from each
State, and refer to them 'all executive business which should occur during
their session; confining themselves to what is of a legislative nature, that is
to say, to the heads described in the ninth article, as of the competence of
nine States only, and to such other questions as should lead to the
establishment of general rules. The journal of this committee, of the preceding
day, might be read the next morning in Congress, and considered



   approved unless a vote was demanded on a  







54        Jefferson's Works



particular article, and that article changed: The sessions of Congress would
then be short, and when they separated, the Confederation authorizes the
appointment of a committee of the States, which would naturally succeed to the
business of the executive committee. The legislative business would be better
done, because the attention of the members would not be interrupted by the
details of execution; and the executive business would be better done,
because,. business of this nature is better adapted to small, than great
bodies. A monarchical head should confide the execution of its will to
departments, consisting, each, of a plurality of hands, who would warp that
will, as much as possible, towards wisdom and moderation, the two qualities it
generally wants. But, a republican head, founding its decrees, originally, in
these two qualities, should commit them to a single hand for execution, giving
them, thereby, a promptitude which republican proceedings generally want.
Congress could not, indeed, confide their executive business to a smaller
number than a committee consisting of a member from each State. This is
necessary to insure the confidence of the Union. But it would be gaining a
great deal, to reduce the executive head to thirteen, and to relieve themselves
of those details. This, however, has as yet been the subject of private
conversations only.



  3. A succinct account of paper money in America? Previous to the Revolution,
most of the States  







        Miscellaneous Papers        55



were in the habit, whenever they had occasion for more money than could be
raised immediately by taxes, to issue paper notes or bills, in the name of the
State, wherein they promised to pay to the bearer the sum named in the note or
bill. In some of the States no time of payment was fixed, nor tax laid to
enable payment. In these, the bills depreciated. But others of the States named
in the bill the day when it should be paid, laid taxes to bring in money enough
for that purpose, and paid the bills punctually, on or before the day named. In
these States, paper money was in as high estimation as gold and silver. On the
commencement of the late Revolution, Congress had no money: The external
commerce of the States being suppressed, the farmer could not sell his produce,
and, of course, could not pay a tax. Congress had no resource then but in paper
money. Not being able to lay a tax for its redemption, they could only promise
.that taxes should be laid for that purpose, so as to redeem the bills by a
certain day. They did not foresee the long continuance of the war, the almost
total suppression of their exports, and other events, which rendered the
performance of their engagement impossible. The paper money continued for a
twelvemonth equal to gold and silver. But the quantities which they were
obliged to emit for the purpose of the war, exceeded what had been the usual
quantity of the circulating medium. It began, therefore, to be 







56        Jefferson's Works



come cheaper, or, as we expressed it, it depreciated, as gold and silver would
have done, had they been thrown into circulation in equal quantities. But not
having, like them, an intrinsic value, its depreciation was more rapid and
greater than could ever have happened with them. In two years, it had fallen to
two dollars of paper money for one of silver ; in three years, to four for one
; in nine months more, it fell to ten for one; and in the six months following,
that is to say, by September, 1779, it had fallen to twenty for one.



 Congress, alarmed at the consequences which were to be apprehended, should
they lose this resource altogether, thought it necessary to make a vigorous
effort to stop its further depreciation. They therefore determined, in the
first place; that their emissions should not exceed two hundred millions of
dollars, to which term they were then nearly arrived; and though they knew that
twenty dollars of what they were then issuing, would buy no more for their army
than one silver dollar would buy, yet they thought it would be worth while to
submit to the sacrifice of nineteen out of twenty dollars, if they could
thereby stop further depreciation. They, therefore, published an address to
their constituents, in which they renewed their original declarations, that
this paper money should be redeemed at dollar for dollar. They proved the
ability of the States to do this, and that their liberty would be cheaply
bought at that price. The  







        Miscellaneous Papers         57



declaration was ineffectual. No man received the money at a better rate; on the
contrary, in six months more, that is, by March, 1780, it had fallen to forty
for one. Congress then tried an experiment of a different kind. Considering
their former offers to redeem this money at par, as relinquished by the general
refusal to take it, but in progressive depreciation, they required the whole to
be brought in, declared it should be redeemed at its present value, of forty
for one, and that they would give to the holders new bills, reduced in their
denomination to the sum of gold or silver, which was actually to be paid for
them. This would reduce the nominal sum of the mass in circulation to the
present worth of that mass, which was five millions; a sum not too great for
the circulation of the States, and which, they therefore hoped, would not
depreciate further, as they continued firm in their purpose of emitting no
more. This effort was as unavailing as the former. Very little of the money was
brought in. It continued to circulate and to depreciate, till the end of 1780,
when it had fallen to seventyfive for one, and the money circulated from the
French army, being, by that time, sensible in all the States north of the
Potomac, the paper ceased its circulation altogether in those States. In
Virginia and North Carolina it continued a year longer, within which time it
fell to one thousand for one, and then expired, as it had done in the other
States, without a single groan. Not a murmur was heard on this  







58        Jefferson's Works



occasion, among the people. On the contrary, universal congratulations took
place on their seeing this gigantic mass, whose dissolution had threatened
convulsions which should shake their infant confederacy to its centre, quietly
interred in its grave. Foreigners, indeed, who do not, like the natives, feel
indulgence for its memory, as of a being which has vindicated their liberties,
and fallen in the moment of victory, have been loud, and still are loud in
their complaints. A few of them have reason; but the most noisy are not the
best of them. They are persons who have become bankrupt by unskillful attempts
at commerce with America. That they may have some pretext to offer to their
creditors, they have bought up great masses of this dead money in America,
where it is to be had at five thousand for one, and they show the certificates
of their paper possessions, as if they had all died in their hands, and had
been the cause of their bankruptcy. Justice will be done to all, by paying to
all persons what this money actually cost them, with an interest of six per
cent. from the time they received it. If difficulties present themselves in the
ascertaining the epoch of the receipt, it has been thought better that the
State should lose, by admitting easy proofs, than that individuals, and
especially foreigners, should, by being held to such as would be difficult,
perhaps impossible.



  4. Virginia certainly owed two millions sterling to Great Britain at the
conclusion of the war. Some  







        Miscellaneous Papers     59



have conjectured the debt as high as three millions. I think that State owed
near as much as all the. rest put together. This is to be ascribed to
peculiarities in the tobacco trade. The advantages made by the British
merchants, on the tobaccos consigned to them, were so enormous, that they.
spared no means of increasing those consignments. A powerful engine for this
purpose, was the giving good prices and credit to the planter, till they got
him more immersed in debt than he could pay, without selling his lands or
slaves. They then reduced the prices given for his tobacco, so that let his
shipments be ever so great, and his demand of necessaries ever so economical,
they never permitted him to clear off his debt. These debts had become
hereditary from father to son, for many generations, so that the planters were
a species of property, annexed to certain mercantile houses in London.



  5. The members of Congress are differently paid by different States. Some are
on fixed allowances, from four to eight dollars a day. Others have their
expenses paid, and a surplus for their time. This surplus is of two; three, or
four dollars a day.



  6. I do not believe there has ever been a moment, when a single Whig, in any
one State, would not have shuddered at the very idea of a separation of their
State from the confederacy. The Tories would, at all times, have been glad to
see the confederacy dissolved, even by particles at a time,  







60        Jefferson's Works



in hopes of their attaching themselves again to Great Britain.



  7. The 11th article of Confederation admits Canada to accede to the
Confederation at its own will, but adds, "no other colony shall be admitted to
the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States." When the plan of
April, 1784, for establishing new States was on the carpet, the committee who
framed the report of that plan, had inserted this clause, "provided nine States
agree to such admission, according to the reservation of the 11th of the
articles of Confederation. " It was objected, 1. That the words of the
confederation, " no other colony, " could refer only to the residuary
possessions of Great Britain, as the two Floridas, Nova Scotia, etc., not being
already parts of the Union ; that the law for " admitting " a new member into
the Union, could not be applied to a territory which was already in the Union,
as making part of a State which was a member of it. a. That it would be
improper to allow " nine " States to receive a new member, because the same
reasons which rendered that number proper now, would render a greater one
proper, when the number composing the Union should be increased. They therefore
struck out this paragraph and inserted a proviso, that "the consent of so many
States, in Congress, shall be first obtained, as may, at the time, be competent
; " thus leaving the question, whether the 11th article applies to the
admission of new States, to be  







        Miscellaneous Papers     61



decided when that admission shall be asked. See the Journal of Congress of
April 20, 1784. Another doubt was started in this debate, viz. : whether the
agreement of the nine States, required by the Confederation, was to be made by
their legislatures, or b' y their delegates in Congress ? The expression
adopted, viz. : " so many States, in Congress, is first obtained, " show what
was their sense of this matter. If it be agreed that the 11th article of the
Confederation is not to be applied to the admission of these new States, then
it is contended that their admission comes within the 13th article, which
forbids "any alteration, unless agreed to in a Congress of the United States,
and afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State. " The independence
of the new States of Kentucky and Franklin, will soon bring on the ultimate
decision of all these questions.



 8. Particular instances whereby the General Assembly of Virginia have shown
that they considered the ordinance called their Constitution, as every other
ordinance, or act of the legislature, subject to be altered by the legislature
for the time being.



  1. The convention which formed that Constitution, declared themselves to be
the House of Delegates, during the term for which they were originally elected,
and in the autumn of the year met the Senate, elected under the new
Constitution, and did legislative business with them. At this time, there were
malefactors in the public jail, and  







62        Jefferson's Works



there was as yet no court established for their trial. They passed a law,
appointing certain members by name, who were then members of the Executive
Council, to be a court for the trial of these malefactors, though the
Constitution had said, in express words, that no person should exercise the
powers of more than one of the three departments, legislative, executive, .and
judiciary at the same time. This .proves that the very men who had made that
Constitution understood that it would be alterable by the General Assembly.
This court was only for that occasion. When the next General Assembly met,
after the election of the ensuing year, there was a new set of malefactors in
the jail, and no court to try them. This Assembly passed a similar law to the
former, appointing certain members of the Executive Council to be an occasional
court for this particular case. Not having the journals of Assembly by me, I am
unable to say whether this measure was repealed afterwards. However, they are
instances of executive and judiciary powers exercised by the same persons,
under the authority of a law made in contradiction to the Constitution.



  2. There was a process depending in the ordinary courts of justice, between
two individuals of the names of Robinson and Fauntleroy, who were relations, of
different descriptions, to one Robinson, a British subject, lately dead. Each
party claimed a right to inherit the lands of the  







        Miscellaneous Papers       63



decedent according to the laws. Their right should by the Constitution have
been decided by the judi- ciary courts ; and it was actually depending before
them. One of the parties petitioned the Assembly (I think it was in the year
1782), who passed a law deciding the right in his favor. In the following year,
a Frenchman, master of a vessel, entered into port without complying with the
laws established in such cases, whereby he incurred the forfeitures of the law
to any person who would sue for them. An individual instituted a legal process
to recover these forfeitures according to the law of the land. The Frenchman
petitioned the Assembly, who passed a law deciding the question of forfeiture
in his favor. These acts are occasional repeals of that part of the
Constitution which forbids the same persons to exercise legislative and
judiciary powers at the same time.



  The Assembly is in the habitual exercise, during their sessions, of directing
the Executive what to do. There are few pages of their journals which do not
show proofs of this, and consequently instances of the legislative and
executive powers exercised by the same persons at the same time. These things
prove that it has been the uninterrupted opinion of every Assembly, from that
which passed the ordinance called the Constitution down to the present day,
that their acts may control that ordinance, and, of course, that the State of
Virginia has no fixed Constitution at all.  







64        Jefferson's Works







        _______________



 The succeeding observations were made by Mr. Jefferson on an article entitled
"Etats Unis," prepared for the Encyclopedie Methodique, and submitted to him
before its publication. 



        _______________







  Page 8. The malefactors sent to America were not sufficient in number to
merit enumeration, as one class-out of three which peopled America. It was at a
late period of their history that this practice began. I have no book by me
which enables me to point out the date of its commencement. But I do not think
the whole number sent would amount to two thousand, and being principally men,
eaten up with disease, they married seldom and propagated little. I do not
suppose that themselves and their descendants are at present four thousand;
which is little more than one-thousandth part of the whole inhabitants.



  Indented servants formed a considerable supply. These were poor Europeans,
who went to America to settle themselves. If they could pay their passage, it
was well. If not, they must find means of paying it. They were at liberty,
therefore, to make an agreement with any person they chose, to serv