The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 1 (of 9)

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

    Richmond, April 23, 1781.

Sir,—On the 18th instant, the enemy came from Portsmouth up James river, in considerable force, though their numbers are not yet precisely known to us. They landed at Burwell's ferry, below Williamsburg, and also a short distance above the mouth of Chickahomony. This latter circumstance obliged Colonel Innis, who commanded a body of militia, stationed on that side the river to cover the country from depredation, to retire upwards, lest he should be placed between their two bodies. One of these entered Williamsburg on the 20th, and the other proceeded to a ship-yard we had on Chickahomony. What injury they did there, I am not yet informed. I take for granted, they have burned an unfinished twenty-gun ship we had there. Such of the stores, belonging to the yard as were movable, had been carried some miles higher up the river. Two small gallies also retired up the river. Whether by this, either the stores or gallies were saved, is yet unknown. I am just informed, from a private hand, that they left Williamsburg early yesterday morning. If this sudden departure was not in consequence of some circumstance of alarm unknown to us, their expedition to Williamsburg has been unaccountable. There were no public stores at that place, but those which were necessary for the daily subsistence of the men there. Where they mean to descend next, the event alone can determine. Besides harassing our militia with this kind of war, the taking them from their farms at the interesting season of planting their corn, will have an unfortunate effect on the crop of the ensuing year.

I have heard nothing certain of General Greene since the 6th instant, except that his head-quarters were on Little river on the 11th.

I have the honor to be, with the highest respect and esteem, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

    Richmond, May 9, 1781.

Sir,—Since the last letter which I had the honor of addressing to your Excellency, the military movements in this State, except a very late one, have scarcely merited communication.

The enemy, after leaving Williamsburg, came directly up James river and landed at City Point, being the point of land on the southern point of the confluence of Appomattox and James rivers. They marched up to Petersburg, where they were received by Baron Steuben, with a body of militia somewhat under one thousand, who, though the enemy were two thousand and three hundred strong, disputed the ground very handsomely two hours, during which time the enemy gained only one mile, and that by inches. Our troops were then ordered to retire over a bridge, which they did in perfectly good order. Our loss was between sixty and seventy, killed, wounded, and taken. The enemy's is unknown, but it must be equal to ours; for their own honor they must confess this, as they broke twice and run like sheep, till supported by fresh troops. An inferiority in number obliged our force to withdraw about twelve miles upwards, till more militia should be assembled. The enemy burned all the tobacco in the warehouses at Petersburg and its neighborhood. They afterwards proceeded to Osborne's, where they did the same, and also destroyed the residue of the public armed vessels, and several of private property, and then came to Manchester, which is on the hill opposite this place.

By this time, Major General Marquis Fayette having been advised of our danger, had, by forced marches, got here with his detachment of Continental troops; and reinforcements of militia having also come in, the enemy, finding we were able to meet them on equal footing, thought proper to burn the warehouses and tobacco at Manchester, and retire to Warwick, where they did the same. Ill armed and untried militia, who never before saw the face of an enemy, have, at times, during the course of this war, given occasions of exultation to our enemies, but they afforded us, while at Warwick, a little satisfaction in the same way. Six or eight hundred of their picked men of light infantry, with General Arnold at their head, having crossed the river from Warwick, fled from a patrole of sixteen horse, every man into his boat as he could, some pushing North, some South, as their fears drove them. Their whole force then proceeded to the Hundred, being the point of land within the confluence of the two rivers, embarked, and fell down the river. Their foremost vessels had got below Burwell's ferry on the 6th instant, when, on the arrival of a boat from Portsmouth, and a signal given, the whole crowded sail up the river again with a fair wind and tide, and came to anchor at Brandon; there six days' provision was dealt out to every man; they landed, and had orders to march an hour before day the next morning. We have not yet heard which way they went, or whether they have gone, but having, about the same time, received authentic information that Lord Cornwallis had, on the 1st instant, advanced from Wilmington half way to Halifax, we have no doubt, putting all circumstances together, that these two armies are forming a junction.

We are strengthening our hands with militia, as far as arms, either public or private, can be collected, but cannot arm a force which may face the combined armies of the enemy. It will, therefore, be of very great importance that General Wayne's forces be pressed on with the utmost despatch. Arms and a naval force, however, are what must ultimately save us. This movement of our enemies we consider as most perilous in its consequences.

Our latest advices from General Greene were of the 26th ult., when he was lying before Camden, the works and garrison of which were much stronger than he had expected to find them.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant.

TO THE VIRGINIA DELEGATES IN CONGRESS

    In Council, May 10, 1781.

Gentlemen,—A small affair has taken place between the British commanding officer in this State, General Phillips, and the Executive, of which, as he may endeavor to get rid of it through the medium of Congress, I think it necessary previously to apprise you.

General Scott obtained permission from the Commandant at Charleston, for vessels with necessary supplies to go from hence to them, but instead of sending the original, sent only a copy of the permission taken by his brigade major. I applied to General Phillips to supply this omission by furnishing a passport for the vessel. Having just before taken great offence at a threat of retaliation in the treatment of prisoners, he enclosed his answer to my letter under this address, "To Thomas Jefferson, Esq., American Governor of Virginia." I paused on receiving the letter, and for some time would not open it; however, when the miserable condition of our brethren in Charleston occurred to me, I could not determine that they should be left without the necessaries of life, while a punctilio should be discussing between the British General and myself; and, knowing that I had an opportunity of returning the compliment to Mr. Phillips in a case perfectly corresponding, I opened the letter.

Very shortly after, I received, as I expected, the permission of the board of war, for the British flag vessel then in Hampton Roads with clothing and refreshments, to proceed to Alexandria. I enclosed and addressed it, "To William Phillips, Esq., commanding the British forces in the Commonwealth of Virginia." Personally knowing Phillips to be the proudest man of the proudest nation on earth, I well know he will not open this letter; but having occasion, at the same time, to write to Captain Gerlach, the flag-master, I informed him that the Convention troops in this State should perish for want of necessaries, before any should be carried to them through this State, till General Phillips either swallowed this pill of retaliation, or made an apology for his rudeness. And in this, should the matter come ultimately to Congress, we hope for their support.

He has the less right to insist on the expedition of his flag, because his letter, instead of enclosing a passport to expedite ours, contained only an evasion of the application, by saying he had referred it to Sir Henry Clinton, and in the meantime, he has come up the river, and taken the vessel with her loading, which we had chartered and prepared to send to Charleston, and which wanted nothing but the passport to enable her to depart.

I would further observe to you, that this gentleman's letters to the Baron Steuben first, and afterwards to the Marquis Fayette, have been in a style so intolerably insolent and haughty, that both these gentlemen have been obliged to inform him, that if he thinks proper to address them again in the same spirit, all intercourse shall be discontinued.

I am, with great respect and esteem, Gentlemen,

    Your most obedient servant.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON

    Charlottesville, May 28,1781.

Sir,—I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall have the honor of being presented to your Excellency, of the junction of Lord Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold, who had succeeded to the command on the death of Major-general Phillips. I am now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at Westover a reinforcement of two thousand men just arrived from New York, crossed James river, and on the 26th instant, were three miles advanced on their way towards Richmond; at which place, Major-General the Marquis Fayette lay with three thousand men, regulars and militia: these being the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the eleven hundred arms from Rhode Island, which are, about this time, at the place where our public stores are deposited. The whole force of the enemy within this State, from the best intelligence I have been able to get, is, I think, about seven thousand men, infantry and cavalry, including, also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth. A number of privateers, which are constantly ravaging the shores of our rivers, prevent us from receiving any aid from the counties lying on navigable waters; and powerful operations meditated against our western frontier, by a joint force of British and Indian savages, have, as your Excellency before knew, obliged us to embody between two and three thousand men in that quarter. Your Excellency will judge from this state of things, and from what you know of our country, what it may probably suffer during the present campaign. Should the enemy be able to produce no opportunity of annihilating the Marquis's army, a small proportion of their force may yet restrain his movements effectually while the greater part are employed, in detachment, to waste an unarmed country, and lead the minds of the people to acquiesce under those events which they see no human power prepared to ward off. We are too far removed from the other scenes of war to say, whether the main force of the enemy be within this State. But I suppose they cannot anywhere spare so great an army for the operations of the field. Were it possible for this circumstance to justify in your Excellency a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident, from the universal voice, that the presence of their beloved countryman, whose talents have so long been successfully employed in establishing the freedom of kindred States, to whose person they have still flattered themselves they retained some right, and have ever looked up, as their dernier resort in distress, would restore full confidence of salvation to our citizens, and would render them equal to whatever is not impossible. I cannot undertake to foresee and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a resolution. The whole subject is before you, of which I see only detached parts; and your judgment will be formed on a view of the whole. Should the danger of this State and its consequence to the Union, be such, as to render it best for the whole that you should repair to its assistance, the difficulty would then be, how to keep men out of the field. I have undertaken to hint this matter to your Excellency, not only on my own sense of its importance to us, but at the solicitations of many members of weight in our legislature, which has not yet assembled to speak their own desires.

A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution has prepared for those oppressed with the labors of my office, and a long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands, has prepared my way for retirement to a private station: still, as an individual, I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence, and have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive for that gratitude, esteem, and respect, with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant.

TO THE MARQUIS LA FAYETTE

    Monticello, August 4, 1781.

Sir,—I am much obliged by the trouble you took in forwarding to me the letter of his Excellency, the President of Congress. It found me in Bedford, an hundred miles southward of this, where I was confined till within these few days, by an unfortunate fall from my horse. This has occasioned the delay of the answer which I now take the liberty of enclosing to you, as the confidential channel of conveyance, pointed out by the President.

I thank you also for your kind sentiments and friendly offer on the occasion, which, that I cannot avail myself of, has given me more mortification than almost any occurrence of my life. I lose an opportunity, the only one I ever had, and perhaps ever shall have, of combining public service with private gratification. Of seeing countries whose improvements in science, in arts, and in civilization, it has been my fortune to admire at a distance, but never to see, and at the same time of lending some aid to a cause, which has been handed on from its first organization to its present stage, by every effort of which my poor faculties were capable. These, however, have not been such as to give satisfaction to some of my countrymen, and it has become necessary for me to remain in the State till a later period in the present year, than is consistent with an acceptance of what has been offered me.[102 - On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson was appointed, with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens, Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiating peace, then expected to be effected through the mediation of the Empress of Russia—Ed.] Declining higher objects, therefore, my only one must be to show that suggestion and fact are different things, and that public misfortune may be produced as well by public poverty and private disobedience to the laws, as by the misconduct of public servants.[103 - In 1781, the depredations of the enemy, and the public and private losses which they occasioned, produced the ordinary effect of complaint against those who had charge of the public defence, and especially against Mr. Jefferson (the Governor of Virginia). A popular clamor was excited against him, and, under the impulses of the moment, Mr. George Nicholas, a member from Albermarle, moved his impeachment.The charges were, 1. That he had not, as soon as advised by General Washington of the meditated invasion, put the country in a state of preparation and defence; 2. That during the invasion, he did not use the means of resistance which were at his command; 3. That he too much consulted his personal safety, when Arnold first entered Richmond, by which others were dispirited and discouraged; 4. That he ignominiously fled from Monticello to the neighboring mountain on Tarleton's approach to Charlottesville; and 5. That he abandoned the office of Governor as soon as it became one of difficulty and danger.Mr. Jefferson has been long since acquitted of these charges by the almost unanimous voice of his countrymen.—Ed.] The independence of private life under the protection of republican laws will, I hope, yield me the happiness from which no slave is so remote as the minister of a commonwealth. From motives of private esteem as well as public gratitude, I shall pray it to be your lot in every line of life, as no one can with more truth subscribe himself with the highest regard and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH, ESQ

    Monticello, September 16, 1781.

Dear Sir,—I have received your letter of the 7th instant. That, mentioned to have been sent by the preceding post, has not come to hand, nor two others, which Mrs. Randolph informs me you wrote before you left Virginia, nor indeed any others, should you have been so kind as to have written any others. When I received the first letter from the President of Congress, enclosing their resolution, and mentioning the necessity of an expeditious departure, my determination to attend at the next session of the Assembly offered a ready and insuperable obstacle to my accepting of that appointment, and left me under no necessity of deliberating with myself whether, that objection being removed, any other considerations might prevent my undertaking it. I find there are many, and must, therefore, decline it altogether. Were it possible for me to determine again to enter into public business, there is no appointment whatever which would have been so agreeable to me. But I have taken my final leave of everything of that nature. I have retired to my farm, my family and books, from which I think nothing will evermore separate me. A desire to leave public office, with a reputation not more blotted than it has deserved, will oblige me to emerge at the next session of our Assembly, and perhaps to accept of a seat in it. But as I go with a single object, I shall withdraw when that shall be accomplished. I should have thought that North Carolina, rescued from the hands of Britain, Georgia and almost the whole of South Carolina recovered, would have been sufficiently humiliating to induce them to treat with us. If this will not do, I hope the stroke is now hanging over them which will satisfy them that their views of Southern conquests are likely to be as visionary as those of Northern. I think it impossible Lord Cornwallis should escape. Mrs. Randolph will be able to give you all the news on this subject, as soon as you shall be able to release her from others. I am, with much esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON

    Monticello, October 28th, 1781.

Sir,—I hope it will not be unacceptable to your Excellency to receive the congratulations of a private individual on your return to your native country, and, above all things, on the important success which has attended it.[104 - The battle of Yorktown.] Great as this has been, however, it can scarcely add to the affection with which we have looked up to you. And if, in the minds of any, the motives of gratitude to our good allies were not sufficiently apparent, the part they have borne in this action must amply evince them. Notwithstanding the state of perpetual decrepitude to which I am unfortunately reduced, I should certainly have done myself the honor of paying my respects to you personally; but I apprehend these visits, which are meant by us as marks of our attachment to you, must interfere with the regulations of a camp, and be particularly inconvenient to one whose time is too precious to be wasted in ceremony.

I beg you to believe me among the sincerest of those who subscribe themselves, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO GENERAL GATES

    Richmond, December 14th, 1781.

Dear Sir,—I have received your friendly letters of August 2d and November 15th, and some of the gentlemen to whom you wished them to be communicated not being here, I have taken the liberty of handing them to some others, so as to answer the spirit of your wish. It seems likely to end, as I ever expected it would, in a final acknowledgment that good dispositions and arrangements will not do without a certain degree of bravery and discipline in those who are to carry them into execution. This, the men whom you commanded, or the greater part of them at least, unfortunately wanted on that particular occasion.

I have not a doubt but that, on a fair enquiry, the returning justice of your countrymen will remind them of Saratoga, and induce them to recognize your merits. My future plan of life scarcely admits a hope of my having the pleasure of seeing you at your seat; yet I assuredly shall do it should it ever lie within my power, and am assured that Mrs. Jefferson will join me in sincere thanks for your kind sentiments and invitation, and in expressions of equal esteem for Mrs. Gates and yourself, and in a certain hope that, should any circumstance lead you within our reach, you will make us happy by your company at Monticello. We have no news to communicate. That the Assembly does little, does not come under that description.

I am, with very sincere esteem, dear sir, your friend and servant.

TO JAMES MADISON

    Monticello, March 24th, 1782.

Dear Sir,—I have received from you two several favors, on the subject of the designs against the territorial rights of Virginia.[105 - The title of Virginia to the Northwestern territory was controverted, as early as 1779, by some of the other States, upon the ground that all lands, the title of which had originally been in the crown and had never been alienated, were the common property of the Confederation, by right of conquest—the revolution having transferred the title from the British sovereign to the Confederation. This view was resisted by Virginia in an able remonstrance to Congress in October, 1779. The question, however, never came to an issue; for Virginia, moved by a patriotic impulse, and ready to sacrifice her individual interest to the general good, made a voluntary cession of the whole territory to the Confederation.] I never before could comprehend on what principle our rights to the western country could be denied, which would not, at the same time, subvert the right of all the States to the whole of their territory. What objections may be founded on the charter of New York, I cannot say, having never seen that charter, nor been able to get a copy of it in this country. I had thought to have seized the first leisure on my return from the last Assembly, to have considered and stated our rights, and to have communicated to our delegates, or perhaps to the public, so much as I could trace, and expected to have derived some assistance from ancient MSS., which I have been able to collect. These, with my other papers and books, however, had been removed to Augusta to be out of danger from the enemy, and have not yet been brought back. The ground on which I now find the question to be bottomed is so unknown to me that it is out of my power to say anything on the subject. Should it be practicable for me to procure a copy of the charter of New York, I shall probably think on it, and would cheerfully communicate to you whatever could occur to me worth your notice. But this will probably be much too late to be of any service before Congress, who doubtless will decide, ere long, on the subject. I sincerely wish their decision may tend to the preservation of peace. If I am not totally deceived in the determination of this country, the decision of Congress, if unfavorable, will not close the question. I suppose some people on the western waters, who are ambitious to be Governors, &c., will urge a separation by authority of Congress. But the bulk of the people westward are already thrown into great ferment by the report of what is proposed, to which I think they will not submit. This separation is unacceptable to us in form only, and not in substance. On the contrary, I may safely say it is desired by the eastern part of our country whenever their western brethren shall think themselves able to stand alone. In the meantime, on the petition of the western counties, a plan is digesting for rendering their access to government more easy. I trouble you with the enclosed to Mons. Marbois. I had the pleasure of hearing that your father and family were all well yesterday, by your brother, who is about to study the law in my neighborhood. I shall always be glad to hear from you, and, if it be possible for me, retired from public business, to find anything worth your notice, I shall communicate it with great pleasure.

I am with sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

JAMES MONROE TO THOMAS JEFFERSON

    Richmond, 11th of May, 1782.

Dear Sir,—As I so lately wrote you by Mr. Short, and have since daily expected to see you here, I did not propose writing to you till after I should have that pleasure; but as I begin to fear you will not abate that firmness and decision which you have frequently shown in the service of your country, even upon this occasion, and as I have had an opportunity since I last wrote of being better informed of the sentiments of those whom I know you put the greatest value on, I think it my duty to make you acquainted therewith. It is publicly said here, that the people of your country informed you that they had frequently elected you in times of less difficulty and danger than the present to please you; but that now they had called you forth into public office to serve themselves. This is a language which has been often used in my presence; and you will readily conceive that, as it furnishes those who argue on the fundamental maxims of a Republican government with ample field for declamation, the conclusion has always been, that you should not decline the service of your country. The present is generally conceived to be an important era, which, of course, makes your attendance particularly necessary. And as I have taken the liberty to give you the public opinion and desire upon this occasion, and as I am warmly interested in whatever concerns the public interest or has relation to you, it will be necessary to add, it is earnestly the desire of, dear Sir,

    Your sincere friend and obedient servant.