Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2

Amsterdam, March 29, 1788.

I cannot close my letter, without some observations on the transfer of our domestic debt to foreigners. This circumstance, and the failure to pay off Fiseaux’ loan, were the sole causes of the stagnation of our late loan. For otherwise our credit would have stood on more hopeful grounds than heretofore. There was a condition in the last loan, that, the lenders furnishing one third of the money, the remaining two thirds of the bonds should remain eighteen months unsold, and at their option to take or not, and that in the mean time, the same bankers should open no other loan for us. These same lenders became purchasers of our domestic debt, and they were disposed to avail themselves of the power they had thus acquired over us as to our foreign demands, to make us pay the domestic one. Should the present necessities have obliged you to comply with their proposition for the present year, I should be of opinion it ought to be the last instance. If the transfer of these debts to Europe meet with any encouragement from us, we can no more borrow money here, let our necessities be what they will. For who will give ninety-six per cent, for the foreign obligations of the same nation, whose domestic ones can be bought at the same market for fifty-five per cent.; the former, too, bearing an interest of only five per cent., while the latter yields six. If any discouragements can be honestly thrown on this transfer, it would seem advisable, in order to keep the domestic debt at home. It would be a very effectual one, if, instead of the title existing in our treasury books alone, it was made to exist in loose papers, as our loan office debts do. The European holder would then be obliged to risk the title paper of his capital, as well as his interest, in the hands of his agent in America, whenever the interest was to be demanded; whereas, at present, he trusts him with the interest only. This single circumstance would put a total stop to all future sales of domestic debt at this market. Whether this, or any other obstruction, can or should be thrown in the way of these operations, is not for me to decide; but I have thought the subject worthy your consideration.

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

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXII.—TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, May 2, 1788

TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Paris, May 2, 1788.

Dear Sir,

I am honored with your Excellency’s letter by the last packet, and thank you for the information it contains on the communication between the Cayahoga and Big Beaver. I have ever considered the opening a canal between those two water courses, as the most important work in that line, which the state of Virginia could undertake. If will infallibly turn through the Potomac all the commerce of Lake Erie, and the country west of that, except what may pass down the Mississippi; and it is important that it be soon done, lest that commerce should, in the mean time, get established in another channel. Having, in the spring of the last year, taken a journey through the southern parts of France, and particularly examined the canal of Languedoc, through its whole course, I take the liberty of sending you the notes I made on the spot, as you may find in them something perhaps, which may be turned to account, some time or other, in the prosecution of the Potomac canal. Being merely a copy from my travelling notes, they are undigested and imperfect, but may still, perhaps, give hints capable of improvement in your mind.

The affairs of Europe are in such a state still, that it is impossible to say what form they will take ultimately. France and Prussia, viewing the Emperor as their most dangerous and common enemy, had heretofore seen their common safety as depending on a strict connection with one another. This had naturally inclined the Emperor to the scale of England, and the Empress also, as having views in common with the Emperor, against the Turks. But these two powers would, at any time, have gladly quitted England, to coalesce with France, as being the power which they met every where, opposed as a barrier to all their schemes of aggrandizement. When, therefore, the present King of Prussia took the eccentric measure of bidding defiance to France, by placing his brother-in-law on the throne of Holland, the two empires immediately seized the occasion of soliciting an alliance with France. The motives for this appeared so plausible, that it was believed the latter would have entered into this alliance, and that thus the whole political system of Europe would have taken a new form. What has prevented this court from coming into it, we know not. The unmeasurable ambition of the Emperor, and his total want of moral principle and honor, are suspected. A great share of Turkey, the recovery of Silesia, the consolidation of his dominions by the Bavarian exchange, the liberties of the Germanic body, all occupy his mind together; and his head is not well enough organized, to pursue so much only of all this, as is practicable. Still it was thought that France might safely have coalesced with these powers, because Russia and herself holding close together, as their interests would naturally dictate, the Emperor could never stir, but with their permission. France seems, however, to have taken the worst of all parties, that is, none at all. She folds her arms, lets the two empires go to work to cut up Turkey as they can, and holds Prussia aloof, neither as a friend nor foe. This is withdrawing her opposition from the two empires, without the benefit of any condition whatever. In the mean time, England has clearly overreached herself. She excited the war between the Russians and Turks, in hopes that France, still supporting the Turks, would be embarrassed with the two empires. She did not foresee the event which has taken place, of France abandoning the Turks, and that which may take place, of her union with the two empires. She allied herself with Holland, but cannot obtain the alliance of Prussia. This latter power would be very glad to close again the breach with France, and therefore, while there remains an opening for this, holds off from England, whose fleets could not enter into Silesia, to protect that from the Emperor. Thus you see, that the old system is unhinged, and no new one hung in its place. Probabilities are rather in favor of a connection between the two empires, France, and Spain. Several symptoms show themselves, of friendly dispositions between Russia and France, unfriendly ones between Russia and England, and such as are barely short of hostility between England and France. But into real hostilities, this country would with difficulty be drawn. Her finances are too deranged, her internal union too much dissolved, to hazard a war. The nation is pressing on fast, to a fixed constitution. Such a revolution in the public opinion has taken place, that the crown already feels its powers bounded, and is obliged, by its measures, to acknowledge limits.

A States-General will be called at some epoch not distant; they will probably establish a civil list, and leave the government to temporary provisions of money, so as to render frequent assemblies of the national representative necessary. How that representative will be organized, is yet uncertain. Among a thousand projects, the best seems to me, that of dividing them into two Houses, of Commons and Nobles; the Commons to be chosen by the Provincial Assemblies, who are chosen themselves by the people, and the Nobles by the body of Noblesse, as in Scotland. But there is no reason to conjecture, that this is the particular scheme which will be preferred.

The war between the Russians and Turks has made an opening for our Commodore Paul Jones. The Empress has invited him into her service. She insures to him the rank of rear-admiral; will give him a separate command, and it is understood, that he is never to be commanded. I think she means to oppose him to the Captain Pacha, on the Black Sea. He is by this time, probably, at St. Petersburg. The circumstances did not permit his awaiting the permission of Congress, because the season was close at hand for opening the campaign. But he has made it a condition, that he shall be free at all times to return to the orders of Congress, whenever they shall please to call for him; and also, that he shall not, in any case be expected to bear arms against France. I believe Congress had it in contemplation to give him the grade of admiral, from the date of his taking the Serapis. Such a measure now, would greatly gratify him, second the efforts of fortune in his favor, and better the opportunities of improving him for our service, whenever the moment shall come in which we may want him.

The danger of our incurring something like a bankruptcy in Holland, which might have been long, and even fatally felt in a moment of crisis, induced me to take advantage of Mr. Adams’s journey to take leave at the Hague, to meet him there, get him to go on to Amsterdam, and try to avert the impending danger. The moment of paying a great sum of annual interest was approaching. There was no money on hand; the board of treasury had notified that they could not remit any; and the progress of the loan, which had been opened there, had absolutely stopped. Our bankers there gave me notice of all this; and that a single day’s failure in the payment of interest, would have the most fatal effect on our credit. I am happy to inform you, we were able to set the loan a going again, and that the evil is at least postponed. Indeed, I am tolerably satisfied, that if the measures we proposed, are ratified by Congress, all European calls for money (except the French debt) are secure enough, till the end of the year 1790; by which time, we calculated that the new government might be able to get money into the treasury. Much conversation with the bankers, brokers, and money-holders, gave me insight into the state of national credit there, which I had never before been able satisfactorily to get. The English credit is the first, because they never open a loan, without laying and appropriating taxes for the payment of the interest, and there has never been an instance of their failing one day, in that payment. The Emperor and Empress have good credit, because they use it little, and have hitherto been very punctual. This country is among the lowest, in point of credit. Ours stands in hope only. They consider us as the surest nation on earth for the repayment of the capital; but as the punctual payment of interest is of absolute necessity in their arrangements, we cannot borrow but with difficulty and disadvantage. The monied men, however, look towards our new government with a great degree of partiality, and even anxiety. If they see that set out on the English plan, the first degree of credit will be transferred to us. A favorable occasion will arise to our new government of asserting this ground to themselves. The transfer of the French debt, public and private, to Amsterdam, is certainly desirable. An act of the new government, therefore, for opening a loan in Holland for the purpose, laying taxes at the same time for paying annually the interest and a part of the principal, will answer the two valuable purposes, of ascertaining the degree of our credit, and of removing those causes of bickering and irritation, which should never be permitted to subsist with a nation, with which it is so much our interest to be on cordial terms as with France. A very small portion of this debt, I mean that part due to the French officers, has done us an injury, of which those in office in America cannot have an idea. The interest is unpaid for the last three years; and these creditors, highly connected, and at the same time needy, have felt and communicated hard thoughts of us. Borrowing, as we have done, three hundred thousand florins a year, to pay our interest in Holland, it would have been worth while to have added twenty thousand more, to suppress those clamors. I am anxious about every thing which may affect our credit. My wish would be, to possess it in the highest degree, but to use it little. Were we without credit, we might be crushed by a nation of much inferior resources, but possessing higher credit. The present system of war renders it necessary to make exertions far beyond the annual resources of the State, and consume in one year the efforts of many. And this system we cannot change. It remains, then, that we cultivate our credit with the utmost attention.

I had intended to have written a word to your Excellency on the subject of the new constitution, but I have already spun out my letter to an immoderate length. I will just observe, therefore, that according to my ideas, there is a great deal of good in it. There are two things, however, which I dislike strongly, 1. The want of a declaration of rights. I am in hopes the opposition in Virginia will remedy this, and produce such a declaration. 2. The perpetual re-eligibility of the President. This, I fear, will make that an office for life, first, and then hereditary. I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so, since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries, which may not be traced to their king, as its source, nor a good, which is not derived from the small fibres of republicanism existing among them. I can further say, with safety, there is not a crowned head in Europe, whose talents or merits would entitle him to be elected a vestryman by the people of any parish in America. However, I shall hope, that before there is danger of this change taking place in the office of President, the good sense and free spirit of our countrymen will make the changes necessary to prevent it. Under this hope, I look forward to the general adoption of the new constitution with anxiety, as necessary for us under our present circumstances. I have so much trespassed on your patience already, by the length of this letter, that I will add nothing further, than those assurances of sincere esteem and attachment, with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency’s most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXIII.—TO JAMES MADISON, May 3,1788

TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, May 3,1788.

Dear Sir,

Mine of February the 6th acknowledged the receipt of yours of December the 9th and 20th; since that, those of February the 19th and 20th have come to hand. The present will be delivered you by Mr. Warville, whom you will find truly estimable, and a great enthusiast for liberty. His writings will have shown you this.

For public news, I must refer you to my letters to Mr. Jay. Those I wrote to him from Amsterdam will have informed you of my journey thither. While there, I endeavored to get, as well as I could, into the state of national credit there; for though I am an enemy to the using our credit but under absolute necessity, yet the possessing a good credit I consider as indispensable, in the present system of carrying on war. The existence of a nation having no credit, is always precarious. The credit of England is the best. Their paper sells at par on the exchange of Amsterdam, the moment any of it is offered, and they can command there any sum they please. The reason is, that they never borrow, without establishing taxes for the payment of the interest, and they never yet failed one day in that payment. The Emperor and Empress have good credit enough. They use it little and have been ever punctual. This country cannot borrow at all there; for though they always pay their interest within the year, yet it is often some months behind. It is difficult to assign to our credit its exact station in this scale. They consider us as the most certain nation on earth for the principal; but they see that we borrow of themselves to pay the interest, so that this is only a conversion of their interest into principal. Our paper, for this reason, sells for from four to eight per cent, below par, on the exchange, and our loans are negotiated with the Patriots only. But the whole body of money-dealers, Patriot and Stadtholderian, look forward to our new government with a great degree of partiality and interest. They are disposed to have much confidence in it, and it was the prospect of its establishment, which enabled us to set the loan of last year into motion again. They will attend steadfastly to its first money operations. If these are injudiciously begun, correction, whenever they shall be corrected, will come too late. Our borrowings will always be difficult and disadvantageous. If they begin well, our credit will immediately take the first station. Equal provision for the interest, adding to it a certain prospect for the principal, will give us a preference to all nations, the English not excepted. The first act of the new government should be some operation, whereby they may assume to themselves this station. Their European debts form a proper subject for this. Digest the whole, public and private, Dutch, French, and Spanish, into a table, showing the sum of interest due every year, and the portions of principal payable the same year. Take the most certain branch of revenue, and one which shall suffice to pay the interest, and leave such a surplus as may accomplish all the payments of the capital, as terms somewhat short of those, at which they will become due. Let the surpluses of those years, in which no reimbursement of principal falls, be applied to buy up our paper on the exchange of Amsterdam, and thus anticipate the demands of principal. In this way our paper will be kept up at par; and this alone will enable us to command in four and twenty hours, at any time, on the exchange of Amsterdam, as many millions as that capital can produce. The same act which makes this provision for the existing debts, should go on to open a loan to their whole amount; the produce of that loan to be applied, as fast as received, to the payment of such parts of the existing debts as admit of payment. The rate of interest to be as the government should privately instruct their agent, because it must depend on the effect these measures would have on the exchange. Probably it could be lowered from time to time. Honest and annual publications of the payments made, will inspire confidence, while silence would conceal nothing from those interested to know.

You will perceive by the comte rendu which I send you, that this country now calls seriously for its interest at least. The nonpayment of this, hitherto, has done our credit little injury, because the government here, saying nothing about it, the public have supposed they wished to leave us at our ease as to the payment. It is now seen that they call for it, and they will publish annually the effect of that call. A failure here, therefore, will have the same effect on our credit hereafter, as a failure at Amsterdam. I consider it, then, as of a necessity not to be dispensed with, that these calls be effectually provided for. If it shall be seen, that the general provision before hinted at cannot be in time, then it is the present government which should take on itself to borrow in Amsterdam what may be necessary. The new government should by no means be left by the old to the necessity of borrowing a stiver, before it can tax for its interest. This will be to destroy the credit of the new government in its birth. And I am of opinion, that if the present Congress will add to the loan of a million (which Mr. Adams and myself have proposed this year) what may be necessary for the French calls to the year 1790, the money can be obtained at the usual disadvantage. Though I have not at this moment received such authentic information from our bankers as I may communicate to Congress, yet I know privately from one of them (Mr. Jacob Van Staphorst, who is here), that they had on Hand a fortnight ago four hundred thousand florins, and the sale going on well. So that the June interest, which had been in so critical a predicament, was already secured. If the loan of a million on Mr. Adams’s bonds of this year be ratified by Congress, the applications of the money on hand may go on immediately, according to the statement I sent to Mr. Jay. One article in this I must beg you to press on the treasury board; that is, an immediate order for the payment of the three years’ arrearages to the French officers. They were about holding a meeting to take desperate measures on this subject, when I was called to Holland. I desired them to be quiet till my return, and since my return I have pressed a further tranquillity till July, by which time I have given them reason to hope I may have an answer from the treasury board to my letters of March. Their ill humor can be contained no longer; and as I know no reason why they may not be paid at that time, I shall have nothing to urge in our defence after that.

You remember the report, drawn by Governor Randolph, on the navigation of the Mississippi. When I came to Europe, Mr. Thomson was so kind as to have me a copy of it made out. I lent it to Dr. Franklin, and he mislaid it, so that it could never be found. Could you make interest with him to have me another copy made, and send it to me? By Mr. Warville I send your pedometer. To the loop at the bottom of it you must sew a tape, and at the other end of the tape a small hook (such as we use under the name of hooks and eyes), cut a little hole in the bottom of your left watch-pocket, pass the hook and tape through it, and down between the breeches and drawers, and fix the hook on the edge of your knee-band, an inch from the knee-buckle; then hook the instrument itself by its swivel-hook on the upper edge of the watch-pocket. Your tape being well adjusted in length, your double steps will be exactly counted by the instrument, the shortest hand pointing out the thousands, the flat hand the hundreds, and the long hand the tens and units. Never turn the hands backward; indeed, it is best not to set them to any given place, but to note the number they stand at when you begin to walk. The adjusting the tape to its exact length is a critical business, and will cost you many trials. But once done, it is done for ever. The best way is to have a small buckle fixed on the middle of the tape, by which you can take it up, and let it out at pleasure. When you choose it should cease to count, unhook it from the top of the watch-pocket, and let it fall down to the bottom of the pocket.

I am, with sentiments of the most sincere esteem and attachment, Dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXIV.—TO JOHN JAY, May 4, 1788

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, May 4, 1788.

Sir,

I had the honor of addressing you in two letters of the 13th and 16th of March from Amsterdam, and have since received Mr. Ramson’s of February the 20th. I staid at Amsterdam about ten or twelve days after the departure of Mr. Adams, in hopes of seeing the million of the last year filled up. This, however, could not be accomplished on the spot. But the prospect was so good as to have dissipated all fears; and since my return here, I learn (not officially from our bankers, but) through a good channel, that they have received near four hundred thousand florins since the date of the statement I sent you in my letter of March the 16th; and I presume we need not fear the completion of that loan, which will provide for all our purposes of the year 1788, as stated in that paper. I hope, therefore, to receive from the treasury orders in conformity thereto, that I may be able to proceed to the redemption of our captives. A provision for the purposes of the years 1789 and 1790, as stated in the same paper, will depend on the ratification by Congress of Mr. Adams’s bonds of this year for another million of florins. But there arises a new call from this government, for its interest at least. Their silence hitherto has made it be believed in general, that they consented to the nonpayment of our interest to them, in order to accommodate us. You will perceive in the seventy-fifth and seventy-sixth pages of the compte rendu, which I have the honor to send you, that they call for this interest, and will publish whether it be paid or not; and by No. 25, page eighty-one, that they count on its regular receipt for the purposes of the year. These calls, for the first days of January, 1789 and 1790, will amount to about a million and a half of florins more; and if to be raised by loan, it must be for two millions, as well to cover the expenses of the loan, as that loans are not opened for fractions of millions. This publication seems to render a provision for this interest as necessary as for that of Amsterdam.

I had taken measures to have it believed at Algiers, that our government withdrew its attention from our captives there. This was to prepare their captors for the ransoming them at a reasonable price. I find, however, that Captain O’Bryan is apprized that I have received some authority on this subject. He writes me a cruel letter, supposing me the obstacle to their redemption. Their own interest requires that I should leave them to think thus hardly of me. Were the views of government communicated to them, they could not keep their own secret, and such a price would be demanded for them, as Congress, probably, would think ought not to be given, lest it should be the cause of involving thousands of others of their citizens in the same condition. The moment I have money, the business shall be set in motion.

By a letter from Joseph Chiappe, our agent at Mogadore, I am notified of a declaration of the Emperor of Morocco, that if the States General of the United Netherlands do not, before the month of May, send him an ambassador, to let him know whether it is war or peace between them, he will send one to them with five frigates; and that if their dispositions be unfavorable, their frigates shall proceed to America to make prizes on the Dutch, and to sell them there. It seems to depend on the Dutch, therefore, whether the Barbary powers shall learn the way to our coasts, and whether we shall have to decide the question of the legality of selling in our ports vessels taken from them. I informed you, in a former letter, of the declaration made by the court of Spain to that of London, relative to its naval armament, and also of the declaration of the Count de Montmorin to the Russian minister here on the same subject. I have good information, that the court of Spain has itself made a similar and formal declaration to the minister of Russia at Madrid. So that Russia is satisfied she is not the object. I doubt whether the English are equally satisfied as to themselves. The season has hitherto prevented any remarkable operation between the Turks and the two empires. The war, however, will probably go on, and the season now admits of more important events. The Empress has engaged Commodore Paul Jones in her service. He is to have the rank of rear-admiral, with a separate command, and it is understood that he is in no case to be commanded. He will probably be opposed to the Captain Pacha on the Black Sea. He received this invitation at Copenhagen, and as the season for commencing the campaign, was too near to admit time for him to ask and await the permission of Congress, he accepted the offer, only stipulating, that he should be always free to return to the orders of Congress whenever called for, and that he should not be expected to bear arms against France. He conceived, that the experience he should gain would enable him to be more useful to the United States, should they ever have occasion for him. It has been understood, that Congress had had it in contemplation to give him the grade of rear-admiral, from the date of the action of the Serapis, and it is supposed, that such a mark of their approbation would have a favorable influence on his fortune in the north. Copies of the letters which passed between him and the Danish minister are herewith transmitted. I shall immediately represent to Count Bernstorff, that the demand for our prizes can have no connection with a treaty of commerce; that there is no reason why the claims of our seamen should await so distant and uncertain an event; and press the settlement of this claim.

This country still pursues its line of peace. The ministry seem now all united in it; some from a belief of their inability to carry on a war; others from a desire to arrange their internal affairs, and improve their constitution. The differences between the King and parliaments threaten a serious issue. Many symptoms indicate that the government has in contemplation some act of highhanded authority. An extra number of printers have for several days been employed, the apartment wherein they are at work being surrounded by a body of guards, who permit no body either to come out or go in. The commanders of the provinces, civil and military, have been ordered to be at their stations on a certain day of the ensuing week. They are accordingly gone: so that the will of the King is probably to be announced through the whole kingdom on the same day. The parliament of Paris, apprehending that some innovation is to be attempted, which may take from them the opportunity of deciding on it after it shall be made known, came last night to the resolution of which I have the honor to enclose you a manuscript copy. This you will perceive to be, in effect, a declaration of rights. I am obliged to close here the present letter, lest I should miss the opportunity of conveying it by a passenger who is to call for it. Should the delay of the packet admit any continuation of these details, they shall be the subject of another letter, to be forwarded by post. The gazettes of Leyden and France accompany this.

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

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXV.—TO THE COUNT DE MOUSTIER, May 17, 1788

TO THE COUNT DE MOUSTIER.

Paris, May 17, 1788.

Dear Sir,

I have at length an opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of your favors of February, and March the 14th, and congratulating you on your resurrection from the dead, among whom you had been confidently entombed by the news-dealers of Paris. I am sorry that your first impressions have been disturbed by matters of etiquette, where surely they should least have been expected to occur. These disputes are the most insusceptible of determination, because they have no foundation in reason. Arbitrary and senseless in their nature, they are arbitrarily decided by every nation for itself. These decisions are meant to prevent disputes, but they produce ten, where they prevent one. It would have been better, therefore, in a new country, to have excluded etiquette altogether; or if it must be admitted in some form or other, to have made it depend on some circumstance founded in nature, such as the age or station of the parties. However, you have got over all this, and I am in hopes have been able to make up a society suited to your own dispositions. Your situation will doubtless be improved by the adoption of the new constitution, which I hope will have taken place before you receive this. I see in this instrument a great deal of good. The consolidation of our government, a just representation, an administration of some permanence, and other features of great value, will be gained by it. There are, indeed, some faults, which revolted me a good deal in the first moment; but we must be contented to travel on towards perfection, step by step. We must be contented with the ground which this constitution will gain for us, and hope that a favorable moment will come for correcting what is amiss in it. I view in the same light the innovations making here. The new organization of the judiciary department is undoubtedly for the better. The reformation of the criminal code is an immense step taken towards good. The composition of the Plenary court is indeed vicious in the extreme; but the basis of that court may be retained, and its composition changed. Make of it a representative of the people, by composing it of members sent from the Provincial Assemblies, and it becomes a valuable member of the constitution. But it is said, the court will not consent to do this: the court, however, has consented to call the States General, who will consider the Plenary court but as a canvass for them to work on. The public mind is manifestly advancing on the abusive prerogatives of their governors, and bearing them down. No force in the government can withstand this, in the long run. Courtiers had rather give up power than pleasures; they will barter, therefore, the usurped prerogatives of the King for the money of the people. This is the agent by which modern nations will recover their rights. I sincerely wish that, in this country, they may be contented with a peaceable and passive opposition. At this moment we are not sure of this; though as yet it is difficult to say what form the opposition will take. It is a comfortable circumstance, that their neighboring enemy is under the administration of a minister disposed to keep the peace. Engage in war who will, may my country long continue your peaceful residence, and merit your good offices with that nation, whose affections it is their duty and interest to cultivate.

Accept these and all other the good wishes of him, who has the honor to be, with sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXXVI.—TO JOHN JAY, May 23,1788

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, May 23,1788.

Sir,

When I wrote my letter of the 4th instant, I had no reason to doubt that a packet would have sailed on the 10th, according to the established order. The passengers had all, except one, gone down to Havre in this expectation. However, none has sailed, and perhaps none will sail, as I think the suppression of the packets is one of the economies in contemplation. An American merchant, concerned in the commerce of the whale-oil, proposed to government to despatch his ships from Havre and Boston at stated periods, and to take on board the French courier and mail, and the proposition has been well enough received. I avail myself of a merchant vessel going from Havre, to write the present.

In my letter of the 4th, I stated to you the symptoms which indicated that government had some great stroke of authority in contemplation. That night they sent guards to seize Monsieur d’Epremenil and Monsieur Goiskind, two members of parliament, in their houses. They escaped, and took sanctuary in the Palais (or parliament house). The parliament assembled itself extraordinarily, summoned the Dukes and Peers specially, and came to the resolution of the 5th, which they sent to Versailles by deputies, determined not to leave the palace till they received an answer. In the course of that night a battalion of guards surrounded the house. The two members were taken by the officers from among their fellows, and sent off to prison, the one to Lyons, the other (d’Epremenil), the most obnoxious, to an island in the Mediterranean. The parliament then separated. On the 8th, a bed of justice was held at Versailles, wherein were enregistered the six ordinances which had been passed in Council on the 1st of May, and which I now send you. They were in like manner enregistered in beds of justice, on the same day, in nearly all the parliaments of the kingdom. By these ordinances, 1. The criminal law is reformed, by abolishing examination on the sellette, which, like our holding up the hand at the bar, remained a stigma on the party, though innocent; by substituting an oath, instead of torture, on the question préalable, which is used after condemnation, to make the prisoner discover his accomplices; (the torture, abolished in 1780, was on the question préparatoire, previous to judgment, in order to make the prisoner accuse himself;) by allowing counsel to the prisoner for his defence; obliging the judges to specify in their judgments the offence for which he is condemned; and respiting execution a month, except in the case of sedition. This reformation is unquestionably good, and within the ordinary legislative powers of the crown. That it should remain to be made at this day, proves that the monarch is the last person in his kingdom who yields to the progress of philanthropy and civilization. 2. The organization of the whole judiciary department is changed, by the institution of subordinate jurisdictions, the taking from the parliaments the cognizance of all causes of less value than twenty thousand livres, reducing their numbers to about a fourth, and suppressing a number of special courts. Even this would be a great improvement, if it did not imply that the King is the only person in this nation, who has any rights or any power. 3. The right of registering the laws is taken from the parliaments, and transferred to a Plenary court, created by the King. This last is the measure most obnoxious to all persons. Though the members are to be for life, yet a great proportion of them are from descriptions of men always candidates for the royal favor in other lines. As yet, the general consternation has not sufficiently passed over, to say whether the matter will end here. I send you some papers, which indicate symptoms of resistance. These are the resolution of the Noblesse of Brittany, the declaration of the Advocate General of Provence, which is said to express the spirit of that province; and the Arrêté of the Châtelet, which is the hustings-court of the city of Paris. Their refusal to act under the new character assigned them, and the suspension of their principal functions, are very embarrassing. The clamors this will excite, and the disorders it may admit, will be loud, and near to the royal ear and person. The parliamentary fragments permitted to remain, have already some of them refused, and probably all will refuse, to act under that form. The assembly of the clergy which happens to be sitting, have addressed the King to call the States General immediately. Of the Dukes and Peers (thirty-eight in number), nearly half are either minors or superannuated; two thirds of the acting half seem disposed to avoid taking a part; the rest, about eight or nine, have refused, by letters to the King, to act in the new courts. A proposition excited among the Dukes and Peers, to assemble and address the King for a modification of the Plenary court, seems to show that the government would be willing to compromise on that head. It has been prevented by the Dukes and Peers in opposition, because they suppose that no modification to be made by the government will give to that body the form they desire, which is that of a representative of the nation. They foresee that if the government is forced to this, they will call them, as nearly as they can, in the ancient forms; in which case, less good will be to be expected from them. But they hope they may be got to concur in a declaration of rights, at least, so that the nation may be acknowledged to have some fundamental rights, not alterable by their ordinary legislature, and that this may form a ground-work for future improvements. These seem to be the views of the most enlightened and disinterested characters of the opposition. But they may be frustrated by the nation’s making no cry at all, or by a hasty and premature appeal to arms. There is neither head nor body in the nation, to promise a successful opposition to two hundred thousand regular troops. Some think the army could not be depended on by the government; but the breaking men to military discipline, is breaking their spirits to principles of passive obedience. A firm, but quiet opposition, will be the most likely to succeed. Whatever turn this crisis takes, a revolution in their constitution seems inevitable, unless foreign war supervene, to suspend the present contest. And a foreign war they will avoid, if possible, from an inability to get money. The loan of one hundred and twenty millions, of the present year, is filled up by such subscriptions as may be relied on. But that of eighty millions, proposed for the next year, cannot be filled up, in the actual situation of things.

The Austrians have been successful in an attack upon Schabatz, intended as a preliminary to that of Belgrade. In that on Dubitza, another town in the neighborhood of Belgrade, they have been repulsed, and as is suspected, with considerable loss. It is still supposed the Russian fleet will go into the Mediterranean, though it will be much retarded by the refusal of the English government to permit its sailors to engage in the voyage. Sweden and Denmark are arming from eight to twelve ships of the line each. The English and Dutch treaty you will find in the Leyden gazettes of May the 9th and 13th. That between England and Prussia is supposed to be stationary. Monsieur de St. Priest, the ambassador from this court to the Hague, has either gone, or is on the point of going. The Emperor of Morocco has declared war against England. I enclose you his orders in our favor, on that occasion. England sends a squadron to the Mediterranean for the protection of her commerce, and she is reinforcing her possessions in the two Indies. France is expecting the arrival of an embassy from Tippoo Saib, is sending some regiments to the East Indies, and a fleet of evolution into the Atlantic. Seven ships of the line and several frigates, sailed from Cadiz on the 22nd of April, destined to perform evolutions off the Western Islands, as the Spaniards say, but really to their American possessions, as is suspected. Thus the several powers are by little and little, taking the position of war, without an immediate intention of waging it. But that the present ill humor will finally end in war, is doubted by nobody.

In my letter of February the 5th, I had the honor of informing you of the discontent produced by our Arrêt of December the 29th, among the merchants of this country, and of the deputations from the chambers of commerce to the minister, on that subject. The articles attacked, were the privileges on the sale of our ships, and the entrepôt for codfish. The former I knew to be valuable: the latter I supposed not so; because during the whole of the time we have had four free ports in this kingdom, we have never used them for the smuggling of fish. I concluded, therefore, the ports of entrepôt would not be used for that purpose. I saw that the ministers would sacrifice something to quiet the merchants, and was glad to save the valuable article relative to our ships, by abandoning the useless one for our codfish. It was settled, therefore, in our conferences, that an Arrêt should be passed, abridging the former one only as to the entrepot of codfish. I was in Holland when the Arrêt came out; and did not get a copy of it till yesterday. Surprised to find that fish-oil was thereby also excluded from the entrepot, I have been to-day to make some inquiry into the cause; and from what I can learn, I conclude it must have been a mere error in the clerk who formed the Arrêt, and that it escaped attention on its passage. The entrepôt of whale-oil was not objected to by a single deputy at the conferences, and the excluding it is contrary to the spirit of encouragement the ministers have shown a disposition to give. I trust, therefore, I may get it altered on the first occasion which occurs, and I believe one will soon occur. In the mean time, we do not store a single drop for re-exportation, as all which comes here is needed for the consumption of this country; which will alone, according to appearances, become so considerable as to require all we can produce.