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

    Paris, July 22, 1786.

Sir,—An opportunity offering, at a moment's warning only, to London, I have only time to inform your Excellency that we have shipped from Bordeaux fifteen hundred stand of arms for the State of Virginia, of which I now enclose the bill of lading. A somewhat larger number of cartouch-boxes have been prepared here, are now packing, and will go to Havre immediately to be shipped there. As soon as these are forwarded, I will do myself the honor of sending you a state of the expenditures for these and other objects. The residue of the arms and accoutrements are in a good course of preparation. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest respect, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. CATHALAN

    Paris, August 8, 1786.

Sir,—I have been duly honored with your favor of July 28. I have in consequence thereof reconsidered the order of Council of Berny, and it appears to me to extend as much to the southern ports of France as to the western; and that for tobacco delivered in any port where there is no manufacture, only thirty sols per quintal is to be deducted. The farmers may perhaps evade the purchase of tobacco in a port convenient to them by purchasing the whole quantity in other ports. I shall readily lend my aid to promote the mercantile intercourse between your port and the United States whenever I can aid it. For the present, it is much restrained by the danger of capture by the piratical States.

I have the honor to be, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO GOVERNOR HENRY

    Paris, August 9, 1786.

Sir,—I have duly received the honor of your Excellency's letter of May 17, 1786, on the subject of Captain Green, supposed to be in captivity with the Algerines. I wish I could have communicated the agreeable news that this supposition was well founded, and I should not have hesitated to gratify as well your Excellency as the worthy father of Captain Green, by doing whatever would have been necessary for his redemption. But we have certainly no such prisoner at Algiers. We have there twenty-one prisoners in all. Of these only four are Americans by birth. Three of these are Captains, of the names of O'Brian, Stephens, and Coffyn. There were only two vessels taken by the Algerines, one commanded by O'Brian, the other by Stephens. Coffyn, I believe, was a supercargo. The Moors took one vessel from Philadelphia, which they gave up again with the crew. No other captures have been made on us by any of the piratical States. I wish I could say we were likely to be secure against future captures. With Morocco I have hope we shall; but the States of Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli hold their peace at a price which would be felt by every man in his settlement with the tax-gatherer.

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

P. S. August 13, 1786. I have this morning received information from Mr. Barclay that our peace with the Emperor of Morocco would be pretty certainly signed in a few days. This leaves us the Atlantic free. Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, however, remaining hostile, will shut up the Mediterranean to us. The two latter never come into the Atlantic; the Algerines rarely, and but a little way out of the Straits. In Mr. Barclay's letter is this paragraph, "There is a young man now under my care, who has been a slave sometime with the Arabs in the desert." His name is James Mercier, born at the town of Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. The King sent him after the first audience, and I shall take him to Spain. On Mr. Barclay's return to Spain, he shall find there a letter from me to forward this young man to his own country, for the expenses of which I will make myself responsible.

TO JOHN JAY

    Paris, August 11, 1786.

Sir,—Since the date of my last, which was of July the 8th, I have been honored with the receipt of yours of June the 16th. I am to thank you on the part of the minister of Geneva for the intelligence it contained on the subject of Gallatin, whose relations will be relieved by the receipt of it.

The inclosed intelligence, relative to the instructions of the court of London to Sir Guy Carleton, came to me through the Count de La Touche, and Marquis de La Fayette. De La Touche is a director under the Marechal de Castries, minister for the marine department, and possibly receives his intelligence from him, and he from their ambassador at London. Possibly, too, it might be fabricated here. Yet, weighing the characters of the ministry of St. James's and Versailles, I think the former more capable of giving such instructions, than the latter of fabricating them for the small purposes the fabrication could answer.

The Gazette of France, of July the 28th, announces the arrival of Peyrouse at Brazil, that he was to touch at Otaheite, and proceed to California, and still further northwardly. This paper, as you well know, gives out such facts as the court are willing the world should be possessed of. The presumption is, therefore, that they will make an establishment of some sort, on the north-west coast of America.

I trouble you with the copy of a letter from Scheveighauser and Dobrec, on a subject with which I am quite unacquainted. Their letter to Congress of November the 30th, 1780, gives their state of the matter. How far it be true and just can probably be ascertained from Dr. Franklin, Dr. Lee, and other gentlemen now in America. I shall be glad to be honored with the commands of Congress on this subject. I have inquired into the state of their arms, mentioned in their letter to me. The principal articles were about thirty thousand bayonets, fifty thousand gunlocks, thirty cases of arms, twenty-two cases of sabres, and some other things of little consequence. The quay at Nantes, having been overflowed by the river Loire, the greatest part of these arms were under water, and they are now, as I am informed, a solid mass of rust, not worth the expense of throwing them out of the warehouse, much less that of storage. Were not their want of value a sufficient reason against reclaiming the property of these arms, it rests with Congress to decide, whether other reasons are not opposed to this reclamation. They were the property of a sovereign body, they were seized by an individual, taken cognizance of by a court of justice, and refused, or at least not restored by the sovereign within whose States they had been arrested. These are circumstances which have been mentioned to me. Dr. Franklin, however, will be able to inform Congress, with precision, as to what passed on this subject. If the information I have received be anything like the truth, the discussion of this matter can only be with the court of Versailles. It would be very delicate, and could have but one of two objects; either to recover the arms, which are not worth receiving, or to satisfy us on the point of honor. Congress will judge how far the latter may be worth pursuing against a particular ally, and under actual circumstances. An instance, too, of acquiescence on our part under a wrong, rather than disturb our friendship by altercations, may have its value in some future case. However, I shall be ready to do in this what Congress shall be pleased to direct.

I enclose the despatches relative to the Barbary negotiation, received since my last. It is painful to me to overwhelm Congress and yourself continually with these voluminous papers. But I have no right to suppress any part of them, and it is one of those cases where, from a want of well-digested information, we must be contented to examine a great deal of rubbish, in order to find a little good matter.

The gazettes of Leyden and France, to the present date, accompany this, which, for want of direct and safe opportunities, I am obliged to send by an American gentleman, by the way of London. The irregularity of the French packets has diverted elsewhere the tide of passengers, who used to furnish me occasions of writing to you, without permitting my letters to go through the post office. So that when the packets go now, I can seldom write by them.

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

[The annexed is a translation of the paper referred to in the preceding letter, on the subject of the instructions given to Sir Guy Carleton.]

An extract of English political news, concerning North America. July 14th, 1786.

General Carleton departs in a few days with M. de La Naudiere, a Canadian gentleman. He has made me acquainted with the Indian, Colonel Joseph Brandt. It is certain that he departs with the most positive instructions to distress the Americans as much as possible, and to create them enemies on all sides.

Colonel Brandt goes loaded with presents for himself, and for several chiefs of the tribes bordering on Canada. It would be well for the Americans to know in time, that enemies are raised against them, in order to derange their system of government, and to add to the confusion which already exists in it. The new possessions of England will not only gain what America shall lose, but will acquire strength in proportion to the weakening of the United States.

Sooner or later, the new States which are forming will place themselves under the protection of England, which can always communicate with them through Canada; and which, in case of future necessity, can harass the United States on one side by her shipping, and on the other by her intrigues. This system has not yet come to maturity, but it is unfolded, and we may rely upon the instructions given to Colonel Brandt.

TO COLONEL MONROE

    Paris, August 11, 1786.

Dear Sir,—I wrote you last on the 9th of July; and, since that, have received yours of the 16th of June, with the interesting intelligence it contained. I was entirely in the dark as to the progress of that negotiation, and concur entirely in the views you have taken of it. The difficulty on which it hangs is a sine qua non with us. It would be to deceive them and ourselves, to suppose that an amity can be preserved, while this right is withheld. Such a supposition would argue, not only an ignorance of the people to whom this is most interesting, but an ignorance of the nature of man, or an inattention to it. Those who see but half way into our true interest, will think that that concurs with the views of the other party. But those who see it in all its extent, will be sensible that our true interest will be best promoted, by making all the just claims of our fellow citizens, wherever situated, our own, by urging and enforcing them with the weight of our whole influence, and by exercising in this, as in every other instance, a just government in their concerns, and making common cause even where our separate interest would seem opposed to theirs. No other conduct can attach us together; and on this attachment depends our happiness.

The King of Prussia still lives, and is even said to be better. Europe is very quiet at present. The only germ of dissension, which shows itself at present, is in the quarter of Turkey. The Emperor, the Empress, and the Venetians seem all to be picking at the Turks. It is not probable, however, that either of the two first will do anything to bring on an open rupture, while the King of Prussia lives.

You will perceive, by the letters I enclose to Mr. Jay, that Lambe, under the pretext of ill health, declines returning either to Congress, Mr. Adams, or myself. This circumstance makes me fear some malversation. The money appropriated to this object being in Holland, and, having been always under the care of Mr. Adams, it was concerted between us that all the drafts should be on him. I know not, therefore, what sums may have been advanced to Lambe; I hope, however, nothing great. I am persuaded that an angel sent on this business, and so much limited in his terms, could have done nothing. But should Congress propose to try the line of negotiation again, I think they will perceive that Lambe is not a proper agent. I have written to Mr. Adams on the subject of a settlement with Lambe. There is little prospect of accommodation between the Algerines, and the Portuguese and Neapolitans. A very valuable capture, too, lately made by them on the Empress of Russia, bids fair to draw her on them. The probability is, therefore, that these three nations will be at war with them, and the probability is, that could we furnish a couple of frigates, a convention might be formed with those powers, establishing a perpetual cruise on the coast of Algiers, which would bring them to reason. Such a convention, being left open to all powers willing to come into it, should have for its object a general peace, to be guaranteed to each, by the whole. Were only two or three to begin a confederacy of this kind, I think every power in Europe would soon fall into it, except France, England, and perhaps Spain and Holland. Of these, there is only England, who would give any real aid to the Algerines. Morocco, you perceive, will be at peace with us. Were the honor and advantage of establishing such a confederacy out of the question, yet the necessity that the United States should have some marine force, and the happiness of this, as the ostensible cause for beginning it, would decide on its propriety. It will be said, there is no money in the treasury. There never will be money in the treasury, till the confederacy shows its teeth. The States must see the rod; perhaps it must be felt by some one of them. I am persuaded, all of them would rejoice to see every one obliged to furnish its contributions. It is not the difficulty of furnishing them, which beggars the treasury, but the fear that others will not furnish as much. Every rational citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both. It is not in the choice of the States, whether they will pay money to cover their trade against the Algerines. If they obtain a peace by negotiation, they must pay a great sum of money for it; if they do nothing, they must pay a great sum of money, in the form of insurance; and in either way, as great a one as in the way of force, and probably less effectual.

I look forward with anxiety to the approaching moment of your departure from Congress. Besides the interest of the confederacy and of the State, I have a personal interest in it. I know not to whom I may venture confidential communications, after you are gone. I take the liberty of placing here my respects to Mrs. Monroe, and assurances of the sincere esteem with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

notes

1

See Appendix, note A. (#note_a)

2

The name of a public room in the Raleigh.

3

Life of Washington, vol. ii, p. 151.

4

See Appendix, note B. (#note_b)

5

See Appendix, note C. (#note_c)

6

See Girardin's History of Virginia, Appendix No. 12. note.

7

See Appendix, note D. (#note_d)

8

Here, in the original manuscript, commence the "two preceding sheets" referred to by Mr. Jefferson, , as containing "notes" taken by him "whilst these things were going on." They are easily distinguished from the body of the MS. in which they were inserted by him, being of a paper very different in size, quality and color, from that in which the latter is written.

9

July 9.