him; the disturbances in the various parts of his dominions having been
all settled. In Brabant, particularly, his authority is more firmly
settled than if he had come to it by inheritance only, since he enjoys it
also by a kind of conquest.

"It is the system of the English Cabinet which is considered here as the
most unaccountable. The commerce of that country is at present in the
most prosperous situation, since the balance is in their favor with every
part of Europe. They have more to gain by peace and more to apprehend
from war, than any other power, and yet they seem determined to risk it.
The advantages of their commerce in the Baltic, are certain: those in the
Levant, eventual; still they seem determined to sacrifice one, at least
for a time, in order to grasp at the other. On the whole, it is regarded
as one of those sacrifices of commerce to politics, which France has so
often given examples of. Time will show whether Mr. Pitt, or those who
condemn him, are in the right."

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

                                              Philadelphia, April 11, 1791.

Sir,--I wrote you on the 12th of March, and again on the 17th of the
same month; since which, I have received your favor of January the
24th, wherein you refer to copies of two letters, also to a paper No. 1,
supposed to be enclosed in that letter; but there was nothing enclosed.
You speak particularly of several other letters formerly forwarded, but
not a single one was ever received of later date than May the 6th, 1789;
and this of January 24th, is all we possess from you since that date.
I enclose you a list of letters addressed to you on various subjects,
and to which answers were and are naturally expected; and send you again
copies of the papers in the case of the Dover Cutter, which has been the
subject of so many of those letters, and is the subject of the constant
solicitation of the parties here. A final decision on that application,
therefore, is earnestly desired. When you consider the repeated references
of matters to you from hence, and the total suppression of whatever you
have written in answer, you will not be surprised if it had excited a
great degree of uneasiness. We had inquired whether private conveyances
did not occur, from time to time, from Madrid to Cadiz, where we have
vessels almost constantly, and we were assured that such conveyances were
frequent. On the whole, Sir, you will be sensible, that under the jealous
government with which you reside, the conveyance of intelligence requires
as much management as the obtaining it; and I am in hopes that in future,
you will be on your guard against those infidelities in that line, under
which you and we have so much suffered.

The President is absent on a journey through the southern States, from
which he will not return till the end of June; consequently, I could not
sooner notify him of your desire to return; but even then, I will take
the liberty of saying nothing to him on the subject till I hear further
from you. The suppression of your correspondence has, in a considerable
degree, withdrawn you from the public sight. I sincerely wish that before
your return, you could do something to attract their attention and favor,
and render your return pleasing to yourself and profitable to them, by
introducing you to new proofs of their confidence. My two last letters
to you furnish occasions; that of a co-operation against the British
navigation act and the arrangement of our affairs on the Mississippi.
The former, if it can be effected, will form a remarkable and memorable
epoch in the history and freedom of the ocean. Mr. Short will press it
at Paris, and Colonel Humphreys at Lisbon. The latter will show most at
first; and as to it, be so good as to observe always, that the right of
navigating the Mississippi is considered as so palpable, that the recovery
of it will produce no other sensation than that of a gross injustice
removed. The extent and freedom of the port for facilitating the use of
it, is what will excite the attention and gratification of the public.
Colonel Humphreys writes me, that all Mr. Gardoqui's communications,
while here, tended to impress the court of Madrid with the idea, that the
navigation of the Mississippi was only demanded on our part to quiet our
western settlers, and that it was not sincerely desired by the maritime
States. This is a most fatal error, and must be completely eradicated and
speedily, or Mr. Gardoqui will prove to have been a bad peacemaker. It is
true, there were characters whose stations entitled them to credit, and
who, from geographical prejudices, did not themselves wish the navigation
of the Mississippi to be restored to us, and who believe, perhaps, as is
common with mankind, that their opinion was the general opinion. But the
sentiments of the great mass of the Union were decidedly otherwise then,
and the very persons to whom Mr. Gardoqui alluded, have now come over to
the opinion heartily, that the navigation of the Mississippi, in full and
unrestrained freedom, is indispensably necessary, and must be obtained
by any means it may call for. It will be most unfortunate, indeed, if we
cannot convince Spain that we make this demand in earnest, but by acts
which will render that conviction too late to prevent evil.

Not knowing how better to convey to you the laws and the gazettes, than by
committing them to the patronage of Colonel Humphreys, I now send through
that channel the laws of the second and third sessions of Congress, and
the newspapers.

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

TO C. CARROLL OF CARROLLTON.

                                              Philadelphia, April 15, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I received last night your favor of the 10th, with Mr. Brown's
receipt, and thank you for the trouble you have been so kind as to take
in this business.

Our news from the westward is disagreeable. Constant murders committing
by the Indians, and their combination threatens to be more and more
extensive. I hope we shall give them a thorough drubbing this summer,
and then change our tomahawk into a golden chain of friendship. The most
economical as well as most humane conduct towards them is to bribe them
into peace, and to retain them in peace by eternal bribes. The expedition
this year would have served for presents on the most liberal scale for
one hundred years; nor shall we otherwise ever get rid of an army, or of
our debt. The least rag of Indian depredation will be an excuse to raise
troops for those who love to have troops, and for those who think that a
public debt is a good thing. Adieu, my dear Sir. Yours affectionately.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

                                              Philadelphia, April 17, 1791.

Sir,--I had the honor of addressing you on the 2d, which I supposed
would find you at Richmond, and again on the 10th, which I thought
would overtake you at Wilmington. The present will probably find you at
Charleston.

According to what I mentioned in my letter of the 10th, the
Vice-President, Secretaries of the Treasury and War, and myself, met on
the 11th. Colonel Hamilton presented a letter from Mr. Short, in which
he mentioned that the month of February being one of the periodical
months in Amsterdam, when, from the receipt of interest and refunding of
capitals, there is much money coming in there, and free to be disposed
of, he had put off the opening his loan till then, that it might fill
the more rapidly, a circumstance which would excite the presumption
of our credit;--that he had every reason to hope it would be filled
before it would be possible for him, after his then communication of the
conditions, to receive your approbation of them, and orders to open a
second; which, however, should be awaited, according to his instructions;
but he pressed the expediting the order, that the stoppage of the current
in our favor might be as short as possible. We saw that if, under present
circumstances, your orders should be awaited, it would add a month to
the delay, and we were satisfied, were you present, you would approve
the conditions, and order a second loan to be opened. We unanimously,
therefore, advised an immediate order, on condition the terms of the
second loan should not be worse than those of the first.

General Knox expressed an apprehension that the Six Nations might be
induced to join our enemies, there being some suspicious circumstances;
and he wished to send Colonel Pickering to confirm them in their
neutrality. This, he observed, would occasion an expense of about two
thousand dollars, as the Indians were never to be met empty handed. We
thought the mission advisable. As to myself, I hope we shall give the
Indians a thorough drubbing this summer, and I should think it better
afterwards to take up the plan of liberal and repeated presents to them.
This would be much the cheapest in the end, and would save all the blood
which is now spilt: in time, too, it would produce a spirit of peace and
friendship between us. The expense of a single expedition would last very
long for presents. I mentioned to the gentlemen, the idea of suggesting
through Colonel Beckwith our knowledge of the conduct of the British
officers in furnishing the Indians with arms and ammunition, and our
dissatisfaction. Colonel Hamilton said that Beckwith had been with him on
the subject, and had assured him they had given them nothing more than the
annual presents, and at the annual period. It was thought proper, however,
that he should be made sensible that this had attracted the notice of
government. I thought it the more material, lest, having been himself the
first to speak of it, he might suppose his excuses satisfactory, and that
therefore they might repeat the annual present this year. As Beckwith
lodges in the same house with Mr. Madison, I have desired the latter to
find some occasion of representing to Beckwith that, though an annual
present of arms and ammunition be an innocent thing in time of peace, it
is not so in time of war; that it is contrary to the laws of neutrality
for a neutral power to furnish military implements to either party at war,
and that if their subjects should do it on private account, such furniture
might be seized as contraband: to reason with him on the subject, as from
himself, but so as to let him see that government thought as himself did.

You knew, I think, before you left us, that the British Parliament had a
bill before them for allowing wheat, imported in _British_ bottoms, to
be warehoused rent free. In order further to circumscribe the carrying
business of the United States, they now refuse to consider as an American
bottom any vessel not built here. By this construction, they take from
us the right of defining, by our own laws, what vessels shall be deemed
ours and naturalized here; and in the event of a war, in which we should
be neutral, they put it out of our power to benefit ourselves of our
neutrality, by increasing suddenly by purchase and naturalization our
means of carriage. If we are permitted to do this by building only, the
war will be over before we can be prepared to take advantage of it. This
has been decided by the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, in the case
of one Green, a merchant of New York; from whom I have received a regular
complaint on the subject. I enclose you the copy of a note from Mr.
King to Colonel Hamilton, on the subject of the appointment of a British
minister to come here. I suspect it, however, to be without foundation.

Colonel Eveleigh died yesterday. Supposing it possible you might desire to
appoint his successor as soon as you could decide on one, I enclose you a
blank commission; which, when you shall be pleased to fill it up and sign,
can be returned for the seal and counter-signature. I enclose you a letter
from Mr. Coxe to yourself, on the subject of this appointment, and so much
of one to me as related to the same, having torn off a leaf of compliment
to lighten and lessen my enclosures to you. Should distributive justice
give preference to a successor of the same state with the deceased, I take
the liberty of suggesting to you Mr. Hayward, of South Carolina, whom I
think you told me you did not know, and of whom you are now on the spot of
inquiry. I enclose you also a continuation of the Pennsylvania debates on
the bill for federal buildings. After the postponement by the Senate, it
was intended to bring on the reconsideration of that vote; but the hurry
at winding up their session prevented it. They have not chosen a federal
Senator.

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

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

                                              Philadelphia, April 24, 1791.

Sir,--I had the honor of addressing you on the 17th. Since which I have
received yours of the 13th. I enclose you extracts from letters received
from Mr. Short. In one of the 7th of February, Mr. Short informs me that
he has received a letter from M. de Montmorin, announcing to him that the
King has named Ternant his minister here. The questions on our tobacco and
oil have taken unfavorable turns. The former will pay fifty livres the
thousand weight less, when carried in French than foreign bottoms. Oil
is to pay twelve livres a kental, which amounts to a prohibition of the
common oils, the only kind carried there. Tobacco will not feel the effect
of these measures till time will be given to bring it to rights. They had
only twenty thousand hogsheads in the kingdom in November last, and they
consume two thousand hogsheads a month, so that they must immediately
come forward and make great purchases, and not having as yet vessels of
their own to carry it, they must pay the extra duties on ours. I have been
puzzled about the delays required by Mr. Barclay's affairs. He gives me
reason to be tolerably assured, that he will go in the first vessel which
shall sail after the last day of May. There is no vessel at present whose
destination would suit. Believing that even with this, we shall get the
business done sooner than through any other channel, I have thought it
best not to change the plan. The last Leyden gazettes give us what would
have been the first object of the British arms, had the rupture with Spain
taken place.

You know that Admiral Cornish had sailed on an unknown destination before
the Convention was received in London. Immediately on its receipt, they
sent an express after him to Madeira, in hopes of finding him there.
He was gone, and had so short a passage, that in twenty-three days he
had arrived in Barbadoes, the general rendezvous. All the troops of the
islands were collecting there, and General Matthews was on his way from
Antigua to take command of the land operations, when he met with the
packet-boat which carried the counter-orders. Trinidad was the object of
the expedition. Matthews returned to Antigua, and Cornish is arrived in
England. This island, at the mouth of the Oronoko, is admirably suited for
a lodgment from which all the country up that river, and all the northern
coast of South America, Spanish, French, Dutch and Portuguese, may be
suddenly assailed.

Colonel Pickering is now here, and will set out in two or three days to
meet the Indians, as mentioned in my last. The intimation to Colonel
Beckwith has been given by Mr. Madison. He met it on very different
grounds from that on which he had placed it with Colonel Hamilton. He
pretended ignorance and even disbelief of the fact; when told that it was
out of doubt, he said he was positively sure the distribution of arms had
been without the knowledge and against the orders of Lord Dorchester,
and of the government. He endeavored to induce a formal communication
from me. When he found that could not be effected, he let Mr. Madison
perceive that he thought, however informal his character, he had not
been sufficiently noticed; said he was in New York before I came into
office, and that though he had not been regularly turned over to me, yet
I knew his character. In fine, he promised to write to Lord Dorchester
the general information we had received, and our sense of it; and he saw
that his former apologies to Colonel Hamilton had not been satisfactory
to the government. Nothing further from Moose Island, nor the posts on
the northern border of New York, nor anything of the last week from the
western country.

Arthur Campbell has been here. He is the enemy of P. Henry. He says the
Yazoo bargain is like to drop with the consent of the purchasers. He
explains it thus: They expected to pay for the lands in public paper at
par, which they had bought at half a crown a pound. Since the rise in
the value of the public paper, they have gained as much on that as they
would have done by investing it in the Yazoo lands; perhaps more, as it
puts a large sum of specie at their command, which they can turn to better
account. They are, therefore, likely to acquiesce under the determination
of the government of Georgia to consider the contract as forfeited by
non-payment.

I direct this letter to be forwarded from Charleston to Cambden. The next
will be from Petersburg to Taylor's Ferry; and after that, I shall direct
to you at Mount Vernon.

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

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

                                              Philadelphia, April 25, 1791.

Dear Sir,--My late letters to you have been of the 8th, 12th, 15th, and
19th of March, yours received and acknowledged are as follows.

I consider the consular convention as securing clearly our right to
appoint consuls in the French colonies. The words "Etats du roi,"
unquestionably extend to all his dominions. If they had been merely
synonymous with "la France," why was the alteration made? When I proposed
that alteration, I explained my reasons, and it cannot be supposed I would
suffer a change of language but for some matter of substance. Again,
in the translation, it is "dominions of France." This translation was
submitted to M. de Montmorin and M. de Reyneval, with a request that they
would note any deviation in it from the original, or otherwise it would
be considered as faithful. No part was objected to. M. de Reyneval says,
we must decide by the instrument itself, and not by the explanations
which took place. It is a rule, where expressions are susceptible of two
meanings, to recur to other explanations. Good faith is in favor of this
recurrence. However, in the present case, the expression does not admit
of two constructions; it is co-extensive with the dominions of the King.
I insist on this, only as a reservation of our right, and not with a
view to exercise it, if it shall be inconvenient and disagreeable to the
government of France. Only two appointments have as yet been made (Mr.
Skipwith at Martinique and Guadaloupe, and Mr. Bourne in St. Dominique),
and they shall be instructed not to ask a regular Exequatur. We certainly
wish to press nothing on our friends which shall be inconvenient. I
shall hope that M. de Montmorin will order such attentions to be shown to
those gentlemen as the patronage of commerce may call for, and may not
be inconvenient to the government. These gentlemen are most pointedly
instructed not to intermeddle, by word or deed, with political matters.

My letter of August, 1790, to Mr. Carmichael, was delivered to him by
Colonel Humphreys.

The report you mention of the prospect of our captives at Algiers
being liberated, has not taken its rise from any authoritative source.
Unfortunately for us, there have been so many persons, who (from friendly
or charitable motives, or to recommend themselves) have busied themselves
about this redemption, as to excite great expectations in the captors, and
render our countrymen in fact irredeemable. We have not a single operation
on foot for that purpose, but what you know of, and the more all voluntary
interpositions are discouraged the better for our unhappy friends whom
they are meant to serve.

You know how strongly we desire to pay off our whole debt to France,
and that for this purpose we will use our credit as far as it will hold
good. You know, also, what may be the probability of our being able to
borrow the whole sum. Under these dispositions and prospects, it would
grieve us extremely to see our debt pass into the hands of speculators,
and be subjected ourselves to the chicaneries and vexations of private
avarice. We desire you, therefore, to dissuade the government, as far as
you can prudently, from listening to any overtures of that kind, and as
to the speculators themselves, whether native or foreign, to inform them,
without reserve, that our government condemns their projects, and reserves
to itself the right of paying no where but into the treasury of France,
according to their contract.

I enclose you a copy of Mr. Grand's note to me, stating the conditions
on which Drost would come, and also a letter from the Secretary of the
Treasury, expressing his ideas as to those terms, with which I agree.
We leave to your agency the engaging and sending Mr. Drost as soon as
possible, and to your discretion to fix the terms, rendering the allowance
for expenses certain, which his first proposition leaves uncertain.
Subsistence here costs about one-third of what it does in Paris, to a
housekeeper. In a lodging house, the highest price for a room and board
is a dollar a day, for the master, and half that for the servant. These
facts may enable you to settle the article of expenses reasonably. If Mr.
Drost undertakes assaying, I should much rather confide it to him, than to
any other person who can be sent. It is the most confidential operation
in the whole business of coining. We should expect him to instruct a
native in it. I think, too, he should be obliged to continue longer than
a year, if it should be necessary for qualifying others to continue his
operations. It is not important that he be here till November or December,
but extremely desirable then. He may come as much sooner as he pleases.

We address to M. la Motte a small box for you, containing a complete set
of the journals of the ancient Congress, the acts of the last session of
the federal legislature, and a continuation of the newspapers. I am, with
great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and humble
servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

                                                 Philadelphia, May 1, 1791.

Sir,--I had the honor of addressing you on the 24th ult., which I presume
you will have received at Camden. The present is ordered to go from
Petersburg to Taylor's ferry. I think it better my letters should be even
some days ahead of you, knowing that if they ever get into your rear they
will never overtake you. I write to-day, indeed, merely as the watchman
cries, to prove himself awake, and that all is well, for the last week
has scarcely furnished anything foreign or domestic, worthy your notice.
Truxton is arrived from the East Indies, and confirms the check by Tippoo
Saib, on the detachment of Colonel Floyd, which consisted of between three
and four thousand men. The latter lost most of his baggage and artillery,
and retreated under the pursuit of the enemy. The loss of men is pretended
by their own papers to have been two or three hundred only. But the loss
and character of the officers killed, makes me suspect that the situation
has been such as to force the best officers to expose themselves the
most, and consequently that more men must have fallen. The main body
with General Meadows at their head are pretended to be going on boldly.
Yet, Lord Cornwallis is going to take the field in person. This shows
that affairs are in such a situation as to give anxiety. Upon the whole,
the account received through Paris papers proves true, notwithstanding
the minister had declared to the House of Commons, in his place, that
the public accounts were without foundation, and that nothing amiss had
happened.

Our loan in Amsterdam for two and a half million of florins filled in two
hours and a half after it was opened.

The Vice-President leaves us to-morrow. We are told that Mr. Morris gets
£70,000 sterling for the lands he has sold.

A Mr. Noble has been here, from the country where they are busied with the
sugar-maple tree. He thinks Mr. Cooper will bring three thousand pounds
worth to market this season, and gives the most flattering calculations of
what may be done in that way. He informs me of another most satisfactory
fact, that less profit is made by converting the juice into spirit than
into sugar. He gave me specimens of the spirit, which is exactly whiskey.

I have arrived at Baltimore from Marseilles forty olive trees of the best
kind from Marseilles, and a box of seed, the latter to raise stocks,
and the former, cuttings to engraft on the stocks. I am ordering them
on instantly to Charleston, where, if they arrive in the course of this
month, they will be in time. Another cargo is on its way from Bordeaux,
so that I hope to secure the commencement of this culture, and from the
best species. Sugar and oil will be no mean addition to the articles of
our culture. I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect and esteem,
Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE ATTORNEY OF THE DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY.

                                                 Philadelphia, May 7, 1791.

Sir,--A certain James O'Fallon is, as we are informed, undertaking
to raise, organize and commission an army, of his own authority, and
independent of that of the government, the object of which is, to
go and possess themselves of lands which have never yet been granted
by any authority, which the government admits to be legal, and with
an avowed design to hold them by force against any power, foreign or
domestic. As this will inevitably commit our whole nation in war with
the Indian nations, and perhaps others, it cannot be permitted that all
the inhabitants of the United States shall be involved in the calamities
of war, and the blood of thousands of them be poured out, merely that a
few adventurers may possess themselves of lands; nor can a well ordered
government tolerate such an assumption of its sovereignty by unauthorized
individuals. I send you herein the Attorney General's opinion of what
may legally be done, with a desire that you proceed against the said
O'Fallon according to law. It is not the wish, to extend the prosecution
to other individuals, who may have given thoughtlessly into his unlawful
proceeding. I enclose you a proclamation to this effect. But they may be
assured, that if this undertaking be prosecuted, the whole force of the
United States will be displayed to punish the transgression. I enclose
you one of O'Fallon's commissions, signed, as is said, by himself.

I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble
servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

                                                 Philadelphia, May 8, 1791.

Sir,--The last week does not furnish one single public event worthy
communicating to you; so that I have only to say "all is well." Paine's
answer to Burke's pamphlet begins to produce some squibs in our public
papers. In Fenno's paper they are Burkites, in the others, Painites. One
of Fenno's was evidently from the author of the discourses on Davila. I
am afraid the indiscretion of a printer has committed me with my friend,
Mr. Adams, for whom, as one of the most honest and disinterested men
alive, I have a cordial esteem, increased by long habits of concurrence in
opinion in the days of his republicanism; and even since his apostacy to
hereditary monarchy and nobility, though we differ, we differ as friends
should do. Beckley had the only copy of Paine's pamphlet, and lent it to
me, desiring when I should have read it, that I would send it to a Mr. J.
B. Smith, who had asked it for his brother to reprint it. Being an utter
stranger to J. B. Smith, both by sight and character, I wrote a note to
explain to him why I (a stranger to him) sent him a pamphlet, to wit,
that Mr. Beckley had desired it; and to take off a little of the dryness
of the note, I added that I was glad to find it was to be reprinted,
that something would, at length, be publicly said against the political
heresies which had lately sprung up among us, and that I did not doubt
our citizens would rally again round the standard of common sense. That
I had in my view the discourses on Davila, which have filled Fenno's
papers, for a twelvemonth, without contradiction, is certain, but nothing
was ever further from my thoughts than to become myself the contradictor
before the public. To my great astonishment, however, when the pamphlet
came out, the printer had prefixed my note to it, without having given
me the most distant hint of it. Mr. Adams will unquestionably take to
himself the charge of political heresy, as conscious of his own views of
drawing the present government to the form of the English constitution,
and, I fear, will consider me as meaning to injure him in the public eye.
I learn that some Anglo-men have censured it in another point of view,
as a sanction of Paine's principles tends to give offence to the British
government. Their real fear, however, is that this popular and republican
pamphlet, taking wonderfully, is likely at a single stroke, to wipe out
all the unconstitutional doctrines which their bell-weather Davila has
been preaching for a twelvemonth. I certainly never made a secret of
my being anti-monarchical, and anti-aristocratical; but I am sincerely
mortified to be thus brought forward on the public stage, where to remain,
to advance or to retire, will be equally against my love of silence and
quiet, and my abhorrence of dispute. I do not know whether you recollect
that the records of Virginia were destroyed by the British in the year
1781. Particularly the transactions of the revolution before that time. I
am collecting here all the letters I wrote to Congress while I was in the
administration there, and this being done, I shall then extend my views
to my predecessors, in order to replace the whole in the public offices
in Virginia. I think that during my administration, say between June 1,
1779, and June 1, 1781, I had the honor of writing frequent letters to
you on public affairs, which perhaps, may be among your papers at Mount
Vernon. Would it be consistent with any general resolution you have formed
as to your papers, to let my letters of the above period come here to be
copied, in order to make them a part of the records I am endeavoring to
restore for the State? or would their selection be too troublesome? if
not, I would beg the loan of them, under an assurance that they shall be
taken the utmost care of, and safely returned to their present deposit.

The quiet and regular movement of our political affairs leaves nothing to
add but constant prayers for your health and welfare, and assurances of
the sincere respect and attachment of, Sir, your most obedient, and most
humble servant.

TO THE HONORABLE JEREMIAH WADSWORTH.

                                                Philadelphia, May 11, 1791.

Sir,--I have duly received your favor of April 20. The exemption from the
Droit d'Aubaine in the French West Indies, has been for some time past
a subject of attention. As the National Assembly were abolishing it in
_France_ for all nations, I desired our Chargé des Affaires there to see
that the decree should be extended to all the _dominions_ of France. His
letters assure me that it will be done, so as to remove this grievance
hereafter. With respect to the past, I believe it has been judiciously
determined in France that the exemption given by our treaty did not
extend to their foreign possessions. Should Mr. Johnston, however, be
disposed to try this matter, it will be requisite for him to obtain from
Port-au-Prince an authenticated record of the proceedings in his case. It
would seem, also, that those in the case of the gentleman of Curraçoa,
might be useful. These should be transmitted to some person in Paris
to solicit the government for him. Though it is not permitted that our
Chargé des Affaires there, or anywhere, should act as the private agent
or solicitor for any individual, yet he will lend his aid and influence
wherever it may be just and useful, by official applications. I have the
honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble
servant.

TO MR. DUMAS.

                                                Philadelphia, May 13, 1791.

Sir,--You will readily conceive that the union of domestic with the
foreign affairs under the department of State, brings on the head of
this department such incessant calls, not admitting delay, as oblige
him to postpone whatever will bear postponing; hence, though it is
important that I should continue to receive, from time to time, regular
information from you of whatever occurs within your notice, interesting to
the United States, yet it is not in my power to acknowledge the receipt
of your letters regularly as they come. I mention this circumstance
that you may ascribe the delay of acknowledgment to the real cause, and
that it may not produce any relaxation on your part in making all those
communications which it is important should be received, and which govern
our proceedings, though it is not in my power to note it to you specially.

In general, our affairs are proceeding in a train of unparalleled
prosperity. This arises from the real improvements of our government,
from the unbounded confidence reposed in it by the people, their zeal to
support it, and their conviction that a solid Union is the best rock of
their safety, from the favorable seasons which for some years past have
co-operated with a fertile soil and a genial climate to increase the
productions of agriculture, and from the growth of industry, economy and
domestic manufactures; so that I believe I may say with truth, that there
is not a nation under the sun enjoying more present prosperity, nor with
more in prospect. The Indians on our frontier, indeed, still continue
to cut off straggling individuals or families falling in their way. An
expedition against them the last summer was less successful than there was
reason to expect. We lost in it about one hundred men. The operations of
the present summer will more probably bring them to peace, which is all we
desire of them, it having been a leading object of our present Government
to guaranty them in their present possessions, and to protect their
persons with the same fidelity which is extended to its own citizens. We
ask nothing of them but that they will accept our peace, friendship and
services; and we hope soon to make them sensible of this, in spite of the
incitements against us, which they have been so much the dupes of. This
is the general state of our affairs at present, as faithfully as I am able
to give it.

I am to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of April 2, May 8, 17,
26; July 10, 14; September 7, 30; October 19, November 23, December 6 and
11. I now receive the Leyden Gazette with great regularity by the British
Packet, and thank you for your attention to this, with a request that it
may be continued.

There is no doubt it would be desirable for us to receive our intelligence
from Europe through a channel of our own; but the expense of an
establishment of Packet-boats would be beyond the value of the object
for us, considering that our connection with Europe is less political
than commercial, and that information of the latter kind may come safely
through any channel. In fact, if we attend to the whole amount of our
civil list, we shall find that the expense of Packet-boats would make a
very sensible addition to it. The idea, therefore, though good, must be
suspended yet awhile.

Accept my thanks on the part of the Government for the copy of Rymer
you have been so good as to send us, and which is duly received, and be
assured of the sincere esteem and attachment with which I have the honor
to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

THOMAS BARCLAY.

                                                Philadelphia, May 13, 1791.

Sir,--You are appointed by the President of the United States, to go to
the court of Morocco, for the purpose of obtaining from the new Emperor, a
recognition of our treaty with his father. As it is thought best that you
should go in some definite character, that of consul has been adopted, and
you consequently receive a commission as consul for the United States, in
the dominions of the Emperor of Morocco, which, having been issued during
the recess of the Senate, will, of course, expire at the end of their next
session. It has been thought best, however, not to insert this limitation
in the commission, as being unnecessary; and it might, perhaps, embarrass.
Before the end of the next session of the Senate, it is expected the
objects of your mission will be accomplished.

Lisbon being the most convenient port of correspondence between us and
Morocco, sufficient authority will be given to Colonel Humphreys, resident
of the United States at that place, over funds in Amsterdam, for the
objects of your mission. On him, therefore, you will draw for the sums
herein allowed, or such parts of them as shall be necessary. To that
port, too, you had better proceed in the first vessel which shall be
going there, as it is expected you will get a ready passage from thence
to Morocco.

On your arrival at Morocco, sound your ground, and know how things stand
at present. Your former voyage there, having put you in possession of
the characters through whom this may be done, who may best be used for
approaching the Emperor and effecting your purpose, you are left to use
your own knowledge to the best advantage.

The object being merely to obtain an acknowledgment of the treaty, we
rely that you will be able to do this, giving very moderate presents.
As the amount of these will be drawn into precedent, on future similar
repetitions of them, it becomes important. Our distance, our seclusion
from the ancient world, its politics and usages, our agricultural
occupations and habits, our poverty, and lastly, our determination to
prefer war in all cases, to tribute under any form, and to any people
whatever, will furnish you with topics for opposing and refusing high
or dishonoring pretensions; to which may be added, the advantages their
people will derive from our commerce, and their sovereign, from the duties
laid on whatever we extract from that country.

Keep us regularly informed of your proceedings and progress, by writing
by every possible occasion, detailing to us particularly your conferences,
either private or public, and the persons with whom they are held.

We think that Francisco Chiappe has merited well of the United States,
by his care of their peace and interests. He has sent an account of
disbursements for us, amounting to three hundred and ninety-four dollars.
Do not recognize the account, because we are unwilling, by doing that, to
give him a color for presenting larger ones hereafter, for expenses which
it is impossible for us to scrutinize or control. Let him understand, that
our laws oppose the application of public money so informally; but in your
presents, treat _him_ handsomely, so as not only to cover this demand, but
go beyond it with a liberality which may fix him deeply in our interests.
The place he holds near the Emperor, renders his friendship peculiarly
important. Let us have nothing further to do with his brothers, or any
other person. The money which would make one good friend, divided among
several, will produce no attachment.

The emperor has intimated that he expects an ambassador from us. Let him
understand, that this may be a custom of the old world, but it is not
ours; that we never sent an ambassador to any nation.

You are to be allowed, from the day of your departure till your return,
one hundred and sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents and two-thirds, a
month, for your time and expenses, adding thereto your passage money and
sea stores going and coming.

Remain in your post till the 1st of April next, and as much longer as
shall be necessary to accomplish the objects of your mission, unless you
should receive instructions from hence to the contrary.

With your commission, you will receive a letter to the Emperor of Morocco,
a cypher, and a letter to Colonel Humphreys.

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

  _A private instruction which Mr. Barclay is to carry in his memory,
  and not on paper, lest it should come into improper hands._

We rely that you will obtain the friendship of the new Emperor, and his
assurances that the treaty shall be faithfully observed, with as little
expense as possible. But the sum of ten thousand dollars is fixed as
the limit which all your donations together are not to exceed.

May 13, 1791.

[_Letter from the President to the Emperor of Morocco, referred to in
the letter to Mr. Barclay._]

Great and Magnanimous Friend,--Separated by an immense ocean from the more
ancient nations of the earth, and little connected with their politics
or proceedings, we are late in learning the events which take place among
them, and later in conveying to them our sentiments thereon.

The death of the late Emperor, your father and our friend, of glorious
memory, is one of those events which, though distant, attracts our
notice and concern. Receive, great and good friend, my sincere sympathy
with you on that loss; and permit me, at the same time, to express the
satisfaction with which I learn the accession of so worthy a successor to
the imperial throne of Morocco, and to offer you the homage of my sincere
congratulations. May the days of your Majesty's life be many and glorious,
and may they ever mark the era during which a great people shall have been
most prosperous and happy, under the best and happiest of sovereigns!

The late Emperor, very soon after the establishment of our infant nation,
manifested his royal regard and amity to us by many friendly and generous
acts, and, particularly, by the protection of our citizens in their
commerce with his subjects. And as a further instance of his desire to
promote our prosperity and intercourse with his realms, he entered into a
treaty of amity and commerce with us, for himself and his successors, to
continue fifty years. The justice and magnanimity of your Majesty, leave
us full confidence that the treaty will meet your royal patronage also;
and it will give me great satisfaction to be assured, that the citizens
of the United States of America may expect from your imperial Majesty, the
same protection and kindness, which the example of your illustrious father
has taught them to expect from those who occupy the throne of Morocco,
and to have your royal word, that they may count on a due observance of
the treaty which cements the two nations in friendship.

This will be delivered to your Majesty, by our faithful citizen, Thomas
Barclay, whom I name consul for these United States in the dominions
of your Majesty, and who, to the integrity and knowledge qualifying him
for that office, unites the peculiar advantage of having been the agent,
through whom our treaty with the late Emperor was received. I pray your
Majesty to protect him in the exercise of his functions for the patronage
of the commerce between our two countries, and of those who carry it on.

May that God, whom we both adore, bless your imperial Majesty with long
life, health and success, and have you always, great and magnanimous
friend, under his holy keeping.

Written at Philadelphia, the thirty-first day of March, in the fifteenth
year of our sovereignty and independence, from your good and faithful
friend.

TO ----.[4]
                                      Bennington, in Vermont, June 5, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Mr. Madison and myself are so far on the tour we had projected.
We have visited, in the course of it, the principal scenes of General
Burgoyne's misfortunes, to wit, the grounds at Stillwater, where the
action of that name was fought, and particularly the breastworks, which
cost so much blood to both parties, the encampments at Saratoga and
ground where the British piled their arms, and the field of the battle
of Bennington, about nine miles from this place. We have also visited
Forts William, Henry and George, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, &c., which have
been scenes of blood from a very early part of our history. We were more
pleased, however, with the botanical objects which continually presented
themselves. Those either unknown or rare in Virginia, were the sugar maple
in vast abundance. The silver fir, white pine, pitch pine, spruce pine,
a shrub with decumbent stems, which they call juniper, an aralea, very
different from the nudiflora, with very large clusters of flowers, more
thickly set on the branches, of a deeper red, and high pink-fragrance.
It is the richest shrub I have seen. The honey-suckle of the gardens
growing wild on the banks of Lake George, the paper-birch, an aspen with
a velvet leaf, a shrub-willow with downy catkins, a wild gooseberry, the
wild cherry with single fruit, (not the bunch cherry,) strawberries in
abundance. From the highlands to the lakes it is a limestone country. It
is in vast quantities on the eastern sides of the lakes, but none on the
western sides. The Sandy Hill Falls and Wing's Falls, two very remarkable
cataracts of the Hudson, of about thirty-five feet or forty feet each,
between Fort Edward and Fort George, are of limestone, in horizontal
strata. Those of the Cohoes, on the west side of the Hudson, and of
seventy feet height, we thought not of limestone. We have met with a small
red squirrel, of the color of our fox-squirrel, with a black stripe on
each side, weighing about six ounces generally, and in such abundance on
Lake Champlain particularly, as that twenty odd were killed at the house
we lodged in, opposite Crown Point, the morning we arrived there, without
going ten yards from the door. We killed three crossing the lakes, one
of them just as he was getting ashore, where it was three miles wide, and
where, with the high wind then blowing, he must have made it five or six
miles.

I think I asked the favor of you to send for Anthony in the season for
inoculation, as well as to do what is necessary in the orchard, as to
pursue the object of inoculating all the spontaneous cherry trees in the
fields with good fruit.

We have now got over about four hundred miles of our tour, and have
still about four hundred and fifty more to go over. Arriving here on the
Saturday evening, and the laws of the State not permitting us to travel on
the Sunday, has given me time to write to you from hence. I expect to be
at Philadelphia by the 20th or 21st. I am, with great and sincere esteem,
dear Sir, yours affectionately.

FOOTNOTE:

     [4] [No address.]

TO COLONEL MONROE.

                                               Philadelphia, July 10, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Your favor of June 17, has been duly received. I am endeavoring
to get for you the lodgings Langdon had. But the landlord is doubtful
whether he will let them at all. If he will not, I will endeavor to do the
best I can. I can accommodate you myself with a stable and coach-house,
without any expense, as I happen to have two on hand; and indeed, in my
new one, I have had stalls enough prepared for six horses, which are two
more than I keep. Of my success in procuring rooms, I shall bring you news
myself, though as yet the time of my visit to Albemarle is unfixed. Mr.
Madison will both go and come with me. He is at present at New York. His
journey with me to the lakes placed him in better health than I have seen
him; but the late heats have brought on some bilious dispositions.

The papers which I send Mr. Randolph weekly, and which I presume you see,
will have shown you what a dust Paine's pamphlet has kicked up here. My
last to Mr. Randolph will have given an explanation as to myself, which
I had not time to give when I sent you the pamphlet. A writer, under the
name of Publicola, in attacking all Paine's principles, is very desirous
of involving me in the same censure with the author. I certainly merit
the same, for I profess the same principles; but it is equally certain I
never meant to have entered as a volunteer into the cause. My occupations
do not permit it. Some persons here are insinuating that I am Brutus, that
I am Agricola, that I am Philodemus, &c., &c. I am none of them, being
decided not to write a word on the subject, unless any printed imputation
should call for a printed disavowal, to which I should put my name. A
Boston paper has declared that Mr. Adams "has no more concern in the
publication of the writings of Publicola, than the author of the Rights
of Man himself." If the equivoque here were not intended, the disavowal
is not entirely credited, because not from Mr. Adams himself, and because
the style and sentiments raise so strong a presumption. Besides, to
produce any effect he must disavow Davila and the Defence of the American
Constitutions. A host of writers have risen in favor of Paine, and prove
that in this quarter, at least, the spirit of republicanism is sound.
The contrary spirit of the high officers of government is more understood
than I expected. Colonel Hamilton avowing that he never made a secret of
his principles, yet taxes the imprudence of Mr. Adams in having stirred
the question, and agrees that "his business is done." Jay, covering the
same principles under the veil of silence, is rising steadily on the
ruins of his friends. The bank filled and overflowed in the moment it
was opened. Instead of twenty thousand shares, twenty-four thousand were
offered, and a great many unpresented, who had not suspected that so
much haste was necessary. Thus it is that we shall be paying thirteen
per cent. per annum for eight millions of paper money, instead of having
that circulation of gold and silver for nothing. Experience has proved to
us that a dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of paper emitted;
and, for the paper emitted from the bank, seven per cent. profits will
be received by the subscribers for it as bank paper, (according to the
last division of profits by the Philadelphia bank,) and six per cent.
on the public paper of which it is the representative. Nor is there any
reason to believe, that either the six millions of paper, or the two
millions of specie deposited, will not be suffered to be withdrawn, and
the paper thrown into circulation. The cash deposited by strangers for
safe keeping will probably suffice for cash demands. Very few subscribers
have offered from Virginia or North Carolina, which gives uneasiness to
H. It is impossible to say where the appetite for gambling will stop.
The land office, the federal town, certain schemes of manufacture, are
all likely to be converted into aliment for that rage; but this subject
is too copious for a letter, and must be reserved for conversation. The
respite from occupation which my journey procured, has entirely removed
my headaches. Kiss and bless Mrs. Monroe and Eliza, for, dear Sir, yours
affectionately.

TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.

                                               Philadelphia, July 13, 1791.

Sir,--Mr. Barclay having been detained longer than was expected, you will
receive this as well as my letter of May the 13th from him. Since the date
of that, I have received your No. 15, March the 31st, No. 16, April the
8th, No 17, April the 30th, No. 18, May the 3d, and No. 20, May the 21st.

You are not unacquainted with the situation of our captives at Algiers.
Measures were taken, and were long depending, for their redemption. During
the time of their dependence, we thought it would forward our success
to take no notice of the captives. They were maintained by the Spanish
consul, from whom applications for reimbursement, through Mr. Carmichael,
often came: no answer of any kind was ever given. A certainty now that our
measures for their redemption will not succeed, renders it unnecessary
for us to be so reserved on the subject, and to continue to wear the
appearance of neglecting them. Though the government might have agreed
to ransom at the lowest price admitted with any nation (as, for instance,
that of the French order of Merci), they will not give anything like the
price which has been lately declared to be the lowest by the captors.
It remains, then, for us to see what other means are practicable for
their recovery. In the meantime, it is our desire that the disbursements
hitherto made for their subsistence, by the Spanish consul or others,
be paid off, and that their future comfortable subsistence be provided
for. As to past disbursements, I must beg the favor of you to write to
Mr. Carmichael, that you are authorized to pay them off, pray him to let
you know their amount, and to whom payments are due. With respect to
future provision for the captives, I must put it into your hands. The
impossibility of getting letters to or from Mr. Carmichael, renders it
improper for us to use that channel. As to the footing on which they are
to be subsisted, the ration and clothing of a soldier would have been
a good measure, were it possible to apply it to articles of food and
clothing so extremely different as those used at Algiers. The allowance
heretofore made them by the Spanish consul might perhaps furnish a better
rule, as we have it from themselves, that they were then comfortably
subsisted. Should you be led to correspond with them at all, it had better
be with Captain O'Bryan, who is a sensible man, and whose conduct since
he has been there, has been particularly meritorious. It will be better
for you to avoid saying anything which may either increase or lessen their
hopes of ransom. I write to our bankers, to answer your drafts for these
purposes, and enclose you a duplicate to be forwarded with your first
draft. The prisoners are fourteen in number; their names and qualities as
follows: Richard O'Bryan and Isaac Stephens, captains; Andrew Montgomery
and Alexander Forsyth, mates; Jacob Tessanier, a French passenger; William
Patterson, Philip Sloan, Peleg Lorin, John Robertson, James Hall, James
Cathcart, George Smith, John Gregory, James Hermel, seamen. They have been
twenty-one or twenty-two.

We are in hourly expectation of hearing the event of General Scott's
irruption into the Indian country, at the head of between seven and
eight hundred mounted infantry. Perhaps it may yet be known in time
to communicate to you by this opportunity. Our bank was filled with
subscriptions the moment it was opened. Eight millions of dollars were the
whole permitted to be subscribed, of which two millions were deposited
in cash, the residue to be public paper. Every other symptom is equally
favorable to our credit.

The President has returned from his southern tour in good health. You will
receive herewith the newspapers up to the present date. I have the honor
to be, with great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble
servant.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

                                               Philadelphia, July 17, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I have a dozen times taken up my pen to write to you, and as
often laid it down again, suspended between opposing considerations. I
determine, however, to write from a conviction that truth, between candid
minds, can never do harm. The first of Paine's pamphlets on the rights of
man, which came to hand here, belonged to Mr. Beckley. He lent it to Mr.
Madison, who lent it to me; and while I was reading it, Mr. Beckley called
on me for it, and, as I had not finished it, he desired me, as soon as I
should have done so, to send it to Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, whose brother
meant to reprint it. I finished reading it, and, as I had no acquaintance
with Mr. Jonathan B. Smith, propriety required that I should explain
to him why I, a stranger to him, sent him the pamphlet. I accordingly
wrote a note of compliment, informing him that I did it at the desire
of Mr. Beckley, and, to take off a little of the dryness of the note,
I added that I was glad it was to be reprinted here, and that something
was to be publicly said against the political heresies which had sprung
up among us, &c. I thought so little of this note, that I did not even
keep a copy of it; nor ever heard a tittle more of it, till, the week
following, I was thunderstruck with seeing it come out at the head of the
pamphlet. I hoped, however, it would not attract notice. But I found, on
my return from a journey of a month, that a writer came forward, under the
signature of Publicola, attacking not only the author and principles of
the pamphlet, but myself as its sponsor, by name. Soon after came hosts
of other writers, defending the pamphlet, and attacking you, by name, as
the writer of Publicola. Thus were our names thrown on the public stage as
public antagonists. That you and I differ in our ideas of the best form
of government, is well known to us both; but we have differed as friends
should do, respecting the purity of each other's motives, and confining
our difference of opinion to private conversation. And I can declare with
truth, in the presence of the Almighty, that nothing was further from my
intention or expectation than to have either my own or your name brought
before the public on this occasion. The friendship and confidence which
has so long existed between us, required this explanation from me, and
I know you too well to fear any misconstruction of the motives of it.
Some people here, who would wish me to be, or to be thought, guilty of
improprieties, have suggested that I was Agricola, that I was Brutus,
&c., &c. I never did in my life, either by myself or by any other, have
a sentence of mine inserted in a newspaper without putting my name to it;
and I believe I never shall.

While the Empress is refusing peace under a mediation, unless Ocrakow and
its territory be ceded to her, she is offering peace on the perfect statu
quo to the Porte, if they will conclude it without a mediation. France has
struck a severe blow at our navigation, by a difference of duty on tobacco
carried in our and their ships, and by taking from foreign-built ships
the capability of naturalization. She has placed our whale oil on rather
a better footing than ever, by consolidating the duties into a single one
of six livres. They amounted before to some sous over that sum. I am told
(I know not how truly), that England has prohibited our spermaceti oil
altogether, and will prohibit our wheat till the price there is fifty-two
shillings the quarter, which it almost never is. We expect hourly to hear
the true event of General Scott's expedition. Reports give favorable hopes
of it. Be so good as to present my respectful compliments to Mrs. Adams,
and to accept assurances of the sentiments of sincere esteem and respect
with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

                                               Philadelphia, July 26, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Your favors of February the 26th, and March the 16th, have
been duly received. The conferences which you held last with the British
minister needed no apology. At the time of writing my letter desiring that
communications with them might cease, it was supposed possible that some
might take place before it would be received. They proved to be such as
not to vary the opinion formed, and, indeed, the result of the whole is
what was to have been expected from known circumstances. Yet the essay
was perhaps necessary to justify, as well as induce, the measures proper
for the protection of our commerce. The first remittance of a thousand
dollars to you, was made without the aid of any facts which could enable
the government to judge, what sum might be an indemnification for the
interference of the business referred to you, with your private pursuits.
Your letter of February the 26th furnishing grounds for correcting the
first judgment, I now enclose you a bill on our bankers in Holland for
another sum of a thousand dollars. In the original remittance, as in this
supplement to it, there has been no view but to do what is right between
the public and those who serve them.

Though no authentic account is yet received, we learn through private
channels that General Scott has returned from a successful expedition
against the Indians; having killed about thirty warriors, taken fifty odd
women and children prisoners, and destroyed two or three villages, without
the loss of a man, except three, drowned by accident. A similar expedition
was to follow immediately after the first, while preparations are making
for measures of more permanent effect; so that we hope this summer to
bring the Indians to accept of a just and general peace on which nothing
will be asked of them but their peace.

The crops of wheat in the United States are rather abundant, and the
quality good. Those of tobacco are not promising as yet. I have heard
nothing of the rice crops.

I am, with very great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most
humble servant.

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

                                               Philadelphia, July 28, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Since my last I have received letters from you as follows:

Mine to you, unacknowledged, were of March the 8th, 12th, 15th, 19th,
April the 25th, and May the 10th. Your two last letters mention the length
of time you have been without intelligence, having then received mine of
January the 23d only. You will perceive by the above, that six letters
of a later date were on their way to you. The receipt of these, with the
newspapers, journals, laws, and other printed papers accompanying them,
will have relieved your anxiety, by answering several articles of your
former letters, and opening to you some new and important matters. I
scarcely ever miss the opportunity of a private vessel going from hence
or New York to any port of France, without writing to you and sending you
the newspapers; &c. In the winter, occasions are very rare, this port,
particularly, being blocked up with ice. The reason of so long an interval
between the last and present letter, has been the journey of a month,
which that informed you I was about to take. This is the first vessel
which has offered since my return; she is bound to Havre, and will carry
the newspapers as usual.

The difference of sixty-two livres ten sols the hogshead, established
by the National Assembly on tobacco brought in their and our ships, is
such an act of hostility against our navigation, as was not to have been
expected from the friendship of that nation. It is as new in its nature
as extravagant in its degree; since it is unexampled, that any nation
has endeavored to wrest from another the carriage of its own produce,
except in the case of their colonies. The British navigation act, so
much and so justly complained of, leaves to all nations the carriage of
their own commodities free. This measure, too, is calculated expressly to
take our own carriage from us and give the equivalent to other nations:
for it is well known, that the shipping of France is not equal to the
carriage of their whole commerce; but the freight in other branches of
navigation being on an equal footing with only forty livres the hogshead,
in ours, and this new arrangement giving them sixty-two livres ten sols
the hogshead, in addition to their freight, that is to say, one hundred
and two livres ten sols, instead of forty livres, their vessels will leave
every other branch of business to fill up this. They will consequently
leave a void in those other branches, which will be occupied by English,
Dutch, and Swedes, on the spot. They complain of our tonnage duty; but it
is because it is not understood. In the ports of France, we pay fees for
anchorage, buoys and beacons, fees to measurers, weighers and gaugers, and
in some countries, for light-houses. We have thought it better that the
public here should pay all these, and reimburse itself by a consolidation
of them into one fee, proportioned to the tonnage of the vessel, and
therefore called by that name. They complain that the foreign tonnage is
higher than the domestic. If this complaint had come from the English,
it would not have been wonderful, because the foreign tonnage operates
really as a tax on their commerce, which, under this name, is found to
pay sixteen dollars and fifty cents for every dollar paid by France. It
was not conceived, that the latter would have complained of a measure
calculated to operate so unequally on her rival, and I still suppose she
would not complain, if the thing were well understood. The refusing to
our vessels the faculty of becoming national bottoms, on sale to their
citizens, was never before done by any nation but England. I cannot help
hoping that these were wanderings of a moment, founded in misinformation,
which reflection will have corrected before you receive this.

Whenever jealousies are expressed as to any supposed views of ours, on
the dominion of the West Indies, you cannot go farther than the truth,
in asserting we have none. If there be one principle more deeply rooted
than any other in the mind of every American, it is, that we should
have nothing to do with conquest. As to commerce, indeed, we have strong
sensations. In casting our eyes over the earth, we see no instance of a
nation forbidden, as we are, by foreign powers, to deal with neighbors,
and obliged, with them, to carry into another hemisphere, the mutual
supplies necessary to relieve mutual wants. This is not merely a
question between the foreign power and our neighbor. We are interested
in it equally with the latter, and nothing but moderation, at least
with respect to us, can render us indifferent to its continuance. An
exchange of surplusses and wants between neighbor nations, is both a
right and a duty under the moral law, and measures against right should
be mollified in their exercise, if it be wished to lengthen them to the
greatest term possible. Circumstances sometimes require, that rights
the most unquestionable should be advanced with delicacy. It would seem
that the one now spoken of, would need only a mention, to be assented
to by any unprejudiced mind: but with respect to America, Europeans
in general, have been too long in the habit of confounding force with
right. The Marquis de La Fayette stands in such a relation between the
two countries, that I should think him perfectly capable of seeing what
is just as to both. Perhaps on some occasion of free conversation, you
might find an opportunity of impressing these truths on his mind, and that
from him, they might be let out at a proper moment as matters meriting
consideration and weight, when they shall be engaged in the work of
forming a constitution for our neighbors. In policy, if not in justice,
they should be disposed to avoid oppression, which, falling on us, as well
as on their colonies, might tempt us to act together.[5]

The element of measure adopted by the National Assembly excludes, _ipso
facto_, every nation on earth from a communion of measure with them; for
they acknowledge themselves, that a due portion for admeasurement of a
meridian crossing the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and terminating at
both ends in the same level, can be found in no other country on earth
but theirs. It would follow then, that other nations must trust to their
admeasurement, or send persons into their country to make it themselves,
not only in the first instance, but whenever afterwards they may wish to
verify their measures. Instead of concurring, then, in a measure which,
like the pendulum, may be found in every point of the forty-fifth degree,
and through both hemispheres, and consequently in all the countries of the
earth lying under that parallel, either northern or southern, they adopt
one which can be found but in a single point of the northern parallel,
and consequently only in one country, and that country is theirs.

I left with you a statement of the case of Schweighauser and Dobrée,
with the original vouchers on which it depends. From these you will have
known, that being authorized by Congress to settle this matter, I began
by offering to them an arbitration before honest and judicious men of a
neutral nation. They declined this, and had the modesty to propose an
arbitration before _merchants of their own town_. I gave them warning
then, that as the offer on the part of a sovereign nation to submit to a
private arbitration was an unusual condescendence, if they did not accept
it then, it would not be repeated, and that the United States would judge
the case for themselves hereafter. They continued to decline it, and the
case now stands thus. The territorial judge of France has undertaken
to call the United States to his jurisdiction, and has arrested their
property, in order to enforce appearance, and possess himself of a matter
whereon to found a decree; but no court can have jurisdiction over a
sovereign nation. This position was agreed to; but it was urged, that some
act of Mr. Barclay's had admitted the jurisdiction. It was denied that
there had been any such act by Mr. Barclay, and disavowed, if there was
one, as without authority from the United States, the property on which
the arrest was made, having been purchased by Dr. Franklin, and remaining
in his possession till taken out of it by the arrest. On this disavowal,
it was agreed that there could be no further contest, and I received
assurance that the property should be withdrawn from the possession of the
court by an evocation of the cause before the King's Council, on which,
without other proceedings, it should be delivered to the United States.
Applications were repeated as often as dignity or even decency would
permit; but it was never done. Thus the matter rests, and thus it is meant
it should rest. No answer of any kind is to be given to Schweighauser and
Dobrée. If they think proper to apply to their sovereign, I presume there
will be a communication either through you or their representative here,
and we shall have no difficulty to show the character of the treatment we
have experienced.

I will observe for your information, that the sustenance of our captives
at Algiers is committed to Colonel Humphreys.

You will be so kind as to remember, that your public account from the 1st
day of July, 1790, to the last of June, 1791, inclusive, is desired before
the meeting of Congress, that I may be able to lay before them the general
account of the foreign fund for that year.

General Scott has returned from a successful expedition against the
northern Indians, having killed thirty-two warriors, taken fifty-eight
women and children prisoners, and destroyed three towns and villages,
with a great deal of corn in grain and growth. A similar expedition was
to follow immediately, while preparation is making for measures of more
permanent effect; so that we may reasonably hope the Indians will be
induced to accept of peace which is all we desire.

Our funds have risen nearly to par. The eight millions for the bank was
subscribed as fast as it could be written, and that stock is now above
par. Our crops of wheat have been rather abundant, and of excellent
quality. Those of tobacco are not very promising as yet. The census is not
yet completed, but from what we hear, we may expect our whole numbers will
be nearer four than three millions. I inclose a sketch of the numbers as
far as we yet know them.

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

FOOTNOTE:

     [5] [This paragraph was in cypher, but an explication of it preserved
     with the copy.]

TO MR. PAINE.

                                               Philadelphia, July 29, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Your favor of Sept. 28th, 1790, did not come to my hands till
Feb. 11th, and I have not answered it sooner because it said you would
be here in the spring. That expectation being past, I now acknowledge the
receipt. Indeed I am glad you did not come away till you had written your
"Rights of Man." That has been much read here with avidity and pleasure.
A writer under the signature of Publicola has attacked it. A host of
champions entered the arena immediately in your defence. The discussion
excited the public attention, recalled it to the "Defence of the American
constitutions" and the "Discourses on Davila," which it had kindly passed
over without censure in the moment, and very general expressions of their
sense have been now drawn forth; and I thank God that they appear firm in
their republicanism, notwithstanding the contrary hopes and assertions
of a sect here, high in name but small in numbers. These had flattered
themselves that the silence of the people under the "Defence" and "Davila"
was a symptom of their conversion to the doctrine of king, lords, and
commons. They are checked at least by your pamphlet, and the people
confirmed in their good old faith.

Your observations on the subject of a copper coinage has satisfied my mind
on that subject, which I confess had wavered before between difficulties.
As a different plan is under consideration of Congress, and will be taken
up at their meeting, I think to watch the proper moment, and publish your
observations (except the notes which contain facts relative to particular
persons, which I presume you would dislike to see published, and which are
not necessary to establish the main object), adding your name, because it
will attract attention and give weight to the publication. As this cannot
take place under four months, there is time for you to forbid me, if it
should be disagreeable to you to have the observations published, which,
however, I hope it will not be.

General Scott has just returned from a successful expedition against the
Indians, having killed thirty-two warriors, and taken fifty-eight women
and children, and burnt several towns. I hope they will now consent to
peace, which is all we ask. Our funds are near par; the crops of wheat
remarkably fine; and a great degree of general prosperity arising from
four years successive of plentiful crops, a great diffusion of domestic
manufacture, a return to economy, and a reasonable faith in the new
government. I shall be happy to hear from you, and still more to see you,
being with great, and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT.

                                               Philadelphia, July 30, 1791.

Sir,--I have the honor to inclose for your perusal, a letter which I have
prepared for Mr. Short.

The ill humor into which the French colonies are getting, and the little
dependence on the troops sent thither, may produce a hesitation in
the National Assembly as to the conditions they will impose in their
constitution. In a moment of hesitation, small matters may influence their
decision. They may see the impolicy of insisting on particular conditions,
which, operating as grievances on us, as well as on their colonists, might
produce a concert of action. I have thought it would not be amiss to trust
to Mr. Short the sentiments in the cyphered part of the letter, leaving
him to govern himself by circumstances, whether to let them leak out at
all or not, and whether so as that it may be known or remain unknown that
they come from us. A perfect knowledge of his judgment and discretion
leaves me entirely satisfied, that they will be not used, or so used as
events shall render proper. But if you think that the possibility that
harm may be done, overweighs the chance of good, I would expunge them,
as, in cases of doubt, it is better to say too little than too much.

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

TO GENERAL KNOX.

                                             Philadelphia, August 10, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I have now the honor to return you the petition of Mr. Moultrie
on behalf of the South Carolina Yazoo company. Without noticing that some
of the highest functions of sovereignty are assumed in the very papers
which he annexes as his justification, I am of opinion that government
should firmly maintain this ground; that the Indians have a right to
the occupation of their lands, independent of the States within whose
chartered lines they happen to be; that until they cede them by treaty
or other transaction equivalent to a treaty, no act of a State can give
a right to such lands; that neither under the present constitution, nor
the antient confederation, had any State or person a right to treat with
the Indians, without the consent of the General Government; that that
consent has never been given to any treaty for the cession of the lands
in question; that the government is determined to exert all its energy
for the patronage and protection of the rights of the Indians, and the
preservation of peace between the United States and them; and that if any
settlements are made on lands not ceded by them, _without the previous
consent of the United States_, the government will think itself bound,
not only to declare to the Indians that such settlements are without the
authority or protection of the United States, but to remove them also by
the public force.

It is in compliance with your request, my dear Sir, that I submit these
ideas to you, to whom it belongs to give place to them, or such others as
your better judgment shall prefer, in answer to Mr. Moultrie.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most sincere and respectful
esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO COLONEL HARVIE.

                                             Philadelphia, August 14, 1791.

Dear Sir,--Being charged with the preparation of a statement to Congress
of all their lands north of the Ohio, it becomes necessary for me to know
what quantity of lands was assigned to the Virginia Continental line
on the south side of the Ohio, say on the Cumberland, in satisfaction
of their claims of bounty lands against the Continent. If I can by any
means come at this quantity, by deducting it from the sum total of bounty
lands given to all the lines, which sum total I know, the residue will
be exactly what the army is entitled to on the north side of the Ohio.
I am in hopes your office can furnish me with this information, and am
to ask the favor of you to have it inquired into. All I wish is the _sum
total_ in lots located by the Virginia _Continental line_ south of the
Ohio. I suppose your office cannot inform me what was located for the
same line north of the Ohio, and therefore I do not ask it. The fees
of office for these researches, be so good as to inform me of, and they
shall be remitted you. As your answer cannot be here before my departure
for Virginia, I shall be glad to receive it there. If your office cannot
furnish the information, and you know where it may be obtained, I shall
consider it as a singular favor, if you will be so good as to put it for
me at once into its right channel. I am, with great esteem, dear Sir, your
sincere friend and humble servant.

TO MR. CARMICHAEL.

                                             Philadelphia, August 24, 1791.

Sir,--Your letter of January 24, is still the only one received from you
within the period so often mentioned. Mine to you of the present year have
been of March 12 and 17, April 11, May 16, and June 23. I have lately
preferred sending my letters for you to Colonel Humphreys, in hopes he
might find means of conveying them to you. The subjects of those of the
12th and 17th of March are still pressed on you, and especially the first,
the great object of which cannot be delayed without consequences which
both nations should deprecate.

Mr. Jaudenes arrived here some time ago, and has been received as joint
commissioner with Mr. Viar. The concurring interests of Spain and this
country certainly require the presence of able and discreet ministers.

The crop of wheat of the present year has surpassed all expectation as
to quantity, and is of fine quality. Other articles of agriculture will
differ more by an extraordinary drought.

I enclose you a copy of our census, which, so far as it is written
in black ink, is founded on actual returns, what is in red ink being
conjectured, but very near the truth. Making very small allowance for
omissions, which we know to have been very great, we may safely say we
are above four millions.

Our first expedition against the Indians, under General Scott, has been
completely successful; he having killed thirty odd, taken fifty odd, and
burnt their towns. A second expedition against them has commenced, and we
expect daily the result.

The public credit continues firm. The domestic debt funded at six per
cent., is twelve and a half per cent. above par. A spirit, however, of
gambling in our public paper has seized on too many of our citizens, and
we fear it will check our commerce, arts, manufactures, and agriculture,
unless stopped.

Newspapers for you accompany this, addressed to the care of Colonel
Humphreys.

I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR.

                                             Philadelphia, August 24, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I am to acknowledge the receipt of your two favors of December
25 and May 14, with the pamphlets which accompanied them, and to return
you my thanks for them. The Corn Law, I perceive, has not passed in the
form you expected. My wishes on that subject were nearer yours than you
imagined. We both in fact desired the same thing for different reasons,
respecting the interests of our respective countries, and therefore
justifiable in both. You wished the bill so moulded as to encourage
strongly your national agriculture. The clause for warehousing foreign
corn tended to lessen the confidence of the farmer in the demand for
his corn. I wished the clause omitted, that our corn might pass directly
to the country of the consumer, and save us the loss of an intermediate
deposit, which it can illy bear. That no commercial arrangements between
Great Britain and the United States have taken place, as you wish should
be done, cannot be imputed to us. The proposition has surely been often
enough made, perhaps too often. It is a happy circumstance in human
affairs, that evils which are not cured in one way will cure themselves
in some other.

We are now under the first impression of the news of the King's flight
from Paris, and his re-capture. It would be unfortunate were it in the
power of any one man to defeat the issue of so beautiful a revolution.
I hope and trust it is not, and that, for the good of suffering humanity
all over the earth, that revolution will be established and spread through
the whole world.

I shall always be happy, my dear Sir, to hear of your health and
happiness, being with sentiments of the most cordial esteem and respect,
dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO E. RUTLEDGE, ESQ.

                                             Philadelphia, August 25, 1791.

My Dear Sir,--I have received your favor of the 7th, by Mr. Harper, and
that also by Mr. Butler. I thank you for both, and shall duly respect
both. I find by the last that, not your letter on the subject of British
commerce, but mine in answer to it, has miscarried. Yours was dated June
20, 1790, was received July 2, and answered July 4. I send you a copy of
the answer, which will read now like an old almanac; but it will show you
I am incapable of neglecting anything which comes from you. The measures
therein spoken of as in contemplation, for the purpose of bringing Great
Britain to reason, vanished in a reference of the subject to me to report
on our commerce and navigation generally, to the next session of Congress.
I have little hope that the result will be anything more than to turn the
left cheek to him who has smitten the right. We have to encounter not
only the prejudices in favor of England, but those against the Eastern
States, whose ships, in the opinion of some, will overrun our land. I have
been sorry to see that your State has been over-jealous of the measures
proposed on this subject, and which really tend to relieve them from the
effects of British broils. I wish you may be able to convert Mr. Barnwell,
because you think him worth converting. Whether you do or not, your
opinion of him will make me solicitous for his acquaintance, because I
love the good, and respect freedom of opinion. What do you think of this
scrippomony? Ships are lying idle at the wharfs, buildings are stopped,
capitals withdrawn from commerce, manufactures, arts, and agriculture
to be employed in gambling, and the tide of public prosperity almost
unparalleled in any country is arrested in its course, and suppressed by
the rage of getting rich in a day. No mortal can tell where this will
stop; for the spirit of gaming, when once it has seized a subject, is
incurable. The tailor who has made thousands in one day, though he has
lost them the next, can never again be content with the slow and moderate
earnings of his needle. Nothing can exceed the public felicity, if our
papers are to be believed, because our papers are under the orders of our
scripmen. I imagine, however, we shall hear that all the cash has quitted
the extremities of the nation, and accumulated here. That produce and
property fall to half price there, and the same things rise to double
price here. That the cash accumulated and stagnated here, as soon as
the bank paper gets out, will find its vent into foreign countries, and
instead of this solid medium, which we might have kept for nothing, we
shall have a paper one, for the use of which we are to pay these gamesters
fifteen per cent. per annum, as they say.

Would to God yourself, General Pinckney and Major Pinckney, would come
forward and aid us with your efforts. You are all known, respected, wished
for; but you refuse yourselves to everything. What is to become of us, my
dear friend, if the vine and the fig tree withdraw, and leave us to the
bramble and thorn?

You will have heard before this reaches you, of the peril into which the
French revolution is brought by the flight of their King. Such are the
fruits of that form of government, which heaps importance on idiots,
and of which the Tories of the present day are trying to preach into
our favor. I still hope the French revolution will issue happily. I feel
that the permanence of our own, leans in some degree on that; and that
a failure there would be a powerful argument to prove there must be a
failure here. We have been told that a British minister would be sent
out to us this summer. I suspect this depends on the event of peace or
war. In the latter case, they will probably send one; but they have no
serious view of treating or fulfilling treaties. Adieu, my dear Sir. Yours
affectionately.

TO MESSRS. JOHNSON, STUART, AND CARROL.

                                             Philadelphia, August 28, 1791.

Gentlemen,--Your joint letter of the 2d instant to the President, as
also Mr. Carrol's separate letters of the 5th and 15th, have been duly
received. Major L'Enfant also having arrived here and laid his plan of the
Federal City before the President, he was pleased to desire a conference
of certain persons, in his presence, on these several subjects. It is
the opinion of the President, in consequence thereof, that an immediate
meeting of the Commissioners at Georgetown is requisite; that certain
measures may be decided on, and put into a course of preparation for
a commencement of sale on the 17th of October, as advertised. As Mr.
Madison and myself, who were present at the conference, propose to pass
through Georgetown on our way to Virginia, the President supposes that
our attendance at the meeting of the Commissioners might be of service
to them, as we could communicate to them the sentiments developed at the
conferences here and approved by the President, under whatever point of
view they may have occasion to know them. The circumstances of time and
distance oblige me to take the liberty of proposing the day of meeting,
and to say that we will be in Georgetown on the evening of the 7th or
morning of the 8th of the next month, in time to attend any meeting of the
Commissioners on that day, and in hopes they may be able, in the course
of it, to make all the use of us they may think proper, so that we may
pursue our journey the next day. To that meeting, therefore, the answers
to the several letters before mentioned are referred.

This letter is addressed to Mr. Carrol only, with a requisition to the
Postmaster at Georgetown to send it to him by express, under the hope that
it will, by expresses to the other gentlemen, take timely measures for
the proposed meeting on the 8th.

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

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

                                             Philadelphia, August 29, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I am to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 67, June the 6th,
No. 68, June the 10th, No. 69, June the 22d, No. 70, June the 26th, No.
71, June the 29th; the three last by the British packet. My last to you
was of July the 28th, by a vessel bound to Havre. This goes to the same
port, because accompanied by newspapers. It will be the last I shall write
you these two months, as I am to set out for Virginia the next week. I
now enclose you a copy of my letter of March the 12th, to Mr. Carmichael,
which you say was not in that of the same date to you. There was no paper
to accompany it but St. Marie's, which you say you received. I enclose you
also a copy of our census, written in black ink, so far as we have actual
returns, and supplied by conjecture in red ink, where we have no returns;
but the conjectures are known to be very near the truth. Making very small
allowance for omissions, which we know to have been very great, we are
certainly above four millions, probably about four millions one hundred
thousand.

There is a vessel now lying at Philadelphia, advertising to receive
emigrants to Louisiana, gratis, on account of the Spanish government. Be
so good as to mention this to M. de Montmorin, who will be a judge what
we must feel under so impudent a transaction.

You observe, that if Drost does not come, you have not been authorized to
engage another coiner. If he does not come, there will probably be one
engaged here. If he comes, I should think him a safe hand to send the
diplomatic dye by, as also all the dyes of our medal, which may be used
here for striking off what shall be wanting hereafter. But I would not
have them trusted at sea, but from April to October inclusive. Should you
not send them by Drost, Havre will be the best route. I have not spoken
with the Secretary of the Treasury yet, on the subject of the presses,
but believe you may safely consider two presses as sufficient for us, and
agree for no more without a further request.

The decree of the National Assembly, relative to tobacco carried in
French or American ships, is likely to have such an effect in our ports,
as to render it impossible to conjecture what may or may not be done.
It is impossible to let it go on without a vigorous correction. If that
should be administered on our part, it will produce irritation on both
sides, and lessen that disposition which we feel cordially to concur in
a treaty, which shall melt the two nations as to commercial matters into
one, as nearly as possible. It is extremely desirable, that the National
Assembly should themselves correct the decree, by a repeal founded on the
expectation of an arrangement.

We have, as yet, no news of the event of our second expedition against
the Indians.

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

TO M. LA MOTTE.

                                             Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

Sir,--I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of February the
9th, March the 25th, and April the 24th; as also of the several packages
of wine, carriages, &c., which came safe to hand, and for your care of
which be pleased to accept my thanks.

I am sensible of the difficulties to which our consuls are exposed by
the applications of sailors, calling themselves Americans. Though the
difference of dialect between the Irish and Scotch, and the Americans, is
sensible to the ear of a native, it is not to that of a foreigner, however
well he understands the language; and between the American and English
(unless of particular provinces) there is no difference sensible even to a
native. Among hundreds of applications to me, at Paris, nine-tenths were
Irish, whom I readily discovered. The residue, I think, were English;
and I believe not a single instance of a Scotchman or American. The
sobriety and order of the two last, preserve them from want. You will
find it necessary, therefore, to be extremely on your guard against
these applications. The bill of expenses for Huls is much beyond those
aids which I should think myself authorized to have advanced habitually,
until the law shall make express provision for that purpose. I must,
therefore, recommend to you, to hazard only small sums in future, until
our legislature shall lay down more precise rules for my government.

The difference of duty on tobacco carried to France in French and American
bottoms, has excited great uneasiness. We presume the National Assembly
must have been hurried into the measure, without being allowed time to
reflect on its consequences. A moment's consideration must convince
anybody, that no nation upon earth ever submitted to so enormous an
assault on the transportation of their own produce. Retaliation, to be
equal, will have the air of extreme severity and hostility. Such would be
an _additional tonnage_ of twelve livres ten sous the ton burthen, on all
_French_ ships entering our ports. Yet this would but exactly balance an
_additional duty_ of six livres five sous the hogshead of tobacco, brought
in _American ships_ entering in the ports of France. I hope, either that
the National Assembly will repeal the measure, or the proposed treaty
be so hastened, as to get this matter out of the way before it shall be
necessary for the ensuing legislature to act on it. Their measure, and
our retaliation on it, which is unavoidable, will very illy prepare the
minds of both parties for a liberal treaty. My confidence in the friendly
dispositions of the National Assembly, and in the sincerity of what
they have expressed on the subject, induce me to impute it to surprise
altogether, and to hope it will be repealed before time shall be given to
take it up here.

I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble
servant.

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

                                             Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

Dear Sir,--My letter of July the 26th covered my first of exchange for
a thousand dollars, and though that went by so sure an opportunity as to
leave little doubt of its receipt, yet, for greater security, I enclose
a second.

The tranquillity of our country leaves us nothing to relate, which may
interest a mind surrounded by such buoyant scenes as yours. No matter; I
will still tell you the charming though homespun news, that our crops of
wheat have been abundant and of superior quality; that very great though
partial drought has destroyed the crops of hay to the north, and corn to
the south; that the late rains may recover the tobacco to a middling crop,
and that the fields of rice are promising.

I informed you in my last, of the success of our first expedition against
the Indians. A second has gone against them, the result of which is not
yet known. Our public credit is good, but the abundance of paper has
produced a spirit of gambling in the funds, which has laid up our ships
at the wharves, as too slow instruments of profit, and has even disarmed
the hand of the tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will
cure itself. I wish it may; but I have rarely seen a gamester cured, even
by the disasters of his vocation. Some new indications of the ideas with
which the British cabinet are coming into treaty, confirm your opinions,
which I know to be right, but the Anglomany of some would not permit them
to accede to.

Adieu, my dear Sir. Your affectionate humble servant.

TO BENJ. BANNEKER.

                                             Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

Sir,--I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 19th instant, and for
the Almanac it contained. Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs
as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal
to those of the others colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of
them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both
in Africa and America. I can add with truth, that nobody wishes more
ardently to see a good system commenced for raising the condition both
of their body and mind to what it ought to be, as fast as the imbecility
of their present existence, and other circumstances which cannot be
neglected, will admit. I have taken the liberty of sending your Almanac
to Monsieur de Condorcet, Secretary of the Academy of Sciences at Paris,
and member of the Philanthropic society, because I considered it as a
document to which your color had a right for their justification against
the doubts which have been entertained of them. I am, with great esteem,
Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

                                             Philadelphia, August 30, 1791.

My Dear Sir,--I received some time ago your favor of July 29, and was
happy to find that you saw in its true point of view the way in which I
had been drawn into the scene, which must have been so disagreeable to
you. The importance which you still seem to allow to my note, and the
effect you suppose it to have had, though unintentional in me, induces
me to show you that it really had no effect. Paine's pamphlet, with my
note, was published here about the second week in May. Not a word ever
appeared in the public papers here on the subject for more than a month;
and I am certain not a word on the subject would ever have been said, had
not a writer, under the name of Publicola, at length undertaken to attack
Mr. Paine's principles, which were the principles of the citizens of the
United States. Instantly a host of writers attacked Publicola in support
of those principles. He had thought proper to misconstrue a figurative
expression in my note; and these writers so far noticed me as to place the
expression in its true light. But this was only an incidental skirmish
preliminary to the general engagement, and they would not have thought
me worth naming, had not he thought proper to bring me on the scene. His
antagonists, very criminally, in my opinion, presumed you to be Publicola,
and on that presumption hazarded a personal attack on you. No person saw
with more uneasiness than I did, this unjustifiable assault; and the more
so, when I saw it continued after the printer had declared you were not
the author. But you will perceive from all this, my dear Sir, that my
note contributed nothing to the production of these disagreeable pieces.
As long as Paine's pamphlet stood on its own feet and on my note, it was
unnoticed. As soon as Publicola attacked Paine, swarms appeared in his
defence. To Publicola, then, and not in the least degree to my note, this
whole contest is to be ascribed and all its consequences.

You speak of the execrable paragraph in the Connecticut papers. This,
it is true, appeared before Publicola; but it had no more relation to
Paine's pamphlet and my note, than to the Alcoran. I am satisfied the
writer of it had never seen either; for when I passed through Connecticut
about the middle of June, not a copy had ever been seen by anybody,
either in Hartford or New Haven, nor probably in that whole State; and
that paragraph was so notoriously the reverse of the disinterestedness
of character which you are known to possess by everybody who knows your
name, that I never heard a person speak of the paragraph, but with an
indignation in your behalf which did you entire justice. This paragraph,
then, certainly did not flow from my note, any more than the publications
which Publicola produced. Indeed it was impossible that my note should
occasion your name to be brought into question; for so far from naming
you, I had not even in view any writing which I might suppose to be
yours, and the opinions I alluded to were principally those I had heard
in common conversation from a sect aiming at the subversion of the present
government to bring in their favorite form of a king, lords and commons.

Thus I hope, my dear Sir, that you will see me to have been as ignorant
_in effect_ as I was in intention. I was brought before the public without
my own consent, and from the first moment of seeing the effect of the real
aggression in this business to keep me before the public, I determined
that nothing should induce me to put pen to paper in the controversy.
The business is now over, and I hope its effects are over, and that our
friendship will never be suffered to be committed, whatever use others
may think proper to make of our names.

The event of the King's flight from Paris and his recapture, will have
struck you with its importance. It appears, I think, that the nation is
firm within, and it only remains to see whether there will be any movement
from without. I confess I have not changed my confidence in the favorable
issue of that revolution, because it has always rested on my own ocular
evidence of the unanimity of the nation, and wisdom of the patriotic party
in the National Assembly. The last advices render it probable that the
Emperor will recommence hostilities against the Porte. It remains to see
whether England and Prussia will take a part. Present me to Mrs. Adams
with all the affections I feel for her, and be assured of those devoted
to yourself by, my dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant.

TO ADMIRAL PAUL JONES.

                                             Philadelphia, August 31, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I am to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of March 20th,
with the several papers it enclosed, which were duly communicated to the
President. No proof was necessary to satisfy us here of your good conduct
everywhere. In answer to your request to obtain and transmit the proper
authority of the United States for your retaining the order of St. Anne,
conferred on you by the Empress, I can only say that the Executive of our
Government are not authorized either to grant or refuse the permission
you ask, and consequently cannot take on themselves to do it. Whether the
Legislature would undertake to do it or not, I cannot say. In general,
there is an aversion to meddle with anything of that kind here. And the
event would be so doubtful that the Executive would not commit themselves
by making the proposition to the Legislature.

Our new Constitution works well, and gives general satisfaction Public
credit is high. We have made a successful expedition against the Indians
this summer, and another is gone against them, and we hope will induce
them to peace. A census of our numbers, taken this summer, gives us reason
to believe we are about four millions of all ages and sexes. A state of
tranquil prosperity furnishing no particular and interesting events to
communicate to you, I have only to add assurances of the constant esteem
and attachment of, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR DE TERNANT, _Minister Plenipotentiary of France_.

                                           Philadelphia, September 1, 1791.

Sir,--I have communicated to the President what passed between us the
other day, on the subject of the payments made to France by the United
States in the _assignats_ of that country, since they have lost their par
with gold and silver; and after conferences, by his instruction, with
the Secretary of the Treasury, I am authorized to assure you, that the
government of the United States have no idea of paying their debt in a
depreciated medium, and that in the final liquidation of the payments
which shall have been made, due regard will be had to an equitable
allowance for the circumstance of depreciation.

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

TO T. NEWTON.

                                             Georgetown, September 8, 1791.

Dear Sir,--I was in the moment of my departure from Philadelphia, for
Virginia, when I received your favor, inquiring how far the law of nations
is to govern in proceedings respecting foreign consuls.

The law of nations does not of itself extend to consuls at all. They are
not of the diplomatic class of characters, to which alone that law extends
of right. Convention, indeed, may give it to them, and sometimes has done
so; but in that case, the convention can be produced. In ours with France,
it is expressly declared that consuls shall not have the privileges of
that law, and we have no convention with any other nation.

Congress have had before them a bill on the subject of consuls, but have
not as yet passed it. Their code then furnishes no law to govern these
cases.

Consequently, _they are to be decided by the State laws alone_. Some of
these, I know, have given certain privileges to consuls; and I think those
of Virginia did at one time. Of the extent and continuance of those laws,
you are a better judge than I am.

Independently of law, consuls are to be considered as distinguished
foreigners, dignified by a commission from their sovereign, and specially
recommended by him to the respect of the nation with whom they reside.
They are subject to the laws of the land, indeed, precisely as other
foreigners are, a convention, where there is one, making a part of the
laws of the land: but if at any time, their conduct should render it
necessary to assert the authority of the laws over them, the rigor of
those laws should be tempered by our respect for their sovereign, as far
as the case will admit. This moderate and respectful treatment towards
foreign consuls, it is my duty to recommend and press on our citizens,
because I ask it for their good towards our own consuls, from the people
with whom they reside.

In what I have said, I beg leave to be understood as laying down general
principles only, and not as applying them to the facts which may have
arisen. Before such application, those facts should be heard from all
whom they interest. You, who have so heard them, will be able to make the
application yourself, and that, not only in the present, but in future
cases.

I have the honor to be, with great esteem, your most obedient humble
servant.

TO MR. HAMMOND.

                                                          October 26, 1791.

Mr. Jefferson has the honor of presenting his compliments to Mr. Hammond,
of expressing his regrets that he happened to be from home when Mr.
Hammond did him the honor of calling on him, and was equally unlucky in
not finding him at home when he waited on him on Monday. Being informed
by Mr. Bond, that Mr. Hammond is charged with a public mission to
the government of the United States, relative to which some previous
explanations might be proper, Mr. Jefferson has the honor to assure
Mr. Hammond, he shall be ready to receive any communications and enter
into explanations, either formally or informally, as Mr. Hammond shall
choose, and at any time suitable to him. He recollects with pleasure
his acquaintance with Mr. Hammond in Paris, and shall be happy in every
opportunity of rendering him such offices and attentions as may be
acceptable to him.

TO J. MADISON.

                                                          November 1, 1791.

In my report on How's case, where I state that it should go to the
President, it will become a question with the House whether they shall
refer it to the President themselves, or give it back to the petitioner,
and let him so address it, as he ought to have done at first. I think
the latter proper, 1, because it is a case belonging purely to the
Executive; 2, the legislature should never show itself in a matter with
a foreign nation, but where the case is very serious and they mean to
commit the nation on its issue; 3, because if they indulge individuals in
handing through the legislature their applications to the Executive, all
applicants will be glad to avail themselves of the weight of so powerful
a solicitor. Similar attempts have been repeatedly made by individuals to
get the President to hand in their petitions to the legislature, which he
has constantly refused. It seems proper that every person should address
himself directly to the department to which the constitution has allotted
his case; and that the proper answer to such from any other department is,
"that it is not to us that the constitution has assigned the transaction
of this business." I suggest these things to you, that they may appear to
you to be right this kind of business may in the first instance be turned
into its proper channel.

TO THE PRESIDENT.

                                                          November 6, 1791.

Sir,--I have the honor to enclose you the draught of a letter to Governor
Pinckney, and to observe, that I suppose it to be proper that there
should, on fit occasions, be a direct correspondence between the President
of the United States and the Governors of the States; and that it will
probably be grateful to them to receive from the President, answers to
the letters they address to him. The correspondence with them on ordinary
business, may still be kept up by the Secretary of State, in his own name.

I enclose also a letter to Major Pinckney, with a blank to be filled up,
when you shall have made up your mind on it. I have conferred with Mr.
M. on the idea of the commissioners of the federal town proceeding to
make private sales of the lots, and he thinks it advisable. I cannot but
repeat, that if the surveyors will begin on the river, laying off the lots
from Rock Creek to the Eastern Branch, and go on abreast, in that way,
from the river towards the back part of the town, they may pass the avenue
from the President's house to the capitol, before the spring; and as
soon as they shall have passed it, a public sale may take place, without
injustice to either the Georgetown or Carrolsburg interest. Will not the
present afford you a proper occasion of assuring the commissioners, that
you leave everything respecting L'Enfant to them?

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

TO MAJOR THOMAS PINCKNEY.

                                            Philadelphia, November 6, 1791.

Sir,--The mission of a Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of London
being now to take place, the President of the United States is desirous of
availing the public of your services in that office. I have it in charge,
therefore, from him, to ask whether it will be agreeable that he should
nominate you for that purpose to the Senate. We know that higher motives
will alone influence your mind in the acceptance of this charge. Yet it
is proper, at the same time, to inform you, that as a provision for your
expenses in the exercise of it, an outfit of nine thousand dollars is
allowed, and an annual salary to the same amount, payable quarterly. On
receiving your permission, the necessary orders for these sums, together
with your credentials, shall be forwarded to you, and it would be expected
that you should proceed on the mission as soon as you can have made those
arrangements for your private affairs, which such an absence may render
indispensable. Let me only ask the favor of you to give me an immediate
answer, and by duplicate, by sea and post, that we may have the benefit of
both chances for receiving it as early as possible. Though I have not the
honor of a personal acquaintance with you, yet I beg you to be assured,
that I feel all that anxiety for your entrance on this important mission,
which a thorough conviction of your fitness for it can inspire; and that
in its relations with my office, I shall always endeavor to render it as
agreeable to you as possible.

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

TO THE PRESIDENT.

                                            Philadelphia, November 7, 1791.

Sir,--I have duly considered the letter you were pleased to refer to me,
of the 18th of August, from his Excellency Governor Pinckney to yourself,
together with the draught of one proposed to be written by him to the
Governor of Florida, claiming the re-delivery of certain fugitives from
justice, who have been received in that country. The inconveniences of
such a receptacle for debtors and malefactors in the neighborhood of the
southern States, are obvious and great, and I wish the remedy were as
certain and short as the latter seems to suppose.

The delivery of fugitives from one country to another, as practised by
several nations, is in consequence of conventions settled between them,
defining precisely the cases wherein such deliveries shall take place.
I know that such conventions exist between France and Spain, France and
Sardinia, France and Germany, France and the United Netherlands; between
the several sovereigns constituting the Germanic body, and, I believe,
very generally between co-terminous States on the continent of Europe.
England has no such convention with any nation, and their laws have given
no power to their executive to surrender fugitives of any description;
they are, accordingly, constantly refused, and hence England has been the
asylum of the Paolis, the La Mottes, the Calonnes, in short, of the most
atrocious offenders as well as the most innocent victims, who have been
able to get there.

The laws of the United States, like those of England, receive every
fugitive, and no authority has been given to our executives to deliver
them up. In the case of Longchamp, a subject of France, a formal demand
was made by the minister of France, and was refused. He had, indeed,
committed an offence within the United States; but he was not demanded as
a criminal but as a subject.

The French government has shown great anxiety to have such a convention
with the United States, as might authorize them to command their subjects
coming here; they got a clause in the consular convention signed by Dr.
Franklin and the Count de Vergennes, giving their consuls a right to take
and send back captains of vessels, mariners and _passengers_. Congress saw
the extent of the word _passengers_, and refused to ratify the convention;
a new one was therefore formed, omitting that word. In fact, however
desirable it be that the perpetrators of crimes, acknowledged to be such
by all mankind, should be delivered up to punishment, yet it is extremely
difficult to draw the line between those and acts rendered criminal
by tyrannical laws only; hence the first step always, is a convention
defining the cases where a surrender shall take place.

If, then, the United States could not deliver up to Governor Quesada,
a fugitive from the laws of his country, we cannot claim as a right the
delivery of fugitives from us; and it is worthy consideration, whether
the demand proposed to be made in Governor Pinckney's letter, should it
be complied with by the other party, might not commit us disagreeably,
perhaps dishonorably in event; for I do not think we can take for granted,
that the legislature of the United States will establish a convention for
the mutual delivery of fugitives; and without a reasonable certainty that
they will, I think we ought not to give Governor Quesada any grounds to
expect, that in a similar case, we would re-deliver fugitives from his
government.

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

TO MESSRS. JOHNSON, STEWART AND CARROL.

                                           Philadelphia, November 21, 1791.

Gentlemen,--A Mr. Blodget has a scheme in contemplation for purchasing
and _building_ a whole street in the new city, and any one of them which
you may think best. The magnitude of the proposition occasioned it to
be little attended to in the beginning. However, great as it is, it is
believed by good judges to be practicable. It may not be amiss, therefore,
to be ready for it. The street most desirable to be built up at once,
we suppose to be a broad one, (the avenue,) leading from the President's
house to the Capitol. To prepare the squares adjoining to that, on both
sides, in the first place, can do no harm; because, if Mr. Blodget's
scheme does not take effect, still it is a part of a work done, which
was to be done; if his scheme takes effect, you will be in readiness for
him, which would be desirable. The President, therefore, desires me to
suggest to you the beginning at once on that avenue, and when all the
squares on that shall be laid off, they may go on laying off the rest of
the squares between that and the river, from Georgetown to the eastern
branch, according to an idea he has suggested to you in a letter not long
since. This, however, is but a suggestion for the good of the undertaking,
on which you will decide as you think proper. I have the honor to be,
gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MR. ELLICOTT.

                                           Philadelphia, November 21, 1791.

Dear Sir,--It is excessively desirable that an extensive sale of lots in
Washington should take place as soon as possible. It has been recommitted
to the commissioners to have all the squares adjacent to the avenue from
the President's house to the Capitol, on both sides, and from thence to
the river, through the whole breadth of the ground between Rock Creek and
Eastern Branch, first laid off; the object of the present is to ask your
_private_ opinion of the earliest time at which this portion of the work
can be completed, which I will beg the favor of you to communicate to me
by letter. In order that the sale may not be delayed by the engraving,
it is hoped that by communicating what is executed from time to time, the
engraver may nearly keep pace with you.

I am, with great esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient servant.

TO WILLIAM SHORT.

                                           Philadelphia, November 24, 1791.

Dear Sir,--My last to you was of August the 29th, acknowledging the
receipt of your Nos. 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, and informing you I was about
setting out to Virginia, and should not again write to you till my return.
Only one vessel has sailed from hence to Havre since my return, and my
notice of her departure was so short, that I could not avail myself of
it. Your Nos. 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, came here during my absence, and 79,
80, were received October the 28th. The Nos. 76 and 77 seem to be missing.

You mention that Drost wishes the devices of our money to be sent to him,
that he may engrave them there. This cannot be done, because not yet
decided on. The devices will be fixed by the law which shall establish
the mint. M. de Ternant tells me he has no instructions to propose to us
the negotiation of a commercial treaty, and that he does not expect any.
I wish it were possible to draw that negotiation to this place. In your
letter of July the 24th, is the following paragraph. "It is published
in the English newspapers, that war is inevitable between the United
States and Spain, and that preparations are making for it on both sides.
M. de Montmorin asked me how the business stood at present, and seemed
somewhat surprised at my telling him, that I knew nothing later than
what I had formerly mentioned to him. I have, in more than one instance,
experienced the inconvenience of being without information. In this, it is
disagreeable, as it may have the appearance with M. de Montmorin, of my
having something to conceal from him, which not being the case, it would
be wrong that he should be allowed to take up such an idea. I observed,
that I did not suppose there was any new circumstance, as you had not
informed me of it." Your observation was certainly just. It would be
an Augean task for me to go through the London newspapers, and formally
contradict all their lies, even those relating to America. On our side,
there having been certainly no preparations for war against Spain; nor
have I heard of any on their part, but _in the London newspapers_. As to
the progress of the negotiation, I know nothing of it but from you; having
never had a letter from Mr. Carmichael on the subject. Our best newspapers
are sent you from my office with scrupulous exactness, by every vessel
sailing to Havre or any other convenient port of France. On these I rely
for giving you information of all the facts possessed by the public; and
as to those not possessed by them, I think there has not been a single
instance of my leaving you uninformed of any of them which related to
the matters under your charge. In Freneau's paper of the 21st instant,
you will see a small essay on population and emigration, which I think it
would be well if the news writers of Paris would translate and insert in
their papers. The sentiments are too just not to make impression.

Some proceedings of the assembly of St. Domingo have lately taken place,
which it is necessary for me to state to you exactly, that you may be able
to do the same to M. de Montmorin. When the insurrection of their negroes
assumed a very threatening appearance, the Assembly sent a deputy here to
ask assistance of military stores and provisions. He addressed himself to
M. de Ternant, who (the President being then in Virginia, as I was also)
applied to the Secretaries of the Treasury and War. They furnished one
thousand stand of arms, other military stores, and placed forty thousand
dollars in the treasury, subject to the order of M. de Ternant, to be
laid out in provisions, or otherwise, as he should think best. He sent
the arms and other military stores; but the want of provisions did not
seem so instantaneous as to render it necessary, in his opinion, to send
any at that time. Before the vessel arrived in St. Domingo, the Assembly,
further urged by the appearance of danger, sent two deputies more, with
larger demands, viz., eight thousand fusils and bayonets, two thousand
mousquators, three thousand pistols, three thousand sabres, twenty-four
thousand barrels of flour, four hundred thousand livres worth of Indian
meal, rice, peas, and hay, and a large quantity of plank, &c. to repair
the buildings destroyed. They applied to M. de Ternant, and then with
his consent to me, he and I having previously had a conversation on the
subject. They proposed to me, first, that we should supply those wants
from the money we owed France; or secondly, from the bills of exchange
which they were authorized to draw on a particular fund in France; or
thirdly, that we would guarantee their bills, in which case they could
dispose of them to merchants, and buy the necessaries themselves. I
convinced them the two latter alternatives were beyond the powers of
the executive, and the first could only be done with the consent of the
minister of France. In the course of our conversation, I expressed to
them our sincere attachment to France and all its dominions, and most
especially to them who were our neighbors, and whose interests had some
common points of union with ours in matters of commerce; that we wished,
therefore, to render them every service they needed, but that we could
not do it in any way disagreeable to France; that they must be sensible,
that M. de Ternant might apprehend that jealousy would be excited by
their addressing themselves directly to foreign powers, and therefore,
that a concert with him in their applications to us, was essential. The
subject of independence, and their views towards it having been stated in
the public papers, this led our conversation to it; and I must say, they
appeared as far from these views as any persons on earth. I expressed
to them freely my opinion, that such an object was neither desirable on
their part, nor attainable; that, as to ourselves, there was one case
which would be peculiarly alarming to us, to wit, were there a danger of
their falling under any other power; that we conceived it to be strongly
our interests, that they should retain their connection with the mother
country; that we had a common interest with them, in furnishing them
the necessaries of life in exchange for sugar and coffee for our own
consumption, but that I thought we might rely on the justice of the
mother country towards them, for their obtaining this privilege; and on
the whole, let them see that nothing was to be done, but with the consent
of the minister of France. I am convinced myself that their views and
their application to us are perfectly innocent; however, M. de Ternant,
and still more, M. de La Forest, are jealous. The deputies, on the other
hand, think that M. de Ternant is not sensible enough of their wants. They
delivered me sealed letters to the President and to Congress. That to the
President contained only a picture of their distresses, and application
for relief. That to Congress, I know no otherwise than through the
public papers. The Senate read it, and sent it to the Representatives,
who read it, and have taken no other notice of it. The line of conduct I
pursue is, to persuade these gentlemen to be contented with such moderate
supplies, from time to time, as will keep them from real distress, and
to wait with patience for what would be a surplus, till M. de Ternant can
receive instructions from France, which he has reason to expect within a
few weeks; and I encourage the latter gentleman even to go beyond their
absolute wants of the moment, so far as to keep them in good humor. He
is accordingly proposing to lay out ten thousand dollars for them, for
the present. It would be ridiculous in the present case, to talk about
forms. There are situations when form must be dispensed with. A man
attacked by assassins will call for help to those nearest him, and will
not think himself bound to silence till a magistrate may come to his aid.
It would be unwise in the highest degree, that the colonists should be
disgusted with either France or us; for it might then be made to depend
on the moderation of another power, whether what appears a chimera might
not become a reality. I have thought it necessary to go thus fully into
this transaction, and particularly as to the sentiments I have expressed
to them, that you may be enabled to place our proceedings in their true
light.

Our Indian expeditions have proved successful. As yet, however, they
have not led to peace. Mr. Hammond has lately arrived here as Minister
Plenipotentiary from the court of London, and we propose to name one
to that court in return. Congress will probably establish the ratio of
representation by a bill now before them, at one representative for every
thirty thousand inhabitants. Besides the newspapers, as usual, you will
receive herewith the census lately taken, by towns and counties as well
as by States.