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

If it should prove an insuperable obstacle with them, or if it should stand in the way of a greater advantage, we can but abandon it in the course of the negotiation.

In my copy of the cypher, on the alphabetical side, numbers are wanting from "Denmark" to "disc" inclusive, and from "gone" to "governor" inclusive. I suppose them to have been omitted in copying; will you be so good as to send them to me from yours, by the first safe conveyance?

With compliments to the ladies, and to Colonel Smith,

I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.112

TO MR. WM. SHORT. 113

July, 1785.

Sir,—A treaty of amity and commerce between the United States of America and his majesty the King of Prussia having been arranged with the Baron de Thulemeyer, his majesty's envoy extraordinary at the Hague, specially empowered for this purpose, and it being inconsistent with our other duties to repair to that place ourselves for the purpose of executing and exchanging the instruments of treaty, we hereby appoint you special secretary for that purpose.

You receive from Colonel Humphries, secretary of our legation, the original of our full powers, and a copy of the same attested by him, heretofore communicated to us by the Baron de Thulemeyer, and the two instruments of treaty awarded between us, each in two columns, the one in English and the other in French, equally originals. From us you receive a letter to Charles Dumas, Esq., for the United States at the Hague, associating him with you in the object of your mission.

You will proceed immediately to the Hague, and being arrived there, will deliver the letter to Mr. Dumas, and proceed conjunctly with him in the residue of your business, which is to be executed there.

The original of our full powers is to be exhibited to the plenipotentiary of his majesty the King of Prussia, and the attested copy is to be left with him, you taking back the original. You will in like manner ask an exhibition of the original of his full powers, and also a copy duly attested: you will compare the copy with the original, and, being satisfied of its exactness, you will return the original and keep the copy. That you may be under no doubt whether the full powers exhibited to you be sufficient or not, you receive from Colonel Humphries those which the Baron de Thulemeyer heretofore sent to us; if those which shall be exhibited agree with these in form or substance, they will be sufficient.

The full powers being approved on each side and exchanged, you will obtain the signature and seal of the Prussian plenipotentiary to the two instruments of treaty with which you are charged, and yourself and Mr. Dumas will attest the same. One of these original instruments will remain in the hands of the Prussian plenipotentiary, the other you will retain.

You will ask that the ratification of his majesty the King of Prussia be made known to us as soon as it shall have taken place, giving an assurance on our part that that of Congress shall also be communicated as soon as it shall have taken place; when both ratifications shall be known, measures may be concerted for exchanging them. You will confer with the said plenipotentiary on the expediency of keeping this treaty uncommunicated to the public until the exchange of ratifications agree accordingly.

You will then return to Paris, and redeliver to the secretary of our legation, our original full powers, the copies of those of Prussia before-mentioned, and the original instrument of the treaty which you shall have retained.

TO M. DE CASTRIES

Paris, August 3, 1785.

Sir,—The enclosed copy of a letter from Captain John Paul Jones, on the subject on which your Excellency did me the honor to write me, on the – day of July, will inform you that there is still occasion to be troublesome to you. A Mr. Puchilberg, a merchant of L'Orient, who seems to have kept himself unknown till money was to be received, now presents powers to receive it, signed by the American officers and crews; and this produces a hesitation in the person to whom your order was directed. Congress, however, having substituted Captain Jones, as agent, to solicit and receive this money, he having given them security to forward it, when received, to their treasury, to be thence distributed to the claimants, and having at a considerable expense of time, trouble, and money, attended it to a conclusion, are circumstances of weight, against which Mr. Puchilberg seems to have nothing to oppose, but a nomination by individuals of the crew, under which he has declined to act, and permitted the business to be done by another without contradiction from him. Against him, too, it is urged that he fomented the sedition which took place among them; that he obtained this nomination from them while their minds were under ferment; and that he has given no security for the faithful payment of the money to those entitled to it.

I will add to these, one more circumstance which appears to render it impossible that he should execute this trust. It is now several years since the right to this money arose. The persons in whom it originally vested were probably from different States in America. Many of them must be now dead; and their rights passed on to their representatives. But who are their representatives? The laws of some States prefer one degree of relations, those of others prefer another, there being no uniformity among the States on this point. Mr. Puchilberg, therefore, should know which of the parties are dead; in what order the laws of their respective States call their relations to the succession; and, in every case, which of those orders are actually in existence, and entitled to the share of the deceased. With the Atlantic Ocean between the principals and their substitute, your Excellency will perceive what an inexhaustible source of difficulties, of chicanery, and delay, this might furnish to a person who should find an interest in keeping this money, as long as possible, in his own hands. Whereas, if it be lodged in the treasury of Congress, they, by an easy reference to the tribunals of the different States, can have every one's portion immediately rendered to himself, if living; and if dead, to such of his relations as the laws of his particular State prefer, and as shall be found actually living. I the rather urge this course, as I foresee that it will relieve your Excellency from numberless appeals, which these people will continually be making from the decisions of Mr. Puchilberg; appeals likely to perpetuate that trouble of which you have already had too much, and to which I am sorry to be obliged to add, by asking a peremptory order for the execution of what you were before pleased to decide on this subject.

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

TO JOHN ADAMS

Paris, August 6, 1785

Dear Sir,—I now enclose you a draught of a treaty for the Barbary States, together with the notes Dr. Franklin left me. I have retained a press copy of this draught, so that by referring to any article, line and word, in it, you can propose amendments, and send them by the post, without anybody's being able to make much of the main subject. I shall be glad to receive any alterations you may think necessary, as soon as convenient, that this matter may be in readiness. I enclose also a letter containing intelligence from Algiers. I know not how far it is to be relied on. My anxiety is extreme indeed, as to these treaties. We know that Congress have decided ultimately to treat. We know how far they will go. But unfortunately we know also, that a particular person has been charged with instructions for us, these five months, who neither comes nor writes to us. What are we to do? It is my opinion, that if Mr. Lambe does not come in either of the packets (English or French) now expected, we ought to proceed. I therefore propose to you this term, as the end of our expectations of him, and that if he does not come, we send some other person. Dr. Bancroft or Captain Jones occurs to me as the fittest. If we consider the present object only, I think the former would be the most proper; but if we look forward to the very probable event of war with those pirates, an important object would be obtained by Captain Jones' becoming acquainted with their ports, force, tactics, &c. Let me know your opinion on this. I have never mentioned it to either, but I suppose either might be induced to go. Present me affectionately to the ladies and Colonel Smith, and be assured of the sincerity with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO DR. PRICE

Paris, August 7, 1785.

Sir,—Your favor of July the 2d came duly to hand. The concern you therein express as to the effect of your pamphlet in America, induces me to trouble you with some observations on that subject.

From my acquaintance with that country, I think I am able to judge, with some degree of certainty, of the manner in which it will have been received. Southward of the Chesapeake, it will find but few readers concurring with it in sentiment, on the subject of slavery. From the mouth to the head of the Chesapeake, the bulk of the people will approve it in theory, and it will find a respectable minority ready to adopt it in practice; a minority, which for weight and worth of character, preponderates against the greater number, who have not the courage to divest their families of a property, which, however, keeps their conscience unquiet. Northward of the Chesapeake, you may find, here and there, an opponent to your doctrine, as you may find, here and there, a robber and murderer; but in no greater number. In that part of America, there being but few slaves, they can easily disencumber themselves of them; and emancipation is put into such a train, that in a few years there will be no slaves northward of Maryland. In Maryland, I do not find such a disposition to begin the redress of this enormity, as in Virginia. This is the next State to which we may turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of justice, in conflict with avarice and oppression; a conflict wherein the sacred side is gaining daily recruits, from the influx into office of young men grown, and growing up. These have sucked in the principles of liberty, as it were, with their mother's milk; and it is to them I look with anxiety to turn the fate of this question. Be not therefore discouraged. What you have written will do a great deal of good; and could you still trouble yourself with our welfare, no man is more able to give aid to the laboring side. The College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, since the re-modelling of its plan, is the place where are collected together all the young men of Virginia, under preparation for public life. They are there under the direction (most of them) of a Mr. Wythe, one of the most virtuous of characters, and whose sentiments on the subject of slavery are unequivocal. I am satisfied, if you could resolve to address an exhortation to those young men, with all that eloquence of which you are master, that its influence on the future decision of this important question would be great, perhaps decisive. Thus you see, that, so far from thinking you have cause to repent of what you have done, I wish you to do more, and wish it, on an assurance of its effect. The information I have received from America, of the reception of your pamphlet in the different States, agrees with the expectations I had formed.

Our country is getting into a ferment against yours, or rather has caught it from yours. God knows how this will end; but assuredly in one extreme or the other. There can be no medium between those who have loved so much. I think the decision is in your power as yet, but will not be so long.

I pray you to be assured of the sincerity of the esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO JOHN ADAMS

Paris, August 10, 1785.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of the 4th instant came to hand yesterday. I now enclose you the two Arrets against the importation of foreign manufactures into this kingdom. The cause of the balance against this country, in favor of England, as well as its amount, is not agreed on. No doubt the rage for English manufactures must be a principal cause. The speculators in exchange say also that those of the circumjacent countries who have a balance in their favor against France, remit that balance to England from France. If so, it is possible that the English may count this balance twice; that is, in summing their exports to one of these States, and their imports from it, they count the difference once in their favor, then a second time when they sum the remittances of cash they receive from France. There has been no Arret relative to our commerce since that of August, 1784. And all the late advices from the French West Indies are, that they have now in their ports always three times as many vessels as there ever were before, and that the increase is principally from our States. I have now no further fears of that Arret's standing its ground. When it shall become firm, I do not think its extension desperate. But whether the placing it on the firm basis of treaty be practicable, is a very different question. As far as it is possible to judge from appearances, I conjecture that Crawford will do nothing. I infer this from some things in his conversation, and from an expression of the Count de Vergennes in a conversation with me yesterday. I pressed upon him the importance of opening their ports freely to us in the moment of the oppressions of the English regulations against us, and perhaps of the suspension of their commerce. He admitted it, but said we had free ingress with our productions. I enumerated them to him, and showed him on what footing they were, and how they might be improved. We are to have further conversations on the subject. I am afraid the voyage to Fontainebleau will interrupt them. From the inquiries I have made, I find I cannot get a very small and indifferent house there for the season, (that is, for a month,) for less than one hundred or one hundred and fifty guineas. This is nearly the whole salary for the time, and would leave nothing to eat. I therefore cannot accompany the court thither, but I will endeavor to go there occasionally from Paris. They tell me it is the most favorable scene for business with the Count de Vergennes, because he is then more abstracted from the domestic applications. Count d'Aranda is not yet returned from the waters of Vichy. As soon as he returns, I will apply to him in the case of Mr. Watson. I will pray you to insure Houdon's life from the 27th of last month till his return to Paris. As he was to stay in America a month or two, he will probably be about six months absent; but the three per cent. for the voyage being once paid, I suppose they will insure his life by the month, whether his absence be longer or shorter. The sum to be insured is fifteen thousand livres tournois. If it be not necessary to pay the money immediately, there is a prospect of exchange becoming more favorable. But whenever it is necessary, be so good as to procure it by selling a draft on Mr. Grand, which I will take care shall be honored. With compliments to the ladies,

I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO JOHN JAY

Paris, August 14, 1785.

Sir,—I was honored, on the 22d ultimo, with the receipt of your letter of June the 15th; and delivered the letter therein enclosed, from the President of Congress to the King. I took an opportunity of asking the Count de Vergennes, whether the Chevalier Luzerne proposed to return to America? He answered me that he did; and that he was here, for a time only, to arrange his private affairs. Of course, this stopped my proceeding further, in compliance with the hint in your letter. I knew that the Chevalier Luzerne still retained the character of minister to Congress, which occasioned my premising the question I did. But, notwithstanding the answer, which indeed was the only one the Count de Vergennes could give me, I believe it is not expected that the Chevalier will return to America: that he is waiting an appointment here, to some of their embassies, or some other promotion, and in the meantime, as a favor, is permitted to retain his former character. Knowing the esteem borne him in America, I did not suppose it would be wished that I should add anything which might occasion an injury to him; and the rather, as I presumed that at this time, there did not exist the same reason for wishing the arrival of a minister in America, which, perhaps, existed there at the date of your letter. Count Adhemar is just arrived from London, on account of a paralytic disease with which he has been struck. It does not seem improbable that his place will be supplied, and perhaps by the Chevalier de la Luzerne.

A French vessel has lately refused the salute to a British armed vessel in the channel. The chargé des affaires of Great Britain, at this court, (their ambassador having gone to London a few days ago,) made this the subject of a conference with the Count de Vergennes, on Tuesday last. He told me that the Count explained the transaction as the act of the individual master of the French vessel, not founded in any public orders. His earnestness, and his endeavors to find terms sufficiently soft to express the Count's explanation, had no tendency to lessen any doubts I might have entertained on this subject. I think it possible the refusal may have been by order: nor can I believe that Great Britain is in a condition to resent it, if it was so. In this case, we shall see it repeated by France; and her example will then be soon followed by other nations. The news-writers bring together this circumstance, with the departure of the French ambassador from London, and the English ambassador from Paris, the manœuvring of a French fleet just off the channel, the collecting some English vessels of war in the channel, the failure of a commercial treaty between the two countries, and a severe Arret here against English manufactures, as foreboding war. It is possible that the fleet of manœuvre, the refusal of the salute, and the English fleet of observation, may have a connection with one another. But I am persuaded the other facts are totally independent of these, and of one another, and are accidentally brought together in point of time. Neither nation is in a condition to go to war: Great Britain, indeed, the least so of the two. The latter power, or rather, its monarch, as Elector of Hanover, has lately confederated with the King of Prussia and others of the Germanic body, evidently in opposition to the Emperor's designs on Bavaria. An alliance, too, between the Empress of Russia and the republic of Venice, seems to have had him in view, as he had meditated some exchange of territory with that republic. This desertion of the powers heretofore thought friendly to him, seems to leave no issue for his ambition, but on the side of Turkey. His demarkation with that country is still unsettled. His difference with the Dutch is certainly agreed. The articles are not yet made public; perhaps not quite adjusted. Upon the whole, we may count on another year's peace in Europe, and that our friends will not, within that time, be brought into any embarrassments, which might encourage Great Britain to be difficult in settling the points still unsettled between us.

You have, doubtless, seen in the papers, that this court was sending two vessels into the south sea, under the conduct of a Captain Peyrouse. They give out, that the object is merely for the improvement of our knowledge of the geography of that part of the globe. And certain it is, that they carry men of eminence in different branches of science. Their loading, however, as detailed in conversations, and some other circumstances, appeared to me to indicate some other design: perhaps that of colonizing on the western coast of America; or, it may be, only to establish one or more factories there, for the fur trade. Perhaps we may be little interested in either of these objects. But we are interested in another, that is, to know whether they are perfectly weaned from the desire of possessing continental colonies in America. Events might arise, which would render it very desirable for Congress to be satisfied they have no such wish. If they would desire a colony on the western side of America, I should not be quite satisfied that they would refuse one which should offer itself on the eastern side. Captain Paul Jones being at L'Orient, within a day's journey of Brest, where Captain Peyrouse's vessels lay, I desired him, if he could not satisfy himself at L'Orient of the nature of this equipment, to go to Brest for that purpose: conducting himself so as to excite no suspicion that we attended at all to this expedition. His discretion can be relied on, and his expenses for so short a journey, will be a trifling price for satisfaction on this point. I hope, therefore, that my undertaking that the expenses of his journey shall be reimbursed him will not be disapproved.

A gentleman, lately arrived from New York, tells me he thinks it will be satisfactory to Congress to be informed of the effect produced here by the insult of Longchamps on Monsieur de Marbois. Soon after my arrival in France last summer, it was the matter of a conversation between the Count de Vergennes and myself. I explained to him the effect of the judgment against Longchamps. He did not say that it was satisfactory, but neither did he say a word from which I could collect that it was not so. The conversation was not official, because foreign to the character in which I then was. He has never mentioned a word on the subject to me since, and it was not for me to introduce it at any time. I have never once heard it mentioned in conversation, by any person of this country, and have no reason to suppose that there remains any uneasiness on the subject. I have indeed been told, that they had sent orders to make a formal demand of Longchamps from Congress, and had immediately countermanded these orders. You know whether this be true. If it be, I should suspect the first orders to have been surprised from them by some exaggeration, and that the latter was a correction of their error, in the moment of further reflection. Upon the whole, there certainly appears to me no reason to urge the State, in which the fact happened, to any violation of their laws, nor to set a precedent which might hereafter be used in cases more interesting to us than the late one.

In a late conversation with the Count de Vergennes, he asked me if the condition of our finances was improving. He did not make an application of the question to the arrearages of their interest, though perhaps he meant that I should apply it. I told him the impost still found obstacles, and explained to him the effects which I hoped from our land office. Your letter of the 15th of April, did not come to hand till the 27th ultimo. I enclose a letter from Mr. Dumas to the President of Congress, and accompany the present with the Leyden Gazette and Gazette of France, from the date last sent you to the present time.

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

TO JOHN JAY

Paris, August 14, 1785.

Sir,—The letter of June 18th, signed by Dr. Franklin and myself, is the last addressed to you from hence on the objects of the general commission. As circumstances rendered it necessary that the signature of the Prussian treaty, whenever it should be in readiness, should be made separately, the intervention of a person of confidence between the Prussian Plenipotentiary and us became also requisite. His office would be to receive the duplicates of the treaty here, signed by Dr. Franklin and myself, to carry them to London to Mr. Adams, and to the Hague to Baron Thulemeyer for their signatures. Moreover, to take hence the original of our full powers to show to Baron Thulemeyer, and the copy of his which he has before communicated to us, to ask from him a sight of the original, to compare the copy with it, and certify the latter to be true. Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, and myself, therefore, had concluded to engage Mr. Short (a gentleman of Virginia who lives with me at present) to transact this business, and to invest him with the character of Secretary pro hac vice, in order that his signature of the truth of the copy of Baron Thulemeyer's full powers might authenticate that copy. On the receipt of the letter No. 1, therefore, from that minister, Mr. Short set out hence with the necessary papers. By a letter lately received from him, I expect he left London for the Hague about the 10th instant, and that the treaty is ultimately executed by this time. In respect to the desire expressed by Baron Thulemeyer in his letter, we associated Mr. Dumas with Mr. Short to assist in the exchange of signatures and other ceremonies of execution. We agreed to bear Mr. Short's expenses, and have thought that a guinea a day (Sundays excluded) would be a proper compensation for his trouble and the necessary equipments for his journey, which could not enter into the account of travelling expenses. I hope by the first safe conveyance to be able to forward to you the original of the treaty. No 2 is my answer to Baron Thulemeyer's letter, No. 3 our instructions to Mr. Short, and No. 4 letter to Mr. Dumas.