Chapter XXII: Part III: Continued (21)

GENTLEMEN,--I received, some time ago, your letter of February 28th, covering a printed scheme of a lottery for the benefit of the East Tennessee College, and proposing to send tickets to me to be disposed of. It would be impossible for them to come to a more inefficient hand. I rarely go from home, and consequently see but a few neighbors and friends, who occasionally call on me. And having myself made it a rule never to engage in a lottery or any other adventure of mere chance, I can, with the less candor or effect, urge it on others, however laudable or desirable its object may be. No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in its effect towards supporting free and good government. I am sincerely rejoiced, therefore, to find that so excellent a fund has been provided for this noble purpose in Tennessee. Fifty-thousand dollars placed in a safe bank, will give four thousand dollars a year, and even without other aid, must soon accomplish buildings sufficient for the object in its early stage. I consider the common plan followed in this country, but not in others, of making one large and expensive building, as unfortunately erroneous. It is infinitely better to erect a small and separate lodge for each separate professorship, with only a hall below for his class, and two chambers above for himself; joining these lodges by barracks for a certain portion of the students, opening into a covered way to give a dry communication between all the schools. The whole of these arranged around an open square of grass and trees, would make it, what it should be in fact, an academical village, instead of a large and common den of noise, of filth and of fetid air. It would afford that quiet retirement so friendly to study, and lessen the dangers of fire, infection and tumult. Every professor would be the police officer of the students adjacent to his own lodge, which should include those of his own class of preference, and might be at the head of their table, if, as I suppose, it can be reconciled with the necessary economy to dine them in smaller and separate parties, rather than in a large and common mess. These separate buildings, too, might be erected successively and occasionally, as the number of professorships and students should be increased, or the funds become competent.

I pray you to pardon me if I have stepped aside into the province of counsel; but much observation and reflection on these institutions have long convinced me that the large and crowded buildings in which youths are pent up, are equally unfriendly to health, to study, to manners, morals and order; and, believing the plan I suggest to be more promotive of these, and peculiarly adapted to the slender beginnings and progressive growth of our institutions, I hoped you would pardon the presumption, in consideration of the motive which was suggested by the difficulty expressed in your letter, of procuring funds for erecting the building. But, on whatever plan you proceed, I wish it every possible success, and to yourselves the reward of esteem, respect and gratitude due to those who devote their time and efforts to render the youths of every successive age fit governors for the next. To these accept, in addition, the assurances of mine.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

MONTICELLO, May 13, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your promised attention to my portion of the Merinos, and if there be any expenses of transportation, &c., and you will be so good as to advance my portion of them with yours and notify the amount, it shall be promptly remitted. What shall we do with them? I have been so disgusted with the scandalous extortions lately practised in the sale of these animals, and with the description of patriotism and praise to the sellers, as if the thousands of dollars apiece they have not been ashamed to receive were not reward enough, that I am disposed to consider as right, whatever is the reverse of what they have done. Since fortune has put the occasion upon us, is it not incumbent upon us so to dispense this benefit to the farmers of our country, as to put to shame those who, forgetting their own wealth and the honest simplicity of the farmers, have thought them fit objects of the shaving art, and to excite, by a better example, the condemnation due to theirs? No sentiment is more acknowledged in the family of Agriculturists than that the few who can afford it should incur the risk and expense of all new improvements, and give the benefit freely to the many of more restricted circumstances. The question then recurs, What are we to do with them? I shall be willing to concur with you in any plan you shall approve, and in order that we may have some proposition to begin upon, I will throw out a first idea, to be modified or postponed to whatever you shall think better.

Give all the full-blooded males we can raise to the different counties of our State, one to each, as fast as we can furnish them. And as there must be some rule of priority for the distribution, let us begin with our own counties, which are contiguous and nearly central to the State, and proceed, circle after circle, till we have given a ram to every county. This will take about seven years, if we add to the full descendants those which will have past to the fourth generation from common ewes, to make the benefit of a single male as general as practicable to the county, we may ask some known character in each county to have a small society formed which shall receive the animal and prescribe rules for his care and government. We should retain ourselves all the full-blooded ewes, that they may enable us the sooner to furnish a male to every county. When all shall have been provided with rams, we may, in a year or two more, be in a condition to give an ewe also to every county, if it be thought necessary. But I suppose it will not, as four generations from their full-blooded ram will give them the pure race from common ewes.

In the meantime we shall not be without a profit indemnifying our trouble and expense. For if of our present stock of common ewes, we place with the ram as many as he may be competent to, suppose fifty, we may sell the male lambs of every year for such reasonable price as, in addition to the wool, will pay for the maintenance of the flock. The first year they will be half bloods, the second three-quarters, the third seven-eights, and the fourth full-blooded, if we take care in selling annually half the ewes also, to keep those of highest blood, this will be a fund for kindnesses to our friends, as well as for indemnification to ourselves; and our whole State may thus, from this small stock, so dispersed, be filled in a very few years with this valuable race, and more satisfaction result to ourselves than money ever administered to the bosom of a shaver. There will be danger that what is here proposed, though but an act of ordinary duty, may be perverted into one of ostentation, but malice will always find bad motives for good actions. Shall we therefore never do good? It may also be used to commit us with those on whose example it will truly be a reproof. We may guard against this perhaps by a proper reserve, developing our purpose only by its execution.

Vive, vale, et siquid novisti rectius istis
Candidus imperti sinon, his ulere mecum.

TO GOVERNOR TYLER.

MONTICELLO, May 26, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your friendly letter of the 12th has been duly received. Although I have laid it down as a law to myself, never to embarrass the President with my solicitations, and have not till now broken through it, yet I have made a part of your letter the subject of one to him, and have done it with all my heart, and in the full belief that I serve him and the public in urging that appointment. We have long enough suffered under the base prostitution of law to party passions in one judge, and the imbecility of another. In the hands of one the law is nothing more than an ambiguous text, to be explained by his sophistry into any meaning which may subserve his personal malice. Nor can any milk-and-water associate maintain his own dependence, and by a firm pursuance of what the law really is, extend its protection to the citizens or the public. I believe you will do it, and where you cannot induce your colleague to do what is right, you will be firm enough to hinder him from doing what is wrong, and by opposing sense to sophistry, leave the juries free to follow their own judgment.

I have long lamented with you the depreciation of law science. The opinion seems to be that Blackstone is to us what the Alcoran is to the Mahometans, that everything which is necessary is in him, and what is not in him is not necessary. I still lend my counsel and books to such young students as will fix themselves in the neighborhood. Coke's institutes and reports are their first, and Blackstone their last book, after an intermediate course of two or three years. It is nothing more than an elegant digest of what they will then have acquired from the real fountains of the law. Now men are born scholars, lawyers, doctors; in our day this was confined to poets. You wish to see me again in the legislature, but this is impossible; my mind is now so dissolved in tranquillity, that it can never again encounter a contentious assembly; the habits of thinking and speaking off-hand, after a disuse of five and twenty years, have given place to the slower process of the pen. I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength. 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it. But this division looks to many other fundamental provisions. Every hundred, besides a school, should have a justice of the peace, a constable and a captain of militia. These officers, or some others within the hundred, should be a corporation to manage all its concerns, to take care of its roads, its poor, and its police by patroles, &c., (as the select men of the Eastern townships.) Every hundred should elect one or two jurors to serve where requisite, and all other elections should be made in the hundreds separately, and the votes of all the hundreds be brought together. Our present Captaincies might be declared hundreds for the present, with a power to the courts to alter them occasionally. These little republics would be the main strength of the great one. We owe to them the vigor given to our revolution in its commencement in the Eastern States, and by them the Eastern States were enabled to repeal the embargo in opposition to the Middle, Southern and Western States, and their large and lubberly division into counties which can never be assembled. General orders are given out from a centre to the foreman of every hundred, as to the sergeants of an army, and the whole nation is thrown into energetic action, in the same direction in one instant and as one man, and becomes absolutely irresistible. Could I once see this I should consider it as the dawn of the salvation of the republic, and say with old Simeon, "nune dimittas Domine." But our children will be as wise as we are, and will establish in the fulness of time those things not yet ripe for establishment. So be it, and to yourself health, happiness and long life.

TO HIS EXCELLENCY, COUNT PAHLEN, ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY OF RUSSIA.

MONTICELLO, July 13, 1810.

SIR,--I have been honored with your letter of the 25th ult., and have to return you my thanks for those of Madame de Tessé and General Lafayette, and for the print of Baron Humboldt, all of which are come safely to hand, and present to me the proofs and recollections of their much-valued friendships. To these acknowledgments, permit me to add my congratulations on your safe arrival in the United States, after journeys and voyages which, from their length, cannot have been pleasant. If, after this, it shall be found that a change of twenty degrees of latitude shall have no unfavorable influence on your health, it will furnish double cause of felicitation.

I am much flattered by the kind notice of the Emperor, which you have been so obliging as to communicate to me. The approbation of the good is always consoling; but that of a sovereign whose station and endowments are so pre-eminent, is received with the sensibility which the veneration for his character inspires. Among other motives of commiseration which the calamities of Europe cannot fail to excite in every virtuous mind, the interruption which these have given to the benevolent views of the Emperor is prominent. The accession of a sovereign, with the dispositions and qualifications to improve the condition of a great nation, and to place its happiness on a permanent basis, is a phenomenon so rare in the annals of mankind, that, when the blessing occurs, it is lamentable that any portion of it should be usurped by occurrences of the character of those we have seen. If, separated from these scenes by an ocean of a thousand leagues breadth, they have required all our cares to keep aloof from their desolating effects, I can readily conceive how much more they must occupy those to whose territories they are contiguous.

That the Emperor may be able, whenever a pacification takes place, to show himself the father and friend of the human race, to restore to nations the moral laws which have governed their intercourse, and to prevent, forever, a repetition of those ravages by sea and land, which will distinguish the present as an age of Vandalism, I sincerely pray.

I consider as a happy augury, the choice which the Emperor has made of a person to reside near our government, so distinguished by his dispositions and qualifications to cherish the friendship and the interests of both nations. With my best wishes that your residence among us may be rendered entirely agreeable, and be accompanied with the blessing of health, accept the assurances of my great respect and consideration.

TO MR. BOTTA.

MONTICELLO, July 15, 1810.

SIR,--I am honored with your letter of the 12th of January, and although the work you therein mention is not yet come to hand, I avail myself of an occasion, now rendered rare and precarious between our two countries, of anticipating the obligation I shall owe for the pleasure I shall have in perusing it, and of travelling over with you the important scenes, _quorum pars minima fui_, scenes which have given an impulsion to the world, which, as to ourselves, has been a great blessing, but whether to Europe or not, can only be estimated by him who sees the future as well as the present and past. We are certainly indebted to those who think our revolution worthy of their pen, and who will do justice to our actions and motives; and to yourself I have no doubt we shall owe this obligation, and I now make you my acknowledgments with confidence and pleasure. It will be a worthy preface to the history of this age of revolutions, to be ended we know not when nor how. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great respect and consideration.

TO MR. LAMBERT.

MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.

SIR,--An indispensable piece of business which has occupied me for a month past, obliged me to suspend all correspondence during that time. This must apologize for my late acknowledgment of your favor of May 19th, and for the tardy expression of my thanks for so much of the papers you enclosed as respected myself. The approbation of my political conduct by my republican countrymen generally, is a pillow of sweet repose to me, undisturbed by the noise of the enemies to our form of government. The political sentiments expressed by your society are in the pure spirit of the principles of our revolution; so long as these prevail, we are safe from everything which can assail us from without or within.

Your several communications on the first meridian, have been regularly handed to the Philosophical Society; not corresponding regularly with any of the members, I have received no information respecting them. I have formerly observed to you that while I entertain no doubt of their accuracy, my own familiarity with the subject had been too long suspended, to enable me to render a critical opinion on them. My occupations here are almost exclusively given to my farm and affairs. They furnish me exercise, health and amusement, and with the recreations of family and neighborly society, fill up most of my time, and give a tranquillity necessary to my time of life. With my best wishes for your prosperity, accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.

MONTICELLO, July 16, 1810.

DEAR GENERAL AND FRIEND,--Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The federalists, during their short-lived ascendency, have nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days; long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who, giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress. They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of our enemies, and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they too are gone; and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze of success which England shall feel, for it has now been some years that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced her had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country as to control the will of its government and three-fourths of its people, and oblige the three-fourths to submit to one-fourth, is to me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence, is in her own conduct, and not from anything in our power. Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.

But these are views which concern the present and future generation, among neither of which I count myself. You may live to see the change in our pursuits, and chiefly in those of your own State, which England will effect. I am not certain that the change on Massachusetts, by driving her to agriculture, manufactures and emigration, will lessen her happiness. But once more to be done with politics. How does Mrs. Dearborne do? How do you both like your situation? Do you amuse yourself with a garden, a farm, or what? That your pursuits, whatever they be, may make you both easy, healthy and happy, is the prayer of your sincere friend.

TO JUDGE COOPER.

MONTICELLO, August 6, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--The tardiness of acknowledging the receipt of your favor of May 10th will I fear induce a presumption that I have been negligent of its contents, but I assure you I lost not a moment in endeavoring to fulfil your wishes in procuring a good geological correspondent in this State. I could not offer myself, because of all the branches of science it was the one I had the least cultivated. Our researches into the texture of our globe could be but so superficial, compared with its vast interior construction, that I saw no safety of conclusion from the one, as to the other; and therefore have pointed my own attentions to other objects in preference, as far as a heavy load of business would permit me to attend to anything else. Looking about, therefore, among my countrymen for some one who might answer your views, I fixed on Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, not long since returned from France, where he had attended particularly to chemistry, and had also attended Mr. Maclure in some of his geological expeditions, as best qualified. I wrote to him; unfortunately he was from home, and did not return till the latter end of July. I received his answer since our last post only. A diffidence in his qualifications to be useful to you, has induced him to decline the undertaking, having, as he assures me, paid no particular attention to that branch of science. I have in vain looked over our State for some other person who might contribute to your views. As yet I can think of nobody; and whatever may be the result of further inquiry, I have thought I ought not longer to delay informing you of my unsuccessful efforts so far. Should I be able to find a subject worthy of your correspondence, I shall not fail to engage him in it, and to give you notice. I thank you for the case of Dempsy _v._ the Insurers, which I have read with great pleasure, and entire conviction. Indeed it is high time to withdraw all respect from courts acting under the arbitrary orders of governments who avow a total disregard to those moral rules which have hitherto been acknowledged by nations, and have served to regulate and govern their intercourse. I should respect just as much the rules of conduct which governed Cartouche or Blackbeard, as those now acted on by France or England. If your argument is defective in anything, it is in having paid to the antecedent decisions of the British courts of Admiralty, the respect of examining them on grounds of reason; and the not having rested the decision at once on the profligacy of those tribunals, and openly declared against permitting their sentences to be ever more quoted or listened to until those nations return to the practice of justice, to an acknowledgment that there is a moral law which ought to govern mankind, and by sufficient evidences of contrition for their present flagitiousness, make it safe to receive them again into the society of civilized nations. I hope this will still be done on a proper occasion. Yet knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges. Those now at the bar may be bold enough to follow reason rather than precedent and may bring that principle on the bench when promoted to it; but I fear this effort is not for my day. It has been said that when Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood, there was not a physician of Europe of forty years of age, who ever assented to it. I fear you will experience Harvey's fate. But it will become law when the present judges are dead. Wishing you health and happiness at all times, accept the assurances of my constant and great esteem and respect.

TO MR. DUANE.

MONTICELLO, August 12, 1810.

SIR,--Your letter of July 16th has been duly received, with the paper it enclosed, for which accept my thanks, and especially for the kind sentiments expressed towards myself. These testimonies of approbation, and friendly remembrance, are the highest gratifications I can receive from any, and especially from those in whose principles and zeal for the public good I have confidence. Of that confidence in yourself the military appointment to which you allude was sufficient proof, as it was made, not on the recommendations of others, but on our own knowledge of your principles and qualifications. While I cherish with feeling the recollections of my friends, I banish from my mind all political animosities which might disturb its tranquillity, or the happiness I derive from my present pursuits. I have thought it among the most fortunate circumstances of my late administration that, during its eight years continuance, it was conducted with a cordiality and harmony among all the members, which never were ruffled on any, the greatest or smallest occasion. I left my brethren with sentiments of sincere affection and friendship, so rooted in the uniform tenor of a long and intimate intercourse, that the evidence of my own senses alone ought to be permitted to shake them. Anxious, in my retirement, to enjoy undisturbed repose, my knowledge of my successor and late coadjutors, and my entire confidence in their wisdom and integrity, were assurances to me that I might sleep in security with such watchmen at the helm, and that whatever difficulties and dangers should assail our course, they would do what could be done to avoid or surmount them. In this confidence I envelope myself, and hope to slumber on to my last sleep. And should difficulties occur which they cannot avert, if we follow them in phalanx, we shall surmount them without danger.

I have been long intending to write to you as one of the associated company for printing useful works.

Our laws, language, religion, politics and manners are so deeply laid in English foundations, that we shall never cease to consider their history as a part of ours, and to study ours in that as its origin. Every one knows that judicious matter and charms of style have rendered Hume's history the manual of every student. I remember well the enthusiasm with which I devoured it when young, and the length of time, the research and reflection which were necessary to eradicate the poison it had instilled into my mind. It was unfortunate that he first took up the history of the Stuarts, became their apologist, and advocated all their enormities. To support his work, when done, he went back to the Tudors, and so selected and arranged the materials of their history as to present their arbitrary acts only, as the genuine samples of the constitutional power of the crown, and, still writing backwards, he then reverted to the early history, and wrote the Saxon and Norman periods with the same perverted view. Although all this is known, he still continues to be put into the hands of all our young people, and to infect them with the poison of his own principles of government. It is this book which has undermined the free principles of the English government, has persuaded readers of all classes that these were usurpations on the legitimate and salutary rights of the crown, and has spread universal toryism over the land. And the book will still continue to be read here as well as there. Baxter, one of Horne Tooke's associates in persecution, has hit on the only remedy the evil admits. He has taken Hume's work, corrected in the text his misrepresentations, supplied the truths which he suppressed, and yet has given the mass of the work in Hume's own words. And it is wonderful how little interpolation has been necessary to make it a sound history, and to justify what should have been its title, to wit, "Hume's history of England abridged and rendered faithful to fact and principle." I cannot say that his amendments are either in matter or manner in the fine style of Hume. Yet they are often unperceived, and occupy so little of the whole work as not to depreciate it. Unfortunately he has _abridged_ Hume, by leaving out all the less important details. It is thus reduced to about one half its original size. He has also continued the history, but very summarily, to 1801. The whole work is of 834 quarto pages, printed close, of which the continuation occupies 283. I have read but little of this part. As far as I can judge from that little, it is a mere chronicle, offering nothing profound. This work is so unpopular, so distasteful to the present Tory palates and principles of England, that I believe it has never reached a second edition. I have often inquired for it in our book shops, but never could find a copy in them, and I think it possible the one I imported may be the only one in America. Can we not have it re-printed here? It would be about four volumes 8vo.

I have another enterprise to propose for some good printer. I have in my possession a MS. work in French, confided to me by a friend, whose name alone would give it celebrity were it permitted to be mentioned. But considerations insuperable forbid that. It is a Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws. The history of that work is well known. He had been a great reader, and had commonplaced everything he read. At length he wished to undertake some work into which he could bring his whole commonplace book in a digested form. He fixed on the subject of his Spirit of Laws, and wrote the book. He consulted his friend Helvetius about publishing it, who strongly dissuaded it. He published it, however, and the world did not confirm Helvetius' opinion. Still, every man who reflects as he reads, has considered it as a book of paradoxes; having, indeed, much of truth and sound principle, but abounding also with inconsistencies, apochryphal facts and false inferences. It is a correction of these which has been executed in the work I mention, by way of commentary and review; not by criticising words or sentences, but by taking a book at a time, considering its general scope, and proceeding to confirm or confute it. And much of confutation there is, and of substitution of true for false principle, and the true principle is ever that of republicanism. I will not venture to say that every sentiment in the book will be approved, because, being in manuscript, and the French characters, I have not read the whole, but so much only as might enable me to estimate the soundness of the author's way of viewing his subject; and, judging from that which I have read, I infer with confidence that we shall find the work generally worthy of our high approbation, and that it everywhere maintains the preëminence of representative government, by showing that its foundations are laid in reason, in right, and in general good. I had expected this from my knowledge of the other writings of the author, which have always a precision rarely to be met with. But to give you an idea of the manner of its execution, I translate and enclose his commentary on Montesquieu's eleventh book, which contains the division of the work. I wish I could have added his review at the close of the twelve first books, as this would give a more complete idea of the extraordinary merit of the work. But it is too long to be copied. I add from it, however, a few extracts of his reviews of some of the books, as specimens of his plan and principles. If printed in French, it would be of about 180 pages 8vo, or 23 sheets. If any one will undertake to have it translated and printed on their own account, I will send on the MS. by post, and they can take the copyright as of an original work, which it ought to be understood to be. I am anxious it should be ably translated by some one who possesses style as well as capacity to do justice to abstruse conceptions. I would even undertake to revise the translation if required. The original sheets must be returned to me, and I should wish the work to be executed with as little delay as possible.

I close this long letter with assurances of my great esteem and respect.

TO ALBERT GALLATIN, ESQ.

MONTICELLO, August 16, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Yours of July 14th, with the welcome paper it covered, has been most thankfully received. I had before received from your office and that of State, all the printed publications on the subject of the batture, that is to say, the opinion of the Philadelphia lawyers and of G. Livingston himself, the publications of Derbigny, Thierry, Poydras, and the _pièces probantes_. I had been very anxious to get Moreau's memoire, which is only in manuscript, having heard it was the best of all. After waiting long and in vain for it, I was informed by my counsel that they were ruled to plead, and must be furnished with the grounds of defence. I was obliged, therefore, to take up the subject--had got through it and put it into the hands of Mr. Hay, when the observations you were so kind as to furnish, came to hand. Although it was too late to give to everything its shape which these, at an earlier stage, might have suggested, I was still enabled to avail myself of them usefully. The question of the chancery jurisdiction of the Orleans judges had particularly escaped me, and entirely. When Mr. Hay returned the paper therefore, I was enabled, by re-copying a sheet or two at the close, to introduce this question in its proper place. I had also, till then, been uninformed of the circumstances under which Bertrand Gravier left France, and therefore had not been aware of the reasons for which John Gravier had chosen to come in by purchase. This information enabled me to extend and strengthen much of what I had before said on that subject; and by interleaving and recopying a part, to get that also into its proper place. On the whole, you will see, with the benefit of these amendments, what I had conceived to be a true statement of the fact and law of the case. But the paper is very voluminous, and I could not shorten it. It is now in the hands of the President, who will enclose it to you by the same post which carries this; when you shall have perused it, be so good as to re-enclose it to me, as I wish to submit it to our other fellow-laborers, after such amendments as Mr. Madison and yourself will be so good as to suggest. I wish the ground I take to meet all your approbations. The uninformed state in which the debates of the last session proved Congress to be, as to this case, makes me fear they may, at the next, under the intrigues and urgency of Livingston, be induced to take some step which might have an injurious effect on the opinion of a jury. I think, therefore, to ask a member or two of each house to read this statement, merely to make themselves masters of the subject, and be enabled to prevent any unfavorable interference of Congress. Perhaps, if they see the case in the light I do, they may think of doing more--of having the Attorney General desired to attend to the case as of public concern: for really it is so. I have no concern at all in maintaining the title to the batture. It would be totally unnecessary for me to employ counsel to go into the question at all for my own defence. That is solidly built on the simple fact, that if I were in error, it was honest, and not imputable to that gross and palpable corruption or injustice which makes a public magistrate responsible to a private party. I know that even a federal jury could not find a verdict against me on this head. But I go fully into the question of title, because our characters are concerned in it, and because it involves a most important right of the citizens, and one which, if decided against them, would be a precedent of incalculable evil. The detention, too, has been so long the act of Congress itself, that for this reason I have supposed they might think it entitled to their attention, and direct the Attorney General to take care of the public interest in it, as has lately been done by the House of Commons, in the action of Sir Francis Burdett against their Speaker. But on this subject I wish to be advised by yourself and my other friends, rather than trust to my own judgment, too likely to be under bias. If I send the case to be perused by two or three members, it will be under a strong injunction not to let its contents get into other hands, my counsel having strongly advised against apprizing them of the topics of defence, as well from apprehensions of subornation of witnesses as to material facts, as from other considerations. Pray advise me on this head. My counsel are Hay, Wist and Janewell.

I have seen with infinite grief the set which is made at you in the public papers, and with the more as my name has been so much used in it. I hope we both know one another too well to receive impression from circumstances of this kind. A twelve years' intimate and friendly intercourse must be better evidence to each of the dispositions of the other than the letters of foreign ministers to their courts, or tortured influences from facts true or false. I have too thorough a conviction of your cordial good will towards me, and too strong a sense of the faithful and able assistance I received from you, to relinquish them on any evidence but of my own senses. With entire faith in your assurance of these truths, I shall add those only of my constant affection and high respect.

TO COLONEL WM. DUANE.

MONTICELLO, September 16, 1810.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of August 17th arrived the day after I had left this place on a visit to one I have near Lynchburg, from whence I am but lately returned. The history of England you describe is precisely Baxter's, of which I wrote you; and if you compare him with Hume, you will find the text preserved verbatim, with particular exceptions only. The French work will accompany this letter. Since writing to you I have gone over the whole, and can assure you it is the most valuable political work of the present age. In some details we all may differ from him or from one another, but the great mass of the work is highly sound. Its title would be "A Commentary on Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws;" perhaps the words "and Review" might be inserted at the----. Helvetius' letter on the same work should be annexed, if it can possibly be procured. It was contained in a late edition of the works of Helvetius published by the Abbé de la Roche. Probably that edition might be found. I never before heard of Williams' lectures on Montesquieu, but I am glad to hear of everything which reduces that author to his just level, as his predilection for monarchy, and the English monarchy in particular, has done mischief everywhere, and here also, to a certain degree. With respect to the Notes on Virginia, I do contemplate some day the making additions and corrections to them; but I am inclined to take the benefit of my whole life to make collections and observations, and let the editing them be posthumous. The anecdote respecting the paper put into my hands by Dr. Franklin has not been handed to you with entire correctness. I returned from France in December 1789, and in March following I went on to New York to take the post assigned me in the new government. On my way through Philadelphia I called on Dr. Franklin, who was then confined to his bed. As the revolution had then begun, indeed was supposed to be closed by the completion of a constitution, and he was anxious to know the part all his acquaintances had taken, he plied me with questions for an hour or two with a vivacity and earnestness which astonished me. When I had satisfied his inquiries, I observed to him that I had heard, and with great pleasure, that he had began the history of his own life, and had brought it down to the revolution, (for so I had heard while in Europe.) "Not exactly so," said he, "but I will let you see the manner in which I do these things." He then desired one of his small grand-children who happened to be in the room, to bring him such a paper from the table. It was brought, and he put it into my hands and said, "there, put that into your pocket and you will see the manner of my writing." I thanked him and said "I should read it with great pleasure, and return it to him safely." "No," said he, "keep it." I took it with me to New York. It was, as well as I recollect, about a quire of paper, in which he had given, with great minuteness, all the details of his negotiations (informal) in England, to prevent their pushing us to extremities. These were chiefly through Lord Howe and a lady, I think the sister of Lord Howe, but of this I am not certain; but I remember noting the particulars of her conversation as marking her as a woman of very superior understanding. He gave all the conversations with her and Lord Howe, and all the propositions he passed through them to their minister, the answers and conversations with the minister reported through them, his endeavors used with other characters, whether with the ministers directly I do not recollect; but I remember well that it appeared distinctly from what was brought to him from the ministers, that the real obstacle to their meeting the various overtures he made was the prospect of great confiscations to provide for their friends, and that this was the real cause of the various shiftings and shufflings they used to evade his propositions. Learning, on his death, which happened soon after, that he had bequeathed all his unpublished writings to his grandson, W. T. Franklin, with a view to the emolument he might derive from their publication, I thought this writing was fairly his property, and notified to him my possession of it, and that I would deliver it to his order. He soon afterwards called on me at New York, and I delivered it to him. He accepted it, and, while putting it into his pocket, observed that his grandfather had retained another copy which he had found among his papers. I did not reflect on this till suspicions were circulated that W. T. F. had sold these writings to the British Minister. I then formed the belief that Dr. Franklin had meant to deposit this spare copy with me in confidence that it would be properly taken care of, and sincerely repented the having given it up; and I have little doubt that this identical paper was the principal object of the purchase by the British government, and the unfortunate cause of the suppression of all the rest. I do not think I have any interesting papers or facts from Dr. Franklin. Should any occur at any time, I will communicate them freely, nobody wishing more ardently that the public could be possessed of everything that was his or respected him, believing that a greater or better character has rarely existed. I am happy to learn that his blood shows itself in the veins of the two of his great grandchildren whom you mention. But I should think medicine the best profession for a genius resembling his, as that of the elder is supposed to do. I have received information of Pestalozzi's mode of education from some European publications, and from Mr. Keefe's book which shows that the latter possesses both the talents and the zeal for carrying it into effect. I sincerely wish it success, convinced that the information of the people at large can alone make them the safe, as they are the sole depository of our political and religious freedom. The idea of antimony in this neighborhood is, I believe, without foundation. Some twenty or thirty years ago a mineral was found about ten miles from this place, which one of those idle impostors, who call themselves mine-hunters, persuaded the proprietor was gold ore. The poor man lost a crop in digging after it. After fruitless assays of the mineral, some other person, knowing as little of the matter, fancied it must be antimony. A third idea was that it was black lead. It was abandoned, and the mine hole filled up, nor can we at this day hear of any piece of the mineral in possession of any one.

You say in your letter that you will send me the _proofs_ of the commentary on Montesquieu for revisal. It is only the _translation_ I should wish to revise. I feel myself answerable to the author for a correct publication of his ideas. The translated sheets may come by post as they are finished off; they shall be promptly returned, the originals coming with them. Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.

TO J. B. COLVIN.

MONTICELLO, September 20, 1810.

SIR,--Your favor of the 14th has been duly received, and I have to thank you for the many obliging things respecting myself which are said in it. If I have left in the breasts of my fellow citizens a sentiment of satisfaction with my conduct in the transaction of their business, it will soften the pillow of my repose through the residue of life.

The question you propose, whether circumstances do not sometimes occur, which make it a duty in officers of high trust, to assume authorities beyond the law, is easy of solution in principle, but sometimes embarrassing in practice. A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless _one_ of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not _the highest_. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means. When, in the battle of Germantown, General Washington's army was annoyed from Chew's house, he did not hesitate to plant his cannon against it, although the property of a citizen. When he besieged Yorktown, he leveled the suburbs, feeling that the laws of property must be postponed to the safety of the nation. While the army was before York, the Governor of Virginia took horses, carriages, provisions and even men by force, to enable that army to stay together till it could master the public enemy; and he was justified. A ship at sea in distress for provisions, meets another having abundance, yet refusing a supply; the law of self-preservation authorizes the distressed to take a supply by force. In all these cases, the unwritten laws of necessity, of self-preservation, and of the public safety, control the written laws of _meum_ and _tuum_. Further to exemplify the principle, I will state an hypothetical case. Suppose it had been made known to the Executive of the Union in the autumn of 1805, that we might have the Floridas for a reasonable sum, that that sum had not indeed been so appropriated by law, but that Congress were to meet within three weeks, and might appropriate it on the first or second day of their session. Ought he, for so great an advantage to his country, to have risked himself by transcending the law and making the purchase? The public advantage offered, in this supposed case, was indeed immense; but a reverence for law, and the probability that the advantage might still be _legally_ accomplished by a delay of only three weeks, were powerful reasons against hazarding the act. But suppose it foreseen that a John Randolph would find means to protract the proceeding on it by Congress, until the ensuing spring, by which time new circumstances would change the mind of the other party. Ought the Executive, in that case, and with that foreknowledge, to have secured the good to his country, and to have trusted to their justice for the transgression of the law? I think he ought, and that the act would have been approved. After the affair of the Chesapeake, we thought war a very possible result. Our magazines were illy provided with some necessary articles, nor had any appropriations been made for their purchase. We ventured, however, to provide them, and to place our country in safety; and stating the case to Congress, they sanctioned the act.

To proceed to the conspiracy of Burr, and particularly to General Wilkinson's situation in New Orleans. In judging this case, we are bound to consider the state of the information, correct and incorrect, which he then possessed. He expected Burr and his band from above, a British fleet from below, and he knew there was a formidable conspiracy within the city. Under these circumstances, was he justifiable, 1st, in seizing notorious conspirators? On this there can be but two opinions; one, of the guilty and their accomplices; the other, that of all honest men. 2d. In sending them to the seat of government, when the written law gave them a right to trial in the territory? The danger of their rescue, of their continuing their machinations, the tardiness and weakness of the law, apathy of the judges, active patronage of the whole tribe of lawyers, unknown disposition of the juries, an hourly expectation of the enemy, salvation of the city, and of the Union itself, which would have been convulsed to its centre, had that conspiracy succeeded; all these constituted a law of necessity and self-preservation, and rendered the _salus populi_ supreme over the written law. The officer who is called to act on this superior ground, does indeed risk himself on the justice of the controlling powers of the constitution, and his station makes it his duty to incur that risk. But those controlling powers, and his fellow citizens generally, are bound to judge according to the circumstances under which he acted. They are not to transfer the information of this place or moment to the time and place of his action; but to put themselves into his situation. We knew here that there never was danger of a British fleet from below, and that Burr's band was crushed before it reached the Mississippi. But General Wilkinson's information was very different, and he could act on no other.