The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 5 (of 9) - Томас Джефферсон 15 стр.

TO MR. HAY

Dear Sir,In mine of the 12th I informed you I would write to the Attorney General to send on the letter of General Wilkinson of October 21st, referred to in my message of January 22d. He accordingly sent me a letter of that date, but I immediately saw that it was not the one desired, because it had no relation to the facts stated under that reference. I immediately, by letter, apprized him of this circumstance, and being since returned to this place, he yesterday called on me with the whole of the papers remaining in his possession, and he assured me he had examined carefully the whole of them, and that the one referred to in the message was not among them, nor did he know where it would be found. These papers have been recurred to so often, on so many occasions, and some of them delivered out for particular purposes, that we find several missing, without being able to recollect what has been done with them. Some of them were delivered to the Attorney of this district, to be used on the occasions which arose in the District Court, and a part of them were filed, as is said, in their office. The Attorney General will examine their office to day, and has written to the District Attorney to know whether he retained any of them. No researches shall be spared to recover this letter, and if recovered, it shall immediately be sent on to you. Compiling the message from a great mass of papers, and pressed in time, the date of a particular paper may have been mistaken, but we all perfectly remember the one referred to in the message, and that its substance is there correctly stated. General Wilkinson probably has copies of all the letters he wrote me, and having expressed a willingness to furnish the one desired by the Court, the defendant can still have the benefit of it. Or should he not have the particular one on which that passage in the message is founded, I trust that his memory would enable him to affirm that it is substantially correct. I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO GEORGE BLAKE, ESQ

Sir,I enclose you a petition of John Partridge, which I perceive to have been in your hands before, by a certificate endorsed on it. The petitioner says the term of labor to which he was sentenced expired on the 14th instant; that he is unable to pay the costs of prosecution, and therefore prays to be discharged. But in such cases it is usual to substitute an additional term of confinement equivalent to that portion of the sentence which cannot be complied with. Pardons too for counterfeiting bank paper are yielded with much less facility than others. However, in all cases I have referred these petitions to the judges and prosecuting attorney, who having heard all the circumstances of the case, are the best judges whether any of them were of such a nature as ought to obtain for the criminal a remission or abridgement of the punishment. I now enclose the papers, and ask the favor of you to take the opinion of the judges on that subject, and to favor me with your own, which will govern me in what I do, and be my voucher for it. I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO GENERAL DEARBORNE

Dear Sir,I am sincerely sorry that I am obliged to ask your attendance here without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of the Chesapeake by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all our Council together. I do not suppose it will detain you long from rejoining Mrs. Dearborne. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.

TO MR. GALLATIN

Dear Sir,I am sorry to be obliged to hasten your return to this place, and pray that it maybe without a moment's avoidable delay. The capture of the Chesapeake by a British ship of war renders it necessary to have all our Council together. The mail is closing. Affectionate salutations.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL

Sir,Your favor by express was safely received on Saturday night, and I am thankful to you for the attention of which it is a proof. Considering the General and State governments as co-operators in the same holy concerns, the interest and happiness of our country, the interchange of mutual aid is among the most pleasing of the exercises of our duty. Captain Gordon, the second in command of the Chesapeake, has arrived here with the details of that affair. Yet as the precaution you took of securing us against the accident of wanting information, was entirely proper, and the expense of the express justly a national one, I have directed him to be paid here, so that he is enabled to refund any money you may have advanced him. Mr. Gallatin and General Dearborne happening to be absent, I have asked their immediate attendance here, and I expect them this day. We shall then determine on the course which the exigency and our constitutional powers call for. Whether the outrage is a proper cause of war, belonging exclusively to Congress, it is our duty not to commit them by doing anything which would be to be retracted. We may, however, exercise the powers entrusted to us for preventing future insults within our harbors, and claim firmly satisfaction for the past. This will leave Congress free to decide whether war is the most efficacious mode of redress in our case, or whether, having taught so many other useful lessons to Europe, we may not add that of showing them that there are peaceable means of repressing injustice, by making it the interest of the aggressor to do what is just, and abstain from future wrong. It is probable you will hear from us in the course of the week. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO MR. GALLATIN

If I understand the claim of the Creeks, it is that they shall have a right of transit across our territories, but especially along our rivers from the Spanish territories to their own, for goods for their own use, without paying us a duty. I think they are in the right. This is exactly what we are claiming of Spain, as to this very river, the Mobile. Our doctrine is that different nations inhabiting the same river have all a natural right to an innocent passage along it, just as individuals of the same nation have of a river wholly within the territory of that nation. I do not know whether our revenue law, justly construed, opposes this; but if it does not, we ought to take the case into consideration, and do what is right. It is here that the manner in which this right has been asserted by Captain Isaac, is not agreeable. But can we blame it? and ought not those who are in the wrong to put themselves in the right, without listening to false pride?

Affectionate salutations.

TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

Dear Sir,I congratulate you on your safe arrival with Miss Clinton at New York, and especially on your escape from British violence. This aggression is of a character so distinct from that on the Chesapeake, and of so aggravated a nature, that I consider it as a very material one to be presented with that to the British Government. I pray you, therefore, to write me a letter, stating the transaction, and in such a form as that it may go to that Government. At the same time, I must request you to instruct Mr. Gelston, from me, to take the affidavits of the Captain of the revenue cutter, and of such other persons as you shall direct, stating the same affair, and to be forwarded, in like manner, to our Minister in London.

You will have seen by the proclamation, the measures adopted. We act on these principles, 1. That the usage of nations requires that we shall give the offender an opportunity of making reparation and avoiding war. 2. That we should give time to our merchants to get in their property and vessels and our seamen now afloat. And 3. That the power of declaring war being with the Legislature, the executive should do nothing, necessarily committing them to decide for war in preference of non-intercourse, which will be preferred by a great many. They will be called in time to receive the answer from Great Britain, unless new occurrences should render it necessary to call them sooner.

I salute you with friendship and respect.

TO COLONEL TATHAM

Sir,Your favor of the 1st instant has been received, and I thank you for the communication. Considering the mass of false reports in circulation, and the importance of being truly informed of the proceedings of the British armed vessels in the Chesapeake and its vicinities, I should be very glad, as you are on the spot, provided with a proper vessel and men, if you could continue watching their motions constantly, and giving me information of them. In that case it would be necessary you should journalize everything respecting them which should fall within your observation, and enclose daily to me a copy of the observations of the day, forwarding them to the post-office of Norfolk, by every opportunity occurring. Your allowance should be exactly on the same footing as when you were surveying the coast, and for current expenses you may draw on Mr. Bedinger, Navy Agent, at Norfolk, only accompanying each draught with a letter explaining generally the purpose of it, which is a constant and indispensable rule in all our departments. It will be necessary for me to ask the continuance of this service from you only until I can ascertain the course these officers mean to pursue.

I salute you with esteem and respect.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR

Dear Sir,I enclose you copies of two letters sent by express from Captain Decatur. By these you will perceive that the British commanders have their foot on the threshold of war. They have begun the blockade of Norfolk; have sounded the passage to the town, which appears practicable for three of their vessels, and menace an attack on the Chesapeake and Cybele. These, with four gun-boats, form the present defence, and there are four more gun-boats in Norfolk nearly ready. The four gun-boats at Hampton are hauled up, and in danger, four in Mopjack bay are on the stocks. Blows may be hourly possible. In this state of things I am sure your own feelings will anticipate the public judgment, that your presence here cannot be dispensed with. There is nobody here who can supply your knowledge of the resources for land co-operation, and the means for bringing them into activity. Still, I would wish you would stay long enough at New York to settle with the V. P. and Colonel Williams, the plan of defence for that place; and I am in hopes you will also see Fulton's experiments tried, and see how far his means may enter into your plan. But as soon as that is done, should matters remain in their present critical state, I think the public interest and safety would suffer by your absence from us. Indeed, if the present state of things continues, I begin to fear we shall not be justifiable in separating this autumn, and that even an earlier meeting of Congress than we had contemplated, may be requisite. I salute you affectionately.

TO THE MASTERS AND OTHER OFFICERS SAILING TO AND FROM THE PORTS OF NORFOLK AND PORTSMOUTH

The tender of your services for the erection and reparation of Fort Norfolk and works on Craney Island, and for manning the gun-boats and other vessels for the waters of Elizabeth and James rivers, are received with great satisfaction. They are the more important, in proportion as we have much to do in the least time possible. Knowing their peculiar value for manning and managing the gun-boats and other vessels, it is in that direction I am in hopes they will have been applied, and that the necessary aid for erecting or repairing works on the land will have been found in the zeal of other citizens, less qualified to be useful in the employments on the water. I return, for your country, the thanks you so justly deserve.

TO GOVERNOR CABELL

Sir,You will have received from the Secretary at War a letter, requesting that the quota of the State of Virginia of 100,000 militia be immediately organized and put in readiness for service at the shortest warning, but that they be not actually called out until further requisition. The menacing attitudes which the British ships of war have taken in Hampton Road, the actual blockade of Norfolk, and their having sounded the entrance, as if with a view to pass up to the city, render it necessary that we should be as well prepared there as circumstances will permit. The Secretary at War being gone to New York to arrange a plan of defence for that city, it devolves on me to request that, according to the applications you may receive from the officers charged with the protection of the place, and the information which you are more at hand to obtain than we are here, you will order such portions of the militia as you shall think necessary and most convenient to enter immediately on duty, for the defence of the place and protection of the country, at the expense of the United States. We have, moreover, four gun-boats hauled up at Hampton, and four others on the stocks in Matthews county, under the care of Commodore Samuel Barron, which we consider as in danger. I must request you also to order such aids of militia, on the application of that officer, as you shall think adequate to their safety. Any arms which it may be necessary to furnish to the militia for the present objects, if not identically restored to the State, shall be returned in kind or in value by the United States. I have thought I could not more effectually provide for the safety of the places menaced, than by committing it to your hands, as you are nearer the scene of action, have the necessary powers over the militia, can receive information, and give aid so much more promptly than can be done from this place. I will ask communications from time to time of your proceedings under this charge. I salute you with great esteem and respect.

TO CAPTAIN J. SAUNDERS, FORT NELSON

Sir,The Secretary at War having proceeded to New York to make arrangements for the defence of that place, your letter to him of July 4th has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction the promptitude with which you have proceeded in mounting the guns of your fort, and I will count on your continuing your utmost exertions for putting yourself in the best condition of defence possible. With respect to the instructions you ask for, you will consider the proclamation of July 2d as your general instructions, but especially you are to contribute all the means in your power towards the defence of the country, its citizens, and property, against any aggressions which may be attempted by the British armed vessels or any other armed force. I salute you with respect.

TO GENERAL MATTHEWS

Sir,The Secretary at War having gone on to New York for the purpose of having that place put into a state of defence, your letter of July 4th to him has been put into my hands. I see with satisfaction that in an emergency too sudden to have been provided for by orders from hence, you have, under the guidance of your own judgment and patriotism, taken the measures within your power towards supporting the rights of your country. I will pray you to consider the proclamation of July 2d as laying down the rule of action for all our citizens, in their several authorities and stations; but that it is further desired of you to employ the means under your command, for defence of the country, its citizens, and property, against all aggressions attempted by the British armed vessels or other force. The Governor of Virginia being in a situation to act with more promptitude on any emergency which may arise, so far as respects the militia of the State, I have authorized and requested him to order into service such portions of the militia as he shall think necessary, on application from any of the persons charged with the defence of Norfolk or other places menaced. With him I recommend to you to communicate as to the militia to be employed, approving most myself whatever shall be most effectual for repelling aggression on our peace, and maintaining the authority of the laws. Accept my salutations, and assurances of great respect.