The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9) - Томас Джефферсон 5 стр.


(Same letter continued) "April 10. The acts for regulating the trade with America are to be continued as last year. A paper from the Privy Council respecting the American fly, is before parliament. I had some conversation with Sir Joseph Banks upon this subject, as he was the person whom the Privy Council referred to. I told him that the Hessian fly attacked only the green plant, and did not exist in the dry grain. He said, that with respect to the Hessian fly, they had no apprehension, but it was the weavil they alluded to. I told him the weavil had always, more or less, been in the wheat countries of America, and that if the prohibition was on that account, it was as necessary fifty or sixty years as now; that I believed it was only a political manœuvre of the ministry to please the landed interest, as a balance for prohibiting the exportation of wool, to please the manufacturing interest. He did not reply, and as we are on very sociable terms, I went farther, by saying, the English ought not to complain of the non-payment of debts from America, while they prohibit the means of payment. I suggest to you a thought on this subject. The debts due before the war ought to be distinguished from the debts contracted since, and all and every mode of payment and remittance under which they might have been discharged at the time they were contracted, ought to accompany those debts so long as any of them shall continue unpaid, because the circumstances of payment became united with the debt, and cannot be separated by subsequent acts of one side only. If this was taken up in America, and insisted on as a right coëval with and inseparable from those debts, it would force some of the restrictions here to give way. While writing this, I am informed that the minister has had a conference with some of the American creditors, and proposed to them to assume the debts, and give them ten shillings in the pound. The conjecture is, that he means, when the new Congress is established, to demand the payment. If you are writing to General Washington, it may not be amiss to mention this, and if I hear further on this matter, I will inform you. But as, being a money matter, it cannot come forward but through parliament, there will be notice given of the business. This would be a proper time to show, that the British acts since the peace militate against the payment, by narrowing the means by which those debts might have been paid when they were contracted, and which ought to be considered as constituent parts of the contract."

TO JAMES MADISON

Paris, May 11, 1789.

Dear Sir,My last to you was of the 15th of March. I am now in hourly expectation of receiving my leave of absence. The delay of it a little longer, will endanger the throwing my return into the winter, the very idea of which is horror itself to me. I am in hopes this is the last letter I shall have the pleasure of writing to you, before my departure.

The madness of the King of England has gone off, but left him in a state of imbecility and melancholy. They talk of carrying him to Hanover. If they do, it will be a proof he does not mend, and that they take that measure, to authorize them to establish a regency. But if he grows better, they will perhaps keep him at home, to avoid the question, who shall be regent? As that country cannot be relied on in the present state of its executive, the King of Prussia has become more moderate; he throws cold water on the fermentation he had excited in Poland. The King of Sweden will act as nobody, not even himself, can foresee; because he acts from the caprice of the moment, and because the discontents of his army and nobles may throw him under internal difficulties, while struggling with external ones. Denmark will probably only furnish its stipulated aid to Russia. France is fully occupied with internal arrangement. So that, on the whole, the prospect of this summer is, that the war will continue between the powers actually engaged in the close of the last campaign, and extend to no others; certainly, it will not extend, this year, to the southern States of Europe. The revolution of France has gone on with the most unexampled success, hitherto. There have been some mobs, occasioned by the want of bread, in different parts of the kingdom, in which there may have been some lives lost; perhaps a dozen or twenty. These had no professed connection, generally, with the constitutional revolution. A more serious riot happened lately in Paris, in which about one hundred of the mob were killed. This execution has been universally approved, as they seemed to have no view but mischief and plunder. But the meeting of the States General presents serious difficulties, which it had been hoped the progress of reason would have enabled them to get over. The nobility of and about Paris, have come over, as was expected, to the side of the people, in the great question of voting by persons or orders. This had induced a presumption that those of the country were making the same progress, and these form the great mass of the deputies of that order. But they are found to be where they were centuries ago, as to their disposition to keep distinct from the people, and even to tyrannize over them. They agree, indeed, to abandon their pecuniary privileges. The clergy seem, at present, much divided. Five-sixths of that representation consists of the lower clergy, who, being the sons of the peasantry, are very well with the Tiers Etat. But the Bishops are intriguing, and drawing them over daily. The Tiers Etat is so firm to vote by persons or to go home, that it is impossible to conjecture what will be the result. This is the state of parties, as well as we can conjecture from the conversation of the members; for, as yet, no vote has been given which will enable us to calculate, on certain ground.

Having formerly written to you on the subject of our finances, I enclose you now an abstract of a paper on that subject, which Gouverneur Morris communicated to me. You will be a better judge of its merit than I am. It seems to me worthy good attention.

I have a box of books packed for you, which I shall carry to Havre, and send by any ship bound to New York or Philadelphia. I have been so inexact as to take no list of them before nailing up the box. Be so good as to do this, and I will take with me my bookseller's account, which will enable us to make a statement of them. They are chiefly Encyclopedies, from the twenty-third to the thirtieth livraison. Paul Jones has desired me to send to yourself and Colonel Carrington each, his bust. They are packed together in the same box. There are three other boxes, with two in each, for other gentlemen. I shall send them all together, and take the liberty of addressing them to you. I rejoice extremely to hear you are elected, in spite of all cabals. I fear your post will not permit me to see you but in New York, and consequently but a short time only. I shall much regret this.

I am, with sentiments of sincere attachment and respect, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO THE HONORABLE MR. JAY

Paris, May 12, 1789.

Sir,I am this moment returned from Versailles, and it is the last moment allowed me to write by this occasion. The Tiers Etat remain unshaken in their resolution to do no business with the other orders, but voting by persons. The Nobles are equally determined, and by a majority of four-fifths or five-sixths to vote only by orders. Committees of accommodation indeed are appointed, but with little prospect of effect. Already the ministry of the Nobles began to talk of abandoning their body, and going to take their places among the Tiers. Perhaps they may be followed by the timid part of their orders, and it might be hoped, by a majority of the Clergy, which still remain undebauched by the bishops. This would form a States General of the whole Tiers, a majority of the Clergy, and a fraction of the Nobles. This may be considered, then, as one of the possible issues this matter may take, should reconciliation be impracticable.

I am able to speak now more surely of the situation of the Emperor. His complaint is pulmonary. The spitting of blood is from the lungs. The hemorrhage which came on was critical, and relieved him for the moment; but the relief was momentary only. There is little expectation he can last long. The King of England's voyage to Hanover is spoken of more doubtfully. This would be an indication that his complaint is better, or, at least, not worse. I find, on receiving Mr. Neckar's discourse in print, that he has not proposed in direct terms to put down our free ports. The expression is, "on se borne en ce moment a vous faire observer," &c., &c. I spoke on the subject to M. de Montmorin to-day, and he says they meant and mean to confer with me on it before my departure. I spoke to him also to bring Schweighauser and De Bree's affair to a conclusion; and to Mr. Rayneval on the same subject. They told me they had just received a letter from the Count de La Luzerne, justifying the detention of our stores; that they were so much dissatisfied with the principles he advanced, that they should take upon themselves to combat and protest against them, and to insist on a clear establishment of the rule that the property of one sovereign within the dominions of another, is not liable to the territorial jurisdiction. They have accordingly charged one of their ablest counsels with the preparation of a memoir to establish this point. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MONSIEUR DE PONTIÈRE

Paris, May 17, 1789.

Sir,I am honored with your letter of the 6th instant, and am sincerely sorry that you should experience inconveniences for the want of arrearages due to you from the United States. I have never ceased to take every measure which could promise to procure to the foreign officers the payment of these arrears. At present, the matter stands thus: Congress have agreed to borrow a sum of money in Holland, to enable them to pay the individual demands in Europe. They have given orders that these arrearages shall be paid out of this money, when borrowed, and certain bankers in Amsterdam are charged to borrow the money. I am myself of opinion, they will certainly procure the money in the course of the present year; but it is not for me to affirm this, nor to make any engagement. The moment the money is ready, it shall be made known to Colonel Gourion, who, at the desire of many of the officers, has undertaken to communicate with me on the subject, and to inform them, from time to time, of the progress of this business. He will readily answer your letters on this subject. I depart in a few days for America, but shall leave such instructions here, as that this matter will suffer no delay on that account.

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

TO MR. VAUGHAN

Paris, May 17, 1789.

Dear Sir,I am to acknowledge, all together, the receipt of your favors of March the 17th, 26th, and May the 7th, and to return you abundant thanks for your attention to the article of dry rice, and the parcel of seeds you sent me. This is interesting, because, even should it not take place of the wet rice, in South Carolina, it will enable us to cultivate this grain in Virginia, where we have not lands disposed for the wet rice. The collection of the works of Monsieur de Poivre has not, as I believe, been ever published. It could hardly have escaped my knowledge if they had been ever announced. The French translation of the book on trade, has not yet come to my hands. Whenever I receive the copies they shall be distributed, and principally among the members of the Etats Generaux. I doubt whether, at this session, they will take up the subject of commerce. Whenever they do, they will find better principles nowhere than in that book. I spoke with Mr. Stewart yesterday on the subject of the distribution, and if I should be gone before the books come to hand, he will execute the commission. Your nation is very far from the liberality that treatise inculcates. The proposed regulation on the subject of our wheat, is one proof. The prohibition of it in England would, of itself, be of no great moment, because I do not know that it is much sent there. But it is the publishing a libel on our wheat, sanctioned with the name of parliament, and which can have no object but to do us injury, by spreading a groundless alarm in those countries of Europe where our wheat is constantly and kindly received. It is a mere assassination. If the insect they pretend to fear, be the Hessian fly, it never existed in the grain. If it be the weavil, our grain always had that; and the experience of a century has proved that either the climate of England is not warm enough to hatch the egg and continue the race, or that some other unknown cause prevents any evil from it. How different from this spirit, my dear Sir, has been your readiness to help us to the dry rice, to communicate to us the bread tree, &c. Will any of our climates admit the cultivation of the latter? I am too little acquainted with it, to judge. I learn that your newspapers speak of the death of Ledyard, at Grand Cairo. I am anxious to know whether there be foundation for this. I have not yet had time to try the execution of the wood hygrometer proposed by Dr. Franklin. Though I have most of the articles ready made, I doubt now whether I shall be able to do it before my departure for America, the permission for which, I expect every hour; and I shall go off the instant I receive it. While there, I shall have the pleasure of seeing your father and friends. I expect to return in the fall. In the meantime I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

TO THOMAS PAINE

Paris, May 19, 1789.

Dear Sir,Your favors of February the 16th to April the 13th, and of May the 3d and 10th, are received; and the two last are sent to Mr. Leroy, who will communicate them to the Academy.

You know that the States General have met, and probably have seen the speeches at the opening of them. The three orders sit in distinct chambers. The great question, whether they shall vote by orders or persons can never be surmounted amicably. It has not yet been proposed in form; but the votes which have been taken on the outworks of that question show that the Tiers Etat are unanimous, a good majority of the Clergy (consisting of the Curés) disposed to side with the Tiers Etat, and in the chamber of the Noblesse, there are only fifty-four in that sentiment, against one hundred and ninety, who are for voting by orders. Committees to find means of conciliation are appointed by each chamber; but conciliation is impossible. Some think the Nobles could be induced to unite themselves with the higher Clergy into one House, the lower Clergy and Tiers Etat forming another. But the Tiers Etat are immovable. They are not only firm, but a little disdainful. The question is, what will ensue? One idea is to separate, in order to consult again their constituents, and to take new instructions. This would be doing nothing, for the same instructions would be repeated; and what, in the meantime, is to become of a government, absolutely without money, and which cannot be kept in motion with less than a million of livres a day? The more probable expectation is as follows. As soon as it shall become evident that no amicable determination of the manner of voting can take place, the Tiers Etat will send an invitation to the two other orders to come and take their places in the common chamber. A majority of the Clergy will go, and the minority of the Noblesse. The chamber thus composed will declare that the States General are constituted, will notify it to the King, and that they are ready to proceed to business. If the King refuses to do business with them, and adheres to the Nobles, the common chamber will declare all taxes at an end, will form a declaration of rights, and do such other acts as circumstances will permit, and go home. The tax-gatherers will then be resisted, and it may well be doubted whether the soldiery and their officers will not divide, as the Tiers Etat and Nobles. But it is more likely that the King will agree to do business with the States General, so constituted, professing that the necessities of the moment force this, and that he means to negotiate (as they go along) a reconciliation between the seceding members and those which remain. If the matter takes this turn, there may be small troubles and ebullitions excited by the seceding Noblesse and higher Clergy; but no serious difficulty can arise. M. de Lamoignon, the Garde des Sceaux of the last year, has shot himself. The Emperor's complaint is pulmonary and incurable. The Grand Seignior is dead; his successor, young and warlike. I congratulate you sincerely on the success of your bridge. I was sure of it before from theory; yet one likes to be assured from practice also. I am anxious to see how Mr. Rumsey's experiment succeeds.

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