  CIRCULAR TO THE AMERICAN CONSULS.Philadelphia, May 31, 1792. Sir,—Congress having closed their session on the 8th instant, I have now the honor to forward you a copy of the laws passed thereat. One of these, chapter twenty-four, will require your particular attention, as it contains such regulations relative to the consular office, as it has been thought proper to establish legislatively. With respect to the security required by the sixth section, I would prefer persons residing within the United States, where the party can procure such to be his security. In this case, his own bond duly executed may be sent to me, and his sureties here may enter into a separate bond. Where the party cannot conveniently find sureties within the United States, my distance and want of means of knowing their sufficiency, oblige me to refer him to the minister or chargÉ des affaires of the United States, within the same government, if there be one, and if not, then to the minister of the United States, resident at Paris. The securities which they shall approve, will be admitted as good. In like manner, the account for their disbursements, authorized The prices of our funds have undergone some variations within the last three months. The six per cents were pushed by gambling adventurers up to twenty-six and a half, or twenty-seven and a half shillings the pound. A bankruptcy having taken place among these, and considerably affected the more respectable part of the paper holders, a greater quantity of paper was thrown suddenly on the market than there was demand or money to take up. The prices fell to nineteen shillings. This crisis has passed, and they are getting up towards their value. Though the price of public paper is considered as the barometer of the public credit, it is truly so only as to the general average of prices. The real credit of the United States depends on their ability, and the immutability of their will to pay their debts. These were as evident when their paper fell to nineteen shillings, as when it was at twenty-seven shillings. The momentary variation was like that in the price of corn, or any other commodity, the result of a momentary disproportion between the demand and supply. The unsuccessful issue of our expedition against the savages the last year, is not unknown to you. More adequate preparations are making for the present year, and in the meantime, some of the tribes have accepted peace, and others have expressed a readiness to do the same. Another plentiful year has been added to those which had preceded it, and the present bids fair to be equally so. A prosperity built on the basis of agriculture is that which is most desirable to us, because to the efforts of labor it adds the efforts of a greater proportion of soil. The checks, however, which the commercial regulations of Europe have given to the sale of our produce, have produced a very considerable degree of domestic manufacture, which, so far as it is of the household kind, will doubtless continue, and so far as it is more public, will depend on the continuance or discontinuance of the European policy. I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servant. TO JOHN PAUL JONES.Philadelphia, June 1, 1792. Sir,—The President of the United States having thought proper to appoint you commissioner for treating with the Dey and government of Algiers, on the subjects of peace and ransom of our captives, I have the honor to enclose you the commission, of which Mr. Thomas Pinckney, now on his way to London as our Minister Plenipotentiary there, will be the bearer. Supposing that there exists a disposition to thwart our negotiations with the Algerines, and that this would be very practicable, we have thought it advisable that the knowledge of this appointment should rest with the President, Mr. Pinckney and myself; for which reason you will perceive, that the commissions are all in my own hand writing. For the same reason, entire secrecy is recommended to you, and that you so cover from the public your departure and destination, as that they may not be conjectured or noticed; and at the same time, that you set out after as short delay as your affairs will possibly permit. In order to enable you to enter on this business with full information, it will be necessary to give you a history of what has passed. On the 25th of July, 1785, the schooner Maria, Captain Stevens, In February, 1787, I wrote to Congress to ask leave to employ the Mathurins of France in ransoming our captives; and on the 19th of September, I received their orders to do so, and to call We have also been told, that a Mr. Simpson of Gibraltar, by the direction of the Messrs. Bulkeleys of Lisbon, contracted for the ransom of our prisoners (then reduced by death and ransom to fourteen) at thirty-four thousand seven hundred and ninety-two dollars. By whose orders they did it, we could never learn. I have suspected it was some association in London, which, finding the prices far above their conception, did not go through with their purpose, which probably had been merely a philanthropic one. Be this as it may, it was without our authority or knowledge. Again, Mr. Cathalan, our consul at Marseilles, without any instruction from the government, and actuated merely, as we presume, by willingness to do something agreeable, set on foot another negotiation for their redemption; which ended in nothing. These several volunteer interferences, though undertaken with good intentions, run directly counter to our plan; which was, to avoid the appearance of any purpose on our part ever to ransom our captives, and by that semblance of neglect, to reduce the demands of the Algerines to such a price, as might make it hereafter less their interest to pursue our citizens than any others. On the contrary, they have supposed all these propositions directly or indirectly came from us; they inferred from thence the In 1790, this subject was laid before Congress fully, and at the late session, moneys have been provided, and authority given to proceed to the ransom of our captive citizens at Algiers, provided it shall not exceed a given sum, and provided also, a peace shall be previously negotiated within certain limits of expense. And in consequence of these proceedings, your mission has been decided on by the President. Since, then, no ransom is to take place without a peace, you will of course take up first the negotiation of peace; or, if you find it better that peace and ransom should be treated of together, you will take care that no agreement for the latter be concluded, unless the former be established before or in the same instant. As to the conditions, it is understood that no peace can be made with that government, but for a larger sum of money to be paid at once for the whole time of its duration, or for a smaller one to be annually paid. The former plan we entirely refuse, and adopt the latter. We have also understood that peace might be bought cheaper with naval stores than with money; but we will not furnish them with naval stores, because we think it not right to furnish them means which we know they will employ to do wrong, and because there might be no economy in it as to And here we meet a difficulty, arising from the small degree of information we have respecting the Barbary States. Tunis is said to be tributary to Algiers. But whether the effect of this be, that peace being made with Algiers, is of course with the Tunisians without separate treaty, or separate price, is what we As to the articles and form of the treaty in general, our treaty with Morocco was so well digested that I enclose you a copy of that, to be the model with Algiers, as nearly as it can be obtained, only inserting the clause with respect to Tunis. The ransom of the captives is next to be considered. They are now thirteen in number; to wit, Richard O'Bryan and Isaac Stevens, captains, Andrew Montgomery and Alexander Forsyth, mates, Jacob Tessanier, a French passenger, William Patterson, Philip Sloan, Peleg Lorin, James Hall, James Cathcart, George Smith, John Gregory, James Hermit, seamen. It has been a fixed principle with Congress, to establish the rate of ransom of American captives with the Barbary States at as low a point as possible, that it may not be the interest of those States to go in quest of our citizens in preference to those of other countries. Had it not been for the danger it would have brought on the residue of our seamen, by exciting the cupidity of those rovers against them, our citizens now in Algiers would have been long ago redeemed, without regard to price. The mere money for this particular redemption neither has been, nor is, an object with anybody here. It is from the same regard to the safety of our seamen at large, that they have now restrained us from any ransom unaccompanied with peace. This being secured, we are led to consent to terms of ransom, to which, otherwise, our government never would have consented; that is to say, to the terms stated by Captain O'Bryan in the following passage of the same letter: "By giving the minister of the marine (the present Dey's favorite) the sum of one thousand sequins, I would stake my life that we would be ransomed for thirteen thousand sequins, and all expenses included." Extravagant as this sum is, we will, under the security of peace in future, go so far; not doubting, at As soon as the ransom is completed, you will be pleased to have the captives well clothed and sent home at the expense of the United States, with as much economy as will consist with their reasonable comfort. It is thought best, that Mr. Pinckney, our minister at London, should be the confidential channel of communication between us. He is enabled to answer your drafts for money within the limits before expressed; and as this will be by re-drawing on Amsterdam, you must settle with him the number of days after sight, at which your bills shall be payable in London, so as to give him time, in the meanwhile, to draw the money from Amsterdam. We shall be anxious to know as soon and as often as possible, your prospects in these negotiations. You will receive herewith a cypher, which will enable you to make them with safety. London and Lisbon (where Colonel Humphreys will forward my letters) will be the safest and best ports of communication. I also enclose two separate commissions, for the objects of peace and ransom. To these is added a commission to you as consul for the United States, at Algiers, on the possibility that it might be useful for you to remain there till the ratification of the treaties shall be returned from hence; though you are not to delay till their return the sending the captives home, nor the necessary payments of money within the limits before prescribed. Should you be willing to remain there, even after the completion of the business, as consul for the United States, you will be free to do so, giving me notice, that no other nomination may be made. These commissions, being issued during the recess of the Senate, are in force, by the Constitution, only till the next session of the The allowance for all your expenses and time (exclusive of the ransom, price of peace, duties, presents, maintenance and transportation of the captives) is at the rate of two thousand dollars a year, to commence from the day on which you shall set out for Algiers, from whatever place you may take your departure. The particular objects of peace and ransom once out of the way, the two thousand dollars annually are to go in satisfaction of time, services, and expenses of every kind, whether you act as consul or commissioner. As the duration of this peace cannot be counted on with certainty, and we look forward to the necessity of coercion by cruises on their coast, to be kept up during the whole of their cruising season, you will be pleased to inform yourself, as minutely as possible, of every circumstance which may influence or guide us in undertaking and conducting such an operation, making your communications by safe opportunities. I must recommend to your particular notice, Captain O'Bryan, one of the captives, from whom we have received a great deal of useful information. The zeal which he has displayed under the trying circumstances of his present situation, has been very distinguished. You will find him intimately acquainted with the manner in which, and characters with whom business is to be done there, and perhaps he may be an useful instrument to you, especially in the outset of your undertaking, which will require the utmost caution and the best information. He will be able to give you the characters of the European consuls there, though you will, probably, not think it prudent to repose confidence in any of them. Should you be able successfully to accomplish the objects of your mission in time to convey notice of it to us as early as possible during the next session of Congress, which meets in the I am, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. Philadelphia, June 4, 1792. Dear Sir,—I wrote you on the 1st inst., which I will call No. 1, and number my letters in future that you may know when any are missing. Mr. Hammond has given me an answer in writing, saying, he must send my letter to his court and wait their instructions. On this I desired a personal interview, that we might consider the matter together in a familiar way. He came accordingly, yesterday, and took a solo dinner with me, during which our conversation was full, unreserved, and of a nature to inspire mutual confidence. The result was that he acknowledged explicitly that his country had hitherto heard one side of the question only, and that from prejudiced persons, that it was now for the first time discussed, that it was placed on entirely new ground, his court having no idea of a charge of first infractions on them, and a justification on that ground of what had been done by our States, that this made it quite a new case to which no instructions he had could apply. He found, from my expressions, that I had entertained an idea of his being able to give an order to the Governor of Canada to deliver up the posts, and smiled at the idea; and it was evident from his conversation that it had not at all entered into the expectations of his court that they were to deliver up the posts. He did not say so expressly, but he said that they considered the retaining of the posts as a very imperfect compensation for the losses their subjects had sustained; under the cover of the clause of the treaty which admits them to the navigation of the Mississippi, and the evident mistake of the negotiators in supposing that a line due west from the Lake of the Woods would strike the Mississippi, TO THOMAS BARCLAY, ESQUIRE.Philadelphia, June 11, 1792. Sir,—Congress having furnished me with means for procuring peace, and ransoming our captive citizens from the government of Algiers, I have thought it best, while you are engaged at Morocco, to appoint Admiral Jones to proceed to Algiers, and therefore have sent him a commission for establishing peace, another for the ransom of our captives, and a third to act there as consul for the United States, and full instructions are given in a letter from the Secretary of State to him, of all which papers, Mr. Pinckney, now proceeding to London as our Minister Plenipotentiary there, is the bearer, as he is also of this letter. It is some time, however, since we have heard of Admiral Jones, and as in the event of any accident to him, it might occasion an injurious delay, were the business to await new commissions from hence, I have TO MR. PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, June 11, 1792. Dear Sir,—I have already had the honor of delivering to you your commission as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at the court of London, and have now that of enclosing your letter of credence to the King, sealed, and a copy of it open for your own information. Mr. Adams, your predecessor, seemed to understand, on his being presented to that court, that a letter was expected for the Queen also. You will be pleased to inform yourself whether the custom of that court requires this from us: and to enable you to comply with it, if it should, I enclose a letter sealed for the Queen, and a copy of it open for your own information. Should its delivery not be requisite you will be so good as to return it, as we do not wish to set a precedent which may bind us hereafter to a single unnecessary ceremony. To I particularly recommend to you, as the most important of your charges, the patronage of our commerce, and its liberation from embarrassments in all the British dominions; but most especially in the West Indies. Our consuls in Great Britain and Ireland are under general instructions to correspond with you, as you will perceive by a copy of a circular letter lately written to them, and now enclosed. From them you may often receive interesting information. Mr. Joshua Johnson is consul for us at London, James Maury, at Liverpool, Elias Vanderhorst, at Bristol, Thomas Auldjo, vice-consul at Pool (resident at Cowes), and William Knox, consul at Dublin. The jurisdiction of each is exclusive and independent, and extends to all places within the same allegiance nearer to him than to the residence of any other consul or vice-consul of the United States. The settlement of their accounts from time to time, and the payment of them, are referred to you, and in this, the act respecting consuls and any other laws made, or to be made, are to be your guide. Charges which these do not authorize, you will be pleased not to allow. These accounts are to be settled up to the first day of July in every year, and to be transmitted to the Secretary of State. The peculiar custom in England, of impressing seamen on every appearance of war, will occasionally expose our seamen to peculiar oppressions and vexations. These will require your most active exertions and protection, which we know cannot be You will receive herewith a copy of the journals of the ancient Congress, and of the laws, journals and reports of the present. Those for the future, with gazettes and other interesting papers, shall be sent you from time to time; and I shall leave you generally to the gazettes, for whatever information is in possession of the public, and shall especially undertake to communicate by letter, such only relative to the business of your mission as the gazetteers cannot give. From you I ask, once or twice a month, a communication of interesting occurrences in England, of the general affairs of Europe, the court gazette, the best paper in the interest of the ministry and the best of the opposition party, most particularly, that one of each which shall give the best account of the debates of parliament, the parliamentary register annually, and such other political publications as may be important enough to be read by one who can spare little time to read anything, or which may contain matter proper to be kept and turned to, on interesting subjects and occasions. The English packet is the most certain channel for such epistolary communications as are not very secret, and intermediate occasions by private vessels may be resorted to for secret communications, and for such as would come too expensively burthened with postage, by the packets. You are furnished with a cypher for greater secrecy of communication. To the papers before mentioned, I must desire you to add the Leyden gazette, paper by paper as it comes out, by the first vessel sailing after its receipt. I enclose you the papers in the case of a Mr. Wilson, ruined by the capture of his vessel, after the term limited by the armistice. They will inform you of the circumstances of his case, and where you may find him personally, and I recommend his case to your particular representations to the British court. It is possible that other similar cases may be transmitted to you. You have already received some letters of Mr. Adams' explanations of the principles of the armistice, and of what had passed between him and the British minister on the subject. Mr. Greene, of Rhode Island, will deliver you his papers, and I am to desire that you may patronize his claims so far as shall be just and right, leaving to himself and his agent to follow up the minute details of solicitation, and coming forward yourself only when there shall be proper occasion for you to do so in the name of your nation. Mr. Cutting has a claim against the government, vouchers for which he is to procure from England. As you are acquainted with the circumstances of it, I have only to desire that you will satisfy yourself as to the facts relative thereto, the evidence of which cannot be transmitted, and that you will communicate the same to me, that justice may be done between the public and the claimant. We shall have occasion to ask your assistance in procuring a workman or two for our mint; but this shall be the subject of a separate letter, after I shall have received more particular explanations from the director of the mint. I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THOMAS PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, June 11, 1792. Sir,—The letter I have addressed to Admiral Jones, of which you have had the perusal, has informed you of the mission with which the President has thought proper to charge him at Algiers, and how far your agency is desired for conveying to him the several papers, for receiving and paying his drafts to the amount therein permitted, by re-drawing yourself on our bankers in Amsterdam who are instructed to honor your bills, and by acting as a channel of correspondence between us. It has been some time, however, since we have heard of Admiral Jones. Should any accident have happened to his life, or should you be unable to learn where he is, or should distance, refusal to act, or any other circumstance deprive us of his services on this occasion, or I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Sir, your most obedient humble servant. TO MR PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, June 14, 1792. Sir,—The United States being now about to establish a mint, it becomes necessary to ask your assistance in procuring persons to carry on some parts of it; and to enable you to give it, you must be apprised of some facts. Congress, some time ago, authorized the President to take measures for procuring some artists from any place where they were to be had. It was known that a Mr. Drost, a Swiss, had made an improvement in the method of coining, and some specimens of his coinage were exhibited here, which were superior to anything we had ever seen. Mr. Short was, therefore, authorized to engage Drost to come over, to erect the proper machinery, and instruct persons to go on with the coinage; and as he supposed this would require about a year, we agreed to give him a thousand louis a year and his expenses. The agreement was made, two coining mills, or screws, were ordered by him; but in the end, he declined coming. We have reason to believe he was drawn off by the English East India Company, and that he is now at work for them in England. Mr. Bolton had also made a proposition to coin for us in England, which was declined. Since this, the act has been passed for establishing our mint, which authorizes, among other things, the employment of an assayer I have the honor to be, with great and much esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. P. S. Should you not be able to procure persons of eminent qualifications for their business, in England, it will be proper to open a correspondence with Mr. Morris on the subject, and see whether he cannot get such from France. Next to the obtaining the ablest artists, a very important circumstance is to send them to us as soon as possible. TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.Philadelphia, June 16, 1792. Dear Sir,—My last to you was of March the 28th. Yours of April the 6th and 10th came to hand three days ago. With respect to the particular objects of commerce susceptible of being placed on a better footing, on which you ask my ideas, they will show themselves by the enclosed table of the situation of our commerce with France and England. That with France is stated as it stood at the time I left that country, when the only objects whereon change was still desirable, were those of salted provisions, tobacco and tar, pitch and turpentine. The first was in negotiation when I came away, and was pursued by Mr. Short with prospects of success, till their general tariff so unexpectedly deranged our commerce with them as to other articles. Our commerce with their West Indies had never admitted amelioration during my stay in France. The temper of that period did not allow even the essay, and it was as much as we could do to hold the ground given us by the Marshal de Castries' Arret, admitting us to their colonies with salted provisions, &c. As to both these branches of commerce, to wit, with France and her colonies, we have hoped they would pursue their own proposition of arranging them by treaty, and that we could draw that treaty to this place. There is no other where the dependence of their colonies on our States for their prosperity is so obvious as here, nor where their negotiator would feel it so much. But it would be imprudent to leave to the uncertain issue of such a treaty, the re-establishment of our commerce with France on I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. P. S. I have said nothing of our whale oil, because I believe it is on a better footing since the tariff than before. TO M. DE LA FAYETTE.Philadelphia, June 16, 1792. Behold you, then, my dear friend, at the head of a great army establishing the liberties of your country against a foreign enemy. May heaven favor your cause, and make you the channel through which it may pour its favors. While you are estimating the monster Aristocracy, and pulling out the teeth and fangs of its associate, Monarchy, a contrary tendency is discovered in some here. A sect has shown itself among us, who declare they espoused our new Constitution not as a good and sufficient thing in itself, but only as a step to an English constitution, the only thing good and sufficient in itself, in their eye. It is happy for us that these are preachers without followers, and that our people are firm and constant in their republican purity. You will wonder to be told that it is from the eastward chiefly that these champions for a king, lords, and commons, come. They get some important associates from New York, and are puffed up by a tribe of Agioteurs which have been hatched in a bed of corruption made up after the model of their beloved England. Too many of these stock-jobbers and king-jobbers have come into our Legislature, or rather too many of our Legislature have become stock-jobbers and king-jobbers. However, the voice of the people is beginning to make itself heard, and will probably cleanse their seats at the ensuing election. The machinations of our old enemies are such as to keep us still at bay with our Indian neighbors. What are you doing for your colonies? They will be lost, if not more effectually succored. Indeed, no future efforts you can make will ever be able to reduce the blacks. All that can be done, in my opinion, will be to compound with them, as has been done formerly in Jamaica. We have been less zealous in aiding them, lest your government should feel any jealousy on our account. But, in truth, we as sincerely wish their restoration and their connection with you, as you do yourselves. We are satisfied that neither your justice nor their distresses will ever again permit their being forced to TO MR. BARLOW.Philadelphia, June 20, 1792. Dear Sir,—Though I am in hopes you are now on the ocean home-bound, yet I cannot omit the chance of my thanks reaching you, for your "Conspiracy of Kings" and advice to the privileged orders, the second part of which I am in hopes is out by this time. Be assured that your endeavors to bring the trans-Atlantic world into the road of reason, are not without their effect here. Some here are disposed to move retrograde, and to take their stand in the rear of Europe, now advancing to the high ground of natural right; but of all this your friend Mr. Baldwin gives you information, and doubtless paints to you the indignation with which the heresies of some people here fill us. This will be conveyed by Mr. Pinckney, an honest, sensible man, and good republican. He goes our Minister Plenipotentiary to London. He will arrive at an interesting moment in Europe. God send that all the nations who join in attacking the liberties of France may end in the attainment of their own. I still hope this will not find you in Europe, and therefore add nothing more than assurances of affectionate esteem from, dear Sir, your sincere friend and servant. TO PETER CARR.Philadelphia, June 22, 1792. Dear Sir,—I received in due time your favor of May 28, with the notes it contained on the subject of Waste. Your view of the subject, as far as it goes, is perfectly proper. Perhaps, on such a question in this country, where the husbandry is so different, it might be necessary to go further, and inquire whether any difference of this kind should produce a difference in the law. The main objects of the law of waste in England are, 1st, to prevent any disguise of the lands which might lessen the revisioner's evidence of title, such as the change of pasture into arable; 2d, to prevent any deterioration of it, as the cutting down forest, which in England is an injury. So careful is the law there against permitting a deterioration of the land, that though it will permit such improvements in the same line, as manuring arable lands, leading water into pasture lands, &c., yet it will not permit improvements in a different line, such as erecting buildings, converting pasture into arable, &c., lest this should lead to a deterioration. Hence we might argue in Virginia, that though the cutting down of forest in Virginia is, in our husbandry, rather an improvement generally, yet it is not so always, and therefore it is safer never to admit it. Consequently, there is no reason for adopting different rules of waste here from those established in England. Your objection to Lord Kaims, that he is too metaphysical, is just, and it is the chief objection to which his writings are liable. It is to be observed also, that though he has given us what should be the system of equity, yet it is not the one actually established, at least not in all its parts. The English Chancellors have gone on from one thing to another without any comprehensive or systematic view of the whole field of equity, and therefore they have sometimes run into inconsistencies and contradictions. Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment in it. The foundation you will have laid in legal reading, will enable you TO MR. VAN BERCKEL.Philadelphia, July 2, 1792. Sir,—It was with extreme concern that I learned from your letter of June the 25th, that a violation of the protection due to you as the representative of your nation had been committed, by an officer of this State entering your house and serving therein a process on one of your servants. There could be no question but that this was a breach of privilege; the only one was, how it was to be punished. To ascertain this, I referred your letter to the Attorney General, whose answer I have the honor to enclose you. By this you will perceive, that from the circumstance of your servant's not being registered in the Secretary of State's office, we cannot avail ourselves of the more certain and effectual proceeding which had been provided by an act of Congress for punishing infractions of the law of nations, that act having thought proper to confine the benefit of its provisions to such domestics only, as should have been registered. We are to proceed, therefore, as if that act had never been made, and the Attorney General's letter indicates two modes of proceeding. 1. By a warrant before a single magistrate, to recover the money paid by the servant under a process declared void by law. Herein the servant must be the actor, and the government not intermeddle at all. The smallness of the sum to be re-demanded will place this cause in the class of those in which no appeal to the higher tribunal is permitted, even in the case of manifest error, so that if the magistrate should err, the government has no means of correcting the error. 2. The second mode of proceeding would I have the honor to be, with sentiments of respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA.Philadelphia, July 3, 1792. Sir,—I have the honor to enclose to your Excellency, the copy of a letter I have received from his Catholic Majesty's representatives here, in consequence of a complaint from the Governor of Florida, that three inhabitants of the State of Georgia, to wit, Thomas Harrison, David Rees, and William Ewin, had entered the Spanish territory and brought from thence five negro slaves, the property of John Blackwood, a Spanish subject, without his consent, in violation of the rights of that State and the peace of the two countries. I had formerly had the honor of sending you a copy of the convention entered into between the said Governor and Mr. Leagrove, on the part of the United States for the mutual restitution of fugitive slaves. I now take the liberty of requesting your Excellency to inform me what is done, or likely to be done with you for the satisfaction of the Spanish government in this instance. Nobody knows better than your Excellency the importance of restraining individuals from committing the peace and honor of the two nations, and I am TO MESSRS. DE VIAR AND JAUDENES.Philadelphia, July 9, 1792. Gentlemen,—Information has been received that the government of West Florida has established an agent within the territory of the United States, belonging to the Creek Indians, and it is even pretended that that agent has excited those Indians to oppose the making a boundary between their district and that of the citizens of the United States. The latter is so inconsistent with the dispositions to friendship and good neighborhood which Spain has always expressed towards us, with that concert of interest which would be so advantageous to the two nations, and which we are disposed sincerely to promote, that we find no difficulty in supposing it erroneous. The sending an agent within our limits we presume has been done without the authority or knowledge of your Government. It has certainly been the usage, where one nation has wished to employ agents of any kind within the limits of another, to obtain the permission of that other, and even to regulate by convention and on principles of reciprocity, the functions to be exercised by such agents. It is not to a nation whose dominions are circumstanced as those of Spain in our neighborhood, that we need develop the inconveniences of permitting reciprocally the unlicensed mission of agents into the territories of each other. I am persuaded nothing more is necessary than to bring the fact under the notice of your Government in order to its being rectified, which is the object of my addressing you on this occasion; with every assurance that you will make the proper communications on the subject to your court. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of perfect esteem and respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.Philadelphia, July 12, 1792. Dear Sir,—We have been very long indeed without any vessel going from this port to Lisbon. This is the reason why I have been so long without acknowledging the receipt of your letters. Your Nos. from 45 to 53 inclusive are received, except No. 52, not yet come to hand. The President set out yesterday for Virginia, and I shall follow him to-morrow. During my absence the public papers will be forwarded to you by every opportunity by Mr. Taylor, with whom this letter is left, as we know of no present opportunity of forwarding it. The State of Vermont has lately taken some decisive step to extend its jurisdiction nearer to the British ports than has hitherto been done. This has produced a complaint from Mr. Hammond. We shall endeavor to keep things quiet, in hopes of voluntary justice from them. We shall probably have no campaign this year against the Indians. There are some hopes they will accept of peace and the rather as we have never asked anything in return for it. We really wish not to hurt them. I need not repeat occurrences which you will see in the gazettes. I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR LEE.Monticello, August 13, 1792. Sir,—It was not till yesterday that I was honored with the receipt of yours of July 23d, or it should have been sooner answered. I am of opinion that all communications between nations should pass through the channels of their Executives. However, in the instance of condolence on the death of Dr. Franklin, the letter from our general government was addressed to the President of the National Assembly; so was a letter from the Legislature of Pennsylvania, containing congratulations on the achievement of liberty to the French nation. I have not heard that, in TO MR. PALESKE.Monticello, August 19, 1792. Sir,—I have received at this place your favor of the 9th instant, wherein you request, that agreeably to the treaty of commerce between the United States and his Prussian Majesty, his consul general be acknowledged as belonging to a most favored nation; that the privileges and immunities due to a consul general of the most favored nation be granted to his consul general, and that commissioners be appointed to regulate, by particular convention, the functions of the consuls and vice-consuls of the respective nations. Treaties of the United States duly made and ratified, as is that with his Prussian Majesty, constitute a part of the law of the land, and need only promulgation to oblige all persons to obey them, and to entitle all to those privileges which such treaties confer. That promulgation having taken place, no other act is necessary or proper on the part of our government, according to our rules of proceeding, to give effect to the treaty. This treaty, however, has not specified the privileges or functions of consuls; it has only provided that these "shall be regulated by particular agreement." To the proposition to proceed as speedily as possible to regulate these functions by a convention, my absence from the seat of government does not allow me to give a definitive answer. I know, in general, that it would be agreeable to our I have the honor to be, with great respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY OF FRANCE.August 27, 1792. Sir,—Your letter of the 2d instant, informing me that the Legislative body, on the proposition of the King of the French, had declared war against the King of Hungary and Bohemia, has been duly received, and is laid before the President of the United States; and I am authorized to convey to you the expression of the sincere concern we feel on learning that the French nation, to whose friendship and interests we have the strongest attachment, are now to encounter the evils of war. We offer our prayers to Heaven that its duration may be short, and its course marked with as few as may be of those calamities which render the condition I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Monticello, September 9, 1792. Dear Sir,—I received on the 2d instant the letter of August 23d, which you did me the honor to write me; but the immediate return of our post, contrary to his custom, prevented my answer by that occasion. The proceedings of Spain, mentioned in your letter, are really of a complexion to excite uneasiness, and a suspicion that their friendly overtures about the Mississippi, have been merely to lull us while they should be strengthening their holds on that river. Mr. Carmichael's silence has been long my astonishment; and however it might have justified something very different from a new appointment, yet the public interest certainly called for his junction with Mr. Short, as it is impossible but that his knowledge of the ground of negotiation, of persons and characters, must be useful and even necessary to the success of the mission. That Spain and Great Britain may understand one another on our frontiers is very possible; for however opposite their interests or disposition may be in the affairs of Europe, yet while these do not call them into opposite action, they may concur as against us. I consider their keeping an agent in the Indian country as a circumstance which requires serious interference on our part; and I submit to your decision whether it does not furnish a proper occasion to us to send an additional instruction to Messrs. Carmichael and Short to insist on a mutual and formal stipulation to forbear employing agents or pensioning any persons within each other's limits; and if this be refused, to propose the contrary stipulation, to wit, that each I now take the liberty of proceeding to that part of your letter wherein you notice the internal dissensions which have taken place within our government, and their disagreeable effect on its movements. That such dissensions have taken place is certain, and even among those who are nearest to you in the administration. To no one have they given deeper concern than myself; to no one equal mortification at being myself a part of them. Though I take to myself no more than my share of the general observations of your letter, yet I am so desirous ever that you should know the whole truth, and believe no more than the truth, that I am glad to seize every occasion of developing to you whatever I do or think relative to the government; and shall, therefore, ask permission to be more lengthy now than the occasion particularly calls for, or could otherwise perhaps justify. When I embarked in the government, it was with a determination to intermeddle not at all with the Legislature, and as little as possible with my co-departments. The first and only instance of variance from the former part of my resolution, I was duped into by the Secretary of the Treasury, and made a tool for forwarding his schemes, not then sufficiently understood by me; and of all the errors of my political life, this has occasioned me the deepest regret. It has ever been my purpose to explain this to you, when, from being actors on the scene, we shall have become uninterested spectators only. The second part of my resolution has been religiously observed with the War Department; and as to that of the Treasury, has never been further swerved from than by the mere enunciation of my sentiments in conversation, and chiefly among those who, expressing the same sentiments, drew mine from me. If it has been supposed that I have ever intrigued among the members of the Legislature to defeat the plans of the Secretary of the Treasury, it is contrary to all truth. As I never had the desire to influence the members, so neither had I any other means than my friendships, which I valued too highly to risk by usurpation on their freedom of To this justification of opinions, expressed in the way of conversation, against the views of Colonel Hamilton, I beg leave to add some notice of his late charges against me in Fenno's When I came into this office, it was with a resolution to retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pretty early appeared to me that the proper moment would be the first of those epochs at which the Constitution seems to have contemplated a periodical change or renewal of the public servants. In this I was confirmed by your resolution respecting the same period; from which, however, I am happy in hoping you have departed. I look to that period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the land in view, and shall count the days and hours which still lie between me and it. In the meanwhile, my main object will be to wind up the business of my office, avoiding as much as possible all new enterprise. With the affairs of the Legislature, as I never did intermeddle, so I certainly shall not now begin. I am more desirous to predispose everything for the repose to which I am withdrawing, than expose it to be disturbed by newspaper contests. If these however cannot be avoided altogether, yet a regard for your quiet will be a sufficient motive for my deferring it till I become merely a private citizen, when the propriety or impropriety of what I may say or do, may fall on myself alone. I may then, too, avoid the charge of misapplying that time which now, belonging to those who employ me, should be wholly devoted to their service. If my own justification, or the interests of the republic shall require it, I reserve to myself the right of then appealing to my country, Observing that letters written at Mount Vernon on the Monday, and arriving at Richmond on the Wednesday, reach me on Saturday, I have now the honor to mention that the 22d instant will be the last of our post days that I shall be here, and consequently that no letter from you after the 17th, will find me here. Soon after that I shall have the honor of receiving at Mount Vernon your orders for Philadelphia, and of there also delivering you the little matter which occurs to me as proper for the opening of Congress, exclusive of what has been recommended in former speeches, and not yet acted on. In the meantime and ever I am, with great and sincere affection and respect, dear Sir your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO ARCHIBALD STUART, ESQ.Monticello, September 9, 1792. Dear Sir,—I wrote you a long letter from Philadelphia early in the summer, which would not have been worth recurring to, but that I therein asked the favor of you to sound Mr. Henry on the subject you had written to me on, to wit, the amendment of our Constitution, and to find whether he would not approve of the specific amendments therein mentioned, in which case the business would be easy. If you have had any conversation with him on the subject, I will thank you for the result. As I propose to return from my present office at the close of the ensuing session of Congress, and to fix myself once more at home, I begin to feel a more immediate interest in having the Constitution of our country fixed, and in such a form as will ensure a somewhat greater certainty to our laws, liberty and property, the first and last of which are now pretty much afloat, and the second not out of the reach of every enterprise. I set out for Philadelphia about the 20th, and would therefore be happy to hear from you before that. I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your constant friend and servant. TO MR. CLAY.Monticello, September 11, 1792. Dear Sir,—Your favor of August 8th, came duly to hand, and I should with pleasure have done what you therein desired, as I ever should what would serve or oblige you; but from a very early moment of my life I determined never to intermeddle with elections of the people, and have invariably adhered to this determination. In my own county, where there have been so many elections in which my inclinations were enlisted, I yet never interfered. I could the less do it in the present instance, your people so very distant from me, utterly unknown to me, and to whom I am also unknown; and above all, I a stranger, to TO EDWARD RANDOLPH, ESQ.Monticello, September 17, 1792. My Dear Sir,—The last post brought me your favor of the 26th of August; but it brought me at the same time so much business to be answered by return of post, and which did not admit of delay, that I was obliged to postpone the acknowledgment of yours. I thank you sincerely for what respects myself. Though I see the pen of the Secretary of the Treasury plainly in the attack on me, yet, since he has not chosen to put his name to it, I am not free to notice it as his. I have preserved through life a resolution, set in a very early part of it, never to write in a public paper without subscribing my name, and to engage openly an adversary who does not let himself be seen, is staking all against nothing. The indecency too, of newspaper squabbling between two public ministers, besides my own sense of it, has drawn something like an injunction from another quarter. Every fact alleged under the signature of "an American" as to myself, is false, and can be proved so; and perhaps will be one day. But for the present, lying and scribbling must be free to those mean enough to deal in them, and in the dark. I should have TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Monticello, September 18, 1792—2 o'clock, P.M. Dear Sir,—Your express is this moment arrived with the Proclamation on the proceedings against the laws for raising a revenue on distilled spirits, and I return it herein enclosed with my signature. I think if, instead of the words "to render laws dictated by weighty reasons of public exigency and policy as acceptable as possible," it stood "to render the laws as acceptable as possible," it would be better. I see no other particular expressions which need alteration. I am sincerely sorry to learn that such proceedings have taken place; and I hope the Proclamation will lead the persons concerned into a regular line of application which may end either in an amendment of the law, if it needs it, or in their conviction that it is right. Your most obedient, and most humble servant. Philadelphia, October 8, 1792. Sir,—I found on my return here three days ago, your favor of April 6th, and am happy to learn from it that the Agricultural Society has adopted the plan of employing a person at Marseilles to raise and send olive trees to them annually. Their success in South Carolina cannot be doubted, and their value is great. Olive grounds in France rent higher by the acre than those of any other growth in the kingdom, which proves they yield the TO MR. PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, October 12, 1792. Dear Sir,—Your favor of August the 7th came to hand on the 6th instant, and gave me the first certain information of your safe arrival. Mr. Otto being about to sail for London, furnishes me with an opportunity of sending the newspapers for yourself and Mr. Barclay, and I avail myself of it chiefly for this purpose, as my late return from Virginia and the vacation of Congress furnishes little new and important for your information. With respect to the Indian war, the summer has been chiefly employed on our part in endeavoring to persuade them to peace, in an abstinence from all offensive operations, in order to give those endeavors a fairer chance, and in preparation for activity the ensuing season, if they fail. I believe we may say these endeavors have all failed, or probably will do so. The year has been rather a favorable one for our agriculture. The crops of small grain were generally good. Early frosts have a good deal shortened those of tobacco and Indian corn, yet not so as to endanger distress. From the south my information is less certain, but from that quarter you will be informed through other channels. I have a pleasure in noting this circumstance to you, because the difference between a plentiful and a scanty crop more than counterpoises the expenses of any campaign. Five or six plentiful years successively, as we have had, have most sensibly ameliorated the condition of our country, and uniform laws of commerce, introduced by our new government, have enabled us to draw the whole benefits of our agriculture. I enclose you the copy of a letter from Messrs. Blow and Milhaddo, merchants of Virginia, complaining of the taking away of their sailors on the coast of Africa, by the commander of a British armed vessel. So many instances of this kind have happened, that it is quite necessary that their government should explain themselves on the subject, and be led to disavow and punish such conduct. I leave to your discretion to endeavor to obtain this satisfaction by such friendly discussions as may be most I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT.Philadelphia, October 14, 1792. Gentlemen,—Since my letters of March the 18th and April the 24th (which have been retarded so unfortunately), another subject of conference and convention with Spain has occurred. You know that the frontiers of her provinces, as well as of our States, are inhabited by Indians holding justly the right of occupation, and leaving to Spain and to us only the claim of excluding other nations from among them, and of becoming ourselves the purchasers of such portions of land, from time to time, as they may choose to sell. We have thought, that the dictates of interest as well as humanity, enjoined mutual endeavors with those Indians to live in peace with both nations, and we have scrupulously observed that conduct. Our agent with the Indians bordering on the territories of Spain, has a standing instruction to use his best endeavors to prevent them from committing acts of hostility against the Spanish settlements. But whatever may have been the conduct or orders of the government of Spain, that of their officers in our neighborhood has been indisputably unfriendly and hostile to us. The papers enclosed will demonstrate this to you. That the Baron de Carondelet, their chief Governor at New Orleans, has excited the Indians to war on us, that he has furnished them with abundance of arms and I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO G. MORRIS, ESQ.Philadelphia, October 15, 1792. Sir,—I have duly received your favor of July 10, No. 4, but no other number preceding or subsequent. I fear, therefore, that some miscarriage has taken place. The present goes to Bordeaux, under cover to Mr. Fenwick, who, I hope, will be able to give it a safe conveyance to you. I observe that you say in your letter, that "the marine department is to treat with you for supplies to St. Domingo." I presume you mean "supplies of money," and not that our government is to furnish supplies of provisions, specifically, or employ others to do it; this being a business into which they could not enter. The payment of money here, to be employed by their own agents in purchasing the produce of our soil, is a desirable thing. We are informed by the public papers, that the late constitution of France, formally notified to us, is suspended, and a new convention called. During the time of this suspension, and while no legitimate government exists, we apprehend we cannot continue the payments of our debt to France, because there is no person authorized to receive it and to give us an unobjectionable acquittal. You are, therefore, desired to consider the payment as suspended, until further orders. Should circumstances oblige you to mention this (which it is better to avoid if you can), do it with such solid reasons as will occur to yourself, and accompany it with the most friendly declarations that the suspension does not proceed from any wish in us to delay the payment, the contrary being our wish, nor from any desire to embarrass or oppose the settlement of their government in that way in which their nation shall desire it; but from our anxiety to pay this debt justly and honorably, and to the persons really authorized by the nation (to whom we owe it) to receive it for their use. Nor shall this suspension be continued one moment after we can see our way clear out of the difficulty into which their situation has thrown us. That they may speedily obtain liberty, peace, and tranquillity, is our sincere prayer. The present summer is employed by us in endeavors to persuade the Indians to peace, and to prepare for the ensuing campaign, if our endeavors for peace should fail. That they will fail, we have reason to expect, and consequently that the expenses of our armament are to continue for some time. Another plentiful year added to the several others which we have successively had, is some consolation under these expenses. Very early frosts, indeed, have somewhat shortened the productions of the autumn. I have the honor to be, with great respect and esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO M. DE TERNANT.Philadelphia, October 16, 1792. Sir,—I am to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, proposing a stipulation for the abolition of the practice of privateering in times of war. The benevolence of this proposition is worthy of the nation from which it comes, and our sentiments on it have been declared in the treaty to which you are pleased to refer, as well as in some others which have been proposed. There are in those treaties some other principles which would probably meet the approbation of your government, as flowing from the same desire to lessen the occasions and the calamities of war. On all of these, as well as on those amendments to our treaty of commerce which might better its conditions with both nations, and which the National Assembly of France has likewise brought into view on a former occasion, we are ready to enter into negotiation with you, only proposing to take the whole into consideration at once. And while contemplating provisions which look to the event of war, we are happy in feeling a conviction that it is yet at a great distance from us, and in believing that the sentiments of sincere friendship which we bear to the nation of France are reciprocated on their part. Of these our dispositions, be so good as to assure TO MESSRS. VIAR AND JAUDENES, Commissioners of Spain.Philadelphia, November 1, 1792. Gentlemen,—I have now to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of October the 29th, which I have duly laid before the President of the United States; and in answer thereto, I cannot but observe that some parts of its contents were truly unexpected. On what foundation it can be supposed that we have menaced the Creek nation with destruction during the present autumn, or at any other time, is entirely inconceivable. Our endeavors, on the contrary, to keep them at peace, have been earnest, persevering and notorious, and no expense has been spared which might attain that object. With the same views to peace, we have suspended, now more than a twelvemonth, the marking a boundary between them and us, which had been fairly, freely and solemnly established with the chiefs whom they had deputed to treat with us on that subject; we have suspended it, I say, in the constant hope that taking time to consider it in the councils of their nation, and recognizing the justice and reciprocity of its conditions, they would at length freely concur in carrying it into execution. We agree with you, that the interests which either of us have in the proceedings of the other with this nation of Indians, is a proper subject of discussion at the negotiations to be opened at Madrid, and shall accordingly give the same in charge to our commissioners there. In the meantime, we shall continue sincerely to cultivate the peace and prosperity of all the parties, being constant in the opinion, that this conduct, reciprocally observed, will most increase the happiness of all. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE PRESIDENT.Philadelphia, November 2, 1792. Sir,—The letter of October the 29th, from Messrs. Viar and Jaudenes, not expressing the principle on which their government interests itself between the United States and the Creeks, I thought it of importance to have it ascertained. I therefore called on those gentlemen, and entered into explanations with them. They assured me, in our conversation, that supposing all question of boundary to be out of the case, they did not imagine their government would think themselves authorized to take under their protection, any nations of Indians living within limits confessed to be ours; and they presumed that any interference of theirs, with respect to the Creeks, could only arise out of the question of disputed territory, now existing between us; that, on this account, some part of our treaty with the Creeks had given dissatisfaction. They said, however, that they were speaking from their own sentiments only, having no instructions which would authorize them to declare those of their court; but that they expected an answer to their letters covering mine of July the 9th, (erroneously cited by them as of the 11th,) from which they would probably know the sentiments of their court. They accorded entirely in the opinion, that it would be better that the two nations should mutually endeavor to preserve each the peace of the other, as well as their own, with the neighboring tribes of Indians. I shall avail myself of the opportunity by a vessel which is to sail in a few days, of sending proper information and instructions to our commissioners on the subject of the late, as well as of the future, interferences of the Spanish officers to our prejudice with the Indians, and for the establishment of common rules of conduct for the two nations. I have the honor to be, with the most perfect respect and attachment, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT.Philadelphia, November 3, 1792. Gentlemen,—I wrote you on the 14th of last month; since which some other incidents and documents have occurred, bearing relation to the subject of that letter. I therefore now enclose you a duplicate of that letter. Copy of a letter from the Governor of Georgia, with the deposition it covered of a Mr. Hull, and an original passport, signed by Olivier, wherein he styles himself commissary for his Catholic Majesty with the Creeks. Copy of a letter from Messrs. Viar and Jaudenes to myself, dated October the 29th, with that of the extract of a letter of September the 24th, from the Baron de Carondelet to them. Copy of my answer of No. 1, to them, and copy of a letter from myself to the President, stating a conversation with those gentlemen. From those papers you will find that we have been constantly endeavoring, by every possible means, to keep peace with the Creeks; that in order to do this, we have even suspended and still suspend the running a fair boundary between them and us, as agreed on by themselves, and having for its object the precise definition of their and our lands, so as to prevent encroachment on either side, and that we have constantly endeavored to keep them at peace with the Spanish settlements also; that Spain on the contrary, or at least the officers of her governments, since the arrival of the Baron de Carondelet, have undertaken to keep an agent among the Creeks, have excited them and the other southern Indians to commence a war against us, have furnished them with arms and ammunition for the express purpose of carrying on that war, and prevented the Creeks from running the boundary which would have removed the cause of difference from between us. Messrs. Viar and Jaudenes explain the ground of interference on the fact of the Spanish claim to that territory, and on an article in our treaty with the Creeks, putting themselves under our protection. But besides that you already know the nullity of I have the honor to be, with sentiments of perfect esteem and respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.Philadelphia, November 3, 1792. Sir,—In order to enable you to lay before Congress the account required by law of the application of the moneys appropriated to foreign purposes through the agency of the Department of State, I have now the honor to transmit to you the two statements, Nos. 1 and 2, herein enclosed, comprehending the period of two years preceding the 1st day of July last. The first statement is of the sums paid from the Treasury under the act allowing the annual fund of $40,000 for the purpose of foreign intercourse, as also under the acts of March 3, 1791, c. 16, and May 1792, c. 41, 5, 3, allowing other sums for special purposes. By this it will appear, that, except the sum of $500 paid to Colonel Humphreys on his departure, the rest has all been received in bills of exchange, which identical bills have been immediately remitted to Europe, either to those to whom they were due for services, or to the bankers of the United States in Amsterdam, to be paid out by them to persons performing services abroad. This general view has been given in order to transfer the debt of these sums from the Department of State to those to whom they have been delivered. But in order to give to Congress a view of the specific application of these moneys, the particular accounts rendered by those who have received them, have been analyzed, and the payments made to them have been reduced under general heads, so as to show at one view the amount of the sums which each has received for every distinct species of service or disbursement, as well as their several totals. This is the statement No. 2, and it respects the annual fund of $40,000 only, the special funds of the acts of 1791 and 1792, having been not yet so far administered as to admit of any statement. I had presented to the Auditor the statement No. 1, with the vouchers, and also the special accounts rendered by the several persons who have received these moneys, but, on consideration, he thought himself not authorized, by any law, to proceed to I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and attachment, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE IN ACCOUNT WITH THE U. S. Dr.
Cr.
Thomas Jefferson having had the honor at different times heretofore of giving to the President conjectural estimate of expenses of our foreign establishment, has that of now laying before him, Page 2, shows the probable annual expense of our present establishment, and its excess above the funds allowed, and in another column the reduced establishment necessary and most proper to bring it within the limits of the funds supposing it should be continued. November 5, 1792. Estimate of the funds of $40,000 for foreign intercourse and its application.
November 5, 1792. Estimate of the ordinary expense of the different diplomatic grades annually.
Medals to foreign ministers, suppose 5 to be kept here and changed once in 7 years, will be about $654.06 annually.
November 5, 1792. Gentlemen of the Senate,—According to the directions of the law, I now lay before you a statement of the administration of the funds appropriated to certain foreign purposes, together with a letter from the Secretary of State, explaining the same. November 5, 1792. TO THE MAYOR, MUNICIPAL OFFICERS AND PROCUREUR OF THE COMMUNITY OF MARSEILLES.Philadelphia, November 6, 1792. Gentlemen,—Your letter of the 24th of August, is just now received by the President of the United States, and I have it in charge from him to communicate to you the particular satisfaction he feels at the expressions of fraternity towards our nation therein contained, to assure you that he desires sincerely the most speedy relief to France from her general difficulties, and will be happy to be instrumental in removing the special ones of the city of Marseilles in particular, by encouraging supplies of wheat and flour to be sent thither. Our harvest having been plentiful, our merchants would of course feel sufficient inducements, in the assurances you give of a ready sale and good price, were it not for the apprehensions of the Barbary cruisers. Certain arrangements for a Convoy, and the time, place, and manner of getting under its protection, would remove these apprehensions; but it may be doubtful whether these can be notified to them in time to prepare their adventures. They shall certainly, TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.Philadelphia, November 6, 1792. Dear Sir,—We have never known so long an interval during which there has not been a single vessel going to Lisbon. Hence it is that I am so late in acknowledging the receipt of your letters from No. 54 to 58 inclusive, and that I am obliged to do it by the way of London, and consequently cannot send you the newspapers as usual. The summer has been chiefly past in endeavoring to bring the north-western Indians to peace, and in preparing for a vigorous operation against them the ensuing summer, if peace should not be made. As yet no symptoms of it appear on their part. In the meantime there is danger of a war being kindled up on our south-western frontiers by the Indians in that quarter, excited, as we have reason to believe, by some Spanish officers. We trust that it has not been with the authority of their government. To counterbalance these evils, we have had the blessing of another plentiful harvest of the principal grains. Tobacco and Indian corn have suffered from the early frosts. We have very earnest demands for supplies of grain from Marseilles; but the Algerine cruisers are an impediment. Would it be practicable for you, without awaiting a general treaty, to obtain permission for our flour to be carried to Portugal? nothing is more demonstrable than that this restriction is highly injurious to Portugal as well as to us. Congress assembled yesterday, the President will meet them to-day, and I will enclose you a copy of his speech whereby you P. S. November 7. After writing this letter, your No. 59 came to hand. It seems then that, so far from giving new liberties to our corn trade, Portugal contemplates the prohibition of it, by giving that trade exclusively to Naples. What would she say should we give her wine-trade exclusive to France and Spain. It is well known that far the greatest portion of the wine we consume, is from Portugal and its dependancies, and it must be foreseen that from the natural increase of population in these States, the demand will become equal to the uttermost abilities of Portugal to supply, even when her last foot of land shall be put into culture. Can a wise statesman seriously think of risking such a prospect as this? To me it seems incredible; and if the fact be so, I have no doubt you will interpose your opposition with the minister, developing to him all the consequences which such a measure would have on the happiness of the two nations. He should reflect that nothing but habit has produced in this country a preference of their wines over the superior wines of France, and that if once that habit is interrupted by an absolute prohibition it will never be recovered. TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.Philadelphia, November 7, 1792. Dear Sir,—My last to you was of the 15th of October; since which I have received your Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7. Though mine went by a conveyance directly to Bordeaux, and may therefore probably get safe to you, yet I think it proper, lest it should miscarry, to repeat to you the following paragraph from it. * * * * * I am perfectly sensible that your situation must, ere this reaches you, have been delicate and difficult; and though the occasion is probably over, and your part taken of necessity, so that instructions now would be too late, yet I think it just to express our sentiments on the subject, as a sanction of what you have probably done. Whenever the scene became personally dangerous to you, it was proper you should leave it, as well from personal as public motives. But what degree of danger should be awaited, to what distance or place you should retire, are circumstances which must rest with your own discretion, it being impossible to prescribe them from hence. With what kind of government you may do business, is another question. It accords with our principles to acknowledge any government to be rightful, which is formed by the will of the nation substantially declared. The late government was of this kind, and was accordingly acknowledged by all the branches of ours. So, any alteration of it which shall be made by the will of the nation substantially declared, will doubtless be acknowledged in like manner. With such a government every kind of business may be done. But there are some matters which, I conceive, might be transacted with a government de facto; such, for instance, as the reforming the unfriendly restrictions on our commerce and navigation. Such cases you will readily distinguish as they occur. With respect to this particular reformation of their regulations, we cannot be too pressing for its attainment, as every day's continuance gives it additional firmness, and endangers its taking root in their habits and constitution; and, indeed, I think they should be told, as soon as they are in a condition to act, that if they do not revoke the late innovations, we must lay additional and equivalent burthens on French ships, by name. Your conduct in the case of M. de Bonne Carrere, is approved entirely. We think it of great consequence to the friendship of the two nations, to have a minister here in whose dispositions we have confidence. Congress assembled the day before yesterday. I enclose you a paper containing the President's speech, whereby you will see the chief objects of the present session. Your difficulties as to the I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.Philadelphia, November 8, 1792. Dear Sir,—You were not unapprised of the reluctance with which I came into my present office, and I came into it with a determination to quit it as soon as decency would permit. Nor was it long before I fixed on the termination of our first federal cycle of four years as the proper moment. That moment is now approaching, and is to me as land was to Columbus in his first American voyage. The object of this private letter is to desire that your future public letters may be addressed to the Secretary of State by title and not by name, until you know who he will be, as otherwise your letters arriving here after the 3d of March, would incur the expense, delay, and risk of travelling six hundred miles by post after their arrival here. I may perhaps take the liberty of sometimes troubling you with a line from my retirement, and shall be ever happy to hear from you, and to give you every proof of the sincere esteem and respect, with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant. P. S. We yesterday received information of the conclusion of peace with the Wabash and Illinois Indians. This forms a broad separation between the northern and southern war-tribes. TO T. M. RANDOLPH, JR.Philadelphia, November 16, 1792. Dear Sir,—Congress have not yet entered into any important business. An attempt has been made to give further extent to the influence of the Executive over the Legislature, by permitting the heads of departments to attend the House and explain their measures viv voce. But it was negatived by a majority of 35 to 11, which gives us some hope of the increase of the republican vote. However, no trying question enables us yet to judge, nor indeed is there reason to expect from this Congress many instances of conversion, though some will probably have been effected by the expression of the public sentiment in the late election. For, as far as we have heard, the event has been generally in favor of republican, and against the aristocratical candidates. In this State the election has been triumphantly carried by the republicans; their antagonists having got but 2 out of 11 members, and the vote of this State can generally turn the balance. Freneau's paper is getting into Massachusetts, under the patronage of Hancock; and Samuel Adams, and Mr. Ames, the colossus of the monocrats and paper men, will either be left out or hard run. The people of that State are republican; but hitherto they have heard nothing but the hymns and lauds chanted by Fenno. My love to my dear Martha, and am, dear Sir, yours affectionately. TO M. DE TERNANT.Philadelphia, November 20, 1792. Sir,—Your letter on the subject of further supplies to the colony of St. Domingo, has been duly received and considered. When the distresses of that colony first broke forth, we thought we could not better evidence our friendship to that and to the mother country also, than to step in to its relief, on your application, without waiting a formal authorization from the National By the estimate you were pleased to deliver me, we perceive that there will be wanting, to carry the colony through the month of December, between thirty and forty thousand dollars, in addition to the sums before engaged to you. I am authorized to inform you, that the sum of forty thousand dollars shall be paid to your orders at the treasury of the United States, and to assure you, that we feel no abatement in our dispositions to contribute these aids from time to time, as they shall be wanting, for the necessary subsistence of the colony; but the want of express approbation from the national Legislature, must ere long produce a presumption that they contemplate perhaps other modes of relieving the colony, and dictate to us the propriety of doing only what they shall have regularly and previously sanctioned. Their decree before mentioned, contemplates purchases made in the United States only. In this they might probably have in view, as well to keep the business of providing supplies under a single I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect. Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MR. PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, December 3, 1792. Dear Sir,— * * * * * I do not write you a public letter by the packet because there is really no subject for it. The elections for Congress have produced a decided majority in favor of the republican interest. They complain, you know, that the influence and patronage of the Executive is to become so great as to govern the Legislature. They endeavored a few days ago to take away one means of influence by condemning references to the heads of department. They failed by a majority of five votes. They were more successful in their endeavor to prevent the introduction of a new means of influence, that of admitting the heads of department to deliberate occasionally in the House in explanation of their measures. The proposition for their admission was rejected by a pretty general vote. I think we may consider the tide of this government as now at the fullest, and that it will, from the commencement of the next session of Congress, retire and subside into the true principles of the Constitution. An alarm has been endeavored to be sounded as if the republican interest I am, with great and sincere esteem, my dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO DR. GILMER.Philadelphia, December 15, 1792. Dear Doctor,—I received only two days ago your favor of October 9, by Mr. Everett. He is now under the small-pox. I am rejoiced with the account he gives me of the invigoration of your system, and am anxious for your persevering in any course of regimen which may long preserve you to us. We have just received the glorious news of the Prussian army being obliged to retreat, and hope it will be followed by some proper catastrophe on them. This news has given wry faces to our monocrats here, but sincere joy to the great body of the citizens. It arrived only in the afternoon of yesterday, and the bells were rung and some illuminations took place in the evening. A proposition has been made to Congress to begin sinking the public debt by a tax on pleasure horses; that is to say, on all horses not employed for the draught or farm. It is said there is not a horse of that description eastward of New York. And as to call this a direct tax TO MR. MERCER.Philadelphia, December 19, 1792. Dear Sir,—I received yesterday your favor of the 13th. I had been waiting two or three days in expectation of vessels said to be in the river, and by which we hope more particular accounts of the late affairs in France. It has turned out that there were no such vessels arriving as had been pretended. However I think we may safely rely that the Duke of Brunswick has retreated, and it is certainly possible enough that between famine, disease, and a country abounding with defiles, he may suffer some considerable catastrophe. The monocrats here still affect to disbelieve all this, while the republicans are rejoicing and taking to themselves the name of Jacobins, which two months ago was fixed on them by way of stigma. The votes for Vice-President, as far as hitherto known, stands thus:
Bankrupt bill is brought on with some very threatening features to landed and farming men, who are in danger of being TO MR. RUTHERFORD.Philadelphia, December 25, 1792. Sir,—I have considered, with all the attention which the shortness of the time would permit, the two motions which you were pleased to put into my hands yesterday afternoon, on the subject of weights and measures, now under reference to a committee of the Senate, and will take the liberty of making a few observations thereon. The first, I presume, is intended as a basis for the adoption of that alternative of the report on measures and weights, which proposed retaining the present system, and fixing its several parts by a reference to a rod vibrating seconds, under the circumstances therein explained; and to fulfil its object, I think the resolutions there proposed should be followed by this: "that the standard by which the said measures of length, surface, and capacity shall be fixed, shall be an uniform cylindrical rod of iron, of such length as in latitude forty-five degrees, in the level of the ocean, and in a cellar or other place of uniform natural temperature, shall perform its vibrations in small and equal arcs, in one second of mean time; and that rain water be the substance, to some definite mass of which, the said weights shall be referred." Without this, the committee employed to prepare a bill on those resolutions, would be uninstructed as to the principles by which the Senate mean to fix their measures of length, and the substance by which they will fix their weights. The second motion is a middle proposition between the first 2d. For "metal" substitute "iron." The object is to have one determinate standard. But the different metals having different degrees of expansibility, there would be as many different standards as there are metals, were that generic term to be used. A specific one seems preferable, and "iron" the best, because the least variable by expansion. 3d. I should think it better to omit the chain of 66 feet, because it introduces a series which is not decimal, viz., 1. 66. 80. and because it is absolutely useless. As a measure of length, it is unknown to the mass of our citizens; and if retained for the purpose of superficial measure, the foot will supply its place, and fix the acre as in the fourth resolution. 4th. For the same reason, I propose to omit the words "or shall be ten chains in length and one in breadth." 5th. This resolution would stand better, if it omitted the words "shall be one foot square, and one foot and twenty cents of a foot deep, and," because the second description is perfect, and too plain to need explanation. Or if the first expression be preferred, the second may be omitted, as perfectly tautologous. 6th. I propose to leave out the words "shall be equal to the pound avoirdupois now in use, and," for the reasons suggested in the second resolution, to wit, that our object is, to have one determinate standard. The pound avoirdupois now in use is an indefinite thing. The committee of parliament reported variations among the standard weights of the exchequer. Different persons weighing the cubic foot of water, have made it, some more, and some less than one thousand ounces avoirdupois; according as their weights had been tested by the lighter or heavier standard weights of the exchequer. If the pound now in use be declared a standard, as well as the weight of sixteen thousand cubic cents of a foot in water, it may hereafter perhaps be insisted 7th. For the same reason, I propose to omit the words "equal to seven grains troy." The true ratio between the avoirdupois and troy weights, is a very contested one. The equation of seven thousand grains troy to the pound avoirdupois, is only one of several opinions, and is indebted perhaps to its integral form for its prevalence. The introduction either of the troy or avoirdupois weight into the definition of our unit, will throw that unit under the uncertainties now enveloping the troy and avoirdupois weights. When the House of Representatives were pleased to refer to me the subject of weights and measures, I was uninformed as to the hypothesis on which I was to take it up; to wit, whether on that, that our citizens would not approve of any material change in the present system, or on the other, that they were ripe for a complete reformation. I therefore proposed plans for each alternative. In contemplating these, I had occasion to examine well all the middle ground between the two, and among others which presented themselves to my mind, was the plan of establishing one of the known weights and measures as the unit in each class; to wit, in the measures of lines, of surfaces, and of solids, and in weights, and to compound and divide them decimally. In the measures of weights, I had thought of the ounce as the best unit, because, calling it the thousandth part of a cubic foot of water, it fell into the decimal series, formed a happy link of connection with the system of measures on the one side, and of coins on the other, by admitting an equality with the dollar, without changing the value of that or its alloy materially. But on the whole, I abandoned this middle proposition, on the supposition that if our fellow citizens were ripe for advancing so great a length towards reformation, as to retain only four known points of the very numerous series to which they were habituated, to wit, the foot, the acre, the bushel, and the ounce, abandoning all the multiples and subdivisions of them, or recurring I have the honor to be, with perfect respect, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MR. PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, December 30, 1792. Dear Sir,—My last letters to you have been of the 13th and 20th of November, since which I have received yours of September 19. We are anxious to hear that the person substituted in the place of the one deceased is gone on that business. You do not mention your prospect of finding for the mint the officers we were desirous of procuring. On this subject, I will add to what was before mentioned to you, that if you can get artists really eminent, and on the salaries fixed by the law, we shall be glad of them; but that experience of the persons we have found here, would induce us to be contented with them rather than to take those who are not eminent, or who would expect more than the legal salaries. A greater difficulty has been experienced in procuring copper for the mint than we expected. Mr. Rittenhouse, P. S. Though I have mentioned Sweden as the most likely place to get copper from, on the best terms, yet if you can be satisfied it may be got on better terms elsewhere, it is left to your discretion to get it elsewhere. Philadelphia, January 3, 1793. Dear Sir,—My last private letter to you was of October 16, since which I have received your Nos. 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112, 113 and 114 and yesterday your private one of September 15, came to hand. The tone of your letters had for some time given me pain, on account of the extreme warmth with which they censured the proceedings of the Jacobins of France. I considered that sect as the same with the Republican patriots, and the Feuillants as the Monarchical patriots, well known in the early part of the Revolution, and but little distant in their views, both having in object the establishment of a free constitution, differing only on the question whether their chief Executive should be hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since called) yielded to the Feuillants, and tried the experiment of retaining their hereditary Executive. The experiment failed completely, and would have brought on the re-establishment of despotism had it been pursued. The Jacobins knew this, and that the expunging that office was of absolute necessity. And the nation was with them in opinion, for however they might have TO MR. RANDOLPH.Philadelphia, January 7, 1793. Dear Sir,—Our news from France continues to be good, and to promise a continuance; the event of the revolution there is now little doubted of, even by its enemies, the sensations it has produced here, and the indications of them in the public papers, have shown that the form our own government was to take depended much more on the events of France than anybody had before imagined. The tide which after our former relaxed government, took a violent course towards the opposite extreme, and seemed ready to hang everything round with the tassels and baubles of monarchy, is now getting track as we hope to a just mean, a government of laws addressed to the reason of the people and not to their weaknesses. The daily papers show it more than those you receive. An attempt in the House of Representatives to stop the recruiting service has been rejected. Indeed, the conferences for peace, agreed to by the Indians, do not promise much, as we have reason to believe they will insist on taking back lands purchased at former treaties. Maria is well; we hope all are so at Monticello. My best love to my dear Martha, and am, most affectionately, dear Sir, yours, &c. TO MR. GALLATIN.Philadelphia, January 25, 1793. Sir,—Mr. Segaux called on me this morning to ask a statement of the experiment which was made in Virginia by a Mr. Mazzie, for the raising vines and making wines, and desired I would address it to you. Mr. Mazzie was an Italian, and brought over with him about a dozen laborers of his own country, bound to serve him four or five years. We made up a subscription for him of £2,000 sterling, and he began his experiment on a piece of land adjoining to mine. His intention was, before the time of his people should expire, to import more from Italy. He planted a considerable vineyard, and attended to it with great diligence for three years. The war then came on, the time of his people soon expired, some of them enlisted, others chose to settle on other lands and labor for themselves; some were taken away by the gentlemen of the country for gardeners, so that there did not remain a single one with him, and the interruption of navigation prevented his importing others. In this state of things he was himself employed by the State of Virginia to go to Europe as their agent to do some particular business. He rented his place to General Riedesel, whose horses in one week destroyed the whole labor of three or four years; and thus ended an experiment which, from every appearance, would in a year or two more have established the practicability of that branch of culture in America. This is the sum of the experiment as exactly as I am able to state it from memory, after such an interval of time, and I consign it to you in whose hands I know it will be applied with candor, if it contains anything applicable to the case for which it has been asked. I have the honor to be, with great esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MRS. RANDOLPH.Philadelphia, January 26, 1793. My Dear Martha,— * * * * * I have for some time past been under an agitation of mind which I scarcely ever experienced before, produced by a check on my purpose of returning home at the close of this session of Congress. My operations at Monticello had been all made to bear upon that point of time, my mind was fixed on it with a fondness which was extreme, the purpose firmly declared to the President, when I became assailed from all quarters with a variety of objections. Among these it was urged that my return just when I had been attacked in the public papers, would injure me in the eyes of the public, who would suppose I either withdrew from investigation, or because I had not tone of mind sufficient to meet slander. The only reward I ever wished on my retirement was to carry with me nothing like a disapprobation of the public. These representations have, for some weeks past, shaken a determination which I had thought the whole world could not have shaken. I have not yet finally made up my mind on the subject, nor changed my declaration to the President. But having perfect reliance in the disinterested friendship of some of those who have counseled and urged it strongly; believing that they can see and judge better a question between the public and myself than I can, I feel a possibility that I may be detained here into the summer. A few days will decide. In the meantime I have permitted my house to be rented after the middle of March, have sold such of my furniture as would not suit Monticello, and am packing up the rest and storing it ready to be shipped off to Richmond as soon as the season of good sea weather comes on. A circumstance which weighs on me next to the weightiest is the trouble which, I foresee, I shall be constrained to ask Mr. Randolph to undertake. Having taken from other pursuits a number of hands to execute several purposes which I had in view this year, I cannot abandon those purposes and lose their labor altogether. I must, therefore, select the most TO DR. STEWART, OR TO ALL THE GENTLEMEN.January 31, 1793. I have had under consideration Mr. Hallet's plans for the capitol, which undoubtedly have a great deal of merit. Doctor Thornton has also given me a view of his. These last came forward under some very advantageous circumstances. The grandeur, simplicity and beauty of the exterior, the propriety with which the apartments are distributed, and economy in the mass of the whole structure, will, I doubt not, give it a preference in your eyes, as it has done in mine and those of several others whom I have consulted. I have, therefore, thought it better to give the Doctor time to finish his plan, and for this purpose to delay until your next meeting a final decision. Some difficulty arises with respect to Mr. Hallet, who you know was in some degree led into his plan by ideas we all expressed to him. This ought not to induce us to prefer it to a better; but while he is liberally rewarded for the time and labor he has expended on it, his feelings should be saved and soothed as much as possible. I leave it to yourselves how best to prepare him for the possibility that the Doctor's plan may be preferred to his. Some ground for this will be furnished you by the occasion you will have for recourse to him as to the interior of the apartments, and the taking of him into service at a fixed allowance; and I understand that his necessities render it material that he should know what his allowance is to be. TO MR. CARROLL.Philadelphia, February 1, 1793. Dear Sir,—Doctor Thornton's plan of a capitol has been produced, and has so captivated the eyes and judgment of all as to leave no doubt you will prefer it when it shall be exhibited to you; as no doubt exists here of its preference over all which have been produced, and among its admirers no one is more decided than him whose decision is most important. It is simple, noble, beautiful, excellently distributed, and moderate in size. The purpose of this letter is to apprize you of this sentiment. A just respect for the right of approbation in the commissioners will prevent any formal decision in the President till the plan shall be laid before you and be approved by you. The Doctor will go with it to your meeting in the beginning of March. In the meantime, the interval of apparent doubt may be improved for settling the mind of poor Hallet, whose merit and distresses interest every one for his tranquillity and pecuniary relief. I have taken the liberty of making these private estimates, thinking you would wish to know the true state of the sentiments here on this subject, and am with sincere respect and esteem for your colleagues and yourself, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant. Circular to the ministers of France, the United Netherlands, Great Britain, &c.Philadelphia, February 13, 1793. Sir,—The House of Representatives having referred to me, to report to them the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions on the commerce of the United States with foreign nations, I have accordingly prepared a report on that subject. Being particularly anxious that it may be exact in matters of fact, I take the liberty of putting into your hands, privately and informally, an extract of such as relate to our commerce with your nation, in hopes that if you can either enlarge or correct I am, with great and sincere esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. P. S. The report having been prepared before the late diminution of the duties on our tobacco, that circumstance will be noted in the letter which will cover that report. France receives favorably our bread stuff, rice, wood, pot and pearl ashes. A duty of five sous the quintal, or nearly four and a half cents, is paid on our tar, pitch and turpentine. Our whale oils pay six livres the quintal, and are the only whale oils admitted. Our indigo pays five livres the quintal, their own two and a half; but a difference of quality, still more than a difference of duty, prevents its seeking that market. Salted beef is received freely for re-exportation; but if for home consumption, it pays five livres the quintal. Other salted provisions pay that duty in all cases, and salted fish is made lately to pay the prohibitory one, of twenty livres the quintal. Our ships are free to carry thither all foreign goods, which may be carried in their own or any other vessels, except tobaccos not of our own growth; and they participate with theirs, the exclusive carriage of our whale oils. During their former government, our tobacco was under a monopoly, but paid no duties; and our ships were freely sold in They and their colonies consume what they receive from us. France, by a standing law, permits her West India possessions to receive directly our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch, and turpentine, rice and maize, and prohibits our other bread stuff; but a suspension of this prohibition having been left to the colonial legislature, in times of scarcity, it was formerly suspended occasionally, but latterly without interruption. Our fish and salted provisions (except pork) are received in their islands, under a duty of three colonial livres the quintal, and our vessels are as free as their own to carry our commodities thither, and to bring away rum and molasses. The United Netherlands prohibit our pickled beef and pork, meals, and bread of all sorts, and lay a prohibitory duty on spirits distilled from grain. All other of our productions are received on varied duties, which may be reckoned, on a medium, at about three per cent. They consume but a small proportion of what they receive. The residue is partly forwarded for consumption in the inland parts of Europe, and partly re-shipped to other maritime countries. On the latter portion, they intercept between us and the consumer, so much of the real value as is absorbed by the charges attending an intermediate deposit. Foreign goods, except some East India articles, are received in the vessels of any nation. Our ships may be sold and naturalized there, with exceptions of one or two privileges, which scarcely lessen their value. In the American possessions of the United Netherlands, and Sweden, our vessels and produce are received, subject to duties, not so heavy as to have been complained of. Great Britain receives our pot and pearl ashes free, while those of other nations pay a duty of two shillings and three pence the quintal. There is an equal distinction in favor of our bar iron, of which article, however, we do not produce enough for our own use. Woods are free from us, whilst they pay some small duty from other countries. Indigo and flaxseed are free from all countries. Our tar and pitch pay eleven pence sterling the barrel. From other alien countries they pay about a penny and a third more. Our tobacco, for their own consumption, pays one shilling three pence sterling the pound, custom and excise, besides heavy expenses of collection; and rice, in the same case, pays seven shillings four pence sterling the hundred weight, which rendering it too dear as an article of common food, it is consequently used in very small quantity. Our salted fish, and other salted provisions, except bacon, are prohibited. Bacon and whale oils are under prohibitory duties: so are our grains, meals and bread, as to internal consumption, unless in times of such scarcity as may raise the price of wheat to fifty shillings sterling the quarter, and other grains and meals in proportion. Our ships, though purchased and navigated by their own subjects, are not permitted to be used, even in their trade with us. While the vessels of other nations are secured by standing laws, which cannot be altered but by the concurrent will of the three branches of the British Legislature, in carrying thither any produce or manufacture of the country to which they belong, which may be lawfully carried in any vessels, ours, with the same prohibition of what is foreign, are further prohibited by a standing law (12. Car. 2. c. 18, s. 3,) from carrying thither all and any of our domestic productions and manufactures. A subsequent act, indeed, has authorized their executive to permit the carriage of our own productions in our own bottoms, at its sole discretion; and the permission has been given from year to year, by proclamation; but subject every moment to be withdrawn on that single will, in which event, our vessels having anything on Our vessels pay in their ports one shilling nine pence sterling per ton, light and tritrity dues, more than is paid by British ships, except in the port of London, where they pay the same as British. The greater part of what they receive from us, is re-exported to other countries, under the useless charges of an intermediate deposit and double voyage. From tables published in England, and composed, as is said, from the books of their Custom Houses, it appears, that of the indigo imported there in the years 1773-4-5, one third was re-exported; and from a document of authority, we learn that of the rice and tobacco imported there before the war, four-fifths were re-exported. We are assured, indeed, that the quantities sent thither for re-exportation since the war, are considerably diminished; yet less so than reason and national interest would dictate. The whole of our grain is re-exported, when wheat is below fifty shillings the quarter, and other grains in proportion. Great Britain admits in her islands our vegetables, live provisions, horses, wood, tar, pitch and turpentine, rice and bread stuff, by a proclamation of her executive, limited always to the term of a year, but hitherto renewed from year to year. She Our citizens cannot reside as merchants or factors within any of the British plantations, this being expressly prohibited by the same statute of 12 Car. 2, c. 18, commonly called their navigation act. Of our commercial objects, Spain receives favorably our bread stuff, salted fish, wood, ships, tar, pitch, and turpentine. On our meals, however, when re-exported to their colonies, they have lately imposed duties of from half a dollar to two dollars the barrel, the duties being so proportioned to the current price of their own flour, as that both together are to make the constant sum of nine dollars per barrel. They do not discourage our rice, pot and pearl ash, salted provisions, or whale oil; but these articles being in small demand at their markets, are carried thither but in a small degree. Their demand for rice, however, is increasing. Neither tobacco nor indigo are received there. Themselves and their colonies are the actual consumers of what they receive from us. Our navigation is free with the kingdom of Spain, foreign goods being received there in our ships on the same conditions as if carried in their own, or in the vessels of the country of which such goods are the manufacture or produce. Spain and Portugal refuse to those parts of America which they govern, all direct intercourse with any people but themselves. TO MR. HAMMOND.Philadelphia, February 16, 1793. Sir,—I have duly received your letter of yesterday, with the statement of the duties payable on articles imported into Great Britain. The object of the report, from which I had communicated some extracts to you, not requiring a minute detail of the several duties on every article, in every country, I had presented both articles and duties in groups, and in general terms, conveying information sufficiently accurate for the object. And I have the satisfaction to find, on re-examining the expression in the report, that they correspond with your statement as nearly as generals can with particulars. The differences which any nation makes between our commodities and those of other countries, whether favorable or unfavorable to us, were proper to be noted. But they were subordinate to the more important questions, what countries consume most of our produce, exact the lightest duties, and leave to us the most favorable balance? You seem to think that in the mention made of your official communication of April the 11th, 1792, that the clause in the navigation act (prohibiting our own produce to be carried in our own vessels into the British European dominions) would be strictly enforced in future, and the private belief expressed at the same time, that the intention of that court did not go so far, that the latter terms are not sufficiently accurate. About the fact it is impossible we should differ, because it is a written one. The only difference then, must be a merely verbal one. For thus stands the fact: In your letter of April the 11th, you say, you have received, by a circular despatch from your court, directions to inform this government that it had been determined in future strictly I had the honor to acknowledge verbally the receipt of your letter of the 3d of August, when you did me that of making the inquiry verbally about six weeks ago; and I beg leave to assure you, that I am, with due respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO M. DE TERNANT.Philadelphia, February 17, 1793. Sir,—I have duly received your letter of yesterday, and am sensible of your favor in furnishing me with your observations on the statement of the commerce between our two nations, of which I shall avail myself for the good of both. The omission I must candidly acknowledge to you, that I do not foresee the same effect in favor of our navigation, from the late reduction of duties on our tobaccos in France, which you seem to expect. The difference in favor of French vessels is still so great, as, in my opinion, to make it their interest to quit all other branches of the carrying business, to take up this; and as your stock of shipping is not adequate to the carriage of all your exports, the branches which you abandon will be taken up by other nations; so that this difference thrusts us out of the tobacco carriage, to let other nations in to the carriage of other branches of your commerce. I must therefore avail myself of this occasion to express my hope, that your nation will again revise this subject, and place it on more equal grounds. I am happy in concurring with you more perfectly in another sentiment, that as the principles of our governments become more congenial, the links of affection are multiplied between us. It is impossible they should multiply beyond our wishes. Of the sincere interest we take in the happiness and prosperity of your nation, you have had the most unequivocal proofs. I pray you to accept assurances of sincere attachment to you personally, and of the sentiments of respect and esteem with which I am, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO M. DE TERNANT.Philadelphia, February 20, 1793. Sir,—I have laid before the President of the United States your notification of the 17th instant, in the name of the Provisory Executive Council charged with the administration of your government, I am, with sincere esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.Philadelphia, February 20, 1793. Sir,—The House of Representatives, about the close of the session before the last, referred to me the report of a committee on a message from the President of the United States, of the 14th of February, 1791, with directions to report to Congress the nature and extent of the privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of the United States with foreign nations, and measures for its improvement. The report was accordingly prepared during the ensuing recess, ready to be delivered at the next session, that is to say, at the last. It was thought possible at that time, however, that some changes might take place in the existing state of things, which might call for corresponding changes in measures. I took the liberty of mentioning this in a letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to express an opinion that a suspension of proceedings thereon, for a time, I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO THE MINISTER OF FRANCE.Philadelphia, February 23, 1793. Sir,—I have laid before the President of the United States your notification of the 17th instant, in the name of the Provisory Executive Council, charged with the administration of your Government, that the French nation has constituted itself into a Republic. The President receives, with great satisfaction, this attention of the Executive Council and the desire they have manifested of making known to us the resolution entered into by the National Convention, even before a definitive regulation of their new establishment could take place. Be assured, Sir, that the Government and the citizens of the United States view with the most sincere pleasure every advance of your nation towards its happiness, an object essentially connected with its liberty, and they consider the union of principles and pursuits between TO J. MADISON.March, 1793. The idea seems to gain credit that the naval powers combining against France, will prohibit supplies, even of provisions, to that country. Should this be formally notified, I should suppose Congress would be called, because it is a justifiable cause of war, and as the Executive cannot decide the question of war on the affirmative side, neither ought it to do so on the negative side, by preventing the competent body from deliberating on the question. But I should hope that war would not be their choice. I think it will furnish us a happy opportunity of setting another precious example to the world, by showing that nations may be brought to do justice by appeals to their interests as well as by appeals to arms. I should hope that Congress, instead of a denunciation of war, would instantly exclude from our ports all the manufactures, produce, vessels and subjects of the nations committing this aggression, during the continuance of the aggression, and till full satisfaction made for it. This would work well in many ways, safely in all, and introduce between nations another umpire than arms. It would relieve us, too, from the risks and the horrors of cutting throats. The death of the King of France has not produced as open condemnations from the monocrats as I expected. I dined the other day in a company where the subject TO MAJOR GENERAL GATES.Philadelphia, March 12, 1793. Dear General,—During the invasion of Virginia in 1780 and 178—, nearly the whole of the public records of that State were destroyed by the British. The least valuable part of these happens to be the most interesting to me, I mean the letters I had occasion to write to the characters with whom my office in the Executive brought me into correspondence. I am endeavoring to recover copies of my letters from the hands to whom they were addressed, and have been happy to find this more practicable than I had apprehended. While you commanded in the south, I had occasion to write to you sometimes on the subject of our proceedings. If you happen to have preserved these letters, TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.Philadelphia, March 12, 1793. Dear Sir,—Your Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, have been duly received. I am sensible that your situation must have been difficult during the transition from the late form of government to the re-establishment of some other legitimate authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with whom business might be done. Nevertheless, when principles are well understood, their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded, that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases, and change these forms at its own will; and that it may transact its business with foreign nations through whatever organ it thinks proper, whether King, Convention, Assembly, Committee, President, or anything else it may choose. The will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded. On the dissolution of the late constitution in France, by removing so integral a part of it as the King, the National Assembly, to whom a part only of the public authority had been delegated, appear to have considered themselves as incompetent to transact the affairs of the nation legitimately. They invited their fellow-citizens, therefore, to appoint a National Convention. In conformity with this their idea of the defective state of the national authority, Besides what we have furnished publicly for the relief of St. Domingo, individual merchants of the United States have carried considerable supplies thither, which have been sometimes purchased, sometimes taken by force, and bills given by the administration During the fluctuating state of the assignats of France, I must ask the favor of you to inform me, in every letter, of the rate of exchange between them and coin, this being necessary for the regulation of our Custom Houses. Congress closed its session on the 2d instant. You will see their acts in the newspapers forwarded to you, and the body of them shall be sent as soon as the octavo edition is printed. We are to hold a treaty with the western Indians in the ensuing month of May, but not under very hopeful auspices. You will perceive by the newspapers, a remarkable fall in the price of our public paper. This is owing chiefly to the extraordinary demand for the produce of our country, and a temporary scarcity of cash to purchase it. The merchants holding public paper are obliged to part with it at any price, to raise money. I sent you, by the way of London, a dozen plans of the city of Washington in the federal territory, hoping you would have them displayed to public view where they would be most seen by those descriptions of men worthy and likely to be attracted to it. Paris, Lyons, Rouen, and the sea port towns of Havre, Nantes, Bordeaux and Marseilles, would be proper places to send some of them. I trust to Mr. Taylor to forward you the newspapers by every direct occasion to France. These are rare at all times, and especially in the winter; and to send them through England would cost too much in postage. To these circumstances, as well, probably, as to some miscarriages, you must ascribe the length of intervals sometimes experienced in the receipt of your papers. I have the honor to be, with great esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.Philadelphia, March 15, 1793. Dear Sir,—The President has seen with satisfaction, that the ministers of the United States in Europe, while they have avoided an useless commitment of their nation on the subject of the Marquis de La Fayette, have nevertheless shown themselves attentive to his situation. The interest which the President himself, and our citizens in general, take in the welfare of this gentleman, is great and sincere, and will entirely justify all prudent efforts to serve him. I am therefore to desire, that you will avail yourself of every opportunity of sounding the way towards his liberation, of finding out whether those in whose power he is are very tenacious of him, of insinuating through such channels as you shall think suitable, the attentions of the government and people of the United States to this object, and the interest they take in it, and of procuring his liberation by informal solicitations, if possible. But if formal ones be necessary, and the moment should arrive when you shall find that they will be effectual, you are authorized to signify, through such channel as you shall find suitable, that our government and nation, faithful in their attachments to this gentleman for the services he has rendered them, feel a lively interest in his welfare, and will view his liberation as a mark of consideration and friendship for the United States, and as a new motive for esteem and a reciprocation of kind offices towards the power to whom they shall be indebted for this act. A like letter being written to Mr. Pinckney, you will of course take care, that however you may act through different channels, there be still a sufficient degree of concert in your proceedings. I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. TO MR. PINCKNEY.Philadelphia, March 16, 1793. Dear Sir,—I wrote you on the 30th of December, and again a short letter on the 1st of January, since which I have received yours of October the 2d and 5th, November 6th and 9th, and December the 13th, 14th, 15th. I now enclose you the Treasurer's second of exchange for twenty-four thousand seven hundred and fifty guilders, to be employed in the purchase of copper for the mint, from Sweden, or wherever else it can be got on the best terms; the first of exchange having been enclosed in my letter of December the 30th. I am in hopes you will have been able to enter into proper arrangements with the British minister for the protection of our seamen from impressment, before the preparations for war shall have produced inconvenience to them. While he regards so minutely the inconveniences to themselves which may result from a due regulation of this practice, it is just he should regard our inconveniences also, from the want of it. His observations in your letter imply merely, that if they should abstain from injuring us, it might be attended with inconvenience to themselves. You ask, what should be your conduct, in case you should at any time discover negotiations to be going on, which might eventually be interesting to us? The nature of the particular case will point out what measures, on your part, would be the most for our interest, and to your discretion we must refer the taking such measures, without waiting for instructions, where circumstances would not admit of such a delay. A like necessity to act may arise on other occasions. In the changeable scenes, for instance, which are passing in Europe, were a moment to offer when you could obtain any advantage for our commerce, and especially in the American colonies, you are desired to avail us of it to the best advantage, and not to let the occasion slip by for want of previous instruction. You ask, what encouragements are given to emigrants by the several States? No other than a permission to become citizens, It is impossible for me to give any authority for the advance of moneys to Mr. Wilson. Were we to do it in his case, we should, on the same principles, be obliged to do it in several others wherein foreign nations decline or delay doing justice to our citizens. No law of the United States would cover such an act of the executive; and all we can do legally, is, to give him all the aid which our patronage of his claims with the British court, can effect. With respect to the payment of your allowances, as the laws authorize the payment of a given number of dollars to you, and as your duties place you in London, I suppose we are to pay you the dollars there, or other money of equal value, estimated by the par of the metals. Such has, accordingly, been the practice ever since the close of the war. Your powers to draw on our bankers in Holland, will leave you the master of fixing your drafts by this standard. The transactions of Europe are now so interesting, that I should be obliged to you, every week, to put the Leyden gazettes of the week under cover to me; and put them into such ship's bags as shall be first coming to any port north of North Carolina. Mr. Barclay's death is just made known to us, and measures are taking in consequence of it. You will perceive by the newspapers, a remarkable fall in the price of our public paper. This is owing chiefly to the extraordinary demand for the produce of our country, and a temporary scarcity of cash to purchase it. The merchants holding public paper are obliged to part with it at any price, to raise money. I am, with much respect, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant. 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