[1]

[Judge Wythe.]

Philadelphia, February 28, 1800.

My Dear Sir:—I know how precious your time is, and how exclusively you devote it to the duties of your office, yet I venture to ask a few hours or minutes of it on motives of public service, as well as private friendship. I will explain the occasion of the application. You recollect enough of the old Congress to remember that their mode of managing the business of the House was not only unparliamentary, but that the forms were so awkward and inconvenient that it was impossible sometimes to get at the true sense of the majority. The House of Representatives of the United States are now pretty much in the same situation. In the Senate it is in our power to get into a better way; our ground is this: The Senate have established a few rules for their government, and have subjected the decisions on these and on all other points of order without debate, and without appeal, to the judgment of their President, he, for his own sake, as well as theirs, must prefer recurring to some system of rules ready formed; and there can be no question that the Parliamentary rules are the best known to us for managing the debates, and obtaining the sense of a deliberative body. I have therefore made them my rule of decision, rejecting those of the old Congress altogether, and it gives entire satisfaction to the Senate; insomuch that we shall not only have a good system there, but probably, by the example of its effects, produce a conformity in the other branch. But in the course of this business I find perplexities, having for twenty years been out of deliberative bodies, and become rusty as to many points of proceeding; and so little has the Parliamentary branch of the law been attended to, that I not only find no person here, but not even a book to aid me. I had, at an early period of life, read a good deal on the subject, and common-placed what I read. This common-place has been my pillar; but there are many questions of practice on which that is silent, some of them are so minute indeed, and belong too much to every-day's practice, that they have never been thought worthy of being written down, yet from desuetude they have slipped my memory. You will see by the enclosed paper what they are. I know with what pain you write: therefore I have left a margin in which you can write a simple negative or affirmative opposite every position, or perhaps, with as little trouble, correct the text by striking out or interlining. This is what I have earnestly to solicit from you, and I would not have given you the trouble if I had had any other resource. But you are, in fact, the only spark of Parliamentary science now remaining to us. I am the more anxious, because I have been forming a manual of Parliamentary law which I mean to deposit with the Senate as the standard by which I judge, and am willing to be judged. Though I should be opposed to its being printed, yet it may be done perhaps without my consent; and in that case I should be sorry indeed should it go out with errors that a Tyro should not have committed. And yet it is precisely those to which I am most exposed. I am less afraid as to important matters, because for them I have printed authorities; but it is those small matters of daily practice, which twenty years ago were familiar to me, but have in that time escaped my memory. I hope under these circumstances you will pardon the trouble I propose to you in the enclosed paper. I am not pressed in time, so that your leisure will be sufficient for me. Accept the salutations of grateful and sincere friendship and attachment, and many prayers for your health and happiness from, Dear Sir,

Yours affectionately.

[2] Order of the House of Commons, 1663, July 16.

[3] Elsynge, 217; 1 Hats. 21; 1 Grey's Deb. 133.

[4] In a case of division of the question, and a decision against striking out, I advance, doubtingly, the opinion here expressed. I find no authority either way; and I know it may be viewed under a different aspect. It may be thought, that having decided separately not to strike out the passage, the same question for striking out cannot be put over again, though with a view to a different insertion. Still I think it more reasonable and convenient to consider the striking out and insertion as forming one proposition; but should readily yield to any evidence that the contrary is the practice in Parliament.

[5] Noes.—9 Grey, 365.

[6] [These are the volumes containing the celebrated Anas, up to the time of the author's retirement from the Secretaryship of State. Some of his friends have regretted that they were ever published. However that may be, they have been published, and it was manifestly the purpose of Mr. Jefferson that they should be. Late in life, "when the passions of the times had passed away," he carefully revised them for publication. "At this day," he says, "after the lapse of twenty-five years, or more, from their dates, I have given to the whole a calm revisal, when the passions of the times are passed away, and the reasons of the transactions act alone upon the judgment. Some of the informations I had recorded, are now cut out from the rest, because I have seen that they were incorrect, or doubtful, or merely personal or private, with which we have nothing to do. I should, perhaps, not have thought the rest worth preserving, but for their testimony against the only history of that period, which pretends to have been compiled from authentic and unpublished documents." Under these circumstances, the Editor has not felt himself at liberty to exclude the Anas from a publication professing to be a complete edition of the writings of Jefferson. They are accordingly inserted just in the form in which he left them after his last revisal.—Ed.]

[7] [The opinions here alluded to will be found in Book III., devoted to Official Papers.—Ed.]

[8] See conversation with General Washington, October 1, 1792.

[9] There had been a previous consultation at the President's (about the first week in November) on the expediency of suspending payments to France, under her present situation. I had admitted that the late constitution was dissolved by the dethronement of the King; and the management of affairs surviving to the National Assembly only, this was not an integral Legislature, and therefore not competent to give a legitimate discharge for our payments: that I thought, consequently, that none should be made till some legitimate body came into place; and that I should consider the National Convention called, but not met as we had yet heard, to be a legitimate body. Hamilton doubted whether it would be a legitimate body, and whether, if the King should be re-established, he might not disallow such payments on good grounds. Knox, for once, dared to differ from Hamilton, and to express, very submissively, an opinion, that a convention named by the whole body of the nation, would be competent to do anything. It ended by agreeing, that I should write to Gouverneur Morris to suspend payment generally till further orders.

[10] [In the margin is written, by Mr. Jefferson, "Impossible as to Hamilton he was far above that."]

[11] He said that Mr. Morris, taking a family dinner with him the other day, went largely, and of his own accord, into this subject; advised this appeal, and promised, if the President adopted it, that he would support it himself, and engage for all his connections. The President repeated this twice, and with an air of importance. Now, Mr. Morris has no family connections: he engaged then for his political friends. This shows that the President has not confidence enough in the virtue and good sense of mankind, to confide in a government bottomed on them, and thinks other props necessary.

[12] He observed, that eight or ten years ago, he gave only fifty dollars to a common laborer for his farm, finding him food and lodging. Now he gives one hundred and fifty dollars, and even two hundred dollars to one.

[13] J. Rutledge, junior.

[14]

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, January 2d, 1786.

Sir,—Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be communicated to Congress. They are stated in the form of a report, and are herein enclosed. The length of this despatch, perhaps, needs apology. Yet I have not been able to abridge it, without omitting circumstances which I thought Congress would rather choose to know. Some of the objects of these conferences present but small hopes for the present, but they seem to admit a possibility of success at some future moment.

I am Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

[The above extract from the report referred to in the preceding letter embraces everything interesting therein, not communicated to the reader in the previous correspondence.]

[15] The sum actually voted was 50,000,400, but part of it was for exchange of old bills, without saying how much. It is presumed that these exchanges absorbed $25,552,783, because the remainder, 24,447,620, with all the other emissions preceding Sept. 2, 1779, will amount to 159,918,800, the sum which Congress declared to be then in circulation.

[16] Memoires presentÉes À l'assemblÉe des Notables, page 53.

[17] Memoires presentÉes ex. page 51, 52.

[18] [This plan was approved by Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Denmark, and Sweden. France seemed favorably disposed. Spain alone, having just concluded a treaty with Algiers, was indisposed. In this state of things, the plan was communicated to Congress, together with information that we would be expected to maintain a frigate towards its execution. Unfortunately, the supplies of the Treasury were so uncertain, that Congress were not willing to enter into an engagement which they might not be able to fulfil, and thus the plan failed.—Ed.]

[19] It is twenty American miles from Aix to Marseilles, and they call it five leagues. Their league, then, is of four American miles.

[20] [Two copies of these resolutions are preserved among the manuscripts of the author, both in his own handwriting. One is a rough draught, and the other very neatly and carefully prepared. The probability is, that they are the original of the celebrated Kentucky Resolutions on the same subject.—Ed.]

[21]

June 12th, 1804.

Mr. Gallatin,—On the subject of Dr. Stevens' case, I had, before receiving your letter, endeavored to form as correct a judgment as I could, and had made some notes, keeping them open till I might see whether anything further should be added. I have this morning put them into some form. Of the purity of the motives of your objections, it was impossible I should ever entertain a moment's doubt. Of my opinion of their solidity, you will see a proof in the conclusions I have drawn, and which will probably condemn more than the half of Dr. Stevens' claims. I enclose you a copy of my opinion on the subject, which may serve as the direction of the Department of State to the comptroller. Accept my affectionate salutations.

[22] § 1. Ministers of the Gospel are excluded to avoid jealousy from the other sects, were the public education committed to the ministers of a particular one; and with more reason than in the case of their exclusion from the legislative and executive functions.

[23] § 2. This designation of the size of a ward is founded on these considerations: 1st. That the population which furnishes a company of militia will generally about furnish children enough for a school. 2d. That in most instances, at present, the militia captaincies being laid off compactly by known and convenient metes and bounds, many will be adopted without change, and others will furnish a canvas to work on and to reform. 3d. That these wards once established, will be found convenient and salutary aids in the administration of government, of which they will constitute the organic elements, and the first integral members in the composition of the military.

[24] § 3. The prohibition to place among different wards the lands of a single individual, held in a body is, 1st. To save the proprietor from the perplexity of multiplied responsibilities; and 2. To prevent arbitrary and inconsistent apportionments, by different wardens, of the comparative values of the different portions of his lands in their respective wards.

[25] § 4. It is presumed that the wards will generally build such log-houses for the school and teacher as they now do, and will join force and build them themselves, experience proving them to be as comfortable as they are cheap. Nor would it be advisable to build expensive houses in the country wards, which, from changes in their population, will be liable to changes of their boundaries and consequent displacements of their centre, drawing with it a removal of their school-house. In towns, better houses may be more safely built, or rented for both purposes.

[26] § 5. Estimating eight hundred militia to a county, there will be twelve captaincies or wards in a county on an average. Suppose each of these, three years in every six, to have children enough for a school, who have not yet had three years schooling; such a county will employ six teachers, each serving two wards by alternate terms. These teachers will be taken from the laboring classes, as they are now, to wit: from that which furnishes mechanics, overseers and tillers of the earth; and they will chiefly be the cripples, the weakly and the old, of that class, who will have been qualified for these functions by the ward schools themselves. If put on a footing then, for wages and subsistence, with the young and the able of their class, they will be liberally compensated: say with one hundred and fifty dollars wages and the usual allowance of meat and bread. The subsistence will probably be contributed in kind by the warders, out of their family stock. The wages alone will be a pecuniary tax of about nine hundred dollars. To a county, this addition would be of about one-fifth of the taxes we now pay to the State, or about one-fifth of one per cent, on every man's taxable property; if tax can be called that which we give to our children in the most valuable of all forms, that of instruction. Were those schools to be established on the public funds, and to be managed by the Governor and council, or the commissioners of the Literary fund, brick houses to be built for the schools and teachers, high wages and subsistence given them, they would be badly managed, depraved by abuses, and would exhaust the whole Literary fund. While under the eye and animadversion of the wards, and the control of the wardens and visitors, economy, diligence, and correctness of conduct, will be enforced, the whole Literary fund will be spared to complete the general system of education, by colleges in every district for instruction in the languages, and an university for the whole of the higher sciences; and this, by an addition to our contributions almost insensible, and which, in fact, will not be felt as a burthen, because applied immediately and visibly to the good of our children.

A question of some doubt might be raised on the latter part of this section, as to the rights and duties of society towards its members, infant and adult. Is it a right or a duty in society to take care of their infant members in opposition to the will of the parent? How far does this right and duty extend?—to guard the life of the infant, his property, his instruction, his morals? The Roman father was supreme in all these: we draw a line, but where?—public sentiment does not seem to have traced it precisely. Nor is it necessary in the present case. It is better to tolerate the rare instance of a parent refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings and ideas by the forcible asportation and education of the infant against the will of the father. What is proposed here is to remove the objection of expense, by offering education gratis, and to strengthen parental excitement by the disfranchisement of his child while uneducated. Society has certainly a right to disavow him whom they offer, and are not permitted to qualify for the duties of a citizen. If we do not force instruction, let us at least strengthen the motives to receive it when offered.

[27] The acts not being at hand, the sums allowed are not known.

[28] I found such an act, but not noting it at the time, I have not been able to find it again. But there is such an one.