The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson [ebook reader online free TXT] 📗

newspapers to this date, and a remonstrance of the parliament, to show you in what language the King can be addressed at this day. I have received no journal of Congress since the beginning of November last, and will thank you for them if printed.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

P. S. August 7. The parliament were received yesterday very harshly by the King. He obliged them to register the two edicts for the impot-territorial and stamp tax. When speaking in my letter of the reiterated orders and refusals to register, which passed between the King and parliament, I omitted to insert the King's answer to a deputation of parliament, which attended him at Versailles. It may serve to show the spirit which exists between them. It was in these words, and these only: "Je vous ferai savoir mes intentions. Allez-vous-en. Qu'on ferme la porte."

 

TO GOVERNOR RUTLEDGE.

Paris, Aug. 6, 1787.

Dear Sir,—I am honored with your letter by your son, and shall be happy to render him every assistance in my power of whatever nature. The objects of his stay in this country, and of his visit to London, are perfectly well judged. So of that to Amsterdam. Perhaps it is questionable, whether the time you propose he should spend at some of the German courts might not be better employed at Madrid or Lisbon, and in Italy. At the former there could be no object for him but politics, the system of which there is intricate, and can never be connected with us; nor will our commercial connections be considerable. With Madrid and Lisbon our connections, both political and commercial, are great and will be increasing daily. Italy is a field where the inhabitants of the Southern States may see much to copy in agriculture, and a country with which we shall carry on considerable trade. Pardon my submitting these thoughts to you. We shall pursue your own plan unless you notify a change in it.

The present question in Europe is war or not war? I think there will be none between the Emperor and his Brabantine subjects. But as to Holland, it is more doubtful, for we do not as yet consider the little partisan affairs which are taking place every day. France and England, conscious that their exhausted means would poorly feed a war, have been strenuously exerting themselves to procure an accommodation. But the King of Prussia, in a moment of passion, has taken a measure which may defeat their wishes. On receiving from the Princess of Orange, a letter informing him of her having been stopped on the road, without consulting the court of London, without saying a word to his own ministers, he issued orders himself to his Generals to march twenty thousand men to be at her orders. England, unwilling to bring on a war, may yet fear to separate from him who is to be her main ally. Still, she is endeavoring, in concurrence with this court, to stop the effects of this hasty movement, and to bring about a suspension of hostilities and settlement of difficulties, always meaning if they fail in this, to take the field in opposition to one another. Blessed effect of a kingly government, where a pretended insult to the sister of a king, is to produce the wanton sacrifice of a hundred or two thousand of the people who have entrusted themselves to his government, and as many of his enemies! and we think ours a bad government. The only condition on earth to be compared with ours, in my opinion, is that of the Indian, where they have still less law than we. The European, are governments of kites over pigeons. The best schools for republicanism are London, Versailles, Madrid, Vienna, Berlin, &c. Adieu, my dear Sir, and be assured of the sincere esteem of your most obedient humble servant.

 

TO MONSIEUR DE CREVE-COEUR.

Paris, August 6, 1787.

Dear Sir,—I was not a little disappointed to find on my return that you had gone punctually in the packet as you had proposed. Great is the change in the dispositions of this country in the short time since you left it. A continuation of inconsiderate expense seemed to have raised the nation to the highest pitch of discontent. The parliament refused to register the new taxes. After much and warm altercation, a lit de justice has been held this day at Versailles; it was opened by the reading a severe remonstrance from the parliament, to which the King made a hard reply, and finished by ordering the stamp tax, and impot-territorial to be registered. Your nation is advancing to a change of constitution; the young desire it, the middle aged are not averse, the old alone opposed it. They will die, the provincial assemblies will chalk out the plan, and the nation, ripening fast, will execute it. All your friends are in the country, so I can give you no news of them; but no news are always good news. The Duchess Danville is with some of her friends; the Duke and Duchess de La Rochefoucault gone to the waters; the Countess d'Houdelot with Madame de La Britu. Your sons are well, and go on well, and we are laboring here to improve on M. de Calonne's letter on our commerce. Adieu, my dear Sir, and be assured of the sentiments of sincere esteem with which I am your friend and servant.

 

TO COLONEL RICHARD CLAIBORNE.

Paris, August 8, 1787.

Sir,—I am of opinion that American tenants for western lands could not be procured, and if they could, they would be very unsure. The best, as far as I have been able to judge, are foreigners, who do not speak the language. Unable to communicate with the people of the country, they confine themselves to their farms and their families, compare their present state to what it was in Europe, and find great reason to be contented. Of all foreigners, I should prefer Germans. They are the easiest got, the best for their landlords, and do best for themselves. The deed in which you were interested, having been sent to me the other day to be authenticated, I took the enclosed note of its particulars for you. I am, with much esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

 

TO JOHN CHURCHMAN.

Paris, August 8, 1787.

Sir,—I have duly received your favor of June the 6th, and immediately communicated its contents to a member of the Academy. He told me that they had received the other copy of your memorial, which you mention to have sent through another channel; that your ideas were not conveyed so explicitly, as to enable them to decide finally on their merit, but that they had made an entry in their journals, to preserve to you the claim of the original idea. As far as we can conjecture it here, we imagine you make a table of variations of the needle, for all the different meridians whatever. To apply this table to use, in the voyage between America and Europe, suppose the variation to increase a degree in every one hundred and sixty miles. Two difficulties occur: 1, a ready and accurate method of finding the variation of the place; 2, an instrument so perfect, as that (though the degree on it shall represent one hundred and sixty miles) it shall give the parts of the degree so minutely, as to answer the purpose of the navigator. The variation of the needle at Paris, actually, is 21° west. I make no question you have provided against the doubts entertained here, and I shall be happy that our country may have the honor of furnishing the old world what it has so long sought in vain. I am, with much respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.

 

TO MONSIEUR L'HOMMANDE.

Paris, August 9, 1787.

Sir,—At the time you honored me with your letter of May the 31st, I was not returned from a journey I had taken into Italy. This circumstance, with the mass of business which had accumulated during my absence, must apologise for the delay of my answer. Every discovery which multiplies the subsistence of man, must be a matter of joy to every friend to humanity. As such, I learn with great satisfaction, that you have found the means of preserving flour more perfectly than has been done hitherto. But I am not authorized to avail my country of it, by making any offer for its communication. Their policy is, to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits. Though the interposition of government, in matters of invention, has its use, yet it is in practice so inseparable from abuse, that they think it better not to meddle with it. We are only to hope, therefore, that those governments who are in the habit of directing all the actions of their subjects, by particular law, may be so far sensible of the duty they are under of cultivating useful discoveries, as to reward you amply for yours, which is among the most interesting to humanity. I have the honor to be, with great consideration and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

 

TO PETER CARR.

Paris, August 10, 1787.

Dear Peter,—I have received your two letters of December the 30th and April the 18th, and am very happy to find by them, as well as by letters from Mr. Wythe, that you have been so fortunate as to attract his notice and good will; I am sure you will find this to have been one of the most fortunate events of your life, as I have ever been sensible it was of mine. I enclose you a sketch of the sciences to which I would wish you to apply, in such order as Mr. Wythe shall advise; I mention, also, the books in them worth your reading, which submit to his correction. Many of these are among your father's books, which you should have brought to you. As I do not recollect those of them not in his library, you must write to me for them, making out a catalogue of such as you think you shall have occasion for, in eighteen months from the date of your letter, and consulting Mr. Wythe on the subject. To this sketch, I will add a few particular observations:

1. Italian. I fear the learning this language will confound your French and Spanish. Being all of them degenerated dialects of the Latin, they are apt to mix in conversation. I have never seen a person speaking the three languages, who did not mix them. It is a delightful language, but late events having rendered the Spanish more useful, lay it aside to prosecute that.

2. Spanish. Bestow great attention on this, and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish America, will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient history of that part of America, too, is written in that language. I send you a dictionary.

3. Moral Philosophy. I think it lost time to attend lectures on this branch. He who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have become of them? Man was destined for society. His morality, therefore, was to be formed to this object. He was endowed with a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this. This sense is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality, and not the [Greek: to kalon], truth, &c., as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense,