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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Thomas Jefferson
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
1743 -- 1790
_With the Declaration of Independence_
January 6, 1821
At the age of 77, I begin to make some memoranda and state some
recollections of dates & facts concerning myself, for my own more
ready reference & for the information of my family.
The tradition in my father's family was that their ancestor
came to this country from Wales, and from near the mountain of
Snowdon, the highest in Gr. Br. I noted once a case from Wales in the
law reports where a person of our name was either pl. or def. and one
of the same name was Secretary to the Virginia company. These are
the only instances in which I have met with the name in that country.
I have found it in our early records, but the first particular
information I have of any ancestor was my grandfather who lived at
the place in Chesterfield called Ozborne's and ownd. the lands
afterwards the glebe of the parish. He had three sons, Thomas who
died young, Field who settled on the waters of Roanoke and left
numerous descendants, and Peter my father, who settled on the lands I
still own called Shadwell adjoining my present residence. He was
born Feb. 29, 1707/8, and intermarried 1739. with Jane Randolph, of
the age of 19. daur of Isham Randolph one of the seven sons of that
name & family settled at Dungeoness in Goochld. They trace their
pedigree far back in England & Scotland, to which let every one
ascribe the faith & merit he chooses.
My father's education had been quite neglected; but being of a
strong mind, sound judgment and eager after information, he read much
and improved himself insomuch that he was chosen with Joshua Fry
professor of Mathem. in W. & M. college to continue the boundary line
between Virginia & N. Caroline which had been begun by Colo Byrd, and
was afterwards employed with the same Mr. Fry to make the 1st map of
Virginia which had ever been made, that of Capt Smith being merely a
conjectural sketch. They possessed excellent materials for so much
of the country as is below the blue ridge; little being then known
beyond that ridge. He was the 3d or 4th settler of the part of the
country in which I live, which was about 1737. He died Aug. 17.
1757, leaving my mother a widow who lived till 1776, with 6 daurs &
2. sons, myself the elder. To my younger brother he left his estate
on James river called Snowden after the supposed birth-place of the
family. To myself the lands on which I was born & live. He placed
me at the English school at 5. years of age and at the Latin at 9.
where I continued until his death. My teacher Mr. Douglas a
clergyman from Scotland was but a superficial Latinist, less
instructed in Greek, but with the rudiments of these languages he
taught me French, and on the death of my father I went to the revd
Mr. Maury a correct classical scholar, with whom I continued two
years, and then went to Wm. and Mary college, to wit in the spring of
1760, where I continued 2. years. It was my great good fortune, and
what probably fixed the destinies of my life that Dr. Wm. Small of
Scotland was then professor of Mathematics, a man profound in most of
the useful branches of science, with a happy talent of communication,
correct and gentlemanly manners, & an enlarged & liberal mind. He,
most happily for me, became soon attached to me & made me his daily
companion when not engaged in the school; and from his conversation I
got my first views of the expansion of science & of the system of
things in which we are placed. Fortunately the Philosophical chair
became vacant soon after my arrival at college, and he was appointed
to fill it per interim: and he was the first who ever gave in that
college regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric & Belles lettres. He
returned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled up the measure
of his goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most intimate
friend G. Wythe, a reception as a student of law, under his
direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance and familiar table
of Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office.
With him, and at his table, Dr. Small & Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium
horarum, & myself, formed a partie quarree, & to the habitual
conversations on these occasions I owed much instruction. Mr. Wythe
continued to be my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth, and my most
affectionate friend through life. In 1767, he led me into the
practice of the law at the bar of the General court, at which I
continued until the revolution shut up the courts of justice. [For a
sketch of the life & character of Mr. Wythe see my letter of Aug. 31.
20. to Mr. John Saunderson]
In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the choice of
the county in which I live, & continued in that until it was closed
by the revolution. I made one effort in that body for the permission
of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and indeed, during
the regal government, nothing liberal could expect success. Our
minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an habitual belief
that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all
matters of government, to direct all our labors in subservience to
her interests, and even to observe a bigoted intolerance for all
religions but hers. The difficulties with our representatives were
of habit and despair, not of reflection & conviction. Experience
soon proved that they could bring their minds to rights on the first
summons of their attention. But the king's council, which acted as
another house of legislature, held their places at will & were in
most humble obedience to that will: the Governor too, who had a
negative on our laws held by the same tenure, & with still greater
devotedness to it: and last of all the Royal negative closed the last
door to every hope of amelioration.
On the 1st of January, 1772 I was married to Martha Skelton
widow of Bathurst Skelton, & daughter of John Wayles, then 23. years
old. Mr. Wayles was a lawyer of much practice, to which he was
introduced more by his great industry, punctuality & practical
readiness, than to eminence in the science of his profession. He was
a most agreeable companion, full of pleasantry & good humor, and
welcomed in every society. He acquired a handsome fortune, died in
May, 1773, leaving three daughters, and the portion which came on
that event to Mrs. Jefferson, after the debts should be paid, which
were very considerable, was about equal to my own patrimony, and
consequently doubled the ease of our circumstances.
When the famous Resolutions of 1765, against the Stamp-act,
were proposed, I was yet a student of law in Wmsbg. I attended the
debate however at the door of the lobby of the H. of Burgesses, &
heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents as a popular
orator. They were great indeed; such as I have never heard from any
other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote. Mr. Johnson,
a lawyer & member from the Northern Neck, seconded the resolns, & by
him the learning & the logic of the case were chiefly maintained. My
recollections of these transactions may be seen pa. 60, Wirt's life
of P. H., to whom I furnished them.
In May, 1769, a meeting of the General Assembly was called by
the Govr., Ld. Botetourt. I had then become a member; and to that
meeting became known the joint resolutions & address of the Lords &
Commons of 1768 -- 9, on the proceedings in Massachusetts.
Counter-resolutions, & an address to the King, by the H. of Burgesses
were agreed to with little opposition, & a spirit manifestly
displayed of considering the cause of Massachusetts as a common one.
The Governor dissolved us: but we met the next day in the Apollo of
the Raleigh tavern, formed ourselves into a voluntary convention,
drew up articles of association against the use of any merchandise
imported from Gr. Britain, signed and recommended them to the people,
repaired to our several counties, & were re elected without any other
exception than of the very few who had declined assent to our
proceedings.
Nothing of particular excitement occurring for a considerable
time our countrymen seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to
our situation. The duty on tea not yet repealed & the Declaratory
act of a right in the British parl to bind us by their laws in all
cases whatsoever, still suspended over us. But a court of inquiry
held in R. Island in 1762, with a power to send persons to England to
be tried for offences committed here was considered at our session of
the spring of 1773. as demanding attention. Not thinking our old &
leading members up to the point of forwardness & zeal which the times
required, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L. Lee, Mr. Carr & myself
agreed to meet in the evening in a private room of the Raleigh to
consult on the state of things. There may have been a member or two
more whom I do not recollect. We were all sensible that the most
urgent of all measures was that of coming to an understanding with
all the other colonies to consider the British claims as a common
cause to all, & to produce an unity of action: and for this purpose
that a commee of correspondce in each colony would be the best
instrument for intercommunication: and that their first measure would
probably be to propose a meeting of deputies from every colony at
some central place, who should be charged with the direction of the
measures which should be taken by all. We therefore drew up the
resolutions which may be seen in Wirt pa 87. The consulting members
proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it should be done by
Mr. Carr, my friend & brother in law, then a new member to whom I
wished an opportunity should be given of making known to the house
his great worth & talents. It was so agreed; he moved them, they
were agreed to nem. con. and a commee of correspondence appointed of
whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Govr. (then Ld.
Dunmore) dissolved us, but the commee met the next day, prepared a
circular letter to the Speakers of the other colonies, inclosing to
each a copy of the resolns and left it in charge with their chairman
to forward them by expresses.
The origination of these commees of correspondence between the
colonies has been since claimed for Massachusetts, and Marshall II.
151, has given into this error, altho' the very note of his appendix
to which he refers, shows that their establmt was confined to their
own towns. This matter will be seen clearly stated in a letter of
Samuel Adams Wells to me of Apr. 2., 1819, and my answer of May 12.
I was corrected by the letter of Mr. Wells in the information I had
given Mr. Wirt, as stated in his note, pa. 87, that the messengers of
Massach. & Virga crossed each other on the way bearing similar
propositions, for Mr. Wells shows that Mass. did not adopt the
measure but on the receipt of our proposn delivered at their next
session. Their message therefore which passed ours, must have
related to something else, for I well remember P. Randolph's
informing me of the crossing of our messengers.
The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusets
was the Boston port bill, by which that port was to be shut up on the
1st of June, 1774. This arrived while we were in session in the
spring of that year. The lead in the house on these subjects being
no longer left to the old members, Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee,
3. or 4. other members, whom I do not recollect, and myself, agreeing
that we must boldly take an unequivocal stand in the line with
Massachusetts, determined to meet and consult on the proper measures
in the council chamber, for the benefit of the library in that room.
We were under conviction of the necessity of arousing our people from
the lethargy into which they had fallen as to passing events; and
thought that the appointment of a day of general fasting & prayer
would be most likely to call up & alarm their attention. No example
of such a solemnity had existed since the days of our distresses in
the war of 55. since which a new generation had grown up. With the
help therefore of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the
revolutionary precedents & forms of the Puritans of that day,
preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing
their phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the Port
bill was to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation & prayer, to
implore heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us
with firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the
King & parliament to moderation & justice. To give greater emphasis
to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr.
Nicholas, whose grave & religious character was more in unison with
the tone of our resolution and to solicit him to move it. We
accordingly went to him in the morning. He moved it the same day;
the 1st of June was proposed and it passed without opposition. The
Governor dissolved us as usual. We retired to the Apollo as before,
agreed to an association, and instructed the commee of correspdce to
propose to the corresponding commees of the other colonies to appoint
deputies to meet in Congress at such place, _annually_, as should be
convenient to direct, from time to time, the measures required by the
general interest: and we declared that an attack on any one colony
should be considered as an attack on the whole. This was in May. We
further recommended to the several counties to elect deputies to meet
at Wmsbg the 1st of Aug ensuing, to consider the state of the colony,
& particularly to appoint delegates to a general Congress, should
that measure be acceded to by the commees of correspdce generally.
It was acceded to, Philadelphia was appointed for the place, and the
5th of Sep. for the time of meeting. We returned home, and in our
several counties invited the clergy to meet assemblies of the people
on the 1st of June, to perform the ceremonies of the day, & to
address to them discourses suited to the occasion. The people met
generally, with anxiety & alarm in their countenances, and the effect
of the day thro' the whole colony was like a shock of electricity,
arousing every man & placing him erect & solidly on his centre. They
chose universally delegates for the convention. Being elected one
for my own county I prepared a draught of instructions to be given to
the delegates whom we should send to the Congress, and which I meant
to propose at our meeting. In this I took the ground which, from the
beginning I had thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was
that the relation between Gr. Br. and these colonies was exactly the
same as that of England & Scotland after the accession of James &
until the Union, and the same as her present relations with Hanover,
having the same Executive chief but no other necessary political
connection; and that our emigration from England to this country gave
her no more rights over us, than the emigrations of the Danes and
Saxons gave to the present authorities of the mother country over
England. In this doctrine however I had never been able to get any
one to agree with me but Mr. Wythe. He concurred in it from the
first dawn of the question What was the political relation between us
& England? Our other patriots Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas,
Pendleton stopped at the half-way house of John Dickinson who
admitted that England had a right to regulate our commerce, and to
lay duties on it for the purposes of regulation, but not of raising
revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in compact, in
any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason:
expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all
nations, in all ages. I set out for Wmsbg some days before that
appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the
road, & unable to proceed. I sent on therefore to Wmsbg two copies
of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew
would be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick Henry.
Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to
read it (for he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew) I never
learned: but he communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed
the convention he had received such a paper from a member prevented
by sickness from offering it in his place, and he laid it on the
table for perusal. It was read generally by the members, approved by
many, but thought too bold for the present state of things; but they
printed it in pamphlet form under the title of "A Summary view of the
rights of British America." It found its way to England, was taken up
by the opposition, interpolated a little by Mr. Burke so as to make
it answer opposition purposes, and in that form ran rapidly thro'
several editions. This information I had from Parson Hurt, who
happened at the time to be in London, whether he had gone to receive
clerical orders. And I was informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph
that it had procured me the honor of having my name inserted in a
long list of proscriptions enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced
in one of the houses of parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the
hasty step of events which warned them to be a little cautious.
Montague, agent of the H. of Burgesses in England made extracts from
the bill, copied the names, and sent them to Peyton Randolph. The
names I think were about 20 which he repeated to me, but I recollect
those only of Hancock, the two Adamses, Peyton Randolph himself,
Patrick Henry, & myself. (* 1) The convention met on the 1st of Aug,
renewed their association, appointed delegates to the Congress, gave
them instructions very temperately & properly expressed, both as to
style & matter; and they repaired to Philadelphia at the time
appointed. The splendid proceedings of that Congress at their 1st
session belong to general history, are known to every one, and need
not therefore be noted here. They terminated their session on the
26th of Octob, to meet again on the 10th May ensuing. The convention
at their ensuing session of Mar, '75, approved of the proceedings of
Congress, thanked their delegates and reappointed the same persons to
represent the colony at the meeting to be held in May: and foreseeing
the probability that Peyton Randolph their president and Speaker also
of the H. of B. might be called off, they added me, in that event to
the delegation.
(* 1) See Girardin's _History of Virginia,_ Appendix No. 12,
note.
Mr. Randolph was according to expectation obliged to leave the
chair of Congress to attend the Gen. Assembly summoned by Ld.
Dunmore to meet on the 1st day of June 1775. Ld. North's
conciliatory propositions, as they were called, had been received by
the Governor and furnished the subject for which this assembly was
convened. Mr. Randolph accordingly attended, and the tenor of these
propositions being generally known, as having been addressed to all
the governors, he was anxious that the answer of our assembly, likely
to be the first, should harmonize with what he knew to be the
sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left. He feared
that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of the
times, would undertake the answer, & therefore pressed me to prepare
an answer. I did so, and with his aid carried it through the house
with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas and James Mercer,
and a dash of cold water on it here & there, enfeebling it somewhat,
but finally with unanimity or a vote approaching it. This being
passed, I repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and conveyed to
Congress the first notice they had of it. It was entirely approved
there. I took my seat with them on the 21st of June. On the 24th, a
commee which had been appointed to prepare a declaration of the
causes of taking up arms, brought in their report (drawn I believe by
J. Rutledge) which not being liked they recommitted it on the 26th,
and added Mr. Dickinson and myself to the committee. On the rising
of the house, the commee having not yet met, I happened to find
myself near Govr W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the
paper. He excused himself and proposed that I should draw it. On my
pressing him with urgency, "we are as yet but new acquaintances, sir,
said he, why are you so earnest for my doing it?" "Because, said I,
I have been informed that you drew the Address to the people of Gr.
Britain, a production certainly of the finest pen in America." "On
that, says he, perhaps sir you may not have been correctly informed."
I had received the information in Virginia from Colo Harrison on his
return from that Congress. Lee, Livingston & Jay had been the commee
for that draught. The first, prepared by Lee, had been disapproved &
recommitted. The second was drawn by Jay, but being presented by
Govr Livingston, had led Colo Harrison into the error. The next
morning, walking in the hall of Congress, many members being
assembled but the house not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay, speaking
to R. H. Lee, and leading him by the button of his coat, to me. "I
understand, sir, said he to me, that this gentleman informed you that
Govr Livingston drew the Address to the people of Gr Britain." I
assured him at once that I had not received that information from Mr.
Lee & that not a word had ever passed on the subject between Mr. Lee
& myself; and after some explanations the subject was dropt. These
gentlemen had had some sparrings in debate before, and continued ever
very hostile to each other.
I prepared a draught of the Declaration committed to us. It
was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of
reconciliation with the mother country, and was unwilling it should
be lessened by offensive statements. He was so honest a man, & so
able a one that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not
feel his scruples. We therefore requested him to take the paper, and
put it into a form he could approve. He did so, preparing an entire
new statement, and preserving of the former only the last 4.
paragraphs & half of the preceding one. We approved & reported it to
Congress, who accepted it. Congress gave a signal proof of their
indulgence to Mr. Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too
fast for any respectable part of our body, in permitting him to draw
their second petition to the King according to his own ideas, and
passing it with scarcely any amendment. The disgust against this
humility was general; and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was
the only circumstance which reconciled them to it. The vote being
passed, altho' further observn on it was out of order, he could not
refrain from rising and expressing his satisfaction and concluded by
saying "there is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I
disapprove, & that is the word _Congress_," on which Ben Harrison
rose and said "there is but on word in the paper, Mr. President, of
which I approve, and that is the word _Congress._"
On the 22d of July Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, R. H. Lee, &
myself, were appointed a commee to consider and report on Ld. North's
conciliatory resolution. The answer of the Virginia assembly on that
subject having been approved I was requested by the commee to prepare
this report, which will account for the similarity of feature in the
two instruments.
On the 15th of May, 1776, the convention of Virginia instructed
their delegates in Congress to propose to that body to declare the
colonies independent of G. Britain, and appointed a commee to prepare
a declaration of rights and plan of government.
In Congress, Friday June 7. 1776. The delegates from Virginia
moved in obedience to instructions from their constituents that the
Congress should declare that these United colonies are & of right
ought to be free & independent states, that they are absolved from
all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political
connection between them & the state of Great Britain is & ought to
be, totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for
procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be
formed to bind the colonies more closely together.
The house being obliged to attend at that time to some other
business, the proposition was referred to the next day, when the
members were ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock.
Saturday June 8. They proceeded to take it into consideration
and referred it to a committee of the whole, into which they
immediately resolved themselves, and passed that day & Monday the
10th in debating on the subject.
It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge,
Dickinson and others
That tho' they were friends to the measures themselves, and saw
the impossibility that we should ever again be united with Gr.
Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time:
That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise & proper
now, of deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the
people drove us into it:
That they were our power, & without them our declarations could
not be carried into effect;
That the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware,
Pennsylva, the Jerseys & N. York) were not yet ripe for bidding adieu
to British connection, but that they were fast ripening & in a short
time would join in the general voice of America:
That the resolution entered into by this house on the 15th of
May for suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the
crown, had shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these
middle colonies, that they had not yet accommodated their minds to a
separation from the mother country:
That some of them had expressly forbidden their delegates to
consent to such a declaration, and others had given no instructions,
& consequently no powers to give such consent:
That if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to
declare such colony independant, certain they were the others could
not declare it for them; the colonies being as yet perfectly
independant of each other:
That the assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs,
their convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New
York was now sitting, & those of the Jerseys & Delaware counties
would meet on the Monday following, & it was probable these bodies
would take up the question of Independance & would declare to their
delegates the voice of their state:
That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these
delegates must retire & possibly their colonies might secede from the
Union:
That such a secession would weaken us more than could be
compensated by any foreign alliance:
That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would
either refuse to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so
much in their power as that desperate declaration would place us,
they would insist on terms proportionably more hard and prejudicial:
That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to
whom alone as yet we had cast our eyes:
That France & Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising
power which would one day certainly strip them of all their American
possessions:
That it was more likely they should form a connection with the
British court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise
to extricate themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a
partition of our territories, restoring Canada to France, & the
Floridas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery of these
colonies:
That it would not be long before we should receive certain
information of the disposition of the French court, from the agent
whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose:
That if this disposition should be favorable, by waiting the
event of the present campaign, which we all hoped would be
successful, we should have reason to expect an alliance on better
terms:
That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from
such ally, as, from the advance of the season & distance of our
situation, it was impossible we could receive any assistance during
this campaign:
That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which
we should form alliance, before we declared we would form one at all
events:
And that if these were agreed on, & our Declaration of
Independance ready by the time our Ambassador should be prepared to
sail, it would be as well as to go into that Declaration at this day.
On the other side it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and
others
That no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of
separation from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever
renew our connection; that they had only opposed its being now
declared:
That the question was not whether, by a declaration of
independance, we should make ourselves what we are not; but whether
we should declare a fact which already exists:
That as to the people or parliament of England, we had alwais
been independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving
efficacy from our acquiescence only, & not from any rights they
possessed of imposing them, & that so far our connection had been
federal only & was now dissolved by the commencement of hostilities:
That as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance,
but that this bond was now dissolved by his assent to the late act of
parliament, by which he declares us out of his protection, and by his
levying war on us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of his
protection; it being a certain position in law that allegiance &
protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is
withdrawn:
That James the IId. never declared the people of England out of
his protection yet his actions proved it & the parliament declared
it:
No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of
declaring an existing truth:
That the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared
their constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies
Pennsylvania & Maryland whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and
that these had by their instructions only reserved a right of
confirming or rejecting the measure:
That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted for
from the times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth ago,
since which the face of affairs has totally changed:
That within that time it had become apparent that Britain was
determined to accept nothing less than a carte-blanche, and that the
King's answer to the Lord Mayor Aldermen & common council of London,
which had come to hand four days ago, must have satisfied every one
of this point:
That the people wait for us to lead the way:
That _they_ are in favour of the measure, tho' the instructions
given by some of their _representatives_ are not:
That the voice of the representatives is not always consonant
with the voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in
these middle colonies:
That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May has proved
this, which, raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of
Pennsylvania & Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer
part of the people, & proved them to be the majority, even in these
colonies:
That the backwardness of these two colonies might be ascribed
partly to the influence of proprietary power & connections, & partly
to their having not yet been attacked by the enemy:
That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there
seemed no probability that the enemy would make either of these the
seat of this summer's war:
That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for
perfect unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever
become of one sentiment on any question:
That the conduct of some colonies from the beginning of this
contest, had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to
keep in the rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect
might be better, even in the worst event:
That therefore it was necessary for those colonies who had
thrown themselves forward & hazarded all from the beginning, to come
forward now also, and put all again to their own hazard:
That the history of the Dutch revolution, of whom three states
only confederated at first proved that a secession of some colonies
would not be so dangerous as some apprehended:
That a declaration of Independence alone could render it
consistent with European delicacy for European powers to treat with
us, or even to receive an Ambassador from us:
That till this they would not receive our vessels into their
ports, nor acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admiralty
to be legitimate, in cases of capture of British vessels:
That though France & Spain may be jealous of our rising power,
they must think it will be much more formidable with the addition of
Great Britain; and will therefore see it their interest to prevent a
coalition; but should they refuse, we shall be but where we are;
whereas without trying we shall never know whether they will aid us
or not:
That the present campaign may be unsuccessful, & therefore we
had better propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful
aspect:
That to await the event of this campaign will certainly work
delay, because during this summer France may assist us effectually by
cutting off those supplies of provisions from England & Ireland on
which the enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion
the great power they have collected in the West Indies, & calling our
enemy to the defence of the possessions they have there:
That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of
alliance, till we had first determined we would enter into alliance:
That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our
people, who will want clothes, and will want money too for the
paiment of taxes:
And that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into
alliance with France six months sooner, as besides opening their
ports for the vent of our last year's produce, they might have
marched an army into Germany and prevented the petty princes there
from selling their unhappy subjects to subdue us.
It appearing in the course of these debates that the colonies
of N. York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South
Carolina were not yet matured for falling from the parent stem, but
that they were fast advancing to that state, it was thought most
prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone the final decision
to July 1. but that this might occasion as little delay as possible a
committee was appointed to prepare a declaration of independence.
The commee were J. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman, Robert R.
Livingston & myself. Committees were also appointed at the same time
to prepare a plan of confederation for the colonies, and to state the
terms proper to be proposed for foreign alliance. The committee for
drawing the declaration of Independence desired me to do it. It was
accordingly done, and being approved by them, I reported it to the
house on Friday the 28th of June when it was read and ordered to lie
on the table. On Monday, the 1st of July the house resolved itself
into a commee of the whole & resumed the consideration of the
original motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which being again
debated through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes
of N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, N. Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, & Georgia. S. Carolina and
Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware having but two members
present, they were divided. The delegates for New York declared they
were for it themselves & were assured their constituents were for it,
but that their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth
before, when reconciliation was still the general object, they were
enjoined by them to do nothing which should impede that object. They
therefore thought themselves not justifiable in voting on either
side, and asked leave to withdraw from the question, which was given
them. The commee rose & reported their resolution to the house. Mr.
Edward Rutledge of S. Carolina then requested the determination might
be put off to the next day, as he believed his colleagues, tho' they
disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for the sake of
unanimity. The ultimate question whether the house would agree to
the resolution of the committee was accordingly postponed to the next
day, when it was again moved and S. Carolina concurred in voting for
it. In the meantime a third member had come post from the Delaware
counties and turned the vote of that colony in favour of the
resolution. Members of a different sentiment attending that morning
from Pennsylvania also, their vote was changed, so that the whole 12
colonies who were authorized to vote at all, gave their voices for
it; and within a few days, the convention of N. York approved of it
and thus supplied the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her
delegates from the vote.
Congress proceeded the same day to consider the declaration of
Independance which had been reported & lain on the table the Friday
preceding, and on Monday referred to a commee of the whole. The
pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms
with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those
passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck
out, lest they should give them offence. The clause too, reprobating
the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was struck out in
complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had never attempted
to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the contrary still
wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I believe felt a
little tender under those censures; for tho' their people have very
few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty considerable carriers
of them to others. The debates having taken up the greater parts of
the 2d 3d & 4th days of July were, in the evening of the last, closed
the declaration was reported by the commee, agreed to by the house
and signed by every member present except Mr. Dickinson. As the
sentiments of men are known not only by what they receive, but what
they reject also, I will state the form of the declaration as
originally reported. The parts struck out by Congress shall be
distinguished by a black line drawn under them; & those inserted by
them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent column.
A Declaration by the Representatives of the
United States of America, in General
Congress Assembled.
When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate &
equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are
created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with *inherent
and* [certain] inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, & the pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights,
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from
the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to
alter or abolish it, & to institute new government, laying it's
foundation on such principles, & organizing it's powers in such form,
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness.
Prudence indeed will dictate that governments long established should
not be changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the
forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses
& usurpations *begun at a distinguished period and* pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off
such government, & to provide new guards for their future security.
Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is now
the necessity which constrains them to *expunge* [alter] their former
systems of government. The history of the present king of Great
Britain is a history of *unremitting* [repeated] injuries &
usurpations, *among which appears no solitary fact to contradict the
uniform tenor of the rest but all have* [all having] in direct object
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove
this let facts be submitted to a candid world *for the truth of which
we pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.*
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome &
necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate &
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
assent should be obtained; & when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of
large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to
them, & formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public
records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with
his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly *&
continually* for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the
rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause
others to be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of
annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their
exercise, the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the
dangers of invasion from without & convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states;
for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of
foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations
hither, & raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has *suffered* [obstructed] the administration of justice
- totally to cease in some of these states* [by] refusing his [assent
to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made *our* judges dependant on his will alone, for the
tenure of their offices, & the amount & paiment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices *by a self assumed
power* and sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people
and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies *and
ships of war* without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independant of, &
superior to the civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitutions & unacknowledged by our laws, giving his
assent to their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large
bodies of armed troops among us; for protecting them by a mock-trial
from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the
inhabitants of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts
of the world; for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for
depriving us [ ] [in many cases] of the benefits of trial by jury;
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences;
for abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring
province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
it's boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit
instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these *states*
[colonies]; for taking away our charters, abolishing our most
valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our
governments; for suspending our own legislatures, & declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here *withdrawing his governors,
and declaring us out of his allegiance & protection*. [by declaring
us out of his protection, and waging war against us.]
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns,
& destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign
mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny
already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy [ ] [scarcely
paralleled in the most barbarous ages, & totally] unworthy the head
of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the
high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the
executioners of their friends & brethren, or to fall themselves by
their hands.
He has [excited domestic insurrection among us, & has]
endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless
Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions *of existence.*
*He has incited treasonable insurrections of our
fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture & confiscation of
our property.*
*He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating
it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a
distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them
into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium
of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great
Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought
& sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every
legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable
commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of
distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in
arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived
them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus
paying off former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one
people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES
of another.*
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for
redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been
answered only by repeated injuries.
A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a [ ] [free] people *who
mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe that the
hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass of twelve
years only, to lay a foundation so broad & so undisguised for tyranny
over a people fostered & fixed in principles of freedom.*
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren.
We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend *a* [an unwarrantable] jurisdiction over *these
our states* [us]. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration & settlement here, *no one of which could warrant so
strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our
own blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength of
Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of
government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a
foundation for perpetual league & amity with them: but that
submission to their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor
ever in idea, if history may be credited: and*, we [ ] [have]
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity *as well as to* [and
we have conjured them by] the ties of our common kindred to disavow
these usurpations which *were likely to* [would inevitably] interrupt
our connection and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the
voice of justice & of consanguinity, *and when occasions have been
given them, by the regular course of their laws, of removing from
their councils the disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their
free election, re-established them in power. At this very time too
they are permitting their chief magistrate to send over not only
soldiers of our common blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to
invade & destroy us. These facts have given the last stab to
agonizing affection, and manly spirit bids us to renounce forever
these unfeeling brethren. We must [We must therefore] endeavor to
forget our former love for them, and hold them as we hold the rest of
mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We might have been a free
and a great people together; but a communication of grandeur & of
freedom it seems is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will
have it. The road to happiness & to glory is open to us too. We
will tread it apart from them, and* acquiesce in the necessity which
denounces our *eternal* separation [ ] [and hold them as we hold the
rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.]!
We therefore the representatives We therefore the
representatives
of the United States of of the United States of
America in General Congress America in General Congress
assembled do in the name & assembled, appealing to the
by authority of the good supreme judge of the world
people of these *states reject for the rectitude of our
& renounce all allegiance & intentions, do in the name, & by
subjection to the kings of the authority of the good
Great Britain & all others people of these colonies,
who may hereafter claim by, solemnly publish & declare that
through or under them: we these united colonies are &
utterly dissolve all political* of right ought to be free &
*connection which may independent states; that they
heretofore have subsisted are absolved from all allegiance
between us & the people or to the British crown,
parliament of Great Britain: and that all political
& finally we do assert & connection between them & the
declare these colonies to be free state of Great Britain is, &
& independent states,* & that ought to be, totally
as free & independent states, dissolved; & that as free &
they have full power to levy independent states they have
war, conclude peace, contract full power to levy war,
alliances, establish commerce, conclude peace, contract
& to do all other acts & alliances, establish commerce &
things which independent to do all other acts & things
states may of right do. which independent states
may of right do.
And for the support of And for the support of this
this declaration we mutually declaration, with a firm
pledge to each other our reliance on the protection of
lives, our fortunes, & our divine providence we mutually
sacred honor. pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes, & our
sacred honor.
The Declaration thus signed on the 4th, on paper was engrossed
on parchment, & signed again on the 2d. of August.
Some erroneous statements of the proceedings on the declaration
of independence having got before the public in latter times, Mr.
Samuel A. Wells asked explanations of me, which are given in my
letter to him of May 12. 19. before and now again referred to. I
took notes in my place while these things were going on, and at their
close wrote them out in form and with correctness and from 1 to 7 of
the two preceding sheets are the originals then written; as the two
following are of the earlier debates on the Confederation, which I
took in like manner.
On Friday July 12. the Committee appointed to draw the articles
of confederation reported them, and on the 22d. the house resolved
themselves into a committee to take them into consideration. On the
30th. & 31st. of that month & 1st. of the ensuing, those articles
were debated which determined the proportion or quota of money which
each state should furnish to the common treasury, and the manner of
voting in Congress. The first of these articles was expressed in the
original draught in these words. "Art. XI. All charges of war & all
other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or
general welfare, and allowed by the United States assembled, shall be
defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the
several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every
age, sex & quality, except Indians not paying taxes, in each colony,
a true account of which, distinguishing the white inhabitants, shall
be triennially taken & transmitted to the Assembly of the United
States."
Mr. [Samuel] Chase moved that the quotas should be fixed, not
by the number of inhabitants of every condition, but by that of the
"white inhabitants." He admitted that taxation should be alwais in
proportion to property, that this was in theory the true rule, but
that from a variety of difficulties, it was a rule which could never
be adopted in practice. The value of the property in every State
could never be estimated justly & equally. Some other measure for
the wealth of the State must therefore be devised, some standard
referred to which would be more simple. He considered the number of
inhabitants as a tolerably good criterion of property, and that this
might alwais be obtained. He therefore thought it the best mode
which we could adopt, with one exception only. He observed that
negroes are property, and as such cannot be distinguished from the
lands or personalities held in those States where there are few
slaves, that the surplus of profit which a Northern farmer is able to
lay by, he invests in cattle, horses, &c. whereas a Southern farmer
lays out that same surplus in slaves. There is no more reason
therefore for taxing the Southern states on the farmer's head, & on
his slave's head, than the Northern ones on their farmer's heads &
the heads of their cattle, that the method proposed would therefore
tax the Southern states according to their numbers & their wealth
conjunctly, while the Northern would be taxed on numbers only: that
negroes in fact should not be considered as members of the state more
than cattle & that they have no more interest in it.
Mr. John Adams observed that the numbers of people were taken
by this article as an index of the wealth of the state, & not as
subjects of taxation, that as to this matter it was of no consequence
by what name you called your people, whether by that of freemen or of
slaves. That in some countries the labouring poor were called
freemen, in others they were called slaves; but that the difference
as to the state was imaginary only. What matters it whether a
landlord employing ten labourers in his farm, gives them annually as
much money as will buy them the necessaries of life, or gives them
those necessaries at short hand. The ten labourers add as much
wealth annually to the state, increase it's exports as much in the
one case as the other. Certainly 500 freemen produce no more
profits, no greater surplus for the paiment of taxes than 500 slaves.
Therefore the state in which are the labourers called freemen should
be taxed no more than that in which are those called slaves. Suppose
by any extraordinary operation of nature or of law one half the
labourers of a state could in the course of one night be transformed
into slaves: would the state be made the poorer or the less able to
pay taxes? That the condition of the laboring poor in most
countries, that of the fishermen particularly of the Northern states,
is as abject as that of slaves. It is the number of labourers which
produce the surplus for taxation, and numbers therefore
indiscriminately, are the fair index of wealth. That it is the use
of the word "property" here, & it's application to some of the people
of the state, which produces the fallacy. How does the Southern
farmer procure slaves? Either by importation or by purchase from his
neighbor. If he imports a slave, he adds one to the number of
labourers in his country, and proportionably to it's profits &
abilities to pay taxes. If he buys from his neighbor it is only a
transfer of a labourer from one farm to another, which does not
change the annual produce of the state, & therefore should not change
it's tax. That if a Northern farmer works ten labourers on his farm,
he can, it is true, invest the surplus of ten men's labour in cattle:
but so may the Southern farmer working ten slaves. That a state of
one hundred thousand freemen can maintain no more cattle than one of
one hundred thousand slaves. Therefore they have no more of that
kind of property. That a slave may indeed from the custom of speech
be more properly called the wealth of his master, than the free
labourer might be called the wealth of his employer: but as to the
state, both were equally it's wealth, and should therefore equally
add to the quota of it's tax.
Mr. [Benjamin] Harrison proposed as a compromise, that two
slaves should be counted as one freeman. He affirmed that slaves did
not do so much work as freemen, and doubted if two effected more than
one. That this was proved by the price of labor. The hire of a
labourer in the Southern colonies being from 8 to pound 12. while in
the Northern it was generally pound 24.
Mr. [James] Wilson said that if this amendment should take
place the Southern colonies would have all the benefit of slaves,
whilst the Northern ones would bear the burthen. That slaves
increase the profits of a state, which the Southern states mean to
take to themselves; that they also increase the burthen of defence,
which would of course fall so much the heavier on the Northern. That
slaves occupy the places of freemen and eat their food. Dismiss your
slaves & freemen will take their places. It is our duty to lay every
discouragement on the importation of slaves; but this amendment would
give the jus trium liberorum to him who would import slaves. That
other kinds of property were pretty equally distributed thro' all the
colonies: there were as many cattle, horses, & sheep, in the North as
the South, & South as the North; but not so as to slaves. That
experience has shown that those colonies have been alwais able to pay
most which have the most inhabitants, whether they be black or white,
and the practice of the Southern colonies has alwais been to make
every farmer pay poll taxes upon all his labourers whether they be
black or white. He acknowledges indeed that freemen work the most;
but they consume the most also. They do not produce a greater
surplus for taxation. The slave is neither fed nor clothed so
expensively as a freeman. Again white women are exempted from labor
generally, but negro women are not. In this then the Southern states
have an advantage as the article now stands. It has sometimes been
said that slavery is necessary because the commodities they raise
would be too dear for market if cultivated by freemen; but now it is
said that the labor of the slave is the dearest.
Mr. Payne urged the original resolution of Congress, to
proportion the quotas of the states to the number of souls.
Dr. [John] Witherspoon was of opinion that the value of lands &
houses was the best estimate of the wealth of a nation, and that it
was practicable to obtain such a valuation. This is the true
barometer of wealth. The one now proposed is imperfect in itself,
and unequal between the States. It has been objected that negroes
eat the food of freemen & therefore should be taxed. Horses also eat
the food of freemen; therefore they also should be taxed. It has
been said too that in carrying slaves into the estimate of the taxes
the state is to pay, we do no more than those states themselves do,
who alwais take slaves into the estimate of the taxes the individual
is to pay. But the cases are not parallel. In the Southern colonies
slaves pervade the whole colony; but they do not pervade the whole
continent. That as to the original resolution of Congress to
proportion the quotas according to the souls, it was temporary only,
& related to the monies heretofore emitted: whereas we are now
entering into a new compact, and therefore stand on original ground.
Aug 1. The question being put the amendment proposed was
rejected by the votes of N. Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode island,
Connecticut, N. York, N. Jersey, & Pennsylvania, against those of
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North & South Carolina. Georgia was
divided.
The other article was in these words. "Art. XVII. In
determining questions each colony shall have one vote."
July 30. 31. Aug 1. Present 41. members. Mr. Chase observed
that this article was the most likely to divide us of any one
proposed in the draught then under consideration. That the larger
colonies had threatened they would not confederate at all if their
weight in congress should not be equal to the numbers of people they
added to the confederacy; while the smaller ones declared against a
union if they did not retain an equal vote for the protection of
their rights. That it was of the utmost consequence to bring the
parties together, as should we sever from each other, either no
foreign power will ally with us at all, or the different states will
form different alliances, and thus increase the horrors of those
scenes of civil war and bloodshed which in such a state of separation
& independance would render us a miserable people. That our
importance, our interests, our peace required that we should
confederate, and that mutual sacrifices should be made to effect a
compromise of this difficult question. He was of opinion the smaller
colonies would lose their rights, if they were not in some instances
allowed an equal vote; and therefore that a discrimination should
take place among the questions which would come before Congress.
That the smaller states should be secured in all questions concerning
life or liberty & the greater ones in all respecting property. He
therefore proposed that in votes relating to money, the voice of each
colony should be proportioned to the number of its inhabitants.
Dr. Franklin thought that the votes should be so proportioned
in all cases. He took notice that the Delaware counties had bound up
their Delegates to disagree to this article. He thought it a very
extraordinary language to be held by any state, that they would not
confederate with us unless we would let them dispose of our money.
Certainly if we vote equally we ought to pay equally; but the smaller
states will hardly purchase the privilege at this price. That had he
lived in a state where the representation, originally equal, had
become unequal by time & accident he might have submitted rather than
disturb government; but that we should be very wrong to set out in
this practice when it is in our power to establish what is right.
That at the time of the Union between England and Scotland the latter
had made the objection which the smaller states now do. But
experience had proved that no unfairness had ever been shown them.
That their advocates had prognosticated that it would again happen as
in times of old, that the whale would swallow Jonas, but he thought
the prediction reversed in event and that Jonas had swallowed the
whale, for the Scotch had in fact got possession of the government
and gave laws to the English. He reprobated the original agreement
of Congress to vote by colonies and therefore was for their voting in
all cases according to the number of taxables.
Dr. Witherspoon opposed every alteration of the article. All
men admit that a confederacy is necessary. Should the idea get
abroad that there is likely to be no union among us, it will damp the
minds of the people, diminish the glory of our struggle, & lessen
it's importance; because it will open to our view future prospects of
war & dissension among ourselves. If an equal vote be refused, the
smaller states will become vassals to the larger; & all experience
has shown that the vassals & subjects of free states are the most
enslaved. He instanced the Helots of Sparta & the provinces of Rome.
He observed that foreign powers discovering this blemish would make
it a handle for disengaging the smaller states from so unequal a
confederacy. That the colonies should in fact be considered as
individuals; and that as such, in all disputes they should have an
equal vote; that they are now collected as individuals making a
bargain with each other, & of course had a right to vote as
individuals. That in the East India company they voted by persons, &
not by their proportion of stock. That the Belgic confederacy voted
by provinces. That in questions of war the smaller states were as
much interested as the larger, & therefore should vote equally; and
indeed that the larger states were more likely to bring war on the
confederacy in proportion as their frontier was more extensive. He
admitted that equality of representation was an excellent principle,
but then it must be of things which are coordinate; that is, of
things similar & of the same nature: that nothing relating to
individuals could ever come before Congress; nothing but what would
respect colonies. He distinguished between an incorporating & a
federal union. The union of England was an incorporating one; yet
Scotland had suffered by that union: for that it's inhabitants were
drawn from it by the hopes of places & employments. Nor was it an
instance of equality of representation; because while Scotland was
allowed nearly a thirteenth of representation they were to pay only
one fortieth of the land tax. He expressed his hopes that in the
present enlightened state of men's minds we might expect a lasting
confederacy, if it was founded on fair principles.
John Adams advocated the voting in proportion to numbers. He
said that we stand here as the representatives of the people. That
in some states the people are many, in others they are few; that
therefore their vote here should be proportioned to the numbers from
whom it comes. Reason, justice, & equity never had weight enough on
the face of the earth to govern the councils of men. It is interest
alone which does it, and it is interest alone which can be trusted.
That therefore the interests within doors should be the mathematical
representatives of the interests without doors. That the
individuality of the colonies is a mere sound. Does the
individuality of a colony increase it's wealth or numbers. If it
does, pay equally. If it does not add weight in the scale of the
confederacy, it cannot add to their rights, nor weigh in argument.
A. has pound 50. B. pound 500. C. pound 1000. in partnership. Is it
just they should equally dispose of the monies of the partnership?
It has been said we are independent individuals making a bargain
together. The question is not what we are now, but what we ought to
be when our bargain shall be made. The confederacy is to make us one
individual only; it is to form us, like separate parcels of metal,
into one common mass. We shall no longer retain our separate
individuality, but become a single individual as to all questions
submitted to the confederacy. Therefore all those reasons which
prove the justice & expediency of equal representation in other
assemblies, hold good here. It has been objected that a proportional
vote will endanger the smaller states. We answer that an equal vote
will endanger the larger. Virginia, Pennsylvania, & Massachusetts
are the three greater colonies. Consider their distance, their
difference of produce, of interests & of manners, & it is apparent
they can never have an interest or inclination to combine for the
oppression of the smaller. That the smaller will naturally divide on
all questions with the larger. Rhode isld, from it's relation,
similarity & intercourse will generally pursue the same objects with
Massachusetts; Jersey, Delaware & Maryland, with Pennsylvania.
Dr. [Benjamin] Rush took notice that the decay of the liberties
of the Dutch republic proceeded from three causes. 1. The perfect
unanimity requisite on all occasions. 2. Their obligation to consult
their constituents. 3. Their voting by provinces. This last
destroyed the equality of representation, and the liberties of great
Britain also are sinking from the same defect. That a part of our
rights is deposited in the hands of our legislatures. There it was
admitted there should be an equality of representation. Another part
of our rights is deposited in the hands of Congress: why is it not
equally necessary there should be an equal representation there?
Were it possible to collect the whole body of the people together,
they would determine the questions submitted to them by their
majority. Why should not the same majority decide when voting here
by their representatives? The larger colonies are so providentially
divided in situation as to render every fear of their combining
visionary. Their interests are different, & their circumstances
dissimilar. It is more probable they will become rivals & leave it
in the power of the smaller states to give preponderance to any scale
they please. The voting by the number of free inhabitants will have
one excellent effect, that of inducing the colonies to discourage
slavery & to encourage the increase of their free inhabitants.
Mr. [Stephen] Hopkins observed there were 4 larger, 4 smaller,
& 4 middle-sized colonies. That the 4 largest would contain more
than half the inhabitants of the confederated states, & therefore
would govern the others as they should please. That history affords
no instance of such a thing as equal representation. The Germanic
body votes by states. The Helvetic body does the same; & so does the
Belgic confederacy. That too little is known of the ancient
confederations to say what was their practice.
Mr. Wilson thought that taxation should be in proportion to
wealth, but that representation should accord with the number of
freemen. That government is a collection or result of the wills of
all. That if any government could speak the will of all, it would be
perfect; and that so far as it departs from this it becomes
imperfect. It has been said that Congress is a representation of
states; not of individuals. I say that the objects of its care are
all the individuals of the states. It is strange that annexing the
name of "State" to ten thousand men, should give them an equal right
with forty thousand. This must be the effect of magic, not of
reason. As to those matters which are referred to Congress, we are
not so many states, we are one large state. We lay aside our
individuality, whenever we come here. The Germanic body is a
burlesque on government; and their practice on any point is a
sufficient authority & proof that it is wrong. The greatest
imperfection in the constitution of the Belgic confederacy is their
voting by provinces. The interest of the whole is constantly
sacrificed to that of the small states. The history of the war in
the reign of Q. Anne sufficiently proves this. It is asked shall
nine colonies put it into the power of four to govern them as they
please? I invert the question, and ask shall two millions of people
put it in the power of one million to govern them as they please? It
is pretended too that the smaller colonies will be in danger from the
greater. Speak in honest language & say the minority will be in
danger from the majority. And is there an assembly on earth where
this danger may not be equally pretended? The truth is that our
proceedings will then be consentaneous with the interests of the
majority, and so they ought to be. The probability is much greater
that the larger states will disagree than that they will combine. I
defy the wit of man to invent a possible case or to suggest any one
thing on earth which shall be for the interests of Virginia,
Pennsylvania & Massachusetts, and which will not also be for the
interest of the other states.
* * *
These articles reported July 12. 76 were debated from day to
day, & time to time for two years, were ratified July 9, '78, by 10
states, by N. Jersey on the 26th. of Nov. of the same year, and by
Delaware on the 23d. of Feb. following. Maryland alone held off 2
years more, acceding to them Mar 1, 81. and thus closing the
obligation.
Our delegation had been renewed for the ensuing year commencing
Aug. 11. but the new government was now organized, a meeting of the
legislature was to be held in Oct. and I had been elected a member by
my county. I knew that our legislation under the regal government
had many very vicious points which urgently required reformation, and
I thought I could be of more use in forwarding that work. I
therefore retired from my seat in Congress on the 2d. of Sep.
resigned it, and took my place in the legislature of my state, on the
7th. of October.
On the 11th. I moved for leave to bring in a bill for the
establishmt of courts of justice, the organization of which was of
importance; I drew the bill it was approved by the commee, reported
and passed after going thro' it's due course.
On the 12th. I obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring
tenants in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In the earlier
times of the colony when lands were to be obtained for little or
nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants, and,
desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled them on
their descendants in fee-tail. The transmission of this property
from generation to generation in the same name raised up a distinct
set of families who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of
their wealth were thus formed into a Patrician order, distinguished
by the splendor and luxury of their establishments. From this order
too the king habitually selected his Counsellors of State, the hope
of which distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests & will
of the crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy
of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make
an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has
wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, &
scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed
essential to a well ordered republic. To effect it no violence was
necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlargement
of it by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present
holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his
affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation
on the level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was strongly
opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealously attached to ancient
establishments; and who, taken all in all, was the ablest man in
debate I have ever met with. He had not indeed the poetical fancy of
Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming
diction; but he was cool, smooth and persuasive; his language
flowing, chaste & embellished, his conceptions quick, acute and full
of resource; never vanquished; for if he lost the main battle, he
returned upon you, and regained so much of it as to make it a drawn
one, by dexterous man;oeuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the recovery
of small advantages which, little singly, were important altogether.
You never knew when you were clear of him, but were harassed by his
perseverance until the patience was worn down of all who had less of
it than himself. Add to this that he was one of the most virtuous &
benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the most amiable & pleasant of
companions, which ensured a favorable reception to whatever came from
him. Finding that the general principle of entails could not be
maintained, he took his stand on an amendment which he proposed,
instead of an absolute abolition, to permit the tenant in tail to
convey in fee simple, if he chose it: and he was within a few votes
of saving so much of the old law. But the bill passed finally for
entire abolition.
In that one of the bills for organizing our judiciary system
which proposed a court of chancery, I had provided for a trial by
jury of all matters of fact in that as well as in the courts of law.
He defeated it by the introduction of 4. words only, _"if either
party chuse."_ The consequence has been that as no suitor will say to
his judge, "Sir, I distrust you, give me a jury" juries are rarely, I
might say perhaps never seen in that court, but when called for by
the Chancellor of his own accord.
The first establishment in Virginia which became permanent was
made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes in the colony until
about 1650. The first brought here as slaves were by a Dutch ship;
after which the English commenced the trade and continued it until
the revolutionary war. That suspended, ipso facto, their further
importation for the present, and the business of the war pressing
constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted on finally
until the year 78. when I brought in a bill to prevent their further
importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the
increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its
final eradication.
The first settlers of this colony were Englishmen, loyal
subjects to their king and church, and the grant to Sr. Walter
Raleigh contained an express Proviso that their laws "should not be
against the true Christian faith, now professed in the church of
England." As soon as the state of the colony admitted, it was divided
into parishes, in each of which was established a minister of the
Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a glebe
house and land with the other necessary appendages. To meet these
expenses all the inhabitants of the parishes were assessed, whether
they were or not, members of the established church. Towards Quakers
who came here they were most cruelly intolerant, driving them from
the colony by the severest penalties. In process of time however,
other sectarisms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family;
and the established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and
salaries, adding to these generally the emoluments of a classical
school, found employment enough, in their farms and schoolrooms for
the rest of the week, and devoted Sunday only to the edification of
their flock, by service, and a sermon at their parish church. Their
other pastoral functions were little attended to. Against this
inactivity the zeal and industry of sectarian preachers had an open
and undisputed field; and by the time of the revolution, a majority
of the inhabitants had become dissenters from the established church,
but were still obliged to pay contributions to support the Pastors of
the minority. This unrighteous compulsion to maintain teachers of
what they deemed religious errors was grievously felt during the
regal government, and without a hope of relief. But the first
republican legislature which met in 76. was crowded with petitions to
abolish this spiritual tyranny. These brought on the severest
contests in which I have ever been engaged. Our great opponents were
Mr. Pendleton & Robert Carter Nicholas, honest men, but zealous
churchmen. The petitions were referred to the commee of the whole
house on the state of the country; and after desperate contests in
that committee, almost daily from the 11th of Octob. to the 5th of
December, we prevailed so far only as to repeal the laws which
rendered criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the
forbearance of repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of
worship: and further, to exempt dissenters from contributions to the
support of the established church; and to suspend, only until the
next session levies on the members of that church for the salaries of
their own incumbents. For although the majority of our citizens were
dissenters, as has been observed, a majority of the legislature were
churchmen. Among these however were some reasonable and liberal men,
who enabled us, on some points, to obtain feeble majorities. But our
opponents carried in the general resolutions of the commee of Nov.
19. a declaration that religious assemblies ought to be regulated,
and that provision ought to be made for continuing the succession of
the clergy, and superintending their conduct. And in the bill now
passed was inserted an express reservation of the question Whether a
general assessment should not be established by law, on every one, to
the support of the pastor of his choice; or whether all should be
left to voluntary contributions; and on this question, debated at
every session from 76 to 79 (some of our dissenting allies, having
now secured their particular object, going over to the advocates of a
general assessment) we could only obtain a suspension from session to
session until 79. when the question against a general assessment was
finally carried, and the establishment of the Anglican church
entirely put down. In justice to the two honest but zealous
opponents, who have been named I must add that altho', from their
natural temperaments, they were more disposed generally to acquiesce
in things as they are, than to risk innovations, yet whenever the
public will had once decided, none were more faithful or exact in
their obedience to it.
The seat of our government had been originally fixed in the
peninsula of Jamestown, the first settlement of the colonists; and
had been afterwards removed a few miles inland to Williamsburg. But
this was at a time when our settlements had not extended beyond the
tide water. Now they had crossed the Alleghany; and the center of
population was very far removed from what it had been. Yet
Williamsburg was still the depository of our archives, the habitual
residence of the Governor & many other of the public functionaries,
the established place for the sessions of the legislature, and the
magazine of our military stores: and it's situation was so exposed
that it might be taken at any time in war, and, at this time
particularly, an enemy might in the night run up either of the rivers
between which it lies, land a force above, and take possession of the
place, without the possibility of saving either persons or things. I
had proposed it's removal so early as Octob. 76. but it did not
prevail until the session of May. '79.
Early in the session of May 79. I prepared, and obtained leave
to bring in a bill declaring who should be deemed citizens, asserting
the natural right of expatriation, and prescribing the mode of
exercising it. This, when I withdrew from the house on the 1st of
June following, I left in the hands of George Mason and it was passed
on the 26th of that month.
In giving this account of the laws of which I was myself the
mover & draughtsman, I by no means mean to claim to myself the merit
of obtaining their passage. I had many occasional and strenuous
coadjutors in debate, and one most steadfast, able, and zealous; who
was himself a host. This was George Mason, a man of the first order
of wisdom among those who acted on the theatre of the revolution, of
expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the
lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican
change on democratic principles. His elocution was neither flowing
nor smooth, but his language was strong, his manner most impressive,
and strengthened by a dash of biting cynicism when provocation made
it seasonable.
Mr. Wythe, while speaker in the two sessions of 1777. between
his return from Congress and his appointment to the Chancery, was an
able and constant associate in whatever was before a committee of the
whole. His pure integrity, judgment and reasoning powers gave him
great weight. Of him see more in some notes inclosed in my letter of
August 31. 1821, to Mr. John Saunderson.
Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776. a new member and
young; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme modesty,
prevented his venturing himself in debate before his removal to the
Council of State in Nov. 77. From thence he went to Congress, then
consisting of few members. Trained in these successive schools, he
acquired a habit of self-possession which placed at ready command the
rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, & of his
extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly
afterwards of which he became a member. Never wandering from his
subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language
pure, classical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his
adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the
eminent station which he held in the great National convention of
1787. and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the new
constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic
of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these
consummate powers were united a pure and spotless virtue which no
calumny has ever attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his
pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of
the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken, and will forever
speak for themselves.
So far we were proceeding in the details of reformation only;
selecting points of legislation prominent in character & principle,
urgent, and indicative of the strength of the general pulse of
reformation. When I left Congress, in 76. it was in the persuasion
that our whole code must be reviewed, adapted to our republican form
of government, and, now that we had no negatives of Councils,
Governors & Kings to restrain us from doing right, that it should be
corrected, in all it's parts, with a single eye to reason, & the good
of those for whose government it was framed. Early therefore in the
session of 76. to which I returned, I moved and presented a bill for
the revision of the laws; which was passed on the 24th. of October,
and on the 5th. of November Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe, George Mason,
Thomas L. Lee and myself were appointed a committee to execute the
work. We agreed to meet at Fredericksburg to settle the plan of
operation and to distribute the work. We met there accordingly, on
the 13th. of January 1777. The first question was whether we should
propose to abolish the whole existing system of laws, and prepare a
new and complete Institute, or preserve the general system, and only
modify it to the present state of things. Mr. Pendleton, contrary to
his usual disposition in favor of antient things, was for the former
proposition, in which he was joined by Mr. Lee. To this it was
objected that to abrogate our whole system would be a bold measure,
and probably far beyond the views of the legislature; that they had
been in the practice of revising from time to time the laws of the
colony, omitting the expired, the repealed and the obsolete, amending
only those retained, and probably meant we should now do the same,
only including the British statutes as well as our own: that to
compose a new Institute like those of Justinian and Bracton, or that
of Blackstone, which was the model proposed by Mr. Pendleton, would
be an arduous undertaking, of vast research, of great consideration &
judgment; and when reduced to a text, every word of that text, from
the imperfection of human language, and it's incompetence to express
distinctly every shade of idea, would become a subject of question &
chicanery until settled by repeated adjudications; that this would
involve us for ages in litigation, and render property uncertain
until, like the statutes of old, every word had been tried, and
settled by numerous decisions, and by new volumes of reports &
commentaries; and that no one of us probably would undertake such a
work, which, to be systematical, must be the work of one hand. This
last was the opinion of Mr. Wythe, Mr. Mason & myself. When we
proceeded to the distribution of the work, Mr. Mason excused himself
as, being no lawyer, he felt himself unqualified for the work, and he
resigned soon after. Mr. Lee excused himself on the same ground, and
died indeed in a short time. The other two gentlemen therefore and
myself divided the work among us. The common law and statutes to the
4. James I. (when our separate legislature was established) were
assigned to me; the British statutes from that period to the present
day to Mr. Wythe, and the Virginia laws to Mr. Pendleton. As the law
of Descents, & the criminal law fell of course within my portion, I
wished the commee to settle the leading principles of these, as a
guide for me in framing them. And with respect to the first, I
proposed to abolish the law of primogeniture, and to make real estate
descendible in parcenary to the next of kin, as personal property is
by the statute of distribution. Mr. Pendleton wished to preserve the
right of primogeniture, but seeing at once that that could not
prevail, he proposed we should adopt the Hebrew principle, and give a
double portion to the elder son. I observed that if the eldest son
could eat twice as much, or do double work, it might be a natural
evidence of his right to a double portion; but being on a par in his
powers & wants, with his brothers and sisters, he should be on a par
also in the partition of the patrimony, and such was the decision of
the other members.
On the subject of the Criminal law, all were agreed that the
punishment of death should be abolished, except for treason and
murder; and that, for other felonies should be substituted hard labor
in the public works, and in some cases, the Lex talionis. How this
last revolting principle came to obtain our approbation, I do not
remember. There remained indeed in our laws a vestige of it in a
single case of a slave. It was the English law in the time of the
Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the Hebrew law of "an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth," and it was the law of several antient
people. But the modern mind had left it far in the rear of it's
advances. These points however being settled, we repaired to our
respective homes for the preparation of the work.
Feb. 6. In the execution of my part I thought it material not
to vary the diction of the antient statutes by modernizing it, nor to
give rise to new questions by new expressions. The text of these
statutes had been so fully explained and defined by numerous
adjudications, as scarcely ever now to produce a question in our
courts. I thought it would be useful also, in all new draughts, to
reform the style of the later British statutes, and of our own acts
of assembly, which from their verbosity, their endless tautologies,
their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within
parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty by _saids_ and
_aforesaids_, by _ors_ and by _ands_, to make them more plain, do
really render them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to
common readers, but to the lawyers themselves. We were employed in
this work from that time to Feb. 1779, when we met at Williamsburg,
that is to say, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe & myself, and meeting day by
day, we examined critically our several parts, sentence by sentence,
scrutinizing and amending until we had agreed on the whole. We then
returned home, had fair copies made of our several parts, which were
reported to the General Assembly June 18. 1779. by Mr. Wythe and
myself, Mr. Pendleton's residence being distant, and he having
authorized us by letter to declare his approbation. We had in this
work brought so much of the Common law as it was thought necessary to
alter, all the British statutes from Magna Charta to the present day,
and all the laws of Virginia, from the establishment of our
legislature, in the 4th. Jac. 1. to the present time, which we
thought should be retained, within the compass of 126 bills, making a
printed folio of 90 pages only. Some bills were taken out
occasionally, from time to time, and passed; but the main body of the
work was not entered on by the legislature until after the general
peace, in 1785. when by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in
opposition to the endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions,
vexations and delays of lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills
were passed by the legislature, with little alteration.
The bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of
which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in
all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition;
but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed;
and a singular proposition proved that it's protection of opinion was
meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is
a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an
amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that
it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy
author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great
majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle
of it's protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and
Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every denomination.
Beccaria and other writers on crimes and punishments had
satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness and inefficacy
of the punishment of crimes by death; and hard labor on roads, canals
and other public works, had been suggested as a proper substitute.
The Revisors had adopted these opinions; but the general idea of our
country had not yet advanced to that point. The bill therefore for
proportioning crimes and punishments was lost in the House of
Delegates by a majority of a single vote. I learnt afterwards that
the substitute of hard labor in public was tried (I believe it was in
Pennsylvania) without success. Exhibited as a public spectacle, with
shaved heads and mean clothing, working on the high roads produced in
the criminals such a prostration of character, such an abandonment of
self-respect, as, instead of reforming, plunged them into the most
desperate & hardened depravity of morals and character. -- Pursue the
subject of this law. -- I was written to in 1785 (being then in
Paris) by Directors appointed to superintend the building of a
Capitol in Richmond, to advise them as to a plan, and to add to it
one of a prison. Thinking it a favorable opportunity of introducing
into the state an example of architecture in the classic style of
antiquity, and the Maison quarree of Nismes, an antient Roman temple,
being considered as the most perfect model existing of what may be
called Cubic architecture, I applied to M. Clerissault, who had
published drawings of the Antiquities of Nismes, to have me a model
of the building made in stucco, only changing the order from
Corinthian to Ionic, on account of the difficulty of the Corinthian
capitals. I yielded with reluctance to the taste of Clerissault, in
his preference of the modern capital of Scamozzi to the more noble
capital of antiquity. This was executed by the artist whom Choiseul
Gouffier had carried with him to Constantinople, and employed while
Ambassador there, in making those beautiful models of the remains of
Grecian architecture which are to be seen at Paris. To adapt the
exterior to our use, I drew a plan for the interior, with the
apartments necessary for legislative, executive & judiciary purposes,
and accommodated in their size and distribution to the form and
dimensions of the building. These were forwarded to the Directors in
1786. and were carried into execution, with some variations not for
the better, the most important to which however admit of future
correction. With respect of the plan of a Prison, requested at the
same time, I had heard of a benevolent society in England which had
been indulged by the government in an experiment of the effect of
labor in _solitary confinement_ on some of their criminals, which
experiment had succeeded beyond expectation. The same idea had been
suggested in France, and an Architect of Lyons had proposed a plan of
a well contrived edifice on the principle of solitary confinement. I
procured a copy, and as it was too large for our purposes, I drew one
on a scale, less extensive, but susceptible of additions as they
should be wanting. This I sent to the Directors instead of a plan of
a common prison, in the hope that it would suggest the idea of labor
in solitary confinement instead of that on the public works, which we
had adopted in our Revised Code. It's principle accordingly, but not
it's exact form, was adopted by Latrobe in carrying the plan into
execution, by the erection of what is now called the Penitentiary,
built under his direction. In the meanwhile the public opinion was
ripening by time, by reflection, and by the example of Pensylva,
where labor on the highways had been tried without approbation from
1786 to 89. & had been followed by their Penitentiary system on the
principle of confinement and labor, which was proceeding
auspiciously. In 1796. our legislature resumed the subject and
passed the law for amending the Penal laws of the commonwealth. They
adopted solitary, instead of public labor, established a gradation in
the duration of the confinement, approximated the style of the law
more to the modern usage, and instead of the settled distinctions of
murder & manslaughter, preserved in my bill, they introduced the new
terms of murder in the 1st & 2d degree. Whether these have produced
more or fewer questions of definition I am not sufficiently informed
of our judiciary transactions to say. I will here however insert the
text of my bill, with the notes I made in the course of my researches
into the subject.
Feb. 7. The acts of assembly concerning the College of Wm. &
Mary, were properly within Mr. Pendleton's portion of our work. But
these related chiefly to it's revenue, while it's constitution,
organization and scope of science were derived from it's charter. We
thought, that on this subject a systematical plan of general
education should be proposed, and I was requested to undertake it. I
accordingly prepared three bills for the Revisal, proposing three
distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary
schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a
middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of
life, and such as would be desirable for all who were in easy
circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences
generally, & in their highest degree. The first bill proposed to lay
off every county into Hundreds or Wards, of a proper size and
population for a school, in which reading, writing, and common
arithmetic should be taught; and that the whole state should be
divided into 24 districts, in each of which should be a school for
classical learning, grammar, geography, and the higher branches of
numerical arithmetic. The second bill proposed to amend the
constitution of Wm. & Mary College, to enlarge it's sphere of
science, and to make it in fact an University. The third was for the
establishment of a library. These bills were not acted on until the
same year '96. and then only so much of the first as provided for
elementary schools. The College of Wm. & Mary was an establishment
purely of the Church of England, the Visitors were required to be all
of that Church; the Professors to subscribe it's 39 Articles, it's
Students to learn it's Catechism, and one of its fundamental objects
was declared to be to raise up Ministers for that church. The
religious jealousies therefore of all the dissenters took alarm lest
this might give an ascendancy to the Anglican sect and refused acting
on that bill. Its local eccentricity too and unhealthy autumnal
climate lessened the general inclination towards it. And in the
Elementary bill they inserted a provision which completely defeated
it, for they left it to the court of each county to determine for
itself when this act should be carried into execution, within their
county. One provision of the bill was that the expenses of these
schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one
in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth
the education of the poor; and the justices, being generally of the
more wealthy class, were unwilling to incur that burthen, and I
believe it was not suffered to commence in a single county. I shall
recur again to this subject towards the close of my story, if I
should have life and resolution enough to reach that term; for I am
already tired of talking about myself.
The bill on the subject of slaves was a mere digest of the
existing laws respecting them, without any intimation of a plan for a
future & general emancipation. It was thought better that this
should be kept back, and attempted only by way of amendment whenever
the bill should be brought on. The principles of the amendment
however were agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born after
a certain day, and deportation at a proper age. But it was found
that the public mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it
bear it even at this day. Yet the day is not distant when it must
bear and adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly
written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.
Nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live
in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible
lines of distinction between them. It is still in our power to
direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably and in
such slow degree as that the evil will wear off insensibly, and their
place be pari passu filled up by free white laborers. If on the
contrary it is left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at
the prospect held up. We should in vain look for an example in the
Spanish deportation or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would
fall far short of our case.
I considered 4 of these bills, passed or reported, as forming a
system by which every fibre would be eradicated of antient or future
aristocracy; and a foundation laid for a government truly republican.
The repeal of the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and
perpetuation of wealth in select families, and preserve the soil of
the country from being daily more & more absorbed in Mortmain. The
abolition of primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritances
removed the feudal and unnatural distinctions which made one member
of every family rich, and all the rest poor, substituting equal
partition, the best of all Agrarian laws. The restoration of the
rights of conscience relieved the people from taxation for the
support of a religion not theirs; for the establishment was truly of
the religion of the rich, the dissenting sects being entirely
composed of the less wealthy people; and these, by the bill for a
general education, would be qualified to understand their rights, to
maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in
self-government: and all this would be effected without the violation
of a single natural right of any one individual citizen. To these
too might be added, as a further security, the introduction of the
trial by jury, into the Chancery courts, which have already ingulfed
and continue to ingulf, so great a proportion of the jurisdiction
over our property.
On the 1st of June 1779. I was appointed Governor of the
Commonwealth and retired from the legislature. Being elected also
one of the Visitors of Wm. & Mary college, a self-electing body, I
effected, during my residence in Williamsburg that year, a change in
the organization of that institution by abolishing the Grammar
school, and the two professorships of Divinity & Oriental languages,
and substituting a professorship of Law & Police, one of Anatomy
Medicine and Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter
confining us to six professorships, we added the law of Nature &
Nations, & the Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral professor, and
Natural history to those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural
philosophy.
Being now, as it were, identified with the Commonwealth itself,
to write my own history during the two years of my administration,
would be to write the public history of that portion of the
revolution within this state. This has been done by others, and
particularly by Mr. Girardin, who wrote his Continuation of Burke's
history of Virginia while at Milton, in this neighborhood, had free
access to all my papers while composing it, and has given as faithful
an account as I could myself. For this portion therefore of my own
life, I refer altogether to his history. From a belief that under
the pressure of the invasion under which we were then laboring the
public would have more confidence in a Military chief, and that the
Military commander, being invested with the Civil power also, both
might be wielded with more energy promptitude and effect for the
defence of the state, I resigned the administration at the end of my
2d. year, and General Nelson was appointed to succeed me.
Soon after my leaving Congress in Sep. '76, to wit on the last
day of that month, I had been appointed, with Dr. Franklin, to go to
France, as a Commissioner to negotiate treaties of alliance and
commerce with that government. Silas Deane, then in France, acting
as agent (* 2) for procuring military stores, was joined with us in
commission. But such was the state of my family that I could not
leave it, nor could I expose it to the dangers of the sea, and of
capture by the British ships, then covering the ocean. I saw too
that the laboring oar was really at home, where much was to be done
of the most permanent interest in new modelling our governments, and
much to defend our fanes and fire-sides from the desolations of an
invading enemy pressing on our country in every point. I declined
therefore and Dr. Lee was appointed in my place. On the 15th. of
June 1781. I had been appointed with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr.
Jay, and Mr. Laurens a Minister plenipotentiary for negotiating
peace, then expected to be effected thro' the mediation of the
Empress of Russia. The same reasons obliged me still to decline; and
the negotiation was in fact never entered on. But, in the autumn of
the next year 1782 Congress receiving assurances that a general peace
would be concluded in the winter and spring, they renewed my
appointment on the 13th. of Nov. of that year. I had two months
before that lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose
affections, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in
unchequered happiness. With the public interests, the state of my
mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed; and I
accepted the appointment, and left Monticello on the 19th. of Dec.
1782. for Philadelphia, where I arrived on the 27th. The Minister of
France, Luzerne, offered me a passage in the Romulus frigate, which I
accepting. But she was then lying a few miles below Baltimore
blocked up in the ice. I remained therefore a month in Philadelphia,
looking over the papers in the office of State in order to possess
myself of the general state of our foreign relations, and then went
to Baltimore to await the liberation of the frigate from the ice.
After waiting there nearly a month, we received information that a
Provisional treaty of peace had been signed by our Commissioners on
the 3d. of Sept. 1782. to become absolute on the conclusion of peace
between France and Great Britain. Considering my proceeding to
Europe as now of no utility to the public, I returned immediately to
Philadelphia to take the orders of Congress, and was excused by them
from further proceeding. I therefore returned home, where I arrived
on the 15th. of May, 1783.
(* 2) His ostensible character was to be that of a merchant,
his real one that of agent for military supplies, and also for
sounding the dispositions of the government of France, and seeing how
far they would favor us, either secretly or openly. His appointment
had been by the Committee of Foreign Correspondence, March, 1776.
On the 6th. of the following month I was appointed by the
legislature a delegate to Congress, the appointment to take place on
the 1st. of Nov. ensuing, when that of the existing delegation would
expire. I accordingly left home on the 16th. of Oct. arrived at
Trenton, where Congress was sitting, on the 3d. of Nov. and took my
seat on the 4th., on which day Congress adjourned to meet at
Annapolis on the 26th.
Congress had now become a very small body, and the members very
remiss in their attendance on it's duties insomuch that a majority of
the states, necessary by the Confederation to constitute a house even
for minor business did not assemble until the 13th. of December.
They as early as Jan. 7. 1782. had turned their attention to
the monies current in the several states, and had directed the
Financier, Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates at which
the foreign coins should be received at the treasury. That officer,
or rather his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th
in an able and elaborate statement of the denominations of money
current in the several states, and of the comparative value of the
foreign coins chiefly in circulation with us. He went into the
consideration of the necessity of establishing a standard of value
with us, and of the adoption of a money-Unit. He proposed for the
Unit such a fraction of pure silver as would be a common measure of
the penny of every state, without leaving a fraction. This common
divisor he found to be 1 -- 1440 of a dollar, or 1 -- 1600 of the
crown sterling. The value of a dollar was therefore to be expressed
by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600. Each Unit containing a
quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again their
attention to this subject the following year, the financier, by a
letter of Apr. 30, 1783. further explained and urged the Unit he had
proposed; but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year,
when it was again taken up, and referred to a commee of which I was a
member. The general views of the financier were sound, and the
principle was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit. But
it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation
either by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread 1 --
20 of a dollar would be 72. units.
A pound of butter 1 -- 5 of a dollar 288. units.
A horse or bullock of 80. D value would require a notation of
6. figures, to wit 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of 80.
millions, would require 12. figures, to wit 115,200,000,000 units.
Such a system of money-arithmetic would be entirely unmanageable for
the common purposes of society. I proposed therefore, instead of
this, to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and payment, and
that it's divisions and sub-divisions should be in the decimal ratio.
I wrote some Notes on the subject, which I submitted to the
consideration of the financier. I received his answer and adherence
to his general system, only agreeing to take for his Unit 100. of
those he first proposed, so that a Dollar should be 14 40 -- 100 and
a crown 16. units. I replied to this and printed my notes and reply
on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the members of
Congress for consideration, and the Committee agreed to report on my
principle. This was adopted the ensuing year and is the system which
now prevails. I insert here the Notes and Reply, as shewing the
different views on which the adoption of our money system hung. The
division into dimes, cents & mills is now so well understood, that it
would be easy of introduction into the kindred branches of weights &
measures. I use, when I travel, an Odometer of Clarke's invention
which divides the mile into cents, and I find every one comprehend a
distance readily when stated to them in miles & cents; so they would
in feet and cents, pounds & cents, &c.
The remissness of Congress, and their permanent session, began
to be a subject of uneasiness and even some of the legislatures had
recommended to them intermissions, and periodical sessions. As the
Confederation had made no provision for a visible head of the
government during vacations of Congress, and such a one was necessary
to superintend the executive business, to receive and communicate
with foreign ministers & nations, and to assemble Congress on sudden
and extraordinary emergencies, I proposed early in April the
appointment of a commee to be called the Committee of the states, to
consist of a member from each state, who should remain in session
during the recess of Congress: that the functions of Congress should
be divided into Executive and Legislative, the latter to be reserved,
and the former, by a general resolution to be delegated to that
Committee. This proposition was afterwards agreed to; a Committee
appointed, who entered on duty on the subsequent adjourn-ment of
Congress, quarrelled very soon, split into two parties, abandoned
their post, and left the government without any visible head until
the next meeting in Congress. We have since seen the same thing take
place in the Directory of France; and I believe it will forever take
place in any Executive consisting of a plurality. Our plan, best I
believe, combines wisdom and practicability, by providing a plurality
of Counsellors, but a single Arbiter for ultimate decision. I was in
France when we heard of this schism, and separation of our Committee,
and, speaking with Dr. Franklin of this singular disposition of men
to quarrel and divide into parties, he gave his sentiments as usual
by way of Apologue. He mentioned the Eddystone lighthouse in the
British channel as being built on a rock in the mid-channel, totally
inaccessible in winter, from the boisterous character of that sea, in
that season. That therefore, for the two keepers employed to keep up
the lights, all provisions for the winter were necessarily carried to
them in autumn, as they could never be visited again till the return
of the milder season. That on the first practicable day in the
spring a boat put off to them with fresh supplies. The boatmen met
at the door one of the keepers and accosted him with a How goes it
friend? Very well. How is your companion? I do not know. Don't
know? Is not he here? I can't tell. Have not you seen him to-day?
No. When did you see him? Not since last fall. You have killed
him? Not I, indeed. They were about to lay hold of him, as having
certainly murdered his companion; but he desired them to go up stairs
& examine for themselves. They went up, and there found the other
keeper. They had quarrelled it seems soon after being left there,
had divided into two parties, assigned the cares below to one, and
those above to the other, and had never spoken to or seen one another
since.
But to return to our Congress at Annapolis, the definitive
treaty of peace which had been signed at Paris on the 3d. of Sep.
1783. and received here, could not be ratified without a House of 9.
states. On the 23d. of Dec. therefore we addressed letters to the
several governors, stating the receipt of the definitive treaty, that
7 states only were in attendance, while 9. were necessary to its
ratification, and urging them to press on their delegates the
necessity of their immediate attendance. And on the 26th. to save
time I moved that the Agent of Marine (Robert Morris) should be
instructed to have ready a vessel at this place, at N. York, & at
some Eastern port, to carry over the ratification of the treaty when
agreed to. It met the general sense of the house, but was opposed by
Dr. Lee on the ground of expense which it would authorize the agent
to incur for us; and he said it would be better to ratify at once &
send on the ratification. Some members had before suggested that 7
states were competent to the ratification. My motion was therefore
postponed and another brought forward by Mr. Read of S. C. for an
immediate ratification. This was debated the 26th. and 27th. Reed,
Lee, [Hugh] Williamson & Jeremiah Chace urged that ratification was a
mere matter of form, that the treaty was conclusive from the moment
it was signed by the ministers; that although the Confederation
requires the assent of 9. _states_ to _enter into_ a treaty, yet that
it's conclusion could not be called _entrance into it_; that
supposing 9. states requisite, it would be in the power of 5. states
to keep us always at war; that 9. states had virtually authorized the
ratifion having ratified the provisional treaty, and instructed their
ministers to agree to a definitive one in the same terms, and the
present one was in fact substantially and almost verbatim the same;
that there now remain but 67. days for the ratification, for it's
passage across the Atlantic, and it's exchange; that there was no
hope of our soon having 9. states present; in fact that this was the
ultimate point of time to which we could venture to wait; that if the
ratification was not in Paris by the time stipulated, the treaty
would become void; that if ratified by 7 states, it would go under
our seal without it's being known to Gr. Britain that only 7. had
concurred; that it was a question of which they had no right to take
cognizance, and we were only answerable for it to our constituents;
that it was like the ratification which Gr. Britain had received from
the Dutch by the negotiations of Sr. Wm. Temple.
On the contrary, it was argued by Monroe, Gerry, Howel, Ellery
& myself that by the modern usage of Europe the ratification was
considered as the act which gave validity to a treaty, until which it
was not obligatory. (* 3) That the commission to the ministers
reserved the ratification to Congress; that the treaty itself
stipulated that it should be ratified; that it became a 2d. question
who were competent to the ratification? That the Confederation
expressly required 9 states to enter into any treaty; that, by this,
that instrument must have intended that the assent of 9. states
should be necessary as well to the _completion_ as to the
_commencement_ of the treaty, it's object having been to guard the
rights of the Union in all those important cases where 9. states are
called for; that, by the contrary construction, 7 states, containing
less than one third of our whole citizens, might rivet on us a
treaty, commenced indeed under commission and instructions from 9.
states, but formed by the minister in express contradiction to such
instructions, and in direct sacrifice of the interests of so great a
majority; that the definitive treaty was admitted not to be a verbal
copy of the provisional one, and whether the departures from it were
of substance or not, was a question on which 9. states alone were
competent to decide; that the circumstances of the ratification of
the provisional articles by 9. states, the instructions to our
ministers to form a definitive one by them, and their actual
agreement in substance, do not render us competent to ratify in the
present instance; if these circumstances are in themselves a
ratification, nothing further is requisite than to give attested
copies of them, in exchange for the British ratification; if they are
not, we remain where we were, without a ratification by 9. states,
and incompetent ourselves to ratify; that it was but 4. days since
the seven states now present unanimously concurred in a resolution to
be forwarded to the governors of the absent states, in which they
stated as a cause for urging on their delegates, that 9. states were
necessary to ratify the treaty; that in the case of the Dutch
ratification, Gr. Britain had courted it, and therefore was glad to
accept it as it was; that they knew our constitution, and would
object to a ratification by 7. that if that circumstance was kept
back, it would be known hereafter, & would give them ground to deny
the validity of a ratification into which they should have been
surprised and cheated, and it would be a dishonorable prostitution of
our seal; that there is a hope of 9. states; that if the treaty would
become null if not ratified in time, it would not be saved by an
imperfect ratification; but that in fact it would not be null, and
would be placed on better ground, going in unexceptionable form, tho'
a few days too late, and rested on the small importance of this
circumstance, and the physical impossibilities which had prevented a
punctual compliance in point of time; that this would be approved by
all nations, & by Great Britain herself, if not determined to renew
the war, and if determined, she would never want excuses, were this
out of the way. Mr. Reade gave notice he should call for the yeas &
nays; whereon those in opposition prepared a resolution expressing
pointedly the reasons of the dissent from his motion. It appearing
however that his proposition could not be car-ried, it was thought
better to make no entry at all. Massa-chusetts alone would have been
for it; Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia against it, Delaware,
Maryland & N. Carolina, would have been divided.
(* 3) Vattel, L. 2, 156. L, 77. I. Mably Droit D'Europe, 86.
Our body was little numerous, but very contentious. Day after
day was wasted on the most unimportant questions. My colleague
Mercer was one of those afflicted with the morbid rage of debate, of
an ardent mind, prompt imagination, and copious flow of words, he
heard with impatience any logic which was not his own. Sitting near
me on some occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, he asked how I
could sit in silence hearing so much false reasoning which a word
should refute? I observed to him that to refute indeed was easy, but
to silence impossible. That in measures brought forward by myself, I
took the laboring oar, as was incumbent on me; but that in general I
was willing to listen. If every sound argument or objection was used
by some one or other of the numerous debaters, it was enough: if not,
I thought it sufficient to suggest the omission, without going into a
repetition of what had been already said by others. That this was a
waste and abuse of the time and patience of the house which could not
be justified. And I believe that if the members of deliberative
bodies were to observe this course generally, they would do in a day
what takes them a week, and it is really more questionable, than may
at first be thought, whether Bonaparte's dumb legislature which said
nothing and did much, may not be preferable to one which talks much
and does nothing. I served with General Washington in the
legislature of Virginia before the revolution, and, during it, with
Dr. Franklin in Congress. I never heard either of them speak ten
minutes at a time, nor to any but the main point which was to decide
the question. They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing
that the little ones would follow of themselves. If the present
Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body
to which the people send 150. lawyers, whose trade it is to question
everything, yield nothing, & talk by the hour? That 150. lawyers
should do business together ought not to be expected. But to return
again to our subject.
Those who thought 7. states competent to the ratification being
very restless under the loss of their motion, I proposed, on the 3d.
of January to meet them on middle ground, and therefore moved a
resolution which premising that there were but 7. states present, who
were unanimous for the ratification, but, that they differed in
opinion on the question of competency. That those however in the
negative were unwilling that any powers which it might be supposed
they possessed should remain unexercised for the restoration of
peace, provided it could be done saving their good faith, and without
importing any opinion of Congress that 7. states were competent, and
resolving that treaty be ratified so far as they had power; that it
should be transmitted to our ministers with instructions to keep it
uncommunicated; to endeavor to obtain 3. months longer for exchange
of ratifications; that they should be informed that so soon as 9.
states shall be present a ratification by 9. shall be sent them; if
this should get to them before the ultimate point of time for
exchange, they were to use it, and not the other; if not, they were
to offer the act of the 7. states in exchange, informing them the
treaty had come to hand while Congress was not in session, that but
7. states were as yet assembled, and these had unanimously concurred
in the ratification. This was debated on the 3d. and 4th. and on
the 5th. a vessel being to sail for England from this port
(Annapolis) the House directed the President to write to our
ministers accordingly.
Jan. 14. Delegates from Connecticut having attended yesterday,
and another from S. Carolina coming in this day, the treaty was
ratified without a dissenting voice, and three instruments of
ratification were ordered to be made out, one of which was sent by
Colo. Harmer, another by Colo. Franks, and the 3d. transmitted to the
agent of Marine to be forwarded by any good opportunity.
Congress soon took up the consideration of their foreign
relations. They deemed it necessary to get their commerce placed
with every nation on a footing as favorable as that of other nations;
and for this purpose to propose to each a distinct treaty of
commerce. This act too would amount to an acknowledgment by each of
our independance and of our reception into the fraternity of nations;
which altho', as possessing our station of right and in fact, we
would not condescend to ask, we were not unwilling to furnish
opportunities for receiving their friendly salutations & welcome.
With France the United Netherlands and Sweden we had already treaties
of commerce, but commissions were given for those countries also,
should any amendments be thought necessary. The other states to
which treaties were to be proposed were England, Hamburg, Saxony,
Prussia, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Venice, Rome, Naples, Tuscany,
Sardinia, Genoa, Spain, Portugal, the Porte, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis
& Morocco.
Mar. 16. On the 7th. of May Congress resolved that a Minister
Plenipotentiary should be appointed in addition to Mr. Adams & Dr.
Franklin for negotiating treaties of commerce with foreign nations,
and I was elected to that duty. I accordingly left Annapolis on the
11th. Took with me my elder daughter then at Philadelphia (the two
others being too young for the voyage) & proceeded to Boston in quest
of a passage. While passing thro' the different states, I made a
point of informing myself of the state of the commerce of each, went
on to New Hampshire with the same view and returned to Boston. From
thence I sailed on the 5th. of July in the Ceres a merchant ship of
Mr. Nathaniel Tracey, bound to Cowes. He was himself a passenger,
and, after a pleasant voyage of 19. days from land to land, we
arrived at Cowes on the 26th. I was detained there a few days by the
indisposition of my daughter. On the 30th. we embarked for Havre,
arrived there on the 31st. left it on the 3d. of August, and arrived
at Paris on the 6th. I called immediately on Doctr. Franklin at
Passy, communicated to him our charge, and we wrote to Mr. Adams,
then at the Hague to join us at Paris.
Before I had left America, that is to say in the year 1781. I
had received a letter from M. de Marbois, of the French legation in
Philadelphia, informing me he had been instructed by his government
to obtain such statistical accounts of the different states of our
Union, as might be useful for their information; and addressing to me
a number of queries relative to the state of Virginia. I had always
made it a practice whenever an opportunity occurred of obtaining any
information of our country, which might be of use to me in any
station public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda
were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of
recurrence when I had occasion for a particular one. I thought this
a good occasion to embody their substance, which I did in the order
of Mr. Marbois' queries, so as to answer his wish and to arrange them
for my own use. Some friends to whom they were occasionally
communicated wished for copies; but their volume rendering this too
laborious by hand, I proposed to get a few printed for their
gratification. I was asked such a price however as exceeded the
importance of the object. On my arrival at Paris I found it could be
done for a fourth of what I had been asked here. I therefore
corrected and enlarged them, and had 200. copies printed, under the
title of Notes on Virginia. I gave a very few copies to some
particular persons in Europe, and sent the rest to my friends in
America. An European copy, by the death of the owner, got into the
hands of a bookseller, who engaged it's translation, & when ready for
the press, communicated his intentions & manuscript to me, without
any other permission than that of suggesting corrections. I never
had seen so wretched an attempt at translation. Interverted,
abridged, mutilated, and often reversing the sense of the original, I
found it a blotch of errors from beginning to end. I corrected some
of the most material, and in that form it was printed in French. A
London bookseller, on seeing the translation, requested me to permit
him to print the English original. I thought it best to do so to let
the world see that it was not really so bad as the French translation
had made it appear. And this is the true history of that
publication.
Mr. Adams soon joined us at Paris, & our first employment was
to prepare a general form to be proposed to such nations as were
disposed to treat with us. During the negotiations for peace with
the British Commissioner David Hartley, our Commissioners had
proposed, on the suggestion of Doctr. Franklin, to insert an article
exempting from capture by the public or private armed ships of either
belligerent, when at war, all merchant vessels and their cargoes,
employed merely in carrying on the commerce between nations. It was
refused by England, and unwisely, in my opinion. For in the case of
a war with us, their superior commerce places infinitely more at
hazard on the ocean than ours; and as hawks abound in proportion to
game, so our privateers would swarm in proportion to the wealth
exposed to their prize, while theirs would be few for want of
subjects of capture. We inserted this article in our form, with a
provision against the molestation of fishermen, husbandmen, citizens
unarmed and following their occupations in unfortified places, for
the humane treatment of prisoners of war, the abolition of contraband
of war, which exposes merchant vessels to such vexatious & ruinous
detentions and abuses; and for the principle of free bottoms, free
goods.
In a conference with the Count de Vergennes, it was thought
better to leave to legislative regulation on both sides such
modifications of our commercial intercourse as would voluntarily flow
from amicable dispositions. Without urging, we sounded the ministers
of the several European nations at the court of Versailles, on their
dispositions towards mutual commerce, and the expediency of
encouraging it by the protection of a treaty. Old Frederic of
Prussia met us cordially and without hesitation, and appointing the
Baron de Thulemeyer, his minister at the Hague, to negotiate with us,
we communicated to him our Project, which with little alteration by
the King, was soon concluded. Denmark and Tuscany entered also into
negotiations with us. Other powers appearing indifferent we did not
think it proper to press them. They seemed in fact to know little
about us, but as rebels who had been successful in throwing off the
yoke of the mother country. They were ignorant of our commerce,
which had been always monopolized by England, and of the exchange of
articles it might offer advantageously to both parties. They were
inclined therefore to stand aloof until they could see better what
relations might be usefully instituted with us. The negotiations
therefore begun with Denmark & Tuscany we protracted designedly until
our powers had expired; and abstained from making new propositions to
others having no colonies; because our commerce being an exchange of
raw for wrought materials, is a competent price for admission into
the colonies of those possessing them: but were we to give it,
without price, to others, all would claim it without price on the
ordinary ground of gentis amicissimae.
Mr. Adams being appointed Min. Pleny. of the U S. to London,
left us in June, and in July 1785. Dr. Franklin returned to America,
and I was appointed his successor at Paris. In Feb. 1786. Mr. Adams
wrote to me pressingly to join him in London immediately, as he
thought he discovered there some symptoms of better disposition
towards us. Colo. Smith, his Secretary of legation, was the bearer
of his urgencies for my immediate attendance. I accordingly left
Paris on the 1st. of March, and on my arrival in London we agreed on
a very summary form of treaty, proposing an exchange of citizenship
for our citizens, our ships, and our productions generally, except as
to office. On my presentation as usual to the King and Queen at
their levees, it was impossible for anything to be more ungracious
than their notice of Mr. Adams & myself. I saw at once that the
ulcerations in the narrow mind of that mulish being left nothing to
be expected on the subject of my attendance; and on the first
conference with the Marquis of Caermarthen, his Minister of foreign
affairs, the distance and disinclination which he betrayed in his
conversation, the vagueness & evasions of his answers to us,
confirmed me in the belief of their aversion to have anything to do
with us. We delivered him however our Projet, Mr. Adams not
despairing as much as I did of it's effect. We afterwards, by one or
more notes, requested his appointment of an interview and conference,
which, without directly declining, he evaded by pretences of other
pressing occupations for the moment. After staying there seven
weeks, till within a few days of the expiration of our commission, I
informed the minister by note that my duties at Paris required my
return to that place, and that I should with pleasure be the bearer
of any commands to his Ambassador there. He answered that he had
none, and wishing me a pleasant journey, I left London the 26th.
arrived at Paris on the 30th. of April.
While in London we entered into negotiations with the Chevalier
Pinto, Ambassador of Portugal at that place. The only article of
difficulty between us was a stipulation that our bread stuff should
be received in Portugal in the form of flour as well as of grain. He
approved of it himself, but observed that several Nobles, of great
influence at their court, were the owners of wind mills in the
neighborhood of Lisbon which depended much for their profits on
manufacturing our wheat, and that this stipulation would endanger the
whole treaty. He signed it however, & it's fate was what he had
candidly portended.
My duties at Paris were confined to a few objects; the receipt
of our whale-oils, salted fish, and salted meats on favorable terms,
the admission of our rice on equal terms with that of Piedmont, Egypt
& the Levant, a mitigation of the monopolies of our tobacco by the
Farmers-general, and a free admission of our productions into their
islands; were the principal commercial objects which required
attention; and on these occasions I was powerfully aided by all the
influence and the energies of the Marquis de La Fayette, who proved
himself equally zealous for the friendship and welfare of both
nations; and in justice I must also say that I found the government
entirely disposed to befriend us on all occasions, and to yield us
every indulgence not absolutely injurious to themselves. The Count
de Vergennes had the reputation with the diplomatic corps of being
wary & slippery in his diplomatic intercourse; and so he might be
with those whom he knew to be slippery and double-faced themselves.
As he saw that I had no indirect views, practised no subtleties,
meddled in no intrigues, pursued no concealed object, I found him as
frank, as honorable, as easy of access to reason as any man with whom
I had ever done business; and I must say the same for his successor
Montmorin, one of the most honest and worthy of human beings.
Our commerce in the Mediterranean was placed under early alarm
by the capture of two of our vessels and crews by the Barbary
cruisers. I was very unwilling that we should acquiesce in the
European humiliation of paying a tribute to those lawless pirates,
and endeavored to form an association of the powers subject to
habitual depredations from them. I accordingly prepared and proposed
to their ministers at Paris, for consultation with their governments,
articles of a special confederation in the following form.
* * *
"Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at war with
the Piratical States of Barbary.
1. It is proposed that the several powers at war with the
Piratical States of Barbary, or any two or more of them who shall be
willing, shall enter into a convention to carry on their operations
against those states, in concert, beginning with the Algerines.
2. This convention shall remain open to any other power who
shall at any future time wish to accede to it; the parties reserving
a right to prescribe the conditions of such accession, according to
the circumstances existing at the time it shall be proposed.
3. The object of the convention shall be to compel the
piratical states to perpetual peace, without price, & to guarantee
that peace to each other.
4. The operations for obtaining this peace shall be constant
cruises on their coast with a naval force now to be agreed on. It is
not proposed that this force shall be so considerable as to be
inconvenient to any party. It is believed that half a dozen
frigates, with as many Tenders or Xebecs, one half of which shall be
in cruise, while the other half is at rest, will suffice.
5. The force agreed to be necessary shall be furnished by the
parties in certain quotas now to be fixed; it being expected that
each will be willing to contribute in such proportion as circumstance
may render reasonable.
6. As miscarriages often proceed from the want of harmony
among officers of different nations, the parties shall now consider &
decide whether it will not be better to contribute their quotas in
money to be employed in fitting out, and keeping on duty, a single
fleet of the force agreed on.
7. The difficulties and delays too which will attend the
management of these operations, if conducted by the parties
themselves separately, distant as their courts may be from one
another, and incapable of meeting in consultation, suggest a question
whether it will not be better for them to give full powers for that
purpose to their Ambassadors or other ministers resident at some one
court of Europe, who shall form a Committee or Council for carrying
this convention into effect; wherein the vote of each member shall be
computed in proportion to the quota of his sovereign, and the
majority so computed shall prevail in all questions within the view
of this convention. The court of Versailles is proposed, on account
of it's neighborhood to the Mediterranean, and because all those
powers are represented there, who are likely to become parties to
this convention.
8. To save to that council the embarrassment of personal
solicitations for office, and to assure the parties that their
contributions will be applied solely to the object for which they are
destined, there shall be no establishment of officers for the said
Council, such as Commis, Secretaries, or any other kind, with either
salaries or perquisites, nor any other lucrative appointments but
such whose functions are to be exercised on board the sd vessels.
9. Should war arise between any two of the parties to this
convention it shall not extend to this enterprise, nor interrupt it;
but as to this they shall be reputed at peace.
10. When Algiers shall be reduced to peace, the other
pyratical states, if they refuse to discontinue their pyracies shall
become the objects of this convention, either successively or
together as shall seem best.
11. Where this convention would interfere with treaties
actually existing between any of the parties and the sd states of
Barbary, the treaty shall prevail, and such party shall be allowed to
withdraw from the operations against that state."
* * *
Spain had just concluded a treaty with Algiers at the expense
of 3. millions of dollars, and did not like to relinquish the benefit
of that until the other party should fail in their observance of it.
Portugal, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Denmark and Sweden
were favorably disposed to such an association; but their
representatives at Paris expressed apprehensions that France would
interfere, and, either openly or secretly support the Barbary powers;
and they required that I should ascertain the dispositions of the
Count de Vergennes on the subject. I had before taken occasion to
inform him of what we were proposing, and therefore did not think it
proper to insinuate any doubt of the fair conduct of his government;
but stating our propositions, I mentioned the apprehensions
entertained by us that England would interfere in behalf of those
piratical governments. "She dares not do it," said he. I pressed it
no further. The other agents were satisfied with this indication of
his sentiments, and nothing was now wanting to bring it into direct
and formal consideration, but the assent of our government, and their
authority to make the formal proposition. I communicated to them the
favorable prospect of protecting our commerce from the Barbary
depredations, and for such a continuance of time as, by an exclusion
of them from the sea, to change their habits & characters from a
predatory to an agricultural people: towards which however it was
expected they would contribute a frigate, and it's expenses to be in
constant cruise. But they were in no condition to make any such
engagement. Their recommendatory powers for obtaining contributions
were so openly neglected by the several states that they declined an
engagement which they were conscious they could not fulfill with
punctuality; and so it fell through.
May 17. In 1786. while at Paris I became acquainted with John
Ledyard of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of
fearless courage, & enterprise. He had accompanied Capt Cook in his
voyage to the Pacific, had distinguished himself on several occasions
by an unrivalled intrepidity, and published an account of that voyage
with details unfavorable to Cook's deportment towards the savages,
and lessening our regrets at his fate. Ledyard had come to Paris in
the hope of forming a company to engage in the fur trade of the
Western coast of America. He was disappointed in this, and being out
of business, and of a roaming, restless character, I suggested to him
the enterprise of exploring the Western part of our continent, by
passing thro St. Petersburg to Kamschatka, and procuring a passage
thence in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka Sound, whence he
might make his way across the continent to America; and I undertook
to have the permission of the Empress of Russia solicited. He
eagerly embraced the proposition, and M. de Semoulin, the Russian
Ambassador, and more particularly Baron Grimm the special
correspondent of the Empress, solicited her permission for him to
pass thro' her dominions to the Western coast of America. And here I
must correct a material error which I have committed in another place
to the prejudice of the Empress. In writing some Notes of the life
of Capt Lewis, prefixed to his expedition to the Pacific, I stated
that the Empress gave the permission asked, & afterwards retracted
it. This idea, after a lapse of 26 years, had so insinuated itself
into my mind, that I committed it to paper without the least
suspicion of error. Yet I find, on recurring to my letters of that
date that the Empress refused permission at once, considering the
enterprise as entirely chimerical. But Ledyard would not relinquish
it, persuading himself that by proceeding to St. Petersburg he could
satisfy the Empress of it's practicability and obtain her permission.
He went accordingly, but she was absent on a visit to some distant
part of her dominions, (* 4) and he pursued his course to within 200.
miles of Kamschatka, where he was overtaken by an arrest from the
Empress, brought back to Poland, and there dismissed. I must
therefore in justice, acquit the Empress of ever having for a moment
countenanced, even by the indulgence of an innocent passage thro' her
territories this interesting enterprise.
(* 4) The Crimea.
May 18. The pecuniary distresses of France produced this year
a measure of which there had been no example for near two centuries,
& the consequences of which, good and evil, are not yet calculable.
For it's remote causes we must go a little back.
Celebrated writers of France and England had already sketched
good principles on the subject of government. Yet the American
Revolution seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the
French nation in general from the sleep of despotism in which they
were sunk. The officers too who had been to America, were mostly
young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more ready to
assent to the suggestions of common sense, and feeling of common
rights. They came back with new ideas & impressions. The press,
notwithstanding it's shackles, began to disseminate them.
Conversation assumed new freedoms. Politics became the theme of all
societies, male and female, and a very extensive & zealous party was
formed which acquired the appellation of the Patriotic party, who,
sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, sighed for
occasions of reforming it. This party comprehended all the honesty
of the kingdom sufficiently at it's leisure to think, the men of
letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility partly from
reflection, partly from mode, for these sentiments became matter of
mode, and as such united most of the young women to the party.
Happily for the nation, it happened at the same moment that the
dissipations of the Queen and court, the abuses of the pension-list,
and dilapidations in the administration of every branch of the
finances, had exhausted the treasures and credit of the nation,
insomuch that it's most necessary functions were paralyzed. To
reform these abuses would have overset the minister; to impose new
taxes by the authority of the King was known to be impossible from
the determined opposition of the parliament to their enregistry. No
resource remained then but to appeal to the nation. He advised
therefore the call of an assembly of the most distinguished
characters of the nation, in the hope that by promises of various and
valuable improvements in the organization and regimen of the
government, they would be induced to authorize new taxes, to controul
the opposition of the parliament, and to raise the annual revenue to
the level of expenditures. An Assembly of Notables therefore, about
150. in number named by the King, convened on the 22d. of Feb. The
Minister (Calonne) stated to them that the annual excess of expenses
beyond the revenue, when Louis XVI. came to the throne, was 37.
millions of livres; that 440. millns. had been borrowed to
reestablish the navy; that the American war had cost them 1440.
millns. (256. mils. of Dollars) and that the interest of these sums,
with other increased expenses had added 40 millns. more to the annual
deficit. (But a subseqt. and more candid estimate made it 56.
millns.) He proffered them an universal redress of grievances, laid
open those grievances fully, pointed out sound remedies, and covering
his canvas with objects of this magnitude, the deficit dwindled to a
little accessory, scarcely attracting attention. The persons chosen
were the most able & independent characters in the kingdom, and their
support, if it could be obtained, would be enough for him. They
improved the occasion for redressing their grievances, and agreed
that the public wants should be relieved; but went into an
examination of the causes of them. It was supposed that Calonne was
conscious that his accounts could not bear examination; and it was
said and believed that he asked of the King to send 4. members to the
Bastile, of whom the M. de la Fayette was one, to banish 20. others,
& 2. of his Ministers. The King found it shorter to banish him. His
successor went on in full concert with the Assembly. The result was
an augmentation of the revenue, a promise of economies in it's
expenditure, of an annual settlement of the public accounts before a
council, which the Comptroller, having been heretofore obliged to
settle only with the King in person, of course never settled at all;
an acknowledgment that the King could not lay a new tax, a
reformation of the criminal laws, abolition of torture, suppression
of Corvees, reformation of the gabelles, removal of the interior
custom houses, free commerce of grain internal & external, and the
establishment of Provincial assemblies; which alltogether constituted
a great mass of improvement in the condition of the nation. The
establishment of the Provincial assemblies was in itself a
fundamental improvement. They would be of the choice of the people,
one third renewed every year, in those provinces where there are no
States, that is to say over about three fourths of the kingdom. They
would be partly an Executive themselves, & partly an Executive
council to the Intendant, to whom the Executive power, in his
province had been heretofore entirely delegated. Chosen by the
people, they would soften the execution of hard laws, & having a
right of representation to the King, they would censure bad laws,
suggest good ones, expose abuses, and their representations, when
united, would command respect. To the other advantages might be
added the precedent itself of calling the Assemblee des Notables,
which would perhaps grow into habit. The hope was that the
improvements thus promised would be carried into effect, that they
would be maintained during the present reign, & that that would be
long enough for them to take some root in the constitution, so that
they might come to be considered as a part of that, and be protected
by time, and the attachment of the nation.
The Count de Vergennes had died a few days before the meeting
of the Assembly, & the Count de Montmorin had been named Minister of
foreign affairs in his place. Villedeuil succeeded Calonnes as
Comptroller general, & Lomenie de Bryenne, Archbishop of Thoulouse,
afterwards of Sens, & ultimately Cardinal Lomenie, was named Minister
principal, with whom the other ministers were to transact the
business of their departments, heretofore done with the King in
person, and the Duke de Nivernois, and M. de Malesherbes were called
to the Council. On the nomination of the Minister principal the
Marshals de Segur & de Castries retired from the departments of War &
Marine, unwilling to act subordinately, or to share the blame of
proceedings taken out of their direction. They were succeeded by the
Count de Brienne, brother of the Prime minister, and the Marquis de
la Luzerne, brother to him who had been Minister in the United
States.
May 24. A dislocated wrist, unsuccessfully set, occasioned
advice from my Surgeon to try the mineral waters of Aix in Provence
as a corroborant. I left Paris for that place therefore on the 28th.
of Feb. and proceeded up the Seine, thro' Champagne & Burgundy, and
down the Rhone thro' the Beaujolais by Lyons, Avignon, Nismes to Aix,
where finding on trial no benefit from the waters, I concluded to
visit the rice country of Piedmont, to see if anything might be
learned there to benefit the rivalship of our Carolina rice with
that, and thence to make a tour of the seaport towns of France, along
it's Southern and Western coast, to inform myself if anything could
be done to favor our commerce with them. From Aix therefore I took
my route by Marseilles, Toulon, Hieres, Nice, across the Col de
Tende, by Coni, Turin, Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Pavia, Novi, Genoa.
Thence returning along the coast by Savona, Noli, Albenga, Oneglia,
Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Frejus, Aix, Marseilles, Avignon, Nismes,
Montpellier, Frontignan, Cette, Agde, and along the canal of
Languedoc, by Bezieres, Narbonne, Cascassonne, Castelnaudari, thro'
the Souterrain of St. Feriol and back by Castelnaudari, to Toulouse,
thence to Montauban & down the Garonne by Langon to Bordeaux. Thence
to Rochefort, la Rochelle, Nantes, L'Orient, then back by Rennes to
Nantes, and up the Loire by Angers, Tours, Amboise, Blois to New
Orleans, thence direct to Paris where I arrived on the 10th. of June.
Soon after my return from this journey to wit, about the latter part
of July, I received my younger daughter Maria from Virginia by the
way of London, the youngest having died some time before.
The treasonable perfidy of the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder &
Captain General of the United Netherlands, in the war which England
waged against them for entering into a treaty of commerce with the U.
S. is known to all. As their Executive officer, charged with the
conduct of the war, he contrived to baffle all the measures of the
States General, to dislocate all their military plans, & played false
into the hands of England and against his own country on every
possible occasion, confident in her protection, and in that of the
King of Prussia, brother to his Princess. The States General
indignant at this patricidal conduct applied to France for aid,
according to the stipulations of the treaty concluded with her in 85.
It was assured to them readily, and in cordial terms, in a letter
from the Ct. de Vergennes to the Marquis de Verac, Ambassador of
France at the Hague, of which the following is an extract.
"Extrait de la depeche de Monsr. le Comte de Vergennes a Monsr.
le Marquis de Verac, Ambassadeur de France a la Haye, du 1er Mars
1786.
"Le Roi concourrera, autant qu'il sera en son pouvoir, au
succes de la chose, et vous inviterez de sa part les patriotes de lui
communiquer leurs vues, leurs plans, et leurs envieux. Vous les
assurerez que le roi prend un interet veritable a leurs personnes
comme a leur cause, et qu' ils peuvent compter sur sa protection.
Ils doivent y compter d' autant plus, Monsieur, que nous ne
dissimulons pas que si Monsr. le Stadhoulder reprend son ancienne
influence, le systeme Anglois ne tardera pas de prevaloir, et que
notre alliance deviendroit unetre de raison. Les Patriotes sentiront
facilement que cette position seroit incompatible avec la dignite,
comme avec la consideration de sa majeste. Mais dans le cas,
Monsieur, ou les chefs des Patriotes auroient a craindre une
scission, ils auroient le temps suffisant pour ramener ceux de leurs
amis que les Anglomanes ont egares, et preparer les choses de maniere
que la question de nouveau mise en deliberation soit decide selon
leurs desirs. Dans cette hypothese, le roi vous autorise a agir de
concert avec eux, de suivre la direction qu' ils jugeront devoir vous
donner, et d' employer tous les moyens pour augmenter le nombre des
partisans de la bonne cause. Il me reste, Monsieur, il me reste
Monsieur, de vous parler de la surete personelle des patriotes. Vous
les assurerez que dans tout etat de cause, le roi les prend sous sa
protection immediate, et vous ferez connoitre partout ou vous le
jugerez necessaire, que sa Majeste regarderoit comme une offense
personnelle tout ce qu' on entreprenderoit contre leur liberte. Il
est a presumer que ce langage, tenu avec energie, en imposera a
l'audace des Anglomanes et que Monsr. le Prince de Nassau croira
courir quelque risque en provoquant le ressentiment de sa Majeste."
This letter was communicated by the Patriots to me when at
Amsterdam in 1788. and a copy sent by me to Mr. Jay in my letter to
him of Mar. 16. 1788.
The object of the Patriots was to establish a representative
and republican government. The majority of the States general were
with them, but the majority of the populace of the towns was with the
Prince of Orange; and that populace was played off with great effect
by the triumvirate of Harris the English Ambassador afterwards Ld.
Malmesbury, the Prince of Orange a stupid man, and the Princess as
much a man as either of her colleagues, in audaciousness, in
enterprise, & in the thirst of domination. By these the mobs of the
Hague were excited against the members of the States general, their
persons were insulted & endangered in the streets, the sanctuary of
their houses was violated, and the Prince whose function & duty it
was to repress and punish these violations of order, took no steps
for that purpose. The States General, for their own protection were
therefore obliged to place their militia under the command of a
Committee. The Prince filled the courts of London and Berlin with
complaints at this usurpation of his prerogatives, and forgetting
that he was but the first servant of a republic, marched his regular
troops against the city of Utrecht, where the States were in session.
They were repulsed by the militia. His interests now became
marshalled with those of the public enemy & against his own country.
The States therefore, exercising their rights of sovereignty,
deprived him of all his powers. The great Frederic had died in
August 86. (* 5) He had never intended to break with France in
support of the Prince of Orange. During the illness of which he
died, he had thro' the Duke of Brunswick, declared to the Marquis de
la Fayette, who was then at Berlin, that he meant not to support the
English interest in Holland: that he might assure the government of
France his only wish was that some honorable place in the
Constitution should be reserved for the Stadtholder and his children,
and that he would take no part in the quarrel unless an entire
abolition of the Stadtholderate should be attempted. But his place
was now occupied by Frederic William, his great nephew, a man of
little understanding, much caprice, & very inconsiderate; and the
Princess his sister, altho' her husband was in arms against the
legitimate authorities of the country, attempting to go to Amsterdam
for the purpose of exciting the mobs of that place and being refused
permission to pass a military post on the way, he put the Duke of
Brunswick at the head of 20,000 men, and made demonstrations of
marching on Holland. The King of France hereupon declared, by his
Charge des Affaires in Holland that if the Prussian troops continued
to menace Holland with an invasion, his Majesty, in quality of Ally,
was determined to succor that province. (* 6) In answer to this Eden
gave official information to Count Montmorin, that England must
consider as at an end, it's convention with France relative to giving
notice of it's naval armaments and that she was arming generally. (*
7) War being now imminent, Eden questioned me on the effect of our
treaty with France in the case of a war, & what might be our
dispositions. I told him frankly and without hesitation that our
dispositions would be neutral, and that I thought it would be the
interest of both these powers that we should be so; because it would
relieve both from all anxiety as to feeding their W. India islands.
That England too, by suffering us to remain so, would avoid a heavy
land-war on our continent, which might very much cripple her
proceedings elsewhere; that our treaty indeed obliged us to receive
into our ports the armed vessels of France, with their prizes, and to
refuse admission to the prizes made on her by her enemies: that there
was a clause also by which we guaranteed to France her American
possessions, which might perhaps force us into the war, if these were
attacked. "Then it will be war, said he, for they will assuredly be
attacked." (* 8) Liston, at Madrid, about the same time, made the
same inquiries of Carmichael. The government of France then declared
a determination to form a camp of observation at Givet, commenced
arming her marine, and named the Bailli de Suffrein their
Generalissimo on the Ocean. She secretly engaged also in
negotiations with Russia, Austria, & Spain to form a quadruple
alliance. The Duke of Brunswick having advanced to the confines of
Holland, sent some of his officers to Givet to reconnoitre the state
of things there, and report them to him. He said afterwards that "if
there had been only a few tents at that place, he should not have
advanced further, for that the King would not merely for the interest
of his sister, engage in a war with France." But finding that there
was not a single company there, he boldly entered the country, took
their towns as fast as he presented himself before them, and advanced
on Utrecht. The States had appointed the Rhingrave of Salm their
Commander-in-chief, a Prince without talents, without courage, and
without principle. He might have held out in Utrecht for a
considerable time, but he surrendered the place without firing a gun,
literally ran away & hid himself so that for months it was not known
what had become of him. Amsterdam was then attacked and capitulated.
In the meantime the negotiations for the quadruple alliance were
proceeding favorably. But the secrecy with which they were attempted
to be conducted, was penetrated by Fraser, Charge des affaires of
England at St. Petersburg, who instantly notified his court, and
gave the alarm to Prussia. The King saw at once what would be his
situation between the jaws of France, Austria, and Russia. In great
dismay he besought the court of London not to abandon him, sent
Alvensleben to Paris to explain and soothe, and England thro' the D.
of Dorset and Eden, renewed her conferences for accommodation. The
Archbishop, who shuddered at the idea of war, and preferred a
peaceful surrender of right to an armed vindication of it, received
them with open arms, entered into cordial conferences, and a
declaration, and counter declaration were cooked up at Versailles and
sent to London for approbation. They were approved there, reached
Paris at 1 o'clock of the 27th. and were signed that night at
Versailles. It was said and believed at Paris that M. de Montmorin,
literally "pleuroit comme un enfant," when obliged to sign this
counter declaration; so distressed was he by the dishonor of
sacrificing the Patriots after assurances so solemn of protection,
and absolute encouragement to proceed. (* 9) The Prince of Orange
was reinstated in all his powers, now become regal. A great
emigration of the Patriots took place, all were deprived of office,
many exiled, and their property confiscated. They were received in
France, and subsisted for some time on her bounty. Thus fell
Holland, by the treachery of her chief, from her honorable
independence to become a province of England, and so also her
Stadtholder from the high station of the first citizen of a free
republic, to be the servile Viceroy of a foreign sovereign. And this
was effected by a mere scene of bullying & demonstration, not one of
the parties, France England or Prussia having ever really meant to
encounter actual war for the interest of the Prince of Orange. But
it had all the effect of a real and decisive war.
(* 5) lre to Jay Aug. 6. 87.
(* 6) My lre Sep. 22. 87.
(* 7) My lre to J. Jay Sep.24.
(* 8) lre to Carm. Dec. 15.
(* 9) My lre to Jay Nov. 3. lre to J. Adams, Nov. 13.
Our first essay in America to establish a federative government
had fallen, on trial, very short of it's object. During the war of
Independance, while the pressure of an external enemy hooped us
together, and their enterprises kept us necessarily on the alert, the
spirit of the people, excited by danger, was a supplement to the
Confederation, and urged them to zealous exertions, whether claimed
by that instrument, or not. But when peace and safety were restored,
and every man became engaged in useful and profitable occupation,
less attention was paid to the calls of Congress. The fundamental
defect of the Confederation was that Congress was not authorized to
act immediately on the people, & by it's own officers. Their power
was only requisitory, and these requisitions were addressed to the
several legislatures, to be by them carried into execution, without
other coercion than the moral principle of duty. This allowed in
fact a negative to every legislature, on every measure proposed by
Congress; a negative so frequently exercised in practice as to benumb
the action of the federal government, and to render it inefficient in
it's general objects, & more especially in pecuniary and foreign
concerns. The want too of a separation of the legislative,
executive, & judiciary functions worked disadvantageously in
practice. Yet this state of things afforded a happy augury of the
future march of our confederacy, when it was seen that the good sense
and good dispositions of the people, as soon as they perceived the
incompetence of their first compact, instead of leaving it's
correction to insurrection and civil war, agreed with one voice to
elect deputies to a general convention, who should peaceably meet and
agree on such a constitution as "would ensure peace, justice,
liberty, the common defence & general welfare."
This Convention met at Philadelphia on the 25th. of May '87.
It sate with closed doors and kept all it's proceedings secret, until
it's dissolution on the 17th. of September, when the results of their
labors were published all together. I received a copy early in
November, and read and contemplated it's provisions with great
satisfaction. As not a member of the Convention however, nor
probably a single citizen of the Union, had approved it in all it's
parts, so I too found articles which I thought objectionable. The
absence of express declarations ensuring freedom of religion, freedom
of the press, freedom of the person under the uninterrupted
protection of the Habeas corpus, & trial by jury in civil as well as
in criminal cases excited my jealousy; and the re-eligibility of the
President for life, I quite disapproved. I expressed freely in
letters to my friends, and most particularly to Mr. Madison & General
Washington, my approbations and objections. How the good should be
secured, and the ill brought to rights was the difficulty. To refer
it back to a new Convention might endanger the loss of the whole. My
first idea was that the 9. states first acting should accept it
unconditionally, and thus secure what in it was good, and that the 4.
last should accept on the previous condition that certain amendments
should be agreed to, but a better course was devised of accepting the
whole and trusting that the good sense & honest intentions of our
citizens would make the alterations which should be deemed necessary.
Accordingly all accepted, 6. without objection, and 7. with
recommendations of specified amendments. Those respecting the press,
religion, & juries, with several others, of great value, were
accordingly made; but the Habeas corpus was left to the discretion of
Congress, and the amendment against the reeligibility of the
President was not proposed by that body. My fears of that feature
were founded on the importance of the office, on the fierce
contentions it might excite among ourselves, if continuable for life,
and the dangers of interference either with money or arms, by foreign
nations, to whom the choice of an American President might become
interesting. Examples of this abounded in history; in the case of
the Roman emperors for instance, of the Popes while of any
significance, of the German emperors, the Kings of Poland, & the Deys
of Barbary. I had observed too in the feudal History, and in the
recent instance particularly of the Stadtholder of Holland, how
easily offices or tenures for life slide into inheritances. My wish
therefore was that the President should be elected for 7. years & be
ineligible afterwards. This term I thought sufficient to enable him,
with the concurrence of the legislature, to carry thro' & establish
any system of improvement he should propose for the general good.
But the practice adopted I think is better allowing his continuance
for 8. years with a liability to be dropped at half way of the term,
making that a period of probation. That his continuance should be
restrained to 7. years was the opinion of the Convention at an early
stage of it's session, when it voted that term by a majority of 8.
against 2. and by a simple majority that he should be ineligible a
second time. This opinion &c. was confirmed by the house so late as
July 26. referred to the committee of detail, reported favorably by
them, and changed to the present form by final vote on the last day
but one only of their session. Of this change three states expressed
their disapprobation, N. York by recommending an amendment that the
President should not be eligible a third time, and Virginia and N.
Carolina that he should not be capable of serving more than 8. in any
term of 16. years. And altho' this amendment has not been made in
form, yet practice seems to have established it. The example of 4
Presidents voluntarily retiring at the end of their 8th year, & the
progress of public opinion that the principle is salutary, have given
it in practice the force of precedent & usage; insomuch that should a
President consent to be a candidate for a 3d. election, I trust he
would be rejected on this demonstration of ambitious views.
But there was another amendment of which none of us thought at
the time and in the omission of which lurks the germ that is to
destroy this happy combination of National powers in the General
government for matters of National concern, and independent powers in
the states for what concerns the states severally. In England it was
a great point gained at the Revolution, that the commissions of the
judges, which had hitherto been during pleasure, should thenceforth
be made during good behavior. A Judiciary dependent on the will of
the King had proved itself the most oppressive of all tools in the
hands of that Magistrate. Nothing then could be more salutary than a
change there to the tenure of good behavior; and the question of good
behavior left to the vote of a simple majority in the two houses of
parliament. Before the revolution we were all good English Whigs,
cordial in their free principles, and in their jealousies of their
executive Magistrate. These jealousies are very apparent in all our
state constitutions; and, in the general government in this instance,
we have gone even beyond the English caution, by requiring a vote of
two thirds in one of the Houses for removing a judge; a vote so
impossible where (* 10) any defence is made, before men of ordinary
prejudices & passions, that our judges are effectually independent of
the nation. But this ought not to be. I would not indeed make them
dependant on the Executive authority, as they formerly were in
England; but I deem it indispensable to the continuance of this
government that they should be submitted to some practical &
impartial controul: and that this, to be imparted, must be compounded
of a mixture of state and federal authorities. It is not enough that
honest men are appointed judges. All know the influence of interest
on the mind of man, and how unconsciously his judgment is warped by
that influence. To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of
their peculiar maxim and creed that "it is the office of a good judge
to enlarge his jurisdiction," and the absence of responsibility, and
how can we expect impartial decision between the General government,
of which they are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual
state from which they have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too
that, contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going
out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead and grapple
further hold for future advances of power. They are then in fact the
corps of sappers & miners, steadily working to undermine the
independant rights of the States, & to consolidate all power in the
hands of that government in which they have so important a freehold
estate. But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of
powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected.
Were not this great country already divided into states, that
division must be made, that each might do for itself what concerns
itself directly, and what it can so much better do than a distant
authority. Every state again is divided into counties, each to take
care of what lies within it's local bounds; each county again into
townships or wards, to manage minuter details; and every ward into
farms, to be governed each by it's individual proprietor. Were we
directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon
want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in
gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs
may be best managed for the good and prosperity of all. I repeat
that I do not charge the judges with wilful and ill-intentioned
error; but honest error must be arrested where it's toleration leads
to public ruin. As, for the safety of society, we commit honest
maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be withdrawn from their bench,
whose erroneous biases are leading us to dissolution. It may indeed
injure them in fame or in fortune; but it saves the republic, which
is the first and supreme law. In the impeachment of judge Pickering
of New Hampshire, a habitual & maniac drunkard, no defence was made.
Had there been, the party vote of more than one third of the Senate
would have acquitted him.
(* 10) In the impeachment of judge Pickering of New Hampsire, a
habitual & maniac drunkard, no defence was made. Had there been, the
party vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted
him.
Among the debilities of the government of the Confederation, no
one was more distinguished or more distressing than the utter
impossibility of obtaining, from the states, the monies necessary for
the payment of debts, or even for the ordinary expenses of the
government. Some contributed a little, some less, & some nothing,
and the last furnished at length an excuse for the first to do
nothing also. Mr. Adams, while residing at the Hague, had a general
authority to borrow what sums might be requisite for ordinary &
necessary expenses. Interest on the public debt, and the maintenance
of the diplomatic establishment in Europe, had been habitually
provided in this way. He was now elected Vice President of the U. S.
was soon to return to America, and had referred our bankers to me for
future councel on our affairs in their hands. But I had no powers,
no instructions, no means, and no familiarity with the subject. It
had always been exclusively under his management, except as to
occasional and partial deposits in the hands of Mr. Grand, banker in
Paris, for special and local purposes. These last had been exhausted
for some time, and I had fervently pressed the Treasury board to
replenish this particular deposit; as Mr. Grand now refused to make
further advances. They answered candidly that no funds could be
obtained until the new government should get into action, and have
time to make it's arrangements. Mr. Adams had received his
appointment to the court of London while engaged at Paris, with Dr.
Franklin and myself, in the negotiations under our joint commissions.
He had repaired thence to London, without returning to the Hague to
take leave of that government. He thought it necessary however to do
so now, before he should leave Europe, and accordingly went there. I
learned his departure from London by a letter from Mrs. Adams
received on the very day on which he would arrive at the Hague. A
consultation with him, & some provision for the future was
indispensable, while we could yet avail ourselves of his powers. For
when they would be gone, we should be without resource. I was daily
dunned by a company who had formerly made a small loan to the U S.
the principal of which was now become due; and our bankers in
Amsterdam had notified me that the interest on our general debt would
be expected in June; that if we failed to pay it, it would be deemed
an act of bankruptcy and would effectually destroy the credit of the
U S. and all future prospect of obtaining money there; that the loan
they had been authorized to open, of which a third only was filled,
and now ceased to get forward, and rendered desperate that hope of
resource. I saw that there was not a moment to lose, and set out for
the Hague on the 2d. morning after receiving the information of Mr.
Adams's journey. I went the direct road by Louvres, Senlis, Roye,
Pont St. Maxence, Bois le duc, Gournay, Peronne, Cambray, Bouchain,
Valenciennes, Mons, Bruxelles, Malines, Antwerp, Mordick, and
Rotterdam, to the Hague, where I happily found Mr. Adams. He
concurred with me at once in opinion that something must be done, and
that we ought to risk ourselves on doing it without instructions, to
save the credit of the U S. We foresaw that before the new
government could be adopted, assembled, establish it's financial
system, get the money into the treasury, and place it in Europe,
considerable time would elapse; that therefore we had better provide
at once for the years 88. 89. & 90. in order to place our government
at it's ease, and our credit in security, during that trying
interval. We set out therefore by the way of Leyden for Amsterdam,
where we arrived on the 10th. I had prepared an estimate showing
that
Florins.
there would be necessary for the year 88 -- 531,937 -- 10
89 -- 538,540
90 -- 473,540
--------------------
Total, 1,544,017 -- 10
Flor.
to meet this the bankers had in hand 79,268 -- 2 -- 8
& the unsold bonds would yield 542,800 622,068 -- 2 -- 8
-------- -----------------
we proposed then to borrow a million yielding. . . 900,000
-----------------
which would leave a small deficiency of. . . . . . 1,949 -- 7 -- 4
Mr. Adams accordingly executed 1000. bonds, for 1000. florins
each, and deposited them in the hands of our bankers, with
instructions however not to issue them until Congress should ratify
the measure. This done, he returned to London, and I set out for
Paris; and as nothing urgent forbade it, I determined to return along
the banks of the Rhine to Strasburg, and thence strike off to Paris.
I accordingly left Amsterdam on the 30th of March, and proceeded by
Utrecht, Nimeguen, Cleves, Duysberg, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonne,
Coblentz, Nassau, Hocheim, Frankfort, & made an excursion to Hanau,
thence to Mayence and another excursion to Rude-sheim, & Johansberg;
then by Oppenheim, Worms, and Manheim, and an excursion to
Heidelberg, then by Spire, Carlsruh, Rastadt & Kelh, to Strasburg,
where I arrived Apr. 16th, and proceeded again on the 18th, by
Phalsbourg, Fenestrange, Dieuze, Moyenvie, Nancy, Toul, Ligny,
Barleduc, St. Diziers, Vitry, Chalons sur Marne, Epernay, Chateau
Thierri, Meaux, to Paris where I arrived on the 23d. of April; and I
had the satisfaction to reflect that by this journey our credit was
secured, the new government was placed at ease for two years to come,
and that as well as myself were relieved from the torment of
incessant duns, whose just complaints could not be silenced by any
means within our power.
A Consular Convention had been agreed on in 84. between Dr.
Franklin and the French government containing several articles so
entirely inconsistent with the laws of the several states, and the
general spirit of our citizens, that Congress withheld their
ratification, and sent it back to me with instructions to get those
articles expunged or modified so as to render them compatible with
our laws. The minister retired unwillingly from these concessions,
which indeed authorized the exercise of powers very offensive in a
free state. After much discussion it was reformed in a considerable
degree, and the Convention was signed by the Count Montmorin and
myself, on the 14th. of Nov. 88 not indeed such as I would have
wished; but such as could be obtained with good humor & friendship.
On my return from Holland, I had found Paris still in high
fermentation as I had left it. Had the Archbishop, on the close of
the assembly of Notables, immediately carried into operation the
measures contemplated, it was believed they would all have been
registered by the parliament, but he was slow, presented his edicts,
one after another, & at considerable intervals of time, which gave
time for the feelings excited by the proceedings of the Notables to
cool off, new claims to be advanced, and a pressure to arise for a
fixed constitution, not subject to changes at the will of the King.
Nor should we wonder at this pressure when we consider the monstrous
abuses of power under which this people were ground to powder, when
we pass in review the weight of their taxes, and inequality of their
distribution; the oppressions of the tythes, of the tailles, the
corvees, the gabelles, the farms & barriers; the shackles on Commerce
by monopolies; on Industry by gilds & corporations; on the freedom of
conscience, of thought, and of speech; on the Press by the Censure;
and of person by lettres de Cachet; the cruelty of the criminal code
generally, the atrocities of the Rack, the venality of judges, and
their partialities to the rich; the Monopoly of Military honors by
the Noblesse; the enormous expenses of the Queen, the princes & the
Court; the prodigalities of pensions; & the riches, luxury, indolence
& immorality of the clergy. Surely under such a mass of misrule and
oppression, a people might justly press for a thoro' reformation, and
might even dismount their rough-shod riders, & leave them to walk on
their own legs. The edicts relative to the corvees & free
circulation of grain, were first presented to the parliament and
registered. But those for the impot territorial, & stamp tax,
offered some time after, were refused by the parliament, which
proposed a call of the States General as alone competent to their
authorization. Their refusal produced a Bed of justice, and their
exile to Troyes. The advocates however refusing to attend them, a
suspension in the administration of justice took place. The
Parliament held out for awhile, but the ennui of their exile and
absence from Paris begun at length to be felt, and some dispositions
for compromise to appear. On their consent therefore to prolong some
of the former taxes, they were recalled from exile, the King met them
in session Nov. 19. 87. promised to call the States General in the
year 92. and a majority expressed their assent to register an edict
for successive and annual loans from 1788. to 92. But a protest
being entered by the Duke of Orleans and this encouraging others in a
disposition to retract, the King ordered peremptorily the registry of
the edict, and left the assembly abruptly. The parliament
immediately protested that the votes for the enregistry had not been
legally taken, and that they gave no sanction to the loans proposed.
This was enough to discredit and defeat them. Hereupon issued
another edict for the establishment of a cour pleniere, and the
suspension of all the parliaments in the kingdom. This being opposed
as might be expected by reclamations from all the parliaments &
provinces, the King gave way and by an edict of July 5. 88 renounced
his cour pleniere, & promised the States General for the 1st. of May
of the ensuing year: and the Archbishop finding the times beyond his
faculties, accepted the promise of a Cardinal's hat, was removed
[Sep. 88] from the ministry, and Mr. Necker was called to the
department of finance. The innocent rejoicings of the people of Paris
on this change provoked the interference of an officer of the city
guards, whose order for their dispersion not being obeyed, he charged
them with fixed bayonets, killed two or three, and wounded many.
This dispersed them for the moment; but they collected the next day
in great numbers, burnt 10. or 12. guard houses, killed two or three
of the guards, & lost 6. or 8. more of their own number. The city was
hereupon put under martial law, and after awhile the tumult subsided.
The effect of this change of ministers, and the promise of the States
General at an early day, tranquillized the nation. But two great
questions now occurred. 1. What proportion shall the number of
deputies of the tiers etat bear to those of the Nobles and Clergy?
And 2. shall they sit in the same, or in distinct apartments? Mr.
Necker, desirous of avoiding himself these knotty questions, proposed
a second call of the same Notables, and that their advice should be
asked on the subject. They met Nov. 9. 88. and, by five bureaux
against one, they recommended the forms of the States General of
1614. wherein the houses were separate, and voted by orders, not by
persons. But the whole nation declaring at once against this, and
that the tiers etat should be, in numbers, equal to both the other
orders, and the Parliament deciding for the same proportion, it was
determined so to be, by a declaration of Dec. 27. 88. A Report of
Mr. Necker to the King, of about the same date, contained other very
important concessions. 1. That the King could neither lay a new tax,
nor prolong an old one. 2. It expressed a readiness to agree on the
periodical meeting of the States. 3. To consult on the necessary
restriction on lettres de Cachet. And 4. how far the Press might be
made free. 5. It admits that the States are to appropriate the
public money; and 6. that Ministers shall be responsible for public
expenditures. And these concessions came from the very heart of the
King. He had not a wish but for the good of the nation, and for that
object no personal sacrifice would ever have cost him a moment's
regret. But his mind was weakness itself, his constitution timid,
his judgment null, and without sufficient firmness even to stand by
the faith of his word. His Queen too, haughty and bearing no
contradiction, had an absolute ascendency over him; and around her
were rallied the King's brother d'Artois, the court generally, and
the aristocratic part of his ministers, particularly Breteuil,
Broglio, Vauguyon, Foulon, Luzerne, men whose principles of
government were those of the age of Louis XIV. Against this host the
good counsels of Necker, Montmorin, St. Priest, altho' in unison with
the wishes of the King himself, were of little avail. The
resolutions of the morning formed under their advice, would be
reversed in the evening by the influence of the Queen & court. But
the hand of heaven weighed heavily indeed on the machinations of this
junto; producing collateral incidents, not arising out of the case,
yet powerfully co-exciting the nation to force a regeneration of it's
government, and overwhelming with accumulated difficulties this
liberticide resistance. For, while laboring under the want of money
for even ordinary purposes, in a government which required a million
of livres a day, and driven to the last ditch by the universal call
for liberty, there came on a winter of such severe cold, as was
without example in the memory of man, or in the written records of
history. The Mercury was at times 50;dg below the freezing point of
Fahrenheit and 22;dg below that of Reaumur. All out-door labor was
suspended, and the poor, without the wages of labor, were of course
without either bread or fuel. The government found it's necessities
aggravated by that of procuring immense quantities of fire-wood, and
of keeping great fires at all the cross-streets, around which the
people gathered in crowds to avoid perishing with cold. Bread too
was to be bought, and distributed daily gratis, until a relax-ation
of the season should enable the people to work: and the slender stock
of bread-stuff had for some time threatened famine, and had raised
that article to an enormous price. So great indeed was the scarcity
of bread that from the highest to the lowest citizen, the bakers were
permitted to deal but a scanty allowance per head, even to those who
paid for it; and in cards of invitation to dine in the richest
houses, the guest was notified to bring his own bread. To eke out
the existence of the people, every person who had the means, was
called on for a weekly subscription, which the Cures collected and
employed in providing messes for the nourishment of the poor, and
vied with each other in devising such economical compositions of food
as would subsist the greatest number with the smallest means. This
want of bread had been foreseen for some time past and M. de
Montmorin had desired me to notify it in America, and that, in
addition to the market price, a premium should be given on what
should be brought from the U S. Notice was accordingly given and
produced considerable supplies. Subsequent information made the
importations from America, during the months of March, April & May,
into the Atlantic ports of France, amount to about 21,000 barrels of
flour, besides what went to other ports, and in other months, while
our supplies to their West-Indian islands relieved them also from
that drain. This distress for bread continued till July.
Hitherto no acts of popular violence had been produced by the
struggle for political reformation. Little riots, on ordinary
incidents, had taken place, as at other times, in different parts of
the kingdom, in which some lives, perhaps a dozen or twenty, had been
lost, but in the month of April a more serious one occurred in Paris,
unconnected indeed with the revolutionary principle, but making part
of the history of the day. The Fauxbourg St. Antoine is a quarter of
the city inhabited entirely by the class of day-laborers and
journeymen in every line. A rumor was spread among them that a great
paper manufacturer, of the name of Reveillon, had proposed, on some
occasion, that their wages should be lowered to 15 sous a day.
Inflamed at once into rage, & without inquiring into it's truth, they
flew to his house in vast numbers, destroyed everything in it, and in
his magazines & work shops, without secreting however a pin's worth
to themselves, and were continuing this work of devastation when the
regular troops were called in. Admonitions being disregarded, they
were of necessity fired on, and a regular action ensued, in which
about 100. of them were killed, before the rest would disperse.
There had rarely passed a year without such a riot in some part or
other of the Kingdom; and this is distinguished only as cotemporary
with the revolution, altho' not produced by it.
The States General were opened on the 5th. of May 89. by
speeches from the King, the Garde des Sceaux Lamoignon, and Mr.
Necker. The last was thought to trip too lightly over the
constitutional reformations which were expected. His notices of them
in this speech were not as full as in his previous `Rapport au Roi.'
This was observed to his disadvantage. But much allowance should
have been made for the situation in which he was placed between his
own counsels, and those of the ministers and party of the court.
Overruled in his own opinions, compelled to deliver, and to gloss
over those of his opponents, and even to keep their secrets, he could
not come forward in his own attitude.
The composition of the assembly, altho' equivalent on the whole
to what had been expected, was something different in it's elements.
It has been supposed that a superior education would carry into the
scale of the Commons a respectable portion of the Noblesse. It did
so as to those of Paris, of it's vicinity and of the other
considerable cities, whose greater intercourse with enlightened
society had liberalized their minds, and prepared them to advance up
to the measure of the times. But the Noblesse of the country, which
constituted two thirds of that body, were far in their rear.
Residing constantly on their patrimonial feuds, and familiarized by
daily habit with Seigneurial powers and practices, they had not yet
learned to suspect their inconsistence with reason and right. They
were willing to submit to equality of taxation, but not to descend
from their rank and prerogatives to be incorporated in session with
the tiers etat. Among the clergy, on the other hand, it had been
apprehended that the higher orders of the hierarchy, by their wealth
and connections, would have carried the elections generally. But it
proved that in most cases the lower clergy had obtained the popular
majorities. These consisted of the Cures, sons of the peasantry who
had been employed to do all the drudgery of parochial services for
10. 20. or 30 Louis a year; while their superiors were consuming
their princely revenues in palaces of luxury & indolence.
The objects for which this body was convened being of the first
order of importance, I felt it very interesting to understand the
views of the parties of which it was composed, and especially the
ideas prevalent as to the organization contemplated for their
government. I went therefore daily from Paris to Versailles, and
attended their debates, generally till the hour of adjournment.
Those of the Noblesse were impassioned and tempestuous. They had
some able men on both sides, and actuated by equal zeal. The debates
of the Commons were temperate, rational and inflexibly firm. As
preliminary to all other business, the awful questions came on, Shall
the States sit in one, or in distinct apartments? And shall they
vote by heads or houses? The opposition was soon found to consist of
the Episcopal order among the clergy, and two thirds of the Noblesse;
while the tiers etat were, to a man, united and determined. After
various propositions of compromise had failed, the Commons undertook
to cut the Gordian knot. The Abbe Sieyes, the most logical head of
the nation, (author of the pamphlet Qu'est ce que le tiers etat?
which had electrified that country, as Paine's Common sense did us)
after an impressive speech on the 10th of June, moved that a last
invitation should be sent to the Nobles and Clergy, to attend in the
Hall of the States, collectively or individually for the verification
of powers, to which the commons would proceed immediately, either in
their presence or absence. This verification being finished, a
motion was made, on the 15th. that they should constitute themselves
a National assembly; which was decided on the 17th. by a majority of
four fifths. During the debates on this question, about twenty of
the Cures had joined them, and a proposition was made in the chamber
of the clergy that their whole body should join them. This was
rejected at first by a small majority only; but, being afterwards
somewhat modified, it was decided affirmatively, by a majority of
eleven. While this was under debate and unknown to the court, to
wit, on the 19th. a council was held in the afternoon at Marly,
wherein it was proposed that the King should interpose by a
declaration of his sentiments, in a _seance royale._ A form of
declaration was proposed by Necker, which, while it censured in
general the proceedings both of the Nobles and Commons, announced the
King's views, such as substantially to coincide with the Commons. It
was agreed to in council, the _seance_ was fixed for the 22d. the
meetings of the States were till then to be suspended, and
everything, in the meantime, kept secret. The members the next
morning (20th.) repairing to their house as usual, found the doors
shut and guarded, a proclamation posted up for a seance royale on the
22d. and a suspension of their meetings in the meantime. Concluding
that their dissolution was now to take place, they repaired to a
building called the "Jeu de paume" (or Tennis court) and there bound
themselves by oath to each other, never to separate of their own
accord, till they had settled a constitution for the nation, on a
solid basis, and if separated by force, that they would reassemble in
some other place. The next day they met in the church of St. Louis,
and were joined by a majority of the clergy. The heads of the
Aristocracy saw that all was lost without some bold exertion. The
King was still at Marly. Nobody was permitted to approach him but
their friends. He was assailed by falsehoods in all shapes. He was
made to believe that the Commons were about to absolve the army from
their oath of fidelity to him, and to raise their pay. The court
party were now all rage and desperate. They procured a committee to
be held consisting of the King and his ministers, to which Monsieur &
the Count d'Artois should be admitted. At this committee the latter
attacked Mr. Necker personally, arraigned his declaration, and
proposed one which some of his prompters had put into his hands. Mr.
Necker was brow-beaten and intimidated, and the King shaken. He
determined that the two plans should be deliberated on the next day
and the seance royale put off a day longer. This encouraged a
fiercer attack on Mr. Necker the next day. His draught of a
declaration was entirely broken up, & that of the Count d'Artois
inserted into it. Himself and Montmorin offered their resignation,
which was refused, the Count d'Artois saying to Mr. Necker "No sir,
you must be kept as the hostage; we hold you responsible for all the
ill which shall happen." This change of plan was immediately
whispered without doors. The Noblesse were in triumph; the people in
consternation. I was quite alarmed at this state of things. The
soldiery had not yet indicated which side they should take, and that
which they should support would be sure to prevail. I considered a
successful reformation of government in France, as ensuring a general
reformation thro Europe, and the resurrection, to a new life, of
their people, now ground to dust by the abuses of the governing
powers. I was much acquainted with the leading patriots of the
assembly. Being from a country which had successfully passed thro' a
similar reformation, they were disposed to my acquaintance, and had
some confidence in me. I urged most strenuously an immediate
compromise; to secure what the government was now ready to yield, and
trust to future occasions for what might still be wanting. It was
well understood that the King would grant at this time 1. Freedom of
the person by Habeas corpus. 2. Freedom of conscience. 3. Freedom
of the press. 4. Trial by jury. 5. A representative legislature.
6. Annual meetings. 7. The origination of laws. 8. The exclusive
right of taxation and appropriation. And 9. The responsibility of
ministers; and with the exercise of these powers they would obtain in
future whatever might be further necessary to improve and preserve
their constitution. They thought otherwise however, and events have
proved their lamentable error. For after 30. years of war, foreign
and domestic, the loss of millions of lives, the prostration of
private happiness, and foreign subjugation of their own country for a
time, they have obtained no more, nor even that securely. They were
unconscious of (for who could foresee?) the melancholy sequel of
their well-meant perseverance; that their physical force would be
usurped by a first tyrant to trample on the independance, and even
the existence, of other nations: that this would afford fatal example
for the atrocious conspiracy of Kings against their people; would
generate their unholy and homicide alliance to make common cause
among themselves, and to crush, by the power of the whole, the
efforts of any part, to moderate their abuses and oppressions.
When the King passed, the next day, thro' the lane formed from
the Chateau to the Hotel des etats, there was a dead silence. He was
about an hour in the House delivering his speech & declaration. On
his coming out a feeble cry of "Vive le Roy" was raised by some
children, but the people remained silent & sullen. In the close of
his speech he had ordered that the members should follow him, &
resume their deliberations the next day. The Noblesse followed him,
and so did the clergy, except about thirty, who, with the tiers,
remained in the room, and entered into deliberation. They protested
against what the King had done, adhered to all their former
proceedings, and resolved the inviolability of their own persons. An
officer came to order them out of the room in the King's name. "Tell
those who sent you, said Mirabeau, that we shall not move hence but
at our own will, or the point of the bayonet." In the afternoon the
people, uneasy, began to assemble in great numbers in the courts, and
vicinities of the palace. This produced alarm. The Queen sent for
Mr. Necker. He was conducted amidst the shouts and acclamations of
the multitude who filled all the apartments of the palace. He was a
few minutes only with the queen, and what passed between them did not
transpire. The King went out to ride. He passed thro' the crowd to
his carriage and into it, without being in the least noticed. As Mr.
Neckar followed him universal acclamations were raised of "vive
Monsr. Neckar, vive le sauveur de la France opprimee." He was
conducted back to his house with the same demonstrations of affection
and anxiety. About 200. deputies of the Tiers, catching the
enthusiasm of the moment, went to his house, and extorted from him a
promise that he would not resign. On the 25th. 48. of the Nobles
joined the tiers, & among them the D. of Orleans. There were then
with them 164 members of the Clergy, altho' the minority of that body
still sat apart & called themselves the chamber of the clergy. On
the 26th. the Archbp. of Paris joined the tiers, as did some others
of the clergy and of the Noblesse.
These proceedings had thrown the people into violent ferment.
It gained the souldiery, first of the French guards, extended to
those of every other denomination, except the Swiss, and even to the
body guards of the King. They began to quit their barracks, to
assemble in squads, to declare they would defend the life of the
King, but would not be the murderers of their fellow-citizens. They
called themselves the souldiers _of the nation_, and left now no
doubt on which side they would be, in case of rupture. Similar
accounts came in from the troops in other parts of the kingdom,
giving good reason to believe they would side with their fathers and
brothers rather than with their officers. The operation of this
medicine at Versailles was as sudden as it was powerful. The alarm
there was so compleat that in the afternoon of the 27th. the King
wrote with his own hand letters to the Presidents of the clergy and
Nobles, engaging them immediately to join the Tiers. These two
bodies were debating & hesitating when notes from the Ct. d'Artois
decided their compliance. They went in a body and took their seats
with the tiers, and thus rendered the union of the orders in one
chamber compleat.
The Assembly now entered on the business of their mission, and
first proceeded to arrange the order in which they would take up the
heads of their constitution, as follows:
First, and as Preliminary to the whole a general Declaration of
the Rights of Man. Then specifically the Principles of the Monarchy;
rights of the Nation; rights of the King; rights of the citizens;
organization & rights of the National assembly; forms necessary for
the enactment of laws; organization & functions of the provincial &
municipal assemblies; duties and limits of the Judiciary power;
functions & duties of the military power.
A declaration of the rights of man, as the preliminary of their
work, was accordingly prepared and proposed by the Marquis de la
Fayette.
But the quiet of their march was soon disturbed by information
that troops, and particularly the foreign troops, were advancing on
Paris from various quarters. The King had been probably advised to
this on the pretext of preserving peace in Paris. But his advisers
were believed to have other things in contemplation. The Marshal de
Broglio was appointed to their command, a high flying aristocrat,
cool and capable of everything. Some of the French guards were soon
arrested, under other pretexts, but really on account of their
dispositions in favor of the National cause. The people of Paris
forced their prison, liberated them, and sent a deputation to the
Assembly to solicit a pardon. The Assembly recommended peace and
order to the people of Paris, the prisoners to the king, and asked
from him the removal of the troops. His answer was negative and dry,
saying they might remove themselves, if they pleased, to Noyons or
Soissons. In the meantime these troops, to the number of twenty or
thirty thousand, had arrived and were posted in, and between Paris
and Versailles. The bridges and passes were guarded. At three
o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th July the Count de la Luzerne was
sent to notify Mr. Neckar of his dismission, and to enjoin him to
retire instantly without saying a word of it to anybody. He went
home, dined, and proposed to his wife a visit to a friend, but went
in fact to his country house at St. Ouen, and at midnight set out for
Brussels. This was not known until the next day, 12th when the whole
ministry was changed, except Villedeuil, of the Domestic department,
and Barenton, Garde des sceaux. The changes were as follows.
The Baron de Breteuil, president of the council of finance; de
la Galaisiere, Comptroller general in the room of Mr. Neckar; the
Marshal de Broglio, minister of War, & Foulon under him in the room
of Puy-Segur; the Duke de la Vauguyon, minister of foreign affairs
instead of the Ct. de Montmorin; de La Porte, minister of Marine, in
place of the Ct. de la Luzerne; St. Priest was also removed from the
council. Luzerne and Puy-Segur had been strongly of the Aristocratic
party in the Council, but they were not considered as equal to the
work now to be done. The King was now compleatly in the hands of
men, the principal among whom had been noted thro' their lives for
the Turkish despotism of their characters, and who were associated
around the King as proper instruments for what was to be executed.
The news of this change began to be known at Paris about 1. or 2.
o'clock. In the afternoon a body of about 100 German cavalry were
advanced and drawn up in the Place Louis XV. and about 200. Swiss
posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew people to the
spot, who thus accidentally found themselves in front of the troops,
merely at first as spectators; but as their numbers increased, their
indignation rose. They retired a few steps, and posted themselves on
and behind large piles of stones, large and small, collected in that
Place for a bridge which was to be built adjacent to it. In this
position, happening to be in my carriage on a visit, I passed thro'
the lane they had formed, without interruption. But the moment after
I had passed, the people attacked the cavalry with stones. They
charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers
of stones obliged the horse to retire, and quit the field altogether,
leaving one of their number on the ground, & the Swiss in their rear
not moving to their aid. This was the signal for universal
insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred,
retired towards Versailles. The people now armed themselves with
such weapons as they could find in armorer's shops and private
houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night thro' all
parts of the city, without any decided object. The next day (13th.)
the assembly pressed on the king to send away the troops, to permit
the Bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the preservation of order in the
city, and offer to send a deputation from their body to tranquillize
them; but their propositions were refused. A committee of
magistrates and electors of the city are appointed by those bodies to
take upon them it's government. The people, now openly joined by the
French guards, force the prison of St. Lazare, release all the
prisoners, and take a great store of corn, which they carry to the
Corn-market. Here they get some arms, and the French guards begin to
form & train them. The City-committee determined to raise 48.000.
Bourgeoise, or rather to restrain their numbers to 48.000. On the
14th. they send one of their members (Mons. de Corny) to the Hotel
des Invalides, to ask arms for their Garde-Bourgeoise. He was
followed by, and he found there a great collection of people. The
Governor of the Invalids came out and represented the impossibility
of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he
received them. De Corny advised the people then to retire, and
retired himself; but the people took possession of the arms. It was
remarkable that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition,
but that a body of 5000. foreign troops, within 400. yards, never
stirred. M. de Corny and five others were then sent to ask arms of
M. de Launay, governor of the Bastile. They found a great collection
of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a
flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the
Parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a
little, advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and
in that instant a discharge from the Bastile killed four persons, of
those nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired. I happened to
be at the house of M. de Corny when he returned to it, and received
from him a narrative of these transactions. On the retirement of the
deputies, the people rushed forward & almost in an instant were in
possession of a fortification defended by 100. men, of infinite
strength, which in other times had stood several regular sieges, and
had never been taken. How they forced their entrance has never been
explained. They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners, and
such of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury,
carried the Governor and Lt. Governor to the Place de Greve (the
place of public execution) cut off their heads, and sent them thro'
the city in triumph to the Palais royal. About the same instant a
treacherous correspondence having been discovered in M. de
Flesselles, prevot des marchands, they seized him in the Hotel de
Ville where he was in the execution of his office, and cut off his
head. These events carried imperfectly to Versailles were the
subject of two successive deputations from the assembly to the king,
to both of which he gave dry and hard answers for nobody had as yet
been permitted to inform him truly and fully of what had passed at
Paris. But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the
king's bed chamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated
detail of the disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed
fearfully impressed. The decapitation of de Launai worked powerfully
thro' the night on the whole aristocratic party, insomuch that, in
the morning, those of the greatest influence on the Count d'Artois
represented to him the absolute necessity that the king should give
up everything to the Assembly. This according with the dispositions
of the king, he went about 11. o'clock, accompanied only by his
brothers, to the Assembly, & there read to them a speech, in which he
asked their interposition to re-establish order. Altho' couched in
terms of some caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made
it evident that it was meant as a surrender at discretion. He
returned to the Chateau afoot, accompanied by the assembly. They
sent off a deputation to quiet Paris, at the head of which was the
Marquis de la Fayette who had, the same morning, been named
Commandant en chef of the Milice Bourgeoise, and Mons Bailly, former
President of the States General, was called for as Prevot des
marchands. The demolition of the Bastile was now ordered and begun.
A body of the Swiss guards of the regiment of Ventimille, and the
city horse guards joined the people. The alarm at Versailles
increased. The foreign troops were ordered off instantly. Every
minister resigned. The king confirmed Bailly as Prevot des
Marchands, wrote to Mr. Neckar to recall him, sent his letter open to
the assembly, to be forwarded by them, and invited them to go with
him to Paris the next day, to satisfy the city of his dispositions;
and that night, and the next morning the Count D'Artois and M. de
Montesson a deputy connected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de
Guiche, and the Count de Vaudreuil, favorites of the queen, the Abbe
de Vermont her confessor, the Prince of Conde and Duke of Bourbon
fled. The king came to Paris, leaving the queen in consternation for
his return. Omitting the less important figures of the procession,
the king's carriage was in the center, on each side of it the
assembly, in two ranks afoot, at their head the M. de la Fayette, as
Commander-in-chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and
behind. About 60.000 citizens of all forms and conditions, armed
with the muskets of the Bastile and Invalids, as far as they would
go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning hooks, scythes &c.
lined all the streets thro' which the procession passed, and with the
crowds of people in the streets, doors & windows, saluted them
everywhere with cries of "vive la nation," but not a single "vive le
roy" was heard. The King landed at the Hotel de Ville. There M.
Bailly presented and put into his hat the popular cockade, and
addressed him. The King being unprepared, and unable to answer,
Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of sentences, and
made out an answer, which he delivered to the audience as from the
king. On their return the popular cries were "vive le roy et la
nation." He was conducted by a garde bourgeoise to his palace at
Versailles, & thus concluded an amende honorable as no sovereign ever
made, and no people ever received.
And here again was lost another precious occasion of sparing to
France the crimes and cruelties thro' which she has since passed, and
to Europe, & finally America the evils which flowed on them also from
this mortal source. The king was now become a passive machine in the
hands of the National assembly, and had he been left to himself, he
would have willingly acquiesced in whatever they should devise as
best for the nation. A wise constitution would have been formed,
hereditary in his line, himself placed at it's head, with powers so
large as to enable him to do all the good of his station, and so
limited as to restrain him from it's abuse. This he would have
faithfully administered, and more than this I do not believe he ever
wished. But he had a Queen of absolute sway over his weak mind, and
timid virtue; and of a character the reverse of his in all points.
This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of the Rhetor Burke,
with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense was proud,
disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will,
eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her
desires, or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and
dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois and others of her
clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury,
which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her
opposition to it her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit,
led herself to the Guillotine, & drew the king on with her, and
plunged the world into crimes & calamities which will forever stain
the pages of modern history. I have ever believed that had there
been no queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would
have been provoked nor exercised. The king would have gone hand in
hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the
increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to
advance the principles of their social institution. The deed which
closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve
nor condemn. I am not prepared to say that the first magistrate of a
nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to
it's punishment: nor yet that where there is no written law, no
regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in
our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and
redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him
wilfully criminal, many that his existence would keep the nation in
perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a
regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were
better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with
this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the Queen in
a Convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in his
station, investing him with limited powers, which I verily believe he
would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his
understanding. In this way no void would have been created, courting
the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those
enormities which demoralized the nations of the world, and destroyed,
and is yet to destroy millions and millions of it's inhabitants.
There are three epochs in history signalized by the total extinction
of national morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander,
not omitting himself. The next the successors of the first Caesar,
the third our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland,
followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz; next the conflagration of
Copenhagen; then the enormities of Bonaparte partitioning the earth
at his will, and devastating it with fire and sword; now the
conspiracy of kings, the successors of Bonaparte, blasphemously
calling themselves the Holy Alliance, and treading in the footsteps
of their incarcerated leader, not yet indeed usurping the government
of other nations avowedly and in detail, but controuling by their
armies the forms in which they will permit them to be governed; and
reserving in petto the order and extent of the usurpations further
meditated. But I will return from a digression, anticipated too in
time, into which I have been led by reflection on the criminal
passions which refused to the world a favorable occasion of saving it
from the afflictions it has since suffered.
M. Necker had reached Basle before he was overtaken by the
letter of the king, inviting him back to resume the office he had
recently left. He returned immediately, and all the other ministers
having resigned, a new administration was named, to wit St. Priest &
Montmorin were restored; the Archbishop of Bordeaux was appointed
Garde des sceaux; La Tour du Pin Minister of War; La Luzerne Minister
of Marine. This last was believed to have been effected by the
friendship of Montmorin; for altho' differing in politics, they
continued firm in friendship, & Luzerne, altho' not an able man was
thought an honest one. And the Prince of Bauvau was taken into the
Council.
Seven princes of the blood royal, six ex-ministers, and many of
the high Noblesse having fled, and the present ministers, except
Luzerne, being all of the popular party, all the functionaries of
government moved for the present in perfect harmony.
In the evening of Aug. 4. and on the motion of the Viscount de
Noailles brother in law of La Fayette, the assembly abolished all
titles of rank, all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes
and casuals of the clergy, all provincial privileges, and, in fine,
the Feudal regimen generally. To the suppression of tythes the Abbe
Sieyes was vehemently opposed; but his learned and logical arguments
were unheeded, and his estimation lessened by a contrast of his
egoism (for he was beneficed on them) with the generous abandonment
of rights by the other members of the assembly. Many days were
employed in putting into the form of laws the numerous demolitions of
ancient abuses; which done, they proceeded to the preliminary work of
a Declaration of rights. There being much concord of sentiment on
the elements of this instrument, it was liberally framed, and passed
with a very general approbation. They then appointed a Committee for
the reduction of a projet of a Constitution, at the head of which was
the Archbishop of Bordeaux. I received from him, as Chairman of the
Committee a letter of July 20. requesting me to attend and assist at
their deliberations; but I excused myself on the obvious
considerations that my mission was to the king as Chief Magistrate of
the nation, that my duties were limited to the concerns of my own
country, and forbade me to intermeddle with the internal transactions
of that in which I had been received under a specific character only.
Their plan of a constitution was discussed in sections, and so
reported from time to time, as agreed to by the Committee. The first
respected the general frame of the government; and that this should
be formed into three departments, Executive, Legislative and
Judiciary was generally agreed. But when they proceeded to
subordinate developments, many and various shades of opinion came
into conflict, and schism, strongly marked, broke the Patriots into
fragments of very discordant principles. The first question Whether
there should be a king, met with no open opposition, and it was
readily agreed that the government of France should be monarchical &
hereditary. Shall the king have a negative on the laws? shall that
negative be absolute, or suspensive only? Shall there be two
chambers of legislation? or one only? If two, shall one of them be
hereditary? or for life? or for a fixed term? and named by the king?
or elected by the people? These questions found strong differences
of opinion, and produced repulsive combinations among the Patriots.
The Aristocracy was cemented by a common principle of preserving the
ancient regime, or whatever should be nearest to it. Making this
their Polar star, they moved in phalanx, gave preponderance on every
question to the minorities of the Patriots, and always to those who
advocated the least change. The features of the new constitution
were thus assuming a fearful aspect, and great alarm was produced
among the honest patriots by these dissensions in their ranks. In
this uneasy state of things, I received one day a note from the
Marquis de la Fayette, informing me that he should bring a party of
six or eight friends to ask a dinner of me the next day. I assured
him of their welcome. When they arrived, they were La Fayette
himself, Duport, Barnave, Alexander La Meth, Blacon, Mounier,
Maubourg, and Dagout. These were leading patriots, of honest but
differing opinions sensible of the necessity of effecting a coalition
by mutual sacrifices, knowing each other, and not afraid therefore to
unbosom themselves mutually. This last was a material principle in
the selection. With this view the Marquis had invited the conference
and had fixed the time & place inadvertently as to the embarrassment
under which it might place me. The cloth being removed and wine set
on the table, after the American manner, the Marquis introduced the
objects of the conference by summarily reminding them of the state of
things in the Assembly, the course which the principles of the
constitution were taking, and the inevitable result, unless checked
by more concord among the Patriots themselves. He observed that
altho' he also had his opinion, he was ready to sacrifice it to that
of his brethren of the same cause: but that a common opinion must now
be formed, or the Aristocracy would carry everything, and that
whatever they should now agree on, he, at the head of the National
force, would maintain. The discussions began at the hour of four,
and were continued till ten o'clock in the evening; during which time
I was a silent witness to a coolness and candor of argument unusual
in the conflicts of political opinion; to a logical reasoning, and
chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or
declamation, and truly worthy of being placed in parallel with the
finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by Xenophon, by Plato
and Cicero. The result was an agreement that the king should have a
suspensive veto on the laws, that the legislature should be composed
of a single body only, & that to be chosen by the people. This
Concordate decided the fate of the constitution. The Patriots all
rallied to the principles thus settled, carried every question
agreeably to them, and reduced the Aristocracy to insignificance and
impotence. But duties of exculpation were now incumbent on me. I
waited on Count Montmorin the next morning, and explained to him with
truth and candor how it had happened that my house had been made the
scene of conferences of such a character. He told me he already knew
everything which had passed, that, so far from taking umbrage at the
use made of my house on that occasion, he earnestly wished I would
habitually assist at such conferences, being sure I should be useful
in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a wholesome and
practicable reformation only. I told him I knew too well the duties
I owed to the king, to the nation, and to my own country to take any
part in councils concerning their internal government, and that I
should persevere with care in the character of a neutral and passive
spectator, with wishes only and very sincere ones, that those
measures might prevail which would be for the greatest good of the
nation. I have no doubt indeed that this conference was previously
known and approved by this honest minister, who was in confidence and
communication with the patriots, and wished for a reasonable reform
of the Constitution.
Here I discontinue my relation of the French revolution. The
minuteness with which I have so far given it's details is
disproportioned to the general scale of my narrative. But I have
thought it justified by the interest which the whole world must take
in this revolution. As yet we are but in the first chapter of it's
history. The appeal to the rights of man, which had been made in the
U S. was taken up by France, first of the European nations. From her
the spirit has spread over those of the South. The tyrants of the
North have allied indeed against it, but it is irresistible. Their
opposition will only multiply it's millions of human victims; their
own satellites will catch it, and the condition of man thro' the
civilized world will be finally and greatly ameliorated. This is a
wonderful instance of great events from small causes. So inscrutable
is the arrangement of causes & consequences in this world that a
two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it,
changes the condition of all it's inhabitants. I have been more
minute in relating the early transactions of this regeneration
because I was in circumstances peculiarly favorable for a knowledge
of the truth. Possessing the confidence and intimacy of the leading
patriots, & more than all of the Marquis Fayette, their head and
Atlas, who had no secrets from me, I learnt with correctness the
views & proceedings of that party; while my intercourse with the
diplomatic missionaries of Europe at Paris, all of them with the
court, and eager in prying into it's councils and proceedings, gave
me a knolege of these also. My information was always and
immediately committed to writing, in letters to Mr. Jay, and often to
my friends, and a recurrence to these letters now insures me against
errors of memory.
These opportunities of information ceased at this period, with
my retirement from this interesting scene of action. I had been more
than a year soliciting leave to go home with a view to place my
daughters in the society & care of their friends, and to return for a
short time to my station at Paris. But the metamorphosis thro' which
our government was then passing from it's Chrysalid to it's Organic
form suspended it's action in a great degree; and it was not till the
last of August that I received the permission I had asked. -- And
here I cannot leave this great and good country without expressing my
sense of it's preeminence of character among the nations of the
earth. A more benevolent people, I have never known, nor greater
warmth & devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness and
accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of
Paris is beyond anything I had conceived to be practicable in a large
city. Their eminence too in science, the communicative dispositions
of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the
ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm to their
society to be found nowhere else. In a comparison of this with other
countries we have the proof of primacy, which was given to
Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to
himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles.
So ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, In what country on
earth would you rather live? -- Certainly in my own, where are all my
friends, my relations, and the earliest & sweetest affections and
recollections of my life. Which would be your second choice?
France.
On the 26th. of Sep. I left Paris for Havre, where I was
detained by contrary winds until the 8th. of Oct. On that day, and
the 9th. I crossed over to Cowes, where I had engaged the Clermont,
Capt. Colley, to touch for me. She did so, but here again we were
detained by contrary winds until the 22d. when we embarked and landed
at Norfolk on the 23d. of November. On my way home I passed some
days at Eppington in Chesterfield, the residence of my friend and
connection, Mr. Eppes, and, while there, I received a letter from the
President, Genl. Washington, by express, covering an appointment to
be Secretary of State. I received it with real regret. My wish had
been to return to Paris, where I had left my household establishment,
as if there myself, and to see the end of the Revolution, which, I
then thought would be certainly and happily closed in less than a
year. I then meant to return home, to withdraw from Political life,
into which I had been impressed by the circumstances of the times, to
sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and devote myself to
studies more congenial to my mind. In my answer of Dec. 15. I
expressed these dispositions candidly to the President, and my
preference of a return to Paris; but assured him that if it was
believed I could be more useful in the administration of the
government, I would sacrifice my own inclinations without hesitation,
and repair to that destination; this I left to his decision. I
arrived at Monticello on the 23d. of Dec. where I received a second
letter from the President, expressing his continued wish that I
should take my station there, but leaving me still at liberty to
continue in my former office, if I could not reconcile myself to that
now proposed. This silenced my reluctance, and I accepted the new
appointment.
In the interval of my stay at home my eldest daughter had been
happily married to the eldest son of the Tuckahoe branch of
Randolphs, a young gentleman of genius, science and honorable mind,
who afterwards filled a dignified station in the General Government,
& the most dignified in his own State. I left Monticello on the 1st
of March 1790. for New York. At Philadelphia I called on the
venerable and beloved Franklin. He was then on the bed of sickness
from which he never rose. My recent return from a country in which
he had left so many friends, and the perilous convulsions to which
they had been exposed, revived all his anxieties to know what part
they had taken, what had been their course, and what their fate. He
went over all in succession, with a rapidity and animation almost too
much for his strength. When all his inquiries were satisfied, and a
pause took place, I told him I had learnt with much pleasure that,
since his return to America, he had been occupied in preparing for
the world the history of his own life. I cannot say much of that,
said he; but I will give you a sample of what I shall leave: and he
directed his little grandson (William Bache) who was standing by the
bedside, to hand him a paper from the table to which he pointed. He
did so; and the Doctr. putting it into my hands, desired me to take
it and read it at my leisure. It was about a quire of folio paper,
written in a large and running hand very like his own. I looked into
it slightly, then shut it and said I would accept his permission to
read it and would carefully return it. He said, "no, keep it." Not
certain of his meaning, I again looked into it, folded it for my
pocket, and said again, I would certainly return it. "No," said he,
"keep it." I put it into my pocket, and shortly after took leave of
him. He died on the 17th. of the ensuing month of April; and as I
understood that he had bequeathed all his papers to his grandson
William Temple Franklin, I immediately wrote to Mr. Franklin to
inform him I possessed this paper, which I should consider as his
property, and would deliver to his order. He came on immediately to
New York, called on me for it, and I delivered it to him. As he put
it into his pocket, he said carelessly he had either the original, or
another copy of it, I do not recollect which. This last expression
struck my attention forcibly, and for the first time suggested to me
the thought that Dr. Franklin had meant it as a confidential deposit
in my hands, and that I had done wrong in parting from it. I have
not yet seen the collection he published of Dr. Franklin's works, and
therefore know not if this is among them. I have been told it is
not. It contained a narrative of the negotiations between Dr.
Franklin and the British Ministry, when he was endeavoring to prevent
the contest of arms which followed. The negotiation was brought
about by the intervention of Ld. Howe and his sister, who, I believe,
was called Lady Howe, but I may misremember her title. Ld. Howe
seems to have been friendly to America, and exceedingly anxious to
prevent a rupture. His intimacy with Dr. Franklin, and his position
with the Ministry induced him to undertake a mediation between them;
in which his sister seemed to have been associated. They carried
from one to the other, backwards and forwards, the several
propositions and answers which past, and seconded with their own
intercessions the importance of mutual sacrifices to preserve the
peace & connection of the two countries. I remember that Ld. North's
answers were dry, unyielding, in the spirit of unconditional
submission, and betrayed an absolute indifference to the occurrence
of a rupture; and he said to the mediators distinctly, at last that
"a rebellion was not to be deprecated on the part of Great Britain;
that the confiscations it would produce would provide for many of
their friends." This expression was reported by the mediators to Dr.
Franklin, and indicated so cool and calculated a purpose in the
Ministry, as to render compromise hopeless, and the negotiation was
discontinued. If this is not among the papers published, we ask what
has become of it? I delivered it with my own hands into those of
Temple Franklin. It certainly established views so atrocious in the
British government that it's suppression would to them be worth a
great price. But could the grandson of Dr. Franklin be in such
degree an accomplice in the parricide of the memory of his immortal
grandfather? The suspension for more than 20. years of the general
publication bequeathed and confided to him, produced for awhile hard
suspicions against him: and if at last all are not published, a part
of these suspicions may remain with some.
I arrived at New York on the 21st. of Mar. where Congress was
in session.
So far July 29. 21.