Chapter XVII: Part III (10)

Gentlemen,--In a former letter I enclosed you an idea of Mr. Lee's for an immediate appropriation of a number of lots to raise a sum of money for erecting a national monument in the city of Washington. It was scarcely to be doubted but that you would avoid appropriations for matters of ornament till a sufficient sum should be secured out of the proceeds of your sales to accomplish the public buildings, bridges and other such objects as are essential. Mr. Caracchi, the artist, who had proposed to execute the monument, has had hopes that a subscription set on foot for that purpose, would have sufficed to effect it. That hope is now over, and he is about to return to Europe. He is unquestionably an artist of the first class. He has had the advantage of taking the model of the President's person in plaster, equal to every wish in resemblance and spirit. It is pretty certain that the equestrian statue of the President can never be executed by an equal workman, who has had equal advantages, and the question is whether a prudent caution will permit you to enter into any engagement now, taking time enough before the term of payment to have accomplished the more material objects of the public buildings, &c. He says to execute the equestrian statue, with the cost of the materials, in marble, will be worth 20,000 guineas; that he would begin it on his return, if four or five years hence you can engage to pay him 20,000 dollars, and the same sum annually afterwards, till the whole is paid, before which time the statue shall be ready. It is rather probable that within some time Congress would take it off your hands, in compliance with an ancient vote of that body. The questions for your considerations are, whether, supposing no difficulty as to the means, you think such a work might be undertaken by you? Whether you can have so much confidence in the productiveness of your funds as to engage for a residuum of this amount, all more necessary objects being first secured, and that this may be within the time before proposed? and, in fine, which will preponderate in your minds, the hazard of undertaking this now, or that of losing the aid of this artist? The nature of this proposition will satisfy you that it has not been communicated to the President, and of course would not be, unless a previous acceptance on your part, should render it necessary to obtain his sanction. Your answer is necessary for the satisfaction of Mr. Caracchi, at whose instance I submit the proposal to you, and who, I believe, will only wait here the return of that answer. I have the honor to be, with the most perfect esteem, gentlemen, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO COLONEL N. LEWIS.

Philadelphia, April 12, 1792.

Dear Sir,--Unremitting business must be my apology, as it is really the true one, for my having been longer without writing to you than my affections dictated. I am never a day without wishing myself with you, and more and more as the fine sunshine comes on, which was made for all the world but me. Congress will rise about the 21st. They have passed the Representation bill at one for thirty-three thousand, which gives to Virginia nineteen members. They have voted an army of five thousand men, and the President has given the command to General Wayne, with four brigadiers, to wit, Morgan, Brooks, Willet and Wilkinson. Congress is now engaged on the ways and means of raising money to pay this army. A further assumption of State debt has been proposed by the Secretary of the Treasury, which has been rejected by a small majority; but the chickens of the treasury have so many contrivances, and are so indefatigable within doors and without, that we all fear they will get it in yet some way or other. As the doctrine is that a public debt is a public blessing, so they think a perpetual one is a perpetual blessing, and therefore wish to make it so large that we can never pay it off. Your friend and servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT.

Philadelphia, April 13, 1792.

Sir,--I have the honor to lay before you a communication from Mr. Hammond, Minister Plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majesty, covering a clause of a statute of that country relative to its commerce with us, and notifying a determination to carry it into execution henceforward. Conceiving that the determination announced could not be really meant as extensively as the words import, I asked and received an explanation from the minister, as expressed in the letter and answer herein enclosed; and on consideration of all circumstances, I cannot but confide in the opinion expressed by him, that its sole object is to exclude foreign vessels from the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. The want of proportion between the motives expressed and the measure, its magnitude and consequences, total silence as to the proclamation on which the intercourse between the two countries has hitherto hung, and of which, in this broad sense, it would be a revocation, and the recent manifestations of the disposition of that government to concur with this in mutual offices of friendship and good will, support his construction. The minister, moreover, assured me verbally, that he would immediately write to his court for an explanation, and in the meantime, is of opinion that the usual intercourse of commerce between the two countries (Jersey and Guernsey excepted) need not be suspended.

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

TO MESSRS. CARMICHAEL AND SHORT.

Philadelphia, April 24, 1792.

Gentlemen,--My letter of March the 18th, conveyed to you full powers for treating with Spain on the subjects therein expressed. Since that, our attention has been drawn to the case of fugitive debtors and criminals, whereon it is always well that coterminous States should understand one another, as far as their ideas on the rightful powers of government can be made to go together. Where they separate, the cases may be left unprovided for. The enclosed paper, approved by the President, will explain to you how far we can go, in an agreement with Spain _for her territories bordering on us_; and the plan of a convention is there stated. You are desired to propose the matter to that court, and establish with them so much of it as they approve, filling up the blank for the manner of the demand by us and compliance with them, in such a way, as their laws and the organization of their government may require. But recollect that they bound on us between two and three thousand miles, and consequently, that they should authorize a delivery by some description of officers to be found on every inhabitable part of their border. We have thought it best to agree, specially, the manner of proceeding _in our country_, on a demand of theirs, because the convention will in that way execute itself, without the necessity of a new law for the purpose. Your general powers being comprehensive enough to take in this subject, no new ones are issued.

I have the honor to be, with great respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

[The annexed are the papers referred to in the preceding.]

_Project of a convention with the Spanish provinces._

Any person having committed murder or malice prepense, not of the nature of treason, within the United States or the Spanish provinces adjoining thereto, and fleeing from the justice of the country, shall be delivered up by the government where he shall be found, to that from which he fled, whenever demanded by the same.

The manner of the demand by the Spanish government, and of the compliance by that of the United States, shall be as follows. The person authorized by the Spanish government where the murder was committed, to pursue the fugitive, may apply to any justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, or to the district judge of the place where the fugitive is, exhibiting proof on oath that a murder has been committed by the said fugitive within the said government, who shall thereon issue his warrant to the marshal or deputy marshal of the same place, to arrest the fugitive and have him before the said district judge, or the said pursuer may apply to such marshal or deputy marshal directly, who, on exhibition of proof as aforesaid, shall thereupon arrest the fugitive, and carry him before the said district judge; and when before him in either way, he shall within not less than ---- days, nor more than ----, hold a special court of inquiry, causing a grand jury to be summoned thereto, and charging them to inquire whether the fugitive hath committed a murder, not of the nature of treason, within the province demanding him, and on their finding a true bill, the judge shall order the officer in whose custody the fugitive is, to deliver him over to the person authorized as aforesaid to receive him, and shall give such further authorities to aid the said person in safe keeping and conveying the said fugitive to the limits of the United States, as shall be necessary and within his powers; and his powers shall expressly extend to command the aid of _posse_ of every district through which the said fugitive is to be carried. And the said justices, judges and other officers, shall use in the premises the same process and proceedings, _mutatis mutandis_, and govern themselves by the same principles and rules of law, as in cases of murder committed on the high seas.

And the manner of demand by the United States and of compliance by the Spanish government, shall be as follows. The person authorized by a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, or by the district judge where the murder was committed, to pursue the fugitive, may apply to ----

Evidence on oath, though written and _ex parte_, shall have the same weight with the judge and grand jury in the preceding cases, as if the same had been given before them orally and in presence of the prisoner.

The courts of justice of the said States and provinces, shall be reciprocally open for the demand and recovery of debts due to any person inhabiting the one, from any person fled therefrom and found in the other, in like manner as they are open to their own citizens; likewise, for the recovery of the property, or the value thereof, carried away from any person inhabiting the one, by any person fled therefrom and found in the other, which carrying away shall give a right of civil action, whether the fugitive came to the original possession lawfully or unlawfully, even feloniously; likewise, for the recovery of damages sustained by any forgery committed by such fugitive. And the same provision shall hold in favor of the representatives of the original creditor or sufferer, and against the representatives of the original debtor, carrier away or forger; also, in favor of either government or of corporations, as of natural persons. But in no case, shall the person of the defendant be imprisoned for the debt, though the process, whether original, mesne, or final, be for the form sake directed against his person. If the time between the flight and the commencement of the action exceed not ---- years, it shall be counted but as one day under any act of limitations.

This convention shall continue in force ---- years from the exchange of ratifications, and shall not extend to anything happening previous to such exchange.

_Heads of consideration on the establishment of conventions between the United States and their neighbors, for the mutual delivery of fugitives from justice._

Has a nation a right to punish a person who has not offended itself? Writers on the law of nature agree that it has not. That, on the contrary, exiles and fugitives are, to it, as other strangers, and have a right of residence, unless their presence would be noxious; e. g. infectious persons. One writer extends the exception to atrocious criminals, too imminently dangerous to society; namely, to pirates, murderers, and incendiaries. Vattel, L.1.5. 233.

The punishment of _piracy_ being provided for by our laws, need not be so by convention.

_Murder._ Agreed that this is one of the extreme crimes justifying a denial of habitation, arrest and re-delivery. It should be carefully restrained by definition to homicide of _malice prepense, and not of the nature of treason_.

_Incendiaries_, or those guilty of _arson_. This crime is so rare as not to call for extraordinary provision by a convention. The only _rightful_ subject then of arrest and delivery, for which we have _need_, is _murder_. Ought we to wish to strain the natural right of arresting and re-delivering fugitives to other cases?

The punishment of all real crimes is certainly desirable, as a security to society; the security is greater in proportion as the chances of avoiding punishment are less. But does the fugitive, from his country avoid punishment? He incurs exile, not voluntary, but under a moral necessity as strong as physical. Exile, in some countries, has been the highest punishment allowed by the laws. To most minds it is _next to death_; to many _beyond it_. The fugitive indeed is not of the latter; he must estimate it somewhat _less than death_. It may be said that to _some_, as foreigners, it is no punishment.

Answer. These cases are few. Laws are to be made for the mass of cases.

The object of a convention then, in other cases, would be, that the fugitive might not avoid the _difference between exile and the legal punishment of the case_. Now in what case would this _difference_ be so important, as to overweigh even the single inconvenience of multiplying compacts?

1. _Treason._ This, when real, merits the highest punishment. But most codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the _government_ and acts against the _oppressions of the government_; the latter are virtues; yet they have furnished more victims to the executioner than the former; because real treasons are rare; oppressions frequent. The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny, have been the chief martyrs of treason laws in all countries.

Reformation of government with _our_ neighbors, being as much wanted now as reformation of religion is, or ever was anywhere, we should not wish then, to give up to the executioner, the patriot who fails, and flees to us. Treasons then, taking the _simulated_ with the _real_, are sufficiently punished by exile.

2. Crimes against _property_; the punishment in most countries, immensely disproportionate to the crime.

In England and probably in Canada, to steal a horse is death, the first offence; to steal above the value of twelve pence is death, the second offence. All _excess_ of punishment is a crime. To remit a fugitive to excessive punishment is to be accessary to the crime. Ought we to wish for the obligation, or the right to do it? Better, on the whole, to consider these crimes as sufficiently punished by the exile.

There is one crime, however, against property, pressed by its consequences into more particular notice, to-wit:

_Forgery_, whether of _coin_ or _paper_; and whether paper of _public_ or _private_ obligation. But the fugitive for forgery is punished by exile and confiscation of the property he leaves; to which add by convention, a civil action against the property he carries or acquires, to the amount of the special damage done by his forgery.

The _carrying away_ of the property of another, may also be reasonably made to found a _civil_ action. A convention then may include forgery and the carrying away the property of others under the head of,

3. _Flight from debts._

To remit the fugitive in this case, would be to remit him in every case. For in the present state of things, it is next to impossible not to owe something. But I see neither injustice nor inconvenience in permitting the fugitive to be sued in our courts. The laws of some countries punishing the unfortunate debtor by perpetual imprisonment, he is right to liberate himself by flight, and it would be wrong to re-imprison him in the country to which he flies. Let all process, therefore, be confined to his property.

_Murder_, not amounting to treason, being the only case in which the fugitive is to be delivered:

On what _evidence_, and _by whom_, shall he be delivered?

In this country, let any justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, or other judge of the district where the fugitive is found, use the same proceedings as for a murder committed on the high seas, until the _finding_ of the "_true bill_" by the grand jury; but evidence on oath from the country demanding him, though in _writing_ and _ex parte_, should have the same effect as if delivered _orally_ at the _examination_.

A true bill being found by the grand jury, let the officer in whose custody the fugitive is, deliver him to the person charged to demand and receive him.

In the British provinces adjoining us the same proceedings will do.

In the Spanish provinces, a proceeding adapted to the course of their laws should be agreed on.

March 22, 1792.

TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS.

Philadelphia, April 28, 1792.

Dear Sir,--My last letter to you was of the 10th of March. The preceding one of January the 23d, had conveyed to you your appointment as Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of France. The present will, I hope, find you there. I now enclose you the correspondence between the Secretary of the Treasury and minister of France, on the subject of the moneys furnished to the distressed of their colonies. You will perceive that the minister chose to leave the adjustment of the terms to be settled at Paris, between yourself and the King's ministers. This you will therefore be pleased to do on this principle; that we wish to avoid any loss by the mode of payment, but would not choose to make a gain which should throw loss on them. But the letters of the Secretary of the Treasury will sufficiently explain the desire of the government, and be a sufficient guide to you.

I now enclose you the act passed by Congress for facilitating the execution of the consular convention with France. In a bill which has passed the House of Representatives for raising moneys for the support of the Indian war, while the duties on every other species of wine are raised from one to three-fourths more than they were, the best wines of France will pay little more than the worst of any other country, to wit, between six and seven cents a bottle; and where this exceeds forty per cent. on their cost, they will pay but the forty per cent. I consider this latter provision as likely to introduce in abundance the cheaper wines of France, and the more so, as the tax on ardent spirits is considerably raised. I hope that these manifestations of friendly dispositions towards that country, will induce them to repeal the very obnoxious laws respecting our commerce, which were passed by the preceding National Assembly. The present session of Congress will pass over, without any other notice of them than the friendly preferences before mentioned. But if these should not produce a retaliation of good on their part, a retaliation of evil must follow on ours. It will be impossible to defer longer than the next session of Congress, some counter regulations for the protection of our navigation and commerce. I must entreat you therefore, to avail yourself of every occasion of friendly remonstrance on this subject. If they wish an equal and cordial treaty with us, we are ready to enter into it. We would wish that this could be the scene of negotiation, from considerations suggested by the nature of our government, which will readily occur to you. Congress will rise on this day sen'night. I enclose you a letter from Mrs. Greene, who asks your aid in getting her son forwarded by the Diligence to London, on his way to America. The letter will explain to you the mode and the means, and the parentage and genius of the young gentleman will insure your aid to him. As this goes by the French packet, I send no newspapers, laws, or other articles of that kind, the postage of which would be high.

I am, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Philadelphia, May 16, 1792.

Dear Sir,--The day after your departure, I received from a Mr. Green, a merchant now at New York, through a third person, the following communication: "that he had had very _late_ advices from Spain, _by way of the Spanish islands_, to this effect, that war with France was inevitable, that troops were marching from all quarters of the kingdom to the frontiers, and that fifty sail of the line had been commissioned." This was permitted to be mentioned to me, but, for particular reasons, to no other persons. I suppose the particular reasons were some mercantile speculation founded on the intelligence; perhaps it may be to buy up all our flour. We have London news from the 1st of April, and nothing of this is mentioned. I have a letter from Colonel Humphreys of March 18, which says nothing of it. I am in hopes, therefore, the only effect will be to get us a good price for our flour or fish; this being our look out, while the success of the speculation is that of the adventurer. You will recollect that we had learned the death of the Emperor of Morocco, after a battle in which he was victorious. The brother opposed to him, it seems, was killed in the same action, and the one--Muley Islema--who had been so long in the sanctuary, is proclaimed Emperor. He was the best character of the three, and is likely to be peaceable. This information is from Colonel Humphreys. The Queen of Portugal is still in the same state. Wyllys does not pronounce her curable, though he says there is nothing which indicates the contrary. He has removed from her all her former physicians. Mr. Madison has favored me with some corrections for my letter to Mr. H. It is now in the hands of the Attorney General, and shall then be submitted to Colonel Hamilton. I find that these examinations will retard the delivery of it considerably. However, delay is preferable to error. Mr. Pinckney is engaged in going over such papers of my office as may put him in possession of whatever has passed between us and the court he is going to. I have one hundred olive trees, and some caper plants, arrived here from Marseilles, which I am sending on to Charleston, where, Mr. Pinckney tells me, they have already that number living of those I had before sent them. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and attachment, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO MESSRS. DE VIAR AND DE JAUDENES.

Philadelphia, May 17, 1792.

Gentlemen,--We lately received from Mr. Leagrove, our Indian agent for the Southern Department, a letter, of which the enclosed is an extract, whereby it appeared that a party of the Creek Indians, under the influence of the adventurer Bowles, had meditated some depredations on the Spanish settlements, from which they had been diverted by a friend of our agent, but that their disposition to do injury was, perhaps, not quite extinguished. Sensible how much it is in the power of neighbor nations to contribute to mutual happiness and prosperity, by faithfully using their good offices wherever they can procure the peace and advantage of each other, and feeling a union of interest with Spain in whatever regards the adjacent possessions, we have not hesitated to give general instructions to our agent in that department to cultivate in the Indians the same friendly dispositions towards the Spanish settlements as towards ourselves, and to promote their peace and interest in every case with the same zeal as our own.

I have the honor to enclose you one of those orders, to congratulate you on the intelligence that the leader, who gave occasion to this particular interposition, is no longer in a situation to threaten further danger, and to assure you that, as far as shall depend on us, we will, on every future occasion, sincerely use what influence we may have with the Indians to discountenance and prevent every measure they may meditate against the peace or prosperity of your subjects.

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

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Philadelphia, May 18, 1792.

Dear Sir,--Since I wrote you the day before yesterday, I have received a letter of March 25, from Colonel Humphreys, informing me that the Queen of Portugal was considerably better, as also mentioning the death of the Emperor of Germany. What effect this last event will have on the affairs of Europe, cannot be foreseen, the character of the successor being absolutely unknown. He is twenty-four years of age. One would conjecture that, if he has any dispositions to war, he would think a little time necessary to get his election passed in form, to see if the troubles within his dominions quieted by his father, would be likely to break out or not, &c., and that this would hold him back one campaign. Still, this event renders peace less certain, as the character of his father was so decidedly pacific, that one might count on that. There seems to have been a magnificent story current in London for the three or four last days of March, of the capture of Seringapatam and Tippoo Saib, great slaughter, &c.; but, on the 1st of April, the date of the latest paper which the vessel brings (she is from Glasgow), it had died away to a _hum_ raised by stock jobbers, who wanted to sell out. It did in fact raise East India stock two or three per cent. Still it was not fallen into entire discredit, as appears by some paragraphs, and consequently cannot be decidedly pronounced untrue. Perhaps the contradiction of it was the counter hum of those who wanted to buy in.

I have the honor to be, with great and sincere respect and attachment, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Philadelphia, May 23, 1792.

Dear Sir,--I have determined to make the subject of a letter what for some time past has been a subject of inquietude to my mind, without having found a good occasion of disburthening itself to you in conversation, during the busy scenes which occupied you here. Perhaps, too, you may be able in your present situation, or on the road, to give it more time and reflection than you could do here at any moment.

When you first mentioned to me your purpose of retiring from the government, though I felt all the magnitude of the event, I was in a considerable degree silent. I knew that, to such a mind as yours, persuasion was idle and impertinent; that before forming your decision you had weighed all the reasons for and against the measure, had made up your mind on full view of them, and that there could be little hope of changing the result. Pursuing my reflections, too, I knew we were some day to try to walk alone, and if the essay should be made while you should be alive and looking on, we should derive confidence from that circumstance, and resource, if it failed. The public mind, too, was calm and confident, and therefore in a favorable state for making the experiment. Had no change of circumstances intervened, I should not, with any hopes of success, have now ventured to propose to you a change of purpose. But the public mind is no longer confident and serene; and that from causes in which you are no ways personally mixed. Though these causes have been hackneyed in the public papers in detail, it may not be amiss, in order to calculate the effect they are capable of producing, to take a view of them in the mass, giving to each the form, real or imaginary, under which they have been presented.

It has been urged, then, that a public debt, greater than we can possibly pay, before other causes of adding new debt to it will occur, has been artificially created by adding together the whole amount of the debtor and creditor sides of accounts, instead of only taking their balances, which could have been paid off in a short time: that this accumulation of debt has taken forever out of our power those easy sources of revenue which, applied to the ordinary necessities and exigencies of government, would have answered them habitually, and covered us from habitual murmurings against taxes and tax-gatherers, reserving extraordinary calls for those extraordinary occasions which would animate the people to meet them: that though the calls for money have been no greater than we must expect generally, for the same or equivalent exigencies, yet we are already obliged to strain the impost till it produces clamor, and will produce evasion and war on our own citizens to collect it, and even to resort to an _excise_ law of odious character with the people, partial in its operation, unproductive unless enforced by arbitrary and vexatious means, and committing the authority of the government in parts where resistance is most probable and coercion least practicable. They cite propositions in Congress, and suspect other projects on foot still to increase the mass of debt. They say, that by borrowing at two-thirds of the interest, we might have paid off the principal in two-thirds of the time; but that from this we are precluded by its being made irredeemable but in small portions and long terms; that this irredeemable quality was given it for the avowed purpose of inviting its transfer to foreign countries. They predict that this transfer of the principal, when completed, will occasion an exportation of three millions of dollars annually for the interest, a drain of coin, of which, as there has been no examples, no calculation can be made of its consequences: that the banishment of our coin will be complicated by the creation of ten millions of paper money, in the form of bank bills now issuing into circulation. They think the ten or twelve per cent. annual profit paid to the lenders of this paper medium taken out of the pockets of the people, who would have had without interest the coin it is banishing: that all the capital employed in paper speculation is barren and useless, producing, like that on a gaming table, no accession to itself, and is withdrawn from commerce and agriculture, where it would have produced addition to the common mass: that it nourishes in our citizens habits of vice and idleness, instead of industry and morality: that it has furnished effectual means of corrupting such a portion of the legislature as turns the balance between the honest voters, whichever way it is directed: that this corrupt squadron, deciding the voice of the legislature, have manifested their dispositions to get rid of the limitations imposed by the Constitution on the general legislature, limitations, on the faith of which, the States acceded to that instrument: that the ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change from the present republican form of government to that of a monarchy, of which the English constitution is to be the model: that this was contemplated by the convention is no secret, because its partisans have made more of it. To effect it then was impracticable, but they are still eager after their object, and are predisposing everything for its ultimate attainment. So many of them have got into the Legislature, that, aided by the corrupt squadron of paper dealers, who are at their devotion, they make a majority in both houses. The republican party, who wish to preserve the government in its present form, are fewer in number; they are fewer even when joined by the two, three, or half dozen anti-federalists, who, though they dare not avow it, are still opposed to any general government; but, being less so to a republican than a monarchical one, they naturally join those whom they think pursuing the lesser evil.

Of all the mischiefs objected to the system of measures before mentioned, none is so afflicting and fatal to every honest hope, as the corruption of the Legislature. As it was the earliest of these measures, it became the instrument for producing the risk, and will be the instrument for producing in future a king, lords and commons, or whatever else those who direct it may choose. Withdrawn such a distance from the eye of their constituents, and these so dispersed as to be inaccessible to public information, and particularly to that of the conduct of their own representatives, they will form the most corrupt government on earth, if the means of their corruption be not prevented. The only hope of safety hangs now on the numerous representation which is to come forward the ensuing year. Some of the new members will be, probably, either in principle or interest, with the present majority; but it is expected that the great mass will form an accession to the republican party. They will not be able to undo all which the two preceding Legislatures, and especially the first, have done. Public faith and right will oppose this. But some parts of the system may be rightfully reformed, a liberation from the rest unremittingly pursued as fast as right will permit, and the door shut in future against similar commitments of the nation. Should the next Legislature take this course, it will draw upon them the whole monarchical and paper interest; but the latter, I think, will not go all lengths with the former, because creditors will never, of their own accord, fly off entirely from their debtors; therefore, this is the alternative least likely to produce convulsion. But should the majority of the new members be still in the same principles with the present, and show that we have nothing to expect but a continuance of the same practices, it is not easy to conjecture what would be the result, nor what means would be resorted to for correction of the evil. True wisdom would direct that they should be temperate and peaceable; but the division of sentiment and interest happens unfortunately to be so geographical, that no mortal can say that what is most wise and temperate would prevail against what is most easy and obvious? I can scarcely contemplate a more incalculable evil than the breaking of the Union into two or more parts. Yet when we consider the mass which opposed the original coalescence; when we consider that it lay chiefly in the Southern quarter; that the Legislature have availed themselves of no occasion of allaying it, but on the contrary, whenever Northern and Southern prejudices have come into conflict, the latter have been sacrificed and the former soothed; that the owers of the debt are in the Southern, and the holders of it in the Northern division; that the anti-federal champions are now strengthened in argument by the fulfillment of their predictions; that this has been brought about by the monarchical federalists themselves, who, having been for the new government merely as a stepping stone to monarchy, have themselves adopted the very constructions of the Constitution, of which, when advocating its acceptance before the tribunal of the people, they declared it unsusceptible; that the republican federalists who espoused the same government for its intrinsic merits, are disarmed of their weapons; that which they denied as prophecy, having now become true history, who can be sure that these things may not proselyte the small number which was wanting to place the majority on the other side? And this is the event at which I tremble, and to prevent which I consider your continuing at the head of affairs as of the last importance. The confidence of the whole Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be more than an answer to every argument which can be used to alarm and lead the people in any quarter, into violence and secession. North and South will hang together if they have you to hang on; and if the first correction of a numerous representation should fail in its effect, your presence will give time for trying others, not inconsistent with the union and peace of the States.

I am perfectly aware of the oppression under which your present office lays your mind, and of the ardor with which you pant for domestic life. But there is sometimes an eminence of character on which society have such peculiar claims as to control the predelictions of the individual for a particular walk of happiness, and restrain him to that alone arising from the present and future benedictions of mankind. This seems to be your condition, and the law imposed on you by providence in forming your character, and fashioning the events on which it was to operate; and it is to motives like these, and not to personal anxieties of mine or others who have no right to call on you for sacrifices, that I appeal, and urge a revisal of it, on the ground of change in the aspect of things. Should an honest majority result from the new and enlarged representation; should those acquiesce whose principles or interest they may control, your wishes for retirement would be gratified with less danger, as soon as that shall be manifest, without awaiting the completion of the second period of four years. One or two sessions will determine the crisis; and I cannot but hope that you can resolve to add more to the many years you have already sacrificed to the good of mankind.

The fear of suspicion that any selfish motive of continuance in office may enter into this solicitation on my part, obliges me to declare that no such motive exists. It is a thing of mere indifference to the public whether I retain or relinquish my purpose of closing my tour with the first periodical renovation of the government. I know my own measure too well to suppose that my services contribute anything to the public confidence, or the public utility. Multitudes can fill the office in which you have been pleased to place me, as much to their advantage and satisfaction. I have, therefore, no motive to consult but my own inclination, which is bent irresistibly on the tranquil enjoyment of my family, my farm and my books. I should repose among them, it is true, in far greater security, if I were to know that you remained at the watch; and I hope it will be so. To the inducements urged from a view of our domestic affairs, I will add a bare mention, of what indeed need only to be mentioned, that weighty motives for your continuance are to be found in our foreign affairs. I think it probable that both the Spanish and English negotiations, if not completed before your purpose is known, will be suspended from the moment it is known, and that the latter nation will then use double diligence in fomenting the Indian War. With my wishes for the future, I shall at the same time express my gratitude for the past, at least my portion in it; and beg permission to follow you, whether in public or private life, with those sentiments of sincere attachment and respect, with which I am unalterably, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and humble servant.

MR. JEFFERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE UNITED STATES, TO MR. HAMMOND.

Philadelphia, May 29, 1792.

Sir,--Your favor of March 5th has been longer unanswered than consisted with my wishes, to forward as much as possible explanations of the several matters it contained. But these matters were very various, and the evidence of them not easily to be obtained, even were it could be obtained at all. It has been a work of time and trouble, to collect from the different States all the acts themselves, of which you had cited the titles, and to investigate the judiciary decisions which were classed with those acts as infractions of the treaty of peace. To these causes of delay may be added the daily duties of my office, necessarily multiplied during the sessions of the Legislature.