AUTOBIOGRAPHY
1743 - 1790
by Thomas
Jefferson
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
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
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
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
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
The origination of these commees of correspondence between
the colonies has been since claimed for
The next event which excited our sympathies for Massachusets
was the
(* 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
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
On
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
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.
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
That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these
delegates must retire & possibly their colonies might secede from the
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
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
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
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
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
That within that time it had become apparent that
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
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
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
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
A Declaration by
the Representatives of the
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
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
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 of the United States of
America in General Congress assembled do in the name & by authority of the
good people of these *states reject & renounce all allegiance &
subjection to the kings of Great Britain & all others who may hereafter
claim by, through or under them: we utterly dissolve all political* *connection
which may heretofore have subsisted between us & the people or parliament
of Great Britain: & finally we do assert & declare these colonies to be
free & independent states,* & that as free & independent states,
they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish
commerce, & to do all other acts & things which independent states may
of right do. And for the support of this declaration we mutually pledge to each
other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred honor.
We therefore the representatives of the United States of
America in General Congress assembled, appealing to the supreme judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do in the name, & by the
authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish & 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 as free &
independent states they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract
alliances, establish commerce & to do all other acts & things which independent states may of right do. And
for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of
divine providence we mutually 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]
Mr. [James]
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,
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
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
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.
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
Mr. [Stephen]
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
* * *
These articles reported July 12. 76 were debated from day to
day, & time to time for two years, were ratified
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
(* 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
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
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
*I arrived
at
* Unfortunately, Thomas Jefferson died before
completing this autobiography!