Letters of Thomas Jefferson

1789

“Convening the Estates General”

DEAR SIR, -- I was favored with your letter of October 26th, and far from finding any of its subjects uninteresting as you apprehend, they were to me, as everything which comes from you, pleasing and instructive.  I concur with you strictly in your opinion of the comparative merits of atheism and demonism, and really see nothing but the latter in the being worshipped by many who think themselves Christians.  Your opinions and writings will have effect in bringing others to reason on this subject.  Our new Constitution, of which you speak also, has succeeded beyond what I apprehended it would have done.  I did not at first believe that eleven States out of thirteen would have consented to a plan consolidating them as much into one.  A change in their dispositions, which had taken place since I left them, had rendered this consolidation necessary, that is to say, had called for a federal government which could walk upon its own legs, without leaning for support on the State legislatures.  A sense of necessity, and a submission to it, is to me a new and consolatory proof that, whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.  You say you are not sufficiently informed about the nature and circumstances of the present struggle here.  Having been on the spot from its first origin, and watched its movements as an uninterested spectator, with no other bias than a love of mankind, I will give you my ideas of it.  Though celebrated writers of this and other countries had already sketched good principles on the subject of government, yet the American war seems first to have awakened the thinking part of this 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 dictates of common sense and common right.  They came back impressed with these.  The press, notwithstanding its shackles, began to disseminate them; conversation, too, assumed new freedom; politics became the theme of all societies, male and female, and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which may be called the Patriotic party, who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, longed for occasions of reforming it.  This party comprehended all the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at its leisure to think; the men of letters, the easy bourgeois, the young nobility, partly from reflection, partly from mode; for those sentiments became a matter of mode, and as such united most of the young women to the party.  Happily for the nation, it happened that, at the same moment, the dissipations of the court had exhausted the money and credit of the State, and M. de Calonnes found himself obliged to appeal to the nation, and to develop to it the ruin of their finances.  He had no idea of supplying the deficit by economies, he saw no means but new taxes.  To tempt the nation to consent to these some douceurs were necessary.  The Notables were called in 1787.  The leading vices of the constitution and administration were ably sketched out, good remedies proposed, and under the splendor of the propositions, a demand for more money was couched.  The Notables concurred with the minister in the necessity of reformation, adroitly avoided the demand of money, got him displaced, and one of their leading men placed in his room.  The archbishop of Thoulouse, by the aid of the hopes formed of him, was able to borrow some money, and he reformed considerably the expenses of the court.  Notwithstanding the prejudices since formed against him, he appeared to me to pursue the reformation of the laws and constitution as steadily as a man could do who had to drag the court after him, and even to conceal from them the consequences of the measures he was leading them into.  In his time the criminal laws were reformed, provincial assemblies and States established in most of the provinces, the States General promised, and a solemn acknowledgment made by the King that he could not impose a new tax without the consent of the nation.  It is true he was continually goaded forward by the public clamors, excited by the writings and workings of the Patriots, who were able to keep up the public fermentation at the exact point which borders on resistance, without entering on it.  They had taken into their alliance the Parliaments also, who were led, by very singular circumstances, to espouse, for the first time, the rights of the nation.  They had from old causes had personal hostility against M. de Calonnes.  They refused to register his laws or his taxes, and went so far as to acknowledge they had no power to do it.  They persisted in this with his successor, who therefore exiled them.  Seeing that the nation did not interest themselves much for their recall, they began to fear that the new judicatures proposed in their place would be established and that their own suppression would be perpetual.  In short, they found their own strength insufficient to oppose that of the King.  They therefore insisted that the States General should be called.  Here they became united with and supported by the Patriots, and their joint influence was sufficient to produce the promise of that assembly.  I always suspected that the archbishops had no objections to this force under which they laid him.  But the Patriots and Parliament insisted it was their efforts which extorted the promise against his will.  The re-establishment of the Parliament was the effect of the same coalition between the Patriots and Parliament; but, once re-established, the latter began to see danger in that very power, the States General, which they had called for in a moment of despair, but which they now foresaw might very possibly abridge their powers.  They began to prepare grounds for questioning their legality, as a rod over the head of the States, and as a refuge if they should really extend their reformations to them.  Mr. Neckar came in at this period and very dexterously disembarrassed the administration of these disputes by calling the notables to advise the form of calling and constituting the States.  The court was well disposed towards the people, not from principles of justice or love to them; but they want money.  No more can be had from the people.  They are squeezed to the last drop.  The clergy and nobles, by their privileges and influence, have kept their property in a great measure untaxed hitherto.  They then remain to be squeezed, and no agent is powerful enough for this but the people.  The court therefore must ally itself with the people.  But the Notables, consisting mostly of privileged characters, had proposed a method of composing the States, which would have rendered the voice of the people, or Tiers Etats, in the States General, inefficient for the purpose of the court.  It concurred then with the Patriots in intriguing with the Parliament to get them to pass a vote in favor of the rights of the people.  This vote, balancing that of the Notables, has placed the court at liberty to follow its own views, and they have determined that the Tiers Etat shall have in the States General as many votes as the clergy and nobles put together.  Still a great question remains to be decided, that is, shall the States General vote by orders, or by persons? precedents are both ways.  The clergy will move heaven and earth to obtain the suffrage by orders, because that parries the effect of all hitherto done for the people.  The people will probably send their deputies expressly instructed to consent to no tax, to no adoption of the public debts, unless the unprivileged part of the nation has a voice equal to that of the privileged; that is to say, unless the voice of the Tiers Etat be equalled to that of the clergy and nobles.  They will have the young noblesse in general on their side, and the King and court.  Against them will be the ancient nobles and the clergy.  So that I hope, upon the whole, that by the time they meet, there will be a majority of the nobles themselves in favor of the Tiers Etat.  So far history.  We are now to come to prophecy; for you will ask, to what will all this lead?  I answer, if the States General do not stumble at the threshold on the question before stated, and which must be decided before they can proceed to business, then they will in their first session easily obtain, 1.  Their future periodical convocation of the States.  2.  Their exclusive right to raise and appropriate money which includes that of establishing a civil list.  3.  A participation in legislation; probably at first, it will only be a transfer to them of the portion of it now exercised by parliament, that is to say, a right to propose amendments and a negative.  But it must infallibly end in a right of origination.  4.  Perhaps they may make a declaration of rights.  It will be attempted at least.  Two other objects will be attempted, viz., a habeas corpus law and a free press.  But probably they may not obtain these in the first session, or with modifications only, and the nation must be left to ripen itself more for their unlimited adoption.  Upon the whole, it has appeared to me that the basis of the present struggle is an illumination of the public mind as to the rights of the nation, aided by fortunate incidents; that they can never retrograde, but from the natural progress of things, must press forward to the establishment of a constitution which shall assure to them a good degree of liberty.  They flatter themselves they shall form a better constitution than the English.  I think it will be better in some points -- worse in others.  It will be better in the article of representation, which will be more equal.  It will be worse, as their situation obliges them to keep up the dangerous machine of a standing army. I doubt, too, whether they will obtain the trial by jury, because they are not sensible of its value.

I am sure I have by this time heartily tired you with this long epistle, and that you will be glad to see it brought to an end, with assurances of the sentiments of esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

“Bacon, Locke, and Newton”

DEAR SIR, -- I have duly received your favor of the 5’th. inst.  With respect to the busts & pictures I will put off till my return from America all of them except Bacon, Locke and Newton, whose pictures I will trouble you to have copied for me: and as I consider them as the three greatest men that have ever lived, without any exception, and as having laid the foundation of those superstructures which have been raised in the Physical & Moral sciences, I would wish to form them into a knot on the same canvas, that they may not be confounded at all with the herd of other great men.  To do this I suppose we need only desire the copyist to draw the three busts in three ovals all contained in a larger oval in some such form as this each bust to be the size of life.

xxx.  The large oval would I suppose be about between four & five feet.  Perhaps you can suggest a better way of accomplishing my idea.  In your hands be it, as well as the subaltern expences you mention.  I trouble you with a letter to Mrs. Church.  We have no important news here but of the revolution of Geneva which is not yet sufficiently explained.  But they have certainly reformed their government.  I am with great respect D’r. Sir Your affectionate friend & humble serv’t.

“Neither Federalist nor Antifederalist”

DEAR SIR, -- Since my last, which was of Dec. 21. yours of Dec. 9. & 21. are received.  Accept my thanks for the papers and pamphlets which accompanied them, and mine & my daughter’s for the book of songs.  I will not tell you how much they have pleased us, nor how well the last of them merits praise for it’s pathos, but relate a fact only, which is that while my elder daughter was playing it on the harpsichord, I happened to look towards the fire & saw the younger one all in tears.  I asked her if she was sick?  She said ‘no; but the tune was so mournful.’  -- The Editor of the Encyclopedie has published something as to an advanced price on his future volumes, which I understand alarms the subscribers.  It was in a paper which I do not take & therefore I have not yet seen it, nor can say what it is.  -- I hope that by this time you have ceased to make wry faces about your vinegar, and that you have received it safe & good.  You say that I have been dished up to you as an antifederalist, and ask me if it be just.  My opinion was never worthy enough of notice to merit citing; but since you ask it I will tell it you.  I am not a Federalist, because I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself.  Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.  If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.  Therefore I protest to you I am not of the party of federalists.  But I am much farther from that of the Antifederalists.  I approved, from the first moment, of the great mass of what is in the new constitution, the consolidation of the government, the organization into Executive legislative & judiciary, the subdivision of the legislative, the happy compromise of interests between the great & little states by the different manner of voting in the different houses, the voting by persons instead of states, the qualified negative on laws given to the Executive which however I should have liked better if associated with the judiciary also as in New York, and the power of taxation.  I thought at first that the latter might have been limited.  A little reflection soon convinced me it ought not to be.  What I disapproved from the first moment also was the want of a bill of rights to guard liberty against the legislative as well as executive branches of the government, that is to say to secure freedom in religion, freedom of the press, freedom from monopolies, freedom from unlawful imprisonment, freedom from a permanent military, and a trial by jury in all cases determinable by the laws of the land.  I disapproved also the perpetual reeligibility of the President.  To these points of disapprobation I adhere.  My first wish was that the 9. first conventions might accept the constitution, as the means of securing to us the great mass of good it contained, and that the 4. last might reject it, as the means of obtaining amendments.  But I was corrected in this wish the moment I saw the much better plan of Massachusetts and which had never occurred to me.  With respect to the declaration of rights I suppose the majority of the United states are of my opinion: for I apprehend all the antifederalists, and a very respectable proportion of the federalists think that such a declaration should now be annexed.  The enlightened part of Europe have given us the greatest credit for inventing this instrument of security for the rights of the people, and have been not a little surprised to see us so soon give it up.  With respect to the re-eligibility of the president, I find myself differing from the majority of my countrymen, for I think there are but three states out of the 11. which have desired an alteration of this.  And indeed, since the thing is established, I would wish it not to be altered during the life of our great leader, whose executive talents are superior to those I believe of any man in the world, and who alone by the authority of his name and the confidence reposed in his perfect integrity, is fully qualified to put the new government so under way as to secure it against the efforts of opposition.  But having derived from our error all the good there was in it I hope we shall correct it the moment we can no longer have the same name at the helm.  These, my dear friend, are my sentiments, by which you will see I was right in saying I am neither federalist nor antifederalist; that I am of neither party, nor yet a trimmer between parties.  These my opinions I wrote within a few hours after I had read the constitution, to one or two friends in America.  I had not then read one single word printed on the subject.  I never had an opinion in politics or religion which I was afraid to own.  A costive reserve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from some people, but less from myself.  My great wish is to go on in a strict but silent performance of my duty; to avoid attracting notice & to keep my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.  The attaching circumstance of my present office is that I can do it’s duties unseen by those for whom they are done.  -- You did not think, by so short a phrase in your letter, to have drawn on yourself such an egotistical dissertation.

“A Bill of Rights”

DEAR SIR, -- I wrote you last on the 12th of Jan. since which I have received yours of Octob 17, Dec 8 & 12.  That of Oct. 17. came to hand only Feb 23.  How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came.  Looking over my letter of Jan 12th, I remark an error of the word “probable” instead of “improbable,” which doubtless however you had been able to correct.  Your thoughts on the subject of the Declaration of rights in the letter of Oct 17.  I have weighed with great satisfaction.  Some of them had not occurred to me before, but were acknoleged just in the moment they were presented to my mind.  In the arguments in favor of a declaration of rights, you omit one which has great weight with me, the legal check which it puts into the hands of the judiciary.  This is a body, which if rendered independent & kept strictly to their own department merits great confidence for their learning & integrity.  In fact what degree of confidence would be too much for a body composed of such men as Wythe, Blair & Pendleton?  On characters like these the “civium ardor prava jubentium” would make no impression.  I am happy to find that on the whole you are a friend to this amendment.  The Declaration of rights is like all other human blessings alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing fully it’s object.  But the good in this instance vastly overweighs the evil.  I cannot refrain from making short answers to the objections which your letter states to have been raised.  1.  That the rights in question are reserved by the manner in which the federal powers are granted.  Answer.  A constitutive act may certainly be so formed as to need no declaration of rights.  The act itself has the force of a declaration as far as it goes; and if it goes to all material points nothing more is wanting.  In the draught of a constitution which I had once a thought of proposing in Virginia, & printed afterwards, I endeavored to reach all the great objects of public liberty, and did not mean to add a declaration of rights.  Probably the object was imperfectly executed; but the deficiencies would have been supplied by others, in the course of discussion.  But in a constitutive act which leaves some precious articles unnoticed, and raises implications against others, a declaration of rights becomes necessary by way of supplement.  This is the case of our new federal constitution.  This instrument forms us into one state as to certain objects, and gives us a legislative & executive body for these objects.  It should therefore guard us against their abuses of power within the field submitted to them.  2.  A positive declaration of some essential rights could not be obtained in the requisite latitude.  Answer.  Half a loaf is better than no bread.  If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can.  3.  The limited powers of the federal government & jealousy of the subordinate governments afford a security which exists in no other instance.  Answer.  The first member of this seems resolvable into the first objection before stated.  The jealousy of the subordinate governments is a precious reliance.  But observe that those governments are only agents.  They must have principles furnished them whereon to found their opposition.  The declaration of rights will be the text whereby they will try all the acts of the federal government, In this view it is necessary to the federal government also; as by the same text they may try the opposition of the subordinate governments.  4.  Experience proves the inefficacy of a bill of rights.  True.  But tho it is not absolutely efficacious under all circumstances, it is of great potency always, and rarely inefficacious.  A brace the more will often keep up the building which would have fallen with that brace the less.  There is a remarkable difference between the characters of the Inconveniences which attend a Declaration of rights, & those which attend the want of it.  The inconveniences of the Declaration are that it may cramp government in it’s useful exertions.  But the evil of this is short-lived, trivial & reparable.  The inconveniences of the want of a Declaration are permanent, afflicting & irreparable.  They are in constant progression from bad to worse.  The executive in our governments is not the sole, it is scarcely the principal object of my jealousy.  The tyranny of the legislatures is the most formidable dread at present, and will be for long years.  That of the executive will come in it’s turn, but it will be at a remote period.  I know there are some among us who would now establish a monarchy.  But they are inconsiderable in number and weight of character.  The rising race are all republicans.  We were educated in royalism; no wonder if some of us retain that idolatry still.  Our young people are educated in republicanism, an apostasy from that to royalism is unprecedented & impossible.  I am much pleased with the prospect that a declaration of rights will be added; and hope it will be done in that way which will not endanger the whole frame of the government, or any essential part of it.

I have hitherto avoided public news in my letters to you, because your situation insured you a communication of my letters to Mr. Jay.  This circumstance being changed, I shall in future indulge myself in these details to you.  There had been some slight hopes that an accommodation might be affected between the Turks & two empires but these hopes do not strengthen, and the season is approaching which will put an end to them for another campaign at least.  The accident to the King of England has had great influence on the affairs of Europe.  His mediation joined with that of Prussia, would certainly have kept Denmark quiet, and so have left the two empires in the hands of the Turks & Swedes.  But the inactivity to which England is reduced, leaves Denmark more free, and she will probably go on in opposition to Sweden.  The K. of Prussia too had advanced so far that he can scarcely retire.  This is rendered the more difficult by the troubles he has excited in Poland.  He cannot well abandon the party he had brought forward there so that it is very possible he may be engaged in the ensuing campaign.  France will be quiet this year, because this year at least is necessary for settling her future constitution.  The States will meet the 27th of April: and the public mind will I think by that time be ripe for a just decision of the Question whether they shall vote by orders or persons.  I think there is a majority of the nobles already for the latter.  If so, their affairs cannot but go on well.  Besides settling for themselves a tolerably free constitution, perhaps as free a one as the nation is yet prepared to bear, they will fund their public debts.  This will give them such a credit as will enable them to borrow any money they may want, & of course to take the field again when they think proper.  And I believe they mean to take the field as soon as they can.  The pride of every individual in the nation suffers under the ignominies they have lately been exposed to and I think the states general will give money for a war to wipe off the reproach.  There have arisen new bickerings between this court & the Hague, and the papers which have passed shew the most bitter acrimony rankling at the heart of this ministry.  They have recalled their ambassador from the Hague without appointing a successor.  They have given a note to the Diet of Poland which shews a disapprobation of their measures.  The insanity of the King of England has been fortunate for them as it gives them time to put their house in order.  The English papers tell you the King is well: and even the English ministry say so.  They will naturally set the best foot foremost: and they guard his person so well that it is difficult for the public to contradict them.  The King is probably better, but not well by a great deal.  1.  He has been bled, and judicious physicians say that in his exhausted state nothing could have induced a recurrence to bleeding but symptoms of relapse.  2.  The Prince of Wales tells the Irish deputation he will give them a definitive answer in some days; but if the king had been well he could have given it at once.  3.  They talk of passing a standing law for providing a regency in similar cases.  They apprehend then they are not yet clear of the danger of wanting a regency.  4.  They have carried the king to church; but it was his private chapel.  If he be well why do not they shew him publicly to the nation, & raise them from that consternation into which they have been thrown by the prospect of being delivered over to the profligate hands of the prince of Wales.  In short, judging from little facts which are known in spite of their teeth the King is better, but not well.  Possibly he is getting well, but still, time will be wanting to satisfy even the ministry that it is not merely a lucid interval.  Consequently they cannot interrupt France this year in the settlement of her affairs, & after this year it will be too late.

As you will be in a situation to know when the leave of absence will be granted me which I have asked, will you be so good as to communicate it by a line to Mr. Lewis & Mr. Eppes?  I hope to see you in the summer, and that if you are not otherwise engaged, you will encamp with me at Monticello for awhile.

“Science and Liberty”

SIR, -- I have been lately honored with your letter of September the 24th, 1788, accompanied by a diploma for a Doctorate of Laws, which the University of Harvard has been pleased to confer on me.  Conscious how little I merit it, I am the more sensible of their goodness and indulgence to a stranger, who has had no means of serving or making himself known to them.  I beg you to return them my grateful thanks, and to assure them that this notice from so eminent a seat of science, is very precious to me.

The most remarkable publications we have had in France, for a year or two past, are the following.  ‘Les voyages d’Anacharsis par l’Abbe Barthelemi,’ seven volumes, octavo.  This is a very elegant digest of whatever is known of the Greeks; useless, indeed, to him who has read the original authors, but very proper for one who reads modern languages only.  The works of the King of Prussia.  The Berlin edition is in sixteen volumes, octavo.  It is said to have been gutted at Berlin; and here it has been still more mangled.  There are one or two other editions published abroad, which pretend to have rectified the maltreatment both of Berlin and Paris.  Some time will be necessary to settle the public mind, as to the best edition.

Montignot has given us the original Greek, and a French translation of the seventh book of Potolemy’s great work, under the title of ‘Etat des etoiles fixes au second siecle,’ in quarto.  He has given the designation of the same stars by Flamstead and Beyer, and their position in the year 1786.  A very remarkable work is the ‘Mechanique Analytique,’ of Le Grange, in quarto.  He is allowed to be the greatest mathematician now living, and his personal worth is equal to his science.  The object of his work is to reduce all the principles of mechanics to the single one of the equilibrium, and to give a simple formula applicable to them all.  The subject is treated in the algebraic method, without diagrams to assist the conception.  My present occupations not permitting me to read any thing which requires a long and undisturbed attention, I am not able to give you the character of this work from my own examination.  It has been received with great approbation in Europe.  In Italy, the works of Spallanzani on digestion and generation, are valuable.  Though, perhaps, too minute, and therefore tedious, he has developed some useful truths, and his book is well worth attention; it is in four volumes, octavo.  Clavigaro, an Italian also, who has resided thirty-six years in Mexico, has given us a history of that country, which certainly merits more respect than any other work on the same subject.  He corrects many errors of Dr. Robertson; and though sound philosophy will disapprove many of his ideas, we must still consider it as an useful work, and assuredly the best we possess on the same subject.  It is in four thin volumes, small quarto.  De la Land has not yet published a fifth volume.

The chemical dispute about the conversion and reconversion of air and water, continues still undecided.  Arguments and authorities are so balanced, that we may still safely believe, as our fathers did before us, that these principles are distinct.  A schism of another kind, has taken place among the chemists.  A particular set of them here, have undertaken to remodel all the terms of the science, and to give to every substance a new name, the composition, and especially the termination of which, shall define the relation in which it stands to other substances of the same family.  But the science seems too much in its infancy as yet, for this reformation; because, in fact, the reformation of this year must be reformed again the next year, and so on, changing the names of substances as often as new experiments develope properties in them undiscovered before.  The new nomenclature has, accordingly, been already proved to need numerous and important reformations.  Probably it will not prevail.  It is espoused by the minority only here, and by very few, indeed, of the foreign chemists.  It is particularly rejected in England.

In the arts, I think two of our countrymen have presented the most important inventions.  Mr. Paine, the author of Common Sense, has invented an iron bridge, which promises to be cheaper by a great deal than stone, and to admit of a much greater arch.  He supposes it may be ventured for an arch of five hundred feet.  He has obtained a patent for it in England, and is now executing the first experiment with an arch of between ninety and one hundred feet.  Mr. Rumsey has also obtained a patent for his navigation by the force of steam, in England, and is soliciting a similar one here.  His principal merit is in the improvement of the boiler, and, instead of the complicated machinery of oars and paddles, proposed by others, the substitution of so simple a thing as the reaction of a stream of water on his vessel.  He is building a sea vessel at this time in England, and she will be ready for an experiment in May.  He has suggested a great number of mechanical improvements in a variety of branches; and upon the whole, is the most original and the greatest mechanical genius I have ever seen.  The return of la Peyrouse (whenever that shall happen) will probably add to our knowledge in Geography, Botany and Natural History.  What a field have we at our doors to signalise ourselves in!  The Botany of America is far from being exhausted, its Mineralogy is untouched, and its Natural History or Zoology, totally mistaken and misrepresented.  As far as I have seen, there is not one single species of terrestrial birds common to Europe and America, and I question if there be a single species of quadrupeds.  (Domestic animals are to be excepted.)  It is for such institutions as that over which you preside so worthily, Sir, to do justice to our country, its productions and its genius.  It is the work to which the young men, whom you are forming, should lay their hands.  We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring them the precious blessing of liberty.  Let them spend theirs in shewing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue; and that a nation will be great in both, always in proportion as it is free.  Nobody wishes more warmly for the success of your good exhortations on this subject, than he who has the honor to be, with sentiments of great esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

“A Report From Versailles”

SIR, -- Since my letter of March the 1st, by the way of Havre, and those of March the 12th and 15th, by the way of London, no opportunity of writing has occurred, till the present to London.

There are no symptoms of accommodation between the Turks and two empires, nor between Russia and Sweden.  The Emperor was, on the 16th of the last month, expected to die, certainly; he was, however, a little better when the last news came away, so that hopes were entertained of him; but it is agreed that he cannot get the better of his complaints ultimately, so that his life is not at all counted on.  The Danes profess, as yet, to do no more against Sweden than furnish their stipulated aid.  The agitation of Poland is still violent, though somewhat moderated by the late change in the demeanor of the King of Prussia.  He is much less thrasonic than he was.  This is imputed to the turn which the English politics may be rationally expected to take.  It is very difficult to get at the true state of the British King; but from the best information we can get, his madness has gone off, but he is left in a state of imbecility and melancholy.  They are going to carry him to Hanover, to see whether such a journey may relieve him.  The Queen accompanies him.  If England should, by this accident, be reduced to inactivity, the southern countries of Europe may escape the present war.  Upon the whole, the prospect for the present year, if no unforeseen accident happens, is, certain peace for the powers not already engaged, a probability that Denmark will not become a principal, and a mere possibility that Sweden and Russia may be accommodated.  The interior disputes of Sweden are so exactly detailed in the Leyden gazette, that I have nothing to add on that subject.

The revolution of this country has advanced thus far, without encountering any thing which deserves to be called a difficulty.  There have been riots in a few instances, in three or four different places, in which there may have been a dozen or twenty lives lost.  The exact truth is not to be got at.  A few days ago, a much more serious riot took place in this city, in which it became necessary for the troops to engage in regular action with the mob, and probably about one hundred of the latter were killed.  Accounts vary from twenty to two hundred.  They were the most abandoned banditti of Paris, and never was a riot more unprovoked and unpitied.  They began, under a pretence that a paper manufacturer had proposed in an assembly, to reduce their wages to fifteen sous a day.  They rifled his house, destroyed every thing in his magazines and shops, and were only stopped in their career of mischief, by the carnage above mentioned.  Neither this nor any other of the riots, have had a professed connection with the great national reformation going on.  They are such as have happened every year since I have been here, and as will continue to be produced by common incidents.  The States General were opened on the 4th instant, by a speech from the throne, one by the Garde des Sceaux, and one from Mr. Neckar.  I hope they will be printed in time to send you herewith: lest they should not, I will observe, that that of Mr. Neckar stated the real and ordinary deficit to be fifty-six millions, and that he shewed that this could be made up without a new tax, by economies and bonifications which he specified.  Several articles of the latter are liable to the objection, that they are proposed on branches of the revenue, of which the nation has demanded a suppression.  He tripped too lightly over the great articles of constitutional reformation, these being not as clearly enounced in this discourse as they were in his ‘Rapport au roy,’ which I sent you some time ago.  On the whole, his discourse has not satisfied the patriotic party.  It is now, for the first time, that their revolution is likely to receive a serious check, and begins to wear a fearful appearance.  The progress of light and liberality in the order of the Noblesse, has equalled expectation in Paris only, and its vicinities.  The great mass of deputies of that order, which come from the country, shew that the habits of tyranny over the people, are deeply rooted in them.  They will consent, indeed, to equal taxation; but five-sixths of that chamber are thought to be, decidedly, for voting by orders; so that, had this great preliminary question rested on this body, which formed heretofore the sole hope, that hope would have been completely disappointed.  Some aid, however, comes in from a quarter whence none was expected.  It was imagined the ecclesiastical elections would have been generally in favor of the higher clergy; on the contrary, the lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these deputations.  These are the sons of peasants, who have done all the drudgery of the service, for ten, twenty and thirty guineas a year, and whose oppressions and penury, contrasted with the pride and luxury of the higher clergy, have rendered them perfectly disposed to humble the latter.  They have done it, in many instances, with a boldness they were thought insusceptible of.  Great hopes have been formed, that these would concur with the Tiers Etat, in voting by persons.  In fact, about half of them seem as yet so disposed; but the bishops are intriguing, and drawing them over with the address which has ever marked ecclesiastical intrigue.  The deputies of the Tiers Etat seem, almost to a man, inflexibly determined against the vote by orders.  This is the state of parties, as well as can be judged from conversation only, during the fortnight they have been now together.  But as no business has been yet begun, no votes as yet taken, this calculation cannot be considered as sure.  A middle proposition is talked of, to form the two privileged orders into one chamber.  It is thought more possible to bring them into it, than the Tiers Etat.  Another proposition is, to distinguish questions, referring those of certain descriptions to a vote by persons, others to a vote by orders.  This seems to admit of endless altercation, and the Tiers Etat manifest no respect for that, or any other modification whatever.  Were this single question accommodated, I am of opinion, there would not occur the least difficulty in the great and essential points of constitutional reformation.  But on this preliminary question the parties are so irreconcilable, that it is impossible to foresee what issue it will have.  The Tiers Etat, as constituting the nation, may propose to do the business of the nation, either with or without the minorities in the Houses of Clergy and Nobles, which side with them.  In that case, if the King should agree to it, the majorities in those two Houses would secede, and might resist the tax gatherers.  This would bring on a civil war.  On the other hand, the privileged orders, offering to submit to equal taxation, may propose to the King to continue the government in its former train, resuming to himself the power of taxation.  Here, the tax gatherers might be resisted by the people.  In fine, it is but too possible, that between parties so animated, the King may incline the balance as he pleases.  Happy that he is an honest, unambitious man, who desires neither money nor power for himself; and that his most operative minister, though he has appeared to trim a little, is still, in the main, a friend to public liberty.

I mentioned to you in a former letter, the construction which our bankers at Amsterdam had put on the resolution of Congress, appropriating the last Dutch loan, by which the money for our captives would not be furnished till the end of the year 1790.  Orders from the board of treasury, have now settled this question.  The interest of the next month is to be first paid, and after that, the money for the captives and foreign officers is to be furnished, before any other payment of interest.  This insures it when the next February interest becomes payable.  My representations to them, on account of the contracts I had entered into for making the medals, have produced from them the money for that object, which is lodged in the hands of Mr. Grand.

Mr. Neckar, in his discourse, proposes among his bonifications of revenue, the suppression of our two free ports of Bayonne and L’Orient, which he says, occasion a loss of six hundred thousand livres annually, to the crown, by contraband.  (The speech being not yet printed, I state this only as it struck my ear when he delivered it.  If I have mistaken it, I beg you to receive this as my apology, and to consider what follows, as written on that idea only.)  I have never been able to see that these free ports were worth one copper to us.  To Bayonne our trade never went, and it is leaving L’Orient.  Besides, the right of entrepot is a perfect substitute for the right of free port.  The latter is a little less troublesome only, to the merchants and captains.  I should think, therefore, that a thing so useless to us and prejudicial to them might be relinquished by us, on the common principles of friendship.  I know the merchants of these ports will make a clamour, because the franchise covers their contraband with all the world.  Has Monsieur de Moustier said any thing to you on this subject?  It has never been mentioned to me.  If not mentioned in either way, it is rather an indecent proceeding, considering that this right of free port is founded in treaty.  I shall ask of M. de Montmorin, on the first occasion, whether he has communicated this to you through his minister; and if he has not, I will endeavor to notice the infraction to him in such manner, as neither to reclaim nor abandon the right of free port, but leave our government free to do either.

The gazettes of France and Leyden, as usual, will accompany this.  I am in hourly expectation of receiving from you my leave of absence, and keep my affairs so arranged, that I can leave Paris within eight days after receiving the permission.  I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

“A Charter for France”

SIR, -- After you quitted us yesterday evening, we continued our conversation (Monsr. de la Fayette, Mr. Short & myself) on the subject of the difficulties which environ you.  The desirable object being to secure the good which the King has offered & to avoid the ill which seems to threaten, an idea was suggested, which appearing to make an impression on Monsr. de la Fayette, I was encouraged to pursue it on my return to Paris, to put it into form, & now to send it to you & him.  It is this, that the King, in a seance royale should come forward with a Charter of Rights in his hand, to be signed by himself & by every member of the three orders.  This charter to contain the five great points which the Resultat of December offered on the part of the King, the abolition of pecuniary privileges offered by the privileged orders, & the adoption of the National debt and a grant of the sum of money asked from the nation.  This last will be a cheap price for the preceding articles, and let the same act declare your immediate separation till the next anniversary meeting.  You will carry back to your constituents more good than ever was effected before without violence, and you will stop exactly at the point where violence would otherwise begin.  Time will be gained, the public mind will continue to ripen & to be informed, a basis of support may be prepared with the people themselves, and expedients occur for gaining still something further at your next meeting, & for stopping again at the point of force.  I have ventured to send to yourself & Monsieur de la Fayette a sketch of my ideas of what this act might contain without endangering any dispute.  But it is offered merely as a canvas for you to work on, if it be fit to work on at all.  I know too little of the subject, & you know too much of it to justify me in offering anything but a hint.  I have done it too in a hurry: insomuch that since committing it to writing it occurs to me that the 5’th. article may give alarm, that it is in a good degree included in the 4’th., and is therefore useless.  But after all what excuse can I make, Sir, for this presumption.  I have none but an unmeasureable love for your nation and a painful anxiety lest Despotism, after an unaccepted offer to bind it’s own hands, should seize you again with tenfold fury.  Permit me to add to these very sincere assurances of the sentiments of esteem & respect with which I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obed’t. & most humble serv’t.

A Charter of Rights, solemnly established by the King and Nation.

1.  The States General shall assemble, uncalled, on the first day of November, annually, and shall remain together so long as they shall see cause.  They shall regulate their own elections and proceedings, and until they shall ordain otherwise, their elections shall be in the forms observed in the present year, and shall be triennial.

2.  The States General alone shall levy money on the nation, and shall appropriate it.

3.  Laws shall be made by the States General only, with the consent of the King.

4.  No person shall be restrained of his liberty, but by regular process from a court of justice, authorized by a general law.  (Except that a Noble may be imprisoned by order of a court of justice, on the prayer of twelve of his nearest relations.)  On complaint of an unlawful imprisonment, to any judge whatever, he shall have the prisoner immediately brought before him, and shall discharge him, if his imprisonment be unlawful.  The officer in whose custody the prisoner is, shall obey the orders of the judge; and both judge and officer shall be responsible, civilly and criminally, for a failure of duty herein.

5.  The military shall be subordinate to the civil authority.

6.  Printers shall be liable to legal prosecution for printing and publishing false facts, injurious to the party prosecuting; but they shall be under no other restraint.

7.  All pecuniary privileges and exemptions, enjoyed by any description of persons, are abolished.

8.  All debts already contracted by the King, are hereby made the debts of the nation; and the faith thereof is pledged for their payment in due time.

9.  Eighty millions of livres are now granted to the King, to be raised by loan, and reimbursed by the nation; and the taxes heretofore paid, shall continue to be paid to the end of the present year, and no longer.

10.  The States General shall now separate, and meet again on the 1st day of November next.

Done, on behalf of the whole nation, by the King and their representatives in the States General, at Versailles, this -- day of June, 1789.

Signed by the King, and by every member individually, and in his presence.

“The First Chapter . . . of European Liberty”

Je viens de recevoir, mon chere Monsieur, l’honneur de votre lettre du 24. Juillet.  La peine avec laquelle je m’exprime en Fransois feroit que ma reponse seroit bien courte s’il ne m’etoit pas permis de repondre que dans cette langue.  Mais je ssais qu’avec quelque connoissance de la langue Angloise vous meme, vous aurez une aide tres suffisante dans Madame la comtesse que j’ose prier d’ajouter a ses amities multipliees devers moi celle de devenir l’interprete de ce que vais ecrire en ma propre langue, et qu’elle embellira en la rendant en Fransois.

I presume that your correspondents here have given you a history of all the events which have happened.  The Leyden gazette, tho’ it contains several inconsiderable errors, gives on the whole a just enough idea.  It is impossible to conceive a greater fermentation than has worked in Paris, nor do I believe that so great a fermentation ever produced so little injury in any other place.  I have been thro’ it daily, have observed the mobs with my own eyes in order to be satisfied of their objects, and declare to you that I saw so plainly the legitimacy of them, that I have slept in my house as quietly thro’ the whole as I ever did in the most peaceable moments.  So strongly fortified was the despotism of this government by long possession, by the respect & the fears of the people, by possessing the public force, by the imposing authority of forms and of faste, that had it held itself on the defensive only, the national assembly with all their good sense, would probably have only obtained a considerable improvement of the government, not a total revision of it.  But, ill informed of the spirit of their nation, the despots around the throne had recourse to violent measures, the forerunners of force.  In this they have been completely overthrown, & the nation has made a total resumption of rights, which they had certainly never before ventured even to think of.  The National assembly have now as clean a canvas to work on here as we had in America.  Such has been the firmness and wisdom of their proceedings in moments of adversity as well as prosperity, that I have the highest confidence that they will use their power justly.  As far as I can collect from conversation with their members, the constitution they will propose will resemble that of England in it’s outlines, but not in it’s defects.  They will certainly leave the king possessed completely of the Executive powers, & particularly of the public force.  Their legislature will consist of one order only, & not of two as in England: the representation will be equal & not abominably partial as that of England: it will be guarded against corruption, instead of having a majority sold to the king, & rendering his will absolute: whether it will be in one chamber, or broke into two cannot be foreseen.  They will meet at certain epochs & sit as long as they please, instead of meeting only when, & sitting only as long as the king pleases as in England.  There is a difference of opinion whether the king shall have an absolute, or only a qualified Negative on their acts.  The parliaments will probably be suppressed; & juries provided in criminal cases perhaps even in civil ones.  This is what appears probable at present.  The Assembly is this day discussing the question whether they will have a declaration of rights.  Paris has been led by events to assume the government of itself.  It has hitherto worn too much the appearance of conformity to continue thus independently of the will of the nation.  Reflection will probably make them sensible that the security of all depends on the dependance of all on the national legislature.  I have so much confidence on the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force; and I will agree to be stoned as a false prophet if all does not end well in this country.  Nor will it end with this country.  Hers is but the first chapter of the history of European liberty.

The capture of the Baron Besenval is very embarrassing for the States general.  They are principled against retrospective laws, & will make it one of the corner stones of their new building.  But it is very doubtful whether the antient laws will condemn him, and whether the people will permit him to be acquitted.  The Duke de la Vauguyon also & his son are taken at Havre.  -- In drawing the parallel between what England is, & what France is to be I forgot to observe that the latter will have a real constitution, which cannot be changed by the ordinary legislature; whereas England has no constitution at all: that is to say there is not one principle of their government which the parliament does not alter at pleasure.  The omnipotence of parliament is an established principle with them.  -- Postponing my departure to America till the end of September I shall hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Paris before I go, & of renewing in person to yourself & Madame la Comtesse assurances of those sentiments of respect & attachment with which I have the honor to be Dear Sir your most obedient humble serv’t.

P. S.  It is rumored & beleived in Paris that the English have fomented with money the tumults of this place, & that they are arming to attack France.  I have never seen any reason to believe either of these rumors.