FOREIGN
RELATIONS / STATE OF THE WORLD
It has been peculiarly unfortunate for us,
personally, that the portion in the history of mankind, at which we
were called to take a share in the direction of their affairs, was
such an one as history has never before presented. At any other
period, the even-handed justice we have observed towards all
nations, the efforts we have made to merit their esteem by every act
which candor or liberality could exercise, would have preserved our
peace, and secured the unqualified confidence of all other nations
in our faith and probity. But the hurricane which is now blasting
the world, physical. and moral, has prostrated all the mounds of
reason as well as right.
It is a blessing, however, that our people are reasonable; that
they are kept so well informed of the state of things as to judge
for themselves, to see the true sources of their difficulties, and
to maintain their confidence undiminished in the wisdom and
integrity of their functionaries. Macte virtute therefore.
Continue to go straight forward, pursuing always that which is
right, as the only clue which can lead us out of the labyrinth. Let
nothing be spared of either reason or passion, to preserve the
public confidence entire, as the only rock of our safety. In times
of peace the people look most to their representatives; but in war,
to the executive solely. It is visible that their confidence is even
now veering in that direction; that they are looking to the
executive to give the proper direction to their affairs, with a
confidence as auspicious as it is well founded. |
Caesar
A. Rodney
10 Feb 1810 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / TREATIES
The war which has taken place among the powers
of Europe, produces frequent transactions within our ports and
limits, on which questions arise of considerable difficulty, and of
greater importance to the peace of the United States. These
questions depend for their solution on the construction of our
treaties, on the laws of nature and nations, and on the laws of the
land; and are often presented under circumstances which do not give
a cognizance of them to the tribunals of the country. Yet their
decision is so little analogous to the ordinary functions of the
executive, as to occasion much embarrassment and difficulty to them.
The President would, therefore, be much relieved, if he found
himself free to refer questions of this description to the opinions
of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, whose
knowledge of the subject would secure us against errors dangerous to
the peace of the United States, and their authority insure the
respect of all parties. He has therefore asked the attendance of
such judges as could be collected in time for the occasion, to know,
in the first place, their opinion, whether the public may with
propriety be availed of their advice on these questions? And if they
may, to present, for their advice, the abstract questions which have
already occurred, or may soon occur, from which they will themselves
strike out such as any circumstances might, in their opinion, forbid
them to pronounce on. |
Chief
Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court of the U.S.
18 Jul 1793 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / WAR BETWEEN BRITAIN AND FRANCE
I thank you for the pamphlet of Erskine
enclosed in your favor of the 9th instant, and still more for the
evidence which your letter affords me of the health of your mind,
and I hope of your body also. Erskine has been reprinted here, and
has done good. It has refreshed the memory of those who had been
willing to forget how the war between France and England had been
produced; and who, aping St. James, called it a defensive war on the
part of England. I wish any events could induce us to cease to copy
such a model, and to assume the dignity of being original. They had
their paper system, stockjobbing, speculations, public debt, moneyed
interest, etc., and all this was contrived for us. They raised their
cry against jacobinism and revolutionists, we against democratic
societies and anti-federalists; their alarmists sounded
insurrection, ours marched an army to look for one, but they could
not find it. I wish the parallel may stop here, and that we may
avoid, instead of imitating, a general bankruptcy and disastrous
war. |
Horatio
Gates
30 May 1797 |
FOREIGN
RELATIONS / WAR BETWEEN BRITAIN AND FRANCE
We are still uninformed here whether you are
again at war. Bonaparte has produced such a state of things in
Europe as it would seem difficult for him to relinquish in any
sensible degree, and equally dangerous for Great Britain to suffer
to go on, especially if accompanied by maritime preparations on his
part. The events which have taken place in France have lessened in
the American mind the motives of interest which it felt in that
revolution, and its amity towards that country now rests on its love
of peace and commerce. We see, at the same time, with great concern,
the position in which Great Britain is placed, and should be
sincerely afflicted were any disaster to deprive mankind of the
benefit of such a bulwark against the torrent which has for some
time been bearing down all before it. But her power and powers at
sea seem to render everything safe in the end. Peace is our passion,
and the wrongs might drive us from it. We prefer trying ever other
just principles, right and safety, before we would recur to war.
|
John
Sinclair
30 Jun 1803 |
FOUNDERS
Your favor of August the 4th came to hand by
our last post, together with the "extract of a letter from a
gentleman of Philadelphia, dated July the 10th," cut from a
newspaper stating some facts which respect me. I shall notice these
facts. The writer says that "the day after the last despatches
were communicated to Congress, Bache, Leib, etc., and a Dr.
Reynolds, were closeted with me." If the receipt of
visits in my public room, the door continuing free to every one who
should call at the same time, may be called closeting, then
it is true that I was closeted with every person who visited
me; in no other sense is it true as to any person. I sometimes
received visits from Mr. Bache and Dr. Leib. I received them always
with pleasure, because they are men of abilities, and of principles
the most friendly to liberty and our present form of government. Mr.
Bache has another claim on my respect, as being the grandson of Dr.
Franklin, the greatest man and Ornament of the age and country in
which he lived. Whether I was Visited by Mr. Bache or Dr. Leib the
day after the communication referred to, I do not remember. I know
that all my motions in Philadelphia, here, and everywhere, are
watched and recorded. Some of these spies, therefore, may remember
better than I do, the dates of these visits. |
Samuel
Smith
22 Aug 1798 |
FRANCE
/ CONDITIONS IN
You intimate a possibility of your return to
France, now that Bonaparte is put down. I do not wonder at it;
France, freed from that monster, must again become the most
agreeable country on earth. It would be the second choice of all
whose ties of family and fortune give a preference to some other
one, and the first of all not under those ties. Yet I doubt if the
tranquillity of France is entirely settled. If her Pretorian bands
are not furnished with employment on her external enemies, I fear
they will recall the old, or set up some new cause. |
William
Short
28 Nov 1814 |
FRANCE
/ CONSTITUTION
This country advances with a steady pace
towards the establishment of a constitution, whereby the people will
resume the great mass of those powers, so fatally lodged in the
hands of the King. During the session of the Notables, and after
their votes against the rights of the people, the parliament of
Paris took up the subject, and passed a vote in opposition to theirs
(which I send you). This was not their genuine sentiment; it was a
manoeuvre of the young members, who are truly well disposed, taking
advantage of the accidental absence of many old members, and
bringing others over. . . You are not to suppose that these
dispositions of the court proceed from any love of the people, or
justice towards their rights. Courts love the people always, as
wolves do the sheep. The fact is this. The court wants money. From
the Tiers ~tat they cannot get it, because they are already squeezed
to the last drop. The clergy and the nobles, by their privileges and
their influence, have hitherto screened their property in a great
degree, from public contribution. That half of the orange then,
remains yet to be squeezed, and for this operation there is no agent
powerful enough, but the people. They are, therefore, brought
forward as the favorites of the court, and will be supported by
them. The moment of crisis will be the meeting of the States;
because their first act will be, to decide whether they shall vote
by persons or by orders. The clergy will leave nothing unattempted
to obtain the latter; for they see that the spirit of reformation
will not confine itself to the political, but. will extend to the
ecclesiastical establishment also. With respect to the nobles, the
younger members are generally for the people, and the middle aged
are daily coming over to the same side; so that by the time the
States meet, we may hope there will be a majority of that body also
in favor of the people, and consequently for voting by persons, and
not by orders. |
John
Jay
11 Jan 1789 |
FRANCE
/ FOREIGN RELATIONS
The French revolution still goes on well,
though the danger of a suspension of payments is very imminent.
Their appeal to the inhabitants of their colonies to say on what
footing they wish to be placed, will end, I hope, in our free
admissions into their islands with our produce. This -precedent must
have consequences. It is impossible the world should continue long
insensible to so evident a truth as that the right to have commerce
and intercourse with our neighbors, is a natural right. To suppress
this neighborly intercourse is an exercise of force, which we shall
have a just tight to remove when the superior force. |
Thomas
Mann Randolph
30 May 1790 |
FRANCE
/ GOVERNMENT / REFORM OF
As to the affairs of this country, they have
hitherto gone on well. The Court being decided to call the States
General, know that the form of calling and constituting them would
admit of cavil. They asked the advice of the Notables. These advised
that the form of the last States General of 1614 be observed. In
that, the commons had but about one-third of the whole number of
members, and they voted by orders. The Court wished now that they
should have one-half of the whole number of members, and that they
should form but one house, not three. The parliament have taken up
the subject, and given the opinion which the Court would have
wished. We are, therefore, in hopes that, availing themselves of
these contrary opinions, they will follow that which they wished.
The priests and nobles threaten schism; and we do not know yet what
form will ultimately be adopted. If no schism of this kind prevents
it, the States will meet about March or April, and will obtain,
without opposition from the Court, 1. Their own periodical
convocation; 2. A share in the legislation; 3. The exclusive right
to tax and appropriate the public money. They will attempt also to
obtain a habeas corpus law and free press; but it does not appear to
me that the nation is ripe to accept of these, if offered.
|
Thomas
Paine
23 Dec 1788 |
FRANCE
/ GOVERNMENT, REFORM OF
With respect to the utility, or inutility of
your minority's joining the Commons, I am unable to form an opinion
for myself. I know too little of the subject to see what may be its
consequences. |
Marquis
de Lafayette
12 Jun 1789 |
FRANCE
/ GOVERNMENT / REFORM OF
We shall know, I think, within a day or two,
whether the government will risk a bankruptcy and civil war, rather
than see all distinction of orders done away, which is what the
Commons will push for. If the fear of the former alternative
prevails, they will spin the matter into negotiation. The Commons
have in their chamber almost all the talents of the nation; they are
firm and bold, yet moderate. There is, indeed, among them, a number
of very hot-headed members; but those of most influence are cool,
temperate and sagacious. Every step of this House has been marked
with caution and wisdom. The Noblesse, on the contrary, are
absolutely out of their senses. They are so furious, they can seldom
debate at all. They have few men of moderate talents, and not one of
great, in the majority. Their proceedings have been very
injudicious. The Clergy are waiting to profit by every incident to
secure themselves, and have no other object in view. Among the
Commons there is an entire unanimity on the great question of voting
by persons. Among the Noblesse there are about sixty for the
Commons, and about three times that number against them. Among the
Clergy, about twenty have already come over and joined the Commons,
and in the course of a few days they will be joined by many more,
not, indeed, making the majority of that House, but very near it.
The Bishops and Archbishops have been very successful by bribes and
intrigues, in detaching the Cures from the Commons, to whom they
were at first attached to a man. The Commons are about five hundred
and fifty-four in number, of whom three hundred and forty-four are
of the law. These do not possess an influence founded in property;
but in their habits of business and acquaintance with the people,
and in their means of exciting them as they please. The Cure's
throughout the kingdom, form the mass of the Clergy; they are the
only part favorably known to the people, because solely charged with
the du4es of baptism, burial, confession, visitation of the sick,
instruction of the children, and aiding the poor; they are
themselves of the people, and united with them. The carriages and
equipage only of the higher Clergy, not their persons, are known to
the people, and are in detestation with them. The soldiers will
follow their officers, that is to say, their captains, leutenants
and ensigns. These are of the lower nobility, and, therefore, much
divided. The colonels and higher officers are of the higher
nobility, are seldom with the soldiers, little known to them, not
possessing their attachment. These circumstances give them little
weight in the partition of the army. |
James
Madison
18 June 1789 |
FRANCE
/ GOVERNMENT / REFORM OF
It is impossible to desire better dispositions
towards us than prevail in this Assembly. Our proceedings have been
viewed as a model for them on every occasion; and though in the heat
of debate, men are generally disposed to contradict every authority
urged by their opponents, ours has been treated like that of the
Bible, open. to explanation, but not to question. I am sorry that in
the moment of such a disposition, anything should come from us to
check it. The placing them on a mere footing with the English, will
have this effect. When of two nations, the one has engaged herself
in a ruinous war for us, has spent her blood and money to save us,
has opened her bosom to us in peace, and received us almost on the
footing of her own citizens, while the other has moved heaven,
earth, and hell to exterminate us in war, has insulted us in all her
councils in peace, shut her doors to us in every part where. her
interests would admit it, libelled us in foreign nations, endeavored
to poison them against the reception of our most precious
commodities; to place these two nations on a footing, is to give a
great deal more to one than to the other, if the maxim be true, that
to make unequal quantities equal, you must add more to one than the
other: To say, in excuse, that gratitude is never to enter into the
motives of national conduct, is to revive a principle which has been
buried for centuries with its kindred principles of the lawfulness
of assassination, poison, perjury, etc. All of these were legitimate
principles in the dark ages which intervened between ancient and
modern civilization, but exploded and held in just horror in the
eighteenth century. I know but one code of morality for men, whether
acting singly or collectively. He who says I will be a rogue when I
act in company with a hundred others, but an honest man when I act
alone, will be believed in the former assertion, but not in the
latter. I would say with the poet, "hic niger est, hunc tu
Romane cavato." If the morality of one man produces a just
line of conduct in him, acting individually, why should not the
morality of one hundred men produce a just line of conduct in them,
acting together?
I must now say a word on the declaration of rights, you have been
so good as to send me. I like it, as far as it goes; but I should
have been for going further. For instance, the following alterations
and additions would have pleased me: Article 4. "The people
shall not be deprived of their right to speak, to write, or
otherwise to publish anything but false facts affecting injuriously
the life, liberty, property or reputation of others, or affecting
the peace of the confederacy with foreign nations. Article 7. All
facts put in issue before any judicature, shall be tried by jury,
except, I, in cases of admiralty jurisdiction, wherein a foreigner
shall be interested; 2, in cases cognizable before a court martial,
concerning only the regular officers and soldiers of the United
States, or members of the militia in actual service in time of war
or insurrection; and 3, in impeachments allowed by the constitution.
Article 8. No person shall be held in confinement more than -- days
after he shall have demanded and been refused a writ of habeas
corpus by the judge appointed by law, nor more than -- days after
such a writ shall have been served on the person holding him in
confinement, and no order given en due examination for his
remandment or discharge, nor more than -- hours in any place at a
greater distance than - miles from the usual residence of some judge
authorized to issue the writ of habeas corpus; nor shall that writ
be suspended for any term exceeding one year, nor in any place more
than -- miles distant from the State or encampment of enemies or of
insurgents. Article 9. Monopolies may be allowed to persons for
their own productions in literature, and their own inventions in the
arts, for a term not exceeding -- years, but for no longer term, and
no other purpose. Article 10. All troops of the United States shall
stand ipso facto disbanded, at the expiration of the term for which
their pay and subsistence shall have been last voted by Congress,
and all officers and soldiers, not natives of the United States,
shall be incapable of serving in their armies by land, except during
a foreign war." These restrictions I think are so guarded, as
to hinder evil only. However, if we do not have them now, I have so
much confidence in my countrymen, as to be satisfied that we shall
have them as soon as the degeneracy of our government shall render
them necessary.
I have no certain news of Paul Jones. I understand only, in a
general way, that some persecution on the part of his officers
occasioned his being called to St. Petersburg, and that though
protected against them by the Empress, he is not yet restored to his
station. . . . I propose to sail from Havre as soon after the first
of October as I can get a vessel; and shall consequently leave this
place a week earlier than that. As my daughters will be with me, and
their baggage somewhat more than that of mere voyageurer, I
shall endeavor, if possible, to obtain a passage for Virginia
directly. Probably I shall be there by the last of November. If my
immediate attendance at New York should be requisite for any
purpose, I will leave them with a relation near Richmond, and
proceed immediately to New York. But as I do not foresee any
pressing purpose for that journey immediately on my arrival, and as
it will be a great saving of time, to finish at once in Virginia, so
as to have no occasion to return there after having once gone to the
northward, I expect to proceed to my own house directly. Staying
there two months (which I believe will be necessary), and allowing
for the time I am on the road, I may expect to be at New York in
February, and to embark from thence or some eastern port.
You ask me if I would accept any appointment on that side of the
water? You know the circumstances which led me from retirement, step
by step, and from one nomination to another, up to the present My
object is a return to the same retirement; whenever, therefore, I
quit the present, it will not be to engage in any other office, and
most especially any one which would require a constant residence
from home. The books I have collected for you will go off for Havre
in three or four days, with my baggage. From that port, I shall try
to send them by a direct occasion to New York. I am, with great and
sincere esteem, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.
|
James
Madison
28 August 1789 |
FRANCE
/ GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE
I am sensible that your situation must have
been difficult during the transition from the late form of
government to the re-establishment of some other legitimate
authority, and that you may have been at a loss to determine with
whom business might be done. Nevertheless, when principles are well
understood, their application is less embarrassing. We surely cannot
deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded,
that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it
pleases, and change these forms at its own will; and that it may
transact its business with foreign nations through whatever organ it
thinks proper, whether King, Convention, Assembly, Committee,
President, or anything else it may choose. The will of the nation is
the only thing essential to he regarded.
Mutual good offices, mutual affection, and similar principles of
government, seem to destine the two nations for the most intimate
communion; and I cannot too much press it on you, to improve every
opportunity which may occur in the changeable scenes which are
passing, and to seize them as they occur, for placing our commerce
with that nation and its dependencies, on the freest and most
encouraging footing possible. |
Gouverneur
Morris
12 Mar1793 |
FRANCE
/ RESTORATION OF BOURBON MONARCHY
What effect will the apparent restoration of
the Bourbons have on your movements? Will it tempt your return? I do
not see in this a restoration of quiet; on the contrary I consider
France as in a more volcanic state than at any preceding time, there
must be an explosion and one of the most destructive character. I
look forward to crimes more fierce and pitiless than those which
have already distinguished that bloody revolution. These are not
scenes, my dear friend, for you to be thrown into. They have no
analogies with the tranquillity of your character. True, we cannot
offer you the scientific society of Paris, but who can enjoy
science, or who think of it in the midst of insurrection, madness
and massacre? Besides, you possess all science within yourself; from
others you can get nothing new, and the pleasure of communicating it
should be greatest where it is most wanting. |
J.
Correa de Serra
1 Jan 1816 |
FRANCE
/ REVOLUTION AND JACOBINS
...The tone of your letters had for some time
given me pain, on account of the extreme warmth with which they
censured the proceedings of the Jacobins of France. I considered
that sect as the same with the Republican patriots, and the
Feuillants as the Monarchical patriots, well known in the early part
of the Revolution, and but little distant in their views, both
having in object the establishment of a free constitution, differing
only on the question whether their chief Executive should be
hereditary or not. The Jacobins (as since called) yielded to the
Feuillants, and tried the experiment of retaining their hereditary
Executive. The experiment failed completely, and would have brought
on the re-establishment of despotism had it been pursued. The
Jacobins knew this, and that the expunging that office was of
absolute necessity. And the nation was with them in opinion, for
however they might have been formerly for the constitution framed by
the first assembly, they were come over from their hope in it, and
were now generally Jacobins. In the struggle which was necessary,
many guilty persons fell without the forms of trial, and with them
some innocent. These I deplore as much as any body, and shall
deplore some of them to the day of my death. But I deplore them as I
should have done had they fallen in battle. It was necessary to use
the arm of the people, a machine not quite so blind as balls and
bombs, but blind to a certain degree. A few of their cordial friends
met at their hands the fate of enemies. But time and truth will
rescue and embalm their memories, while their posterity will be
enjoying that very liberty for which they would never have hesitated
to offer up their lives. The liberty of the whole earth was
depending on the issue of the contest, and was ever such a prize won
with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply
wounded by some of the martyrs to this cause, but rather than it
should have failed I would have seen half the earth desolated; were
there but an Adam and an Eve left in every country, and left free,
it would be better than as it now is. I have expressed to you my
sentiments, because they are really those of ninety-nine in an
hundred of our citizens. The universal feasts, and rejoicings which
have lately been, had on account of the successes of the French,
showed the genuine effusions of their hearts. You have been wounded
by the sufferings of your friends, and have by this circumstance
been hurried into a temper of mind which would be extremely
disrelished if known to your countrymen.
There are in the United States some characters of opposite
principles; some of them are high in office, others possessing great
wealth, and all of them hostile to France, and fondly looking to
England as the staff of their hope. These I named to you on a former
occasion. Their prospects have certainly not brightened. Excepting
them, this country is entirely republican, friends to the
Constitution, anxious to preserve it, and to have it administered
according to its own republican principles. The little party above
mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping-stone to monarchy, and
have endeavored to approximate it to that in its administration in
order to render its final transition more easy. The successes of
republicanism in France have given the coup de grace to their
prospects, and I hope to their projects. I have developed to you
faithfully the sentiments of your country, that you may govern
yourself accordingly. I know your republicanism to be pure, and that
it is no decay of that which has embittered you against its votaries
in France, but too great a sensibility at the partial evil which its
object has been accomplished there. |
William
Short
3 Jan 1793 |
|
