The Writings of Thomas Jefferson by Thomas Jefferson (books to read now .TXT) 📕

I am happy to find that Mr. Barclay's mission has been attended with complete success. For this we are indebted, unquestionably, to the influence and good offices of the court of Madrid. Colonel Franks, the bearer of this, will have the honor to put into your hands the original of the treaty, with other papers accompanying it. It will appear by these, that Mr. Barclay has conducted himself with a degree of intelligence and of good faith, which reflects the highest honor on him.

A copy of a letter from Captain O'Bryan to Mr. Carmichael, is also herewith enclosed. The information it contains will throw farther light on the affairs of Algiers. His observations on the difficulties which arise from the distance of Mr. Adams and myself from that place, and from one another, and the delays occasioned by this circumstance, are certainly just. If Congress should propose to revive the negotiations, they will judge whether it will not be more expedient to send a person to Algiers, who can be trusted with full powers; and also whether a mission to Constantinople may not be previously necessary. Before I quit this subject, I must correct an error in the letter of Captain O'Bryan. Mr. Lambe was not limited, as he says, to one hundred, but to two hundred dollars apiece for our prisoners. This was the price which has been just paid for a large number of French prisoners, and this was our guide.

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

TO SAMUEL OSGOOD.

Paris, January 5, 1787.

Dear Sir,—I am desired to forward to you the enclosed queries, and to ask the favor of you to give such an answer to them, as may not give you too much trouble. Those which stand foremost on the paper, can be addressed only to your complaisance; but the last may possibly be interesting to your department, and to the United States. I mean those which suggest the possibility of borrowing money in Europe, the principal of which shall be ultimately payable in land, and in the meantime a good interest. You know best whether the suggestion can be turned to any profit, and whether it will be worth while to introduce any proposition to Congress thereon. Among the possible shapes into which a matter of this kind may be formed, the following is one: Let us suppose the public lands to be worth a dollar, hard money, the acre. If we should ask of a moneyed man a loan of one hundred dollars, payable with one hundred acres of land at the end of ten years, and in the meantime carrying an interest of five per cent., this would be more disadvantageous to the lender than a common loan, payable ultimately in cash. But if we should say, we will deliver you the one hundred acres of land immediately, which is in fact an immediate payment of the principal, and will nevertheless pay your interest of five per cent., for ten years, this offers a superior advantage, and might tempt money holders. But what should we in fact receive, in this way, for our lands? Thirty-seven dollars and one-fourth, being left in Europe, on an interest of five per cent., would pay annually the interest of the one hundred dollars for ten years. There would remain then only sixty-two dollars and three-quarters, for the one hundred acres of land, that is to say, about two-thirds of its price. Congress can best determine, whether any circumstance in our situation, should induce us to get rid of any of our debts in that way. I beg you to understand, that I have named rates of interest, term of payment, and price of land, merely to state the case, and without the least knowledge that a loan could be obtained on these terms. It remains to inform you from whom this suggestion comes. The person from whom I receive it, is a Monsieur Claviere, connected with the moneyed men of Amsterdam. He is, on behalf of a company there, actually treating with the Comptroller General here, for the purchase of our debt to this country, at a considerable discount. Whether he has an idea of offering a loan to us, on terms such as I have above spoken of, I know not; nor do I know that he is authorized to make the suggestion he has made. If the thing should be deemed worthy the attention of Congress, they can only consider it as a possibility, and take measures to avail themselves of it, if the possibility turns out in their favor, and not to be disappointed if it does not. Claviere's proposition not being formal enough for me to make an official communication of it, you will make what use of it you see best. I am, with very sincere esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO M. DE CALONNE.

Paris, January 7, 1787.

Sir,—I had the honor, on the 2d of November last, to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's letter of October the 22d, wherein you are so good as to communicate to me the arrangements which the King had been pleased to make for the encouragement of the commerce of the United States of America with his subjects. I immediately made known the same to the agents of the United States in the several seaports of this kingdom, that they might give information thereof to the persons concerned in that commerce. Unacquainted with the forms in which his Majesty usually declares his will in cases of this kind, and the manner in which it is communicated to the officers of the customs at the seaports, I am unable to answer those agents who inform me that the officers of the customs and farms do not as yet consider themselves bound to conform to the new regulations. I take the liberty, therefore, of soliciting your Excellency's interposition for the issuing such orders as may be necessary for carrying into effect the gracious intentions of the King, and of repeating the assurances of those sentiments of perfect respect and esteem, with which I have the honor to be your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, January 9, 1787.

Sir,—My last of December the 31st, acknowledged the receipt of yours of October the 12th, as the present does those of October the 3d, 9th, and 27th, together with the resolution of Congress of October the 16th, on the claim of Shweighauser. I will proceed in this business on the return of Mr. Barclay, who, being fully acquainted with all the circumstances, will be enabled to give me that information, want of which might lead me to do wrong on the one side or the other.

Information of the signature of the treaty with Morocco has been long on its passage to you. I will beg leave to recur to dates, that you may see that no part of it has been derived from me. The first notice I had of it, was in a letter from Mr. Barclay, dated Daralbeyda, August the 11th. I received this on the 13th of September. No secure conveyance offered till the 26th of the same month, being thirteen days after my receipt of it. In my letter of that date, which went by the way of London, I had the honor to enclose you a copy of Mr. Barclay's letter. The conveyance of the treaty itself is suffering a delay here at present, which all my anxiety cannot prevent. Colonel Franks' baggage, which came by water from Cadiz to Rouen, has been long and hourly expected. The moment it arrives, he will set out to London, to have duplicates of the treaty signed by Mr. Adams, and from thence he will proceed to New York.

The Chevalier del Pinto, who treated with us on behalf of Portugal, being resident at London, I have presumed that causes of the delay of that treaty had been made known to Mr. Adams, and by him communicated to you. I will write to him by Colonel Franks, in order that you may be answered on that subject.

The publication of the enclosed extract from my letter of May the 27th, 1786, will, I fear, have very mischievous effects. It will tend to draw on the Count de Vergennes the formidable phalanx of the Farms; to prevent his committing himself to me in any conversation which he does not mean for the public papers; to inspire the same diffidence into all other ministers, with whom I might have to transact business; to defeat the little hope, if any hope existed, of getting rid of the Farm on the article of tobacco; and to damp that freedom of communication which the resolution of Congress of May the 3d, 1784, was intended to re-establish.

Observing by the proceedings of Congress, that they are about to establish a coinage, I think it my duty to inform them, that a Swiss, of the name of Drost, established here, has invented a method of striking the two faces and the edge of a coin, at one stroke. By this, and other simplifications of the process of coinage, he is enabled to coin from twenty-five thousand to thirty thousand pieces a day, with the assistance of only two persons, the pieces of metal being first prepared. I send you by Colonel Franks three coins of gold, silver and copper, which you will perceive to be perfect medals; and I can assure you, from having seen him coin many, that every piece is as perfect as these. There has certainly never yet been seen any coin, in any country, comparable to this. The best workmen in this way, acknowledge that his is like a new art. Coin should always be made in the highest perfection possible, because it is a great guard against the danger of false coinage. This man would be willing to furnish his implements to Congress, and if they please, he will go over and instruct a person to carry on the work: nor do I believe he would ask anything unreasonable. It would be very desirable, that in the institution of a new coinage, we could set out on so perfect a plan as this, and the more so, as while the work is so exquisitely done, it is done cheaper.

I will certainly do the best I can for the reformation of the consular convention, being persuaded that our States would be very unwilling to conform their laws either to the convention, or to the scheme. But it is too difficult and too delicate, to form sanguine hopes. However, that there may be room to reduce the convention, as much as circumstances will admit, will it not be expedient for Congress to give me powers, in which there shall be no reference to the scheme? The powers sent me, oblige me to produce that scheme, and certainly, the moment it is produced, they will not abate a tittle from it. If they recollect the scheme, and insist on it, we can but conclude it; but if they have forgotten it (which may be), and are willing to reconsider the whole subject, perhaps we may get rid of something the more of it. As the delay is not injurious to us, because the convention, whenever and however made, is to put us in a worse state than we are in now, I shall venture to defer saying a word on the subject, till I can hear from you in answer to this. The full powers may be sufficiently guarded, by private instructions to me, not to go beyond the former scheme. This delay may be well enough ascribed (whenever I shall have received new powers) to a