LETTERS
        by Thomas Jefferson

        A YOUTH OF SIXTEEN

        _To John Harvie_
        _Shadwell, Jan. 14, 1760_

        SIR, -- I was at Colo. Peter Randolph's about a Fortnight ago,
& my Schooling falling into Discourse, he said he thought it would be
to my Advantage to go to the College, & was desirous I should go, as
indeed I am myself for several Reasons.  In the first place as long
as I stay at the Mountains the Loss of one fourth of my Time is
inevitable, by Company's coming here & detaining me from School.  And
likewise my Absence will in a great Measure put a Stop to so much
Company, & by that Means lessen the Expences of the Estate in
House-Keeping.  And on the other Hand by going to the College I shall
get a more universal Acquaintance, which may hereafter be serviceable
to me; & I suppose I can pursue my Studies in the Greek & Latin as
well there as here, & likewise learn something of the Mathematics.  I
shall be glad of your opinion.

        OLD COKE AND YOUNG LADIES

        _To John Page_
        _Fairfield, December 25, 1762_

        DEAR PAGE, -- This very day, to others the day of greatest
mirth and jollity, sees me overwhelmed with more and greater
misfortunes than have befallen a descendant of Adam for these
thousand years past, I am sure; and perhaps, after excepting Job,
since the creation of the world.  I think his misfortunes were
somewhat greater than mine: for although we may be pretty nearly on a
level in other respects, yet, I thank my God, I have the advantage of
brother Job in this, that Satan has not as yet put forth his hand to
load me with bodily afflictions.  You must know, dear Page, that I am
now in a house surrounded with enemies, who take counsel together
against my soul; and when I lay me down to rest, they say among
themselves, come let us destroy him.  I am sure if there is such a
thing as a Devil in this world, he must have been here last night and
have had some hand in contriving what happened to me.  Do you think
the cursed rats (at his instigation, I suppose) did not eat up my
pocket-book, which was in my pocket, within a foot of my head?  And
not contented with plenty for the present, they carried away my
jemmy-worked silk garters, and half a dozen new minuets I had just
got, to serve, I suppose, as provision for the winter.  But of this I
should not have accused the Devil, (because, you know rats will be
rats, and hunger, without the addition of his instigations, might
have urged them to do this,) if something worse, and from a different
quarter, had not happened.  You know it rained last night, or if you
do not know it, I am sure I do.  When I went to bed, I laid my watch
in the usual place, and going to take her up after I arose this
morning, I found her in the same place, it's true! but _Quantum
mutatus ab illo!_ all afloat in water, let in at a leak in the roof
of the house, and as silent and still as the rats that had eat my
pocket-book.  Now, you know, if chance had had anything to do in this
matter, there were a thousand other spots where it might have chanced
to leak as well as at this one, which was perpendicularly over my
watch.  But I'll tell you; it's my opinion that the Devil came and
bored the hole over it on purpose.  Well, as I was saying, my poor
watch had lost her speech.  I should not have cared much for this,
but something worse attended it; the subtle particles of the water
with which the case was filled, had, by their penetration, so
overcome the cohesion of the particles of the paper, of which my dear
picture and watch-paper were composed, that, in attempting to take
them out to dry them, good God!  _Mens horret referre!_ My cursed
fingers gave them such a rent, as I fear I never shall get over.
This, cried I, was the last stroke Satan had in reserve for me: he
knew I cared not for anything else he could do to me, and was
determined to try this last most fatal expedient.  _"Multis fortunae
vulneribus percussus, huic uni me imparem sensi, et penitus
succubui!"_ I would have cried bitterly, but I thought it beneath the
dignity of a man, and a man too who had read {ton onton, ta men
ephemin, ta dok ephemin}.  However, whatever misfortunes may attend
the picture or lover, my hearty prayers shall be, that all the health
and happiness which Heaven can send may be the portion of the
original, and that so much goodness may ever meet with what may be
most agreeable in this world, as I am sure it must be in the next.
And now, although the picture be defaced, there is so lively an image
of her imprinted in my mind, that I shall think of her too often, I
fear, for my peace of mind; and too often, I am sure, to get through
old Coke this winter; for God knows I have not seen him since I
packed him up in my trunk in Williamsburg.  Well, Page, I do wish the
Devil had old Coke, for I am sure I never was so tired of an old dull
scoundrel in my life.  What! are there so few inquietudes tacked to
this momentary life of our's, that we must need be loading ourselves
with a thousand more?  Or, as brother Job says, (who, by the bye, I
think began to whine a little under his afflictions,) "Are not my
days few?  Cease then, that I may take comfort a little before I go
whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the
shadow of death." But the old fellows say we must read to gain
knowledge, and gain knowledge to make us happy and admired.  _Mere
jargon!_ Is there any such thing as happiness in this world?  No.
And as for admiration, I am sure the man who powders most, perfumes
most, embroiders most, and talks most nonsense, is most admired.
Though to be candid, there are some who have too much good sense to
esteem such monkey-like animals as these, in whose formation, as the
saying is, the tailors and barbers go halves with God Almighty; and
since these are the only persons whose esteem is worth a wish, I do
not know but that, upon the whole, the advice of these old fellows
may be worth following.

        You cannot conceive the satisfaction it would give me to have a
letter from you.  Write me very circumstantially everything which
happened at the wedding.  Was she there? because, if she was, I ought
to have been at the Devil for not being there too.  If there is any
news stirring in town or country, such as deaths, courtships, or
marriages, in the circle of my acquaintance, let me know it.
Remember me affectionately to all the young ladies of my
acquaintance, particularly the Miss Burwells, and Miss Potters, and
tell them that though that heavy earthly part of me, my body, be
absent, the better half of me, my soul, is ever with them; and that
my best wishes shall ever attend them.  Tell Miss Alice Corbin that I
verily believe the rats knew I was to win a pair of garters from her,
or they never would have been so cruel as to carry mine away.  This
very consideration makes me so sure of the bet, that I shall ask
everybody I see from that part of the world what pretty gentleman is
making his addresses to her.  I would fain ask the favour of Miss
Becca Burwell to give me another watch-paper of her own cutting,
which I should esteem much more, though it were a plain round one,
than the nicest in the world cut by other hands -- however, I am
afraid she would think this presumption, after my suffering the other
to get spoiled.  If you think you can excuse me to her for this, I
should be glad if you would ask her.  Tell Miss Sukey Potter that I
heard, just before I came out of town, that she was offended with me
about something, what it is I do not know; but this I know, that I
never was guilty of the least disrespect to her in my life, either in
word or deed; as far from it as it has been possible for one to be.
I suppose when we meet next, she will be _endeavouring_ to repay an
imaginary affront with a real one: but she may save herself the
trouble, for nothing that she can say or do to me shall ever lessen
her in my esteem, and I am determined always to look upon her as the
same honest-hearted, good-humored, agreeable lady I ever did.  Tell
-- tell -- in short, tell them all ten thousand things more than
either you or I can now or ever shall think of as long as we live.

        My mind has been so taken up with thinking of my acquaintances,
that, till this moment, I almost imagined myself in Williamsburg,
talking to you in our old unreserved way; and never observed, till I
turned over the leaf, to what an immoderate size I had swelled my
letter -- however, that I may not tire your patience by further
additions, I will make but this one more, that I am sincerely and
affectionately, Dear Page, your friend and servant.

        P. S. I am now within an easy day's ride of Shadwell, whither I
shall proceed in two or three days.

        A VISIT TO ANNAPOLIS

        _To John Page_
        _Annapolis, May 25, 1766_

        DEAR PAGE -- I received your last by T. Nelson whom I luckily
met on my road hither. surely never did small hero experience greater
misadventures than I did on the first two or three days of my
travelling. twice did my horse run away with me and greatly endanger
the breaking my neck on the first day. on the second I drove two
hours through as copious a rain as ever I have seen, without meeting
with a single house to which I could repair for shelter. on the third
in going through Pamunkey, being unacquainted with the ford, I passed
through water so deep as to run over the cushion as I sat on it, and
to add to the danger, at that instant one wheel mounted a rock which
I am confident was as high as the axle, and rendered it necessary for
me to exercise all my skill in the doctrine of gravity, in order to
prevent the center of gravity from being left unsupported the
consequence of which would according to Bob. Carter's opinion have
been the corruition of myself, chair and all into the water. whether
that would have been the case or not, let the learned determine: it
was not convenient for me to try the experiment at that time, and I
therefore threw my whole weight on the mounted wheel and escaped the
danger.  I confess that on this occasion I was seised with a violent
hydrophobia.  I had the pleasure of passing two or three days on my
way hither at the two Will. Fitzhugh's and Col'o. Harrison's where
were S. Potter, P. Stith, and Ben Harrison, since which time I have
seen no face known to me before, except Cap't. Mitchell's who is
here. -- but I will now give you some account of what I have seen in
this metropolis. the assembly happens to be sitting at this time.
their upper and lower house, as they call them, sit in different
houses.  I went into the lower, sitting in an old courthouse, which,
judging from it's form and appearance, was built in the year one.  I
was surprised on approaching it to hear as great a noise and hubbub
as you will usually observe at a publick meeting of the planters in
Virginia. the first object which struck me after my entrance was the
figure of a little old man dressed but indifferently, with a yellow
queue wig on, and mounted in the judge's chair. this the gentleman
who walked with me informed me was the speaker, a man of a very fair
character, but who by the bye, has very little the air of a speaker.
at one end of the justices' bench stood a man whom in another place I
should from his dress and phis have taken for Goodall the lawyer in
Williamsburgh, reading a bill then before the house with a schoolboy
tone and an abrupt pause at every half dozen words.  this I found to
be the clerk of the assembly. the mob (for such was their appearance)
sat covered on the justices' and lawyers' benches, and were divided
into little clubs amusing themselves in the common chit chat way.  I
was surprised to see them address the speaker without rising from
their seats, and three, four, and five at a time without being
checked. when a motion was made, the speaker instead of putting the
question in the usual form, only asked the gentlemen whether they
chose that such or such a thing should be done, and was answered by a
yes sir, or no sir: and tho' the voices appeared frequently to be
divided, they never would go to the trouble of dividing the house,
but the clerk entered the resolutions, I supposed, as he thought
proper. in short everything seems to be carried without the house in
general's knowing what was proposed. the situation of this place is
extremely beautiful, and very commodious for trade having a most
secure port capable of receiving the largest vessels, those of 400
hh'ds being able to brush against the sides of the dock. the houses
are in general better than those in Williamsburgh, but the gardens
more indifferent. the two towns seem much of a size. they have no
publick buildings worth mentioning except a governor's house, the
hull of which after being nearly finished, they have suffered to go
to ruin.  I would give you an account of the rejoicings here on the
repeal of the stamp act, but this you will probably see in print
before my letter can reach you.  I shall proceed tomorrow to
Philadelphia where I shall make the stay necessary for inoculation,
thence going on to New-York I shall return by water to Williamsburgh,
about the middle of July, till which time you have the prayers of

        Dear Page
        Your affectionate friend

 
        P. S. I should be glad if you could in some indirect manner,
without discovering that it was my desire, let J. Randolph know when
I propose to be in the city of Williamsburgh.

        THE STUDY OF LAW
 
        _To Thomas Turpin_
        _Shadwell, Feb.  5, 1769_

        DEAR SIR, -- I am truly concerned that it is not in my power to
undertake the superintendance of your son in his studies; but my
situation both present and future renders it utterly impossible.  I
do not expect to be here more than two months in the whole between
this and November next, at which time I propose to remove to another
habitation which I am about to erect, and on a plan so contracted as
that I shall have but one spare bedchamber for whatever visitants I
may have. nor have I reason to expect at any future day to pass a
greater proportion of my time at home. thus situated it would even
have been injustice to Phill to have undertaken to give him an
assistance which will not be within my power; a task which I
otherwise should with the greatest pleasure have taken on me, and
would have desired no higher satisfaction than to see him hold that
rank in the profession to which his genius and application must
surely advance him. these however encourage me to hope that the
presence of an assistant will be little necessary.  I always was of
opinion that the placing a youth to study with an attorney was rather
a prejudice than a help. we are all too apt by shifting on them our
business, to incroach on that time which should be devoted to their
studies. the only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to
read, and in what order to read them.  I have accordingly recommended
strongly to Phill to put himself into apprenticeship with no one, but
to employ his time for himself alone. to enable him to do this to
advantage I have laid down a plan of study which will afford him all
the assistance a tutor could, without subjecting him to the
inconvenience of expending his own time for the emolument of another.
one difficulty only occurs, that is, the want of books.  but this I
am in hopes you will think less of remedying when it is considered
that had he been placed under the care of another, a proper
collection of books must have been provided for him before he engaged
in the practice of his profession; for a lawyer without books would
be like a workman without tools. the only difference then is that
they must now be procured something earlier. should you think it
necessary, it would be better to consider the money laid out in books
as a part of the provision made for him and to deduct it from what
you intended to give him, than that he should be without them.  I
have given him a catalogue of such as will be necessary, amounting in
the whole to about pound 100 sterling, but divided into four
invoices.  Should Phill enter on the plan of study recommended, I
shall endeavor as often as possible to take your house in on my way
to and from Williamsburgh as it will afford me the double
satisfaction of observing his progress in science and of seeing
yourself, my aunt, and the family.  I am Dear Sir with great respect

        Your most humble servant

        A GENTLEMAN'S LIBRARY

        _To Robert Skip with a List of Books_
        _Monticello, Aug. 3, 1771_

        I sat down with a design of executing your request to form a
catalogue of books to the amount of about 50 lib. sterl.  But could
by no means satisfy myself with any partial choice I could make.
Thinking therefore it might be as agreeable to you I have framed such
a general collection as I think you would wish and might in time find
convenient to procure.  Out of this you will chuse for yourself to
the amount you mentioned for the present year and may hereafter as
shall be convenient proceed in completing the whole.  A view of the
second column in this catalogue would I suppose extort a smile from
the face of gravity.  Peace to its wisdom!  Let me not awaken it.  A
little attention however to the nature of the human mind evinces that
the entertainments of fiction are useful as well as pleasant.  That
they are pleasant when well written every person feels who reads.
But wherein is its utility asks the reverend sage, big with the
notion that nothing can be useful but the learned lumber of Greek and
Roman reading with which his head is stored?

        I answer, everything is useful which contributes to fix in the
principles and practices of virtue.  When any original act of charity
or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or
imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a
strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts
also.  On the contrary when we see or read of any atrocious deed, we
are disgusted with it's deformity, and conceive an abhorence of vice.
Now every emotion of this kind is an exercise of our virtuous
dispositions, and dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body
acquire strength by exercise.  But exercise produces habit, and in
the instance of which we speak the exercise being of the moral
feelings produces a habit of thinking and acting virtuously.  We
never reflect whether the story we read be truth or fiction.  If the
painting be lively, and a tolerable picture of nature, we are thrown
into a reverie, from which if we awaken it is the fault of the
writer.  I appeal to every reader of feeling and sentiment whether
the fictitious murther of Duncan by Macbeth in Shakespeare does not
excite in him as great a horror of villany, as the real one of Henry
IV. by Ravaillac as related by Davila?  And whether the fidelity of
Nelson and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate his
breast and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident
which real history can furnish?  Does he not in fact feel himself a
better man while reading them, and privately covenant to copy the
fair example?  We neither know nor care whether Lawrence Sterne
really went to France, whether he was there accosted by the
Franciscan, at first rebuked him unkindly, and then gave him a peace
offering: or whether the whole be not fiction.  In either case we
equally are sorrowful at the rebuke, and secretly resolve _we_ will
never do so: we are pleased with the subsequent atonement, and view
with emulation a soul candidly acknowleging it's fault and making a
just reparation.  Considering history as a moral exercise, her
lessons would be too infrequent if confined to real life.  Of those
recorded by historians few incidents have been attended with such
circumstances as to excite in any high degree this sympathetic
emotion of virtue.  We are therefore wisely framed to be as warmly
interested for a fictitious as for a real personage.  The field of
imagination is thus laid open to our use and lessons may be formed to
illustrate and carry home to the heart every moral rule of life.
Thus a lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually
impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than
by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were
written.  This is my idea of well written Romance, of Tragedy, Comedy
and Epic poetry. -- If you are fond of speculation the books under
the head of Criticism will afford you much pleasure.  Of Politics and
Trade I have given you a few only of the best books, as you would
probably chuse to be not unacquainted with those commercial
principles which bring wealth into our country, and the
constitutional security we have for the enjoiment ofthat wealth.  In
Law I mention a few systematical books, as a knowledge of the
minutiae of that science is not neces-sary for a private gentleman.
In Religion, History, Natural philosophy, I have followed the same
plan in general, -- But whence the necessity of this collection?
Come to the new Rowanty, from which you may reach your hand to a
library formed on a more extensive plan.  Separated from each other
but a few paces the possessions of each would be open to the other.
A spring centrically situated might be the scene of every evening's
joy.  There we should talk over the lessons of the day, or lose them
in music, chess or the merriments of our family companions.  The
heart thus lightened our pillows would be soft, and health and long
life would attend the happy scene.  Come then and bring our dear
Tibby with you, the first in your affections, and second in mine.
Offer prayers for me too at that shrine to which tho' absent I pray
continual devotions.  In every scheme of happiness she is placed in
the foreground of the picture, as the princi-pal figure.  Take that
away, and it is no picture for me.  Bear my affections to Wintipock
clothed in the warmest expressions of sincerity; and to yourself be
every human felicity.  Adieu.

        ENCLOSURE

        _FINE ARTS_.
        Observations on gardening. Payne.  5/
        Webb's essay on painting. 12mo 3/
        Pope's Iliad. 18/
        ------- Odyssey. 15/
        Dryden's Virgil. 12mo. 12/
        Milton's works. 2 v. 8vo. Donaldson.  Edinburgh 1762. 10/
        Hoole's Tasso. 12mo. 5/
        Ossian with Blair's criticisms. 2 v.  8vo. 10/
        Telemachus by Dodsley. 6/
        Capell's Shakespear. 12mo. 30/
        Dryden's plays. 6v. 12mo. 18/
        Addison's plays. 12mo. 3/
        Otway's plays. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
        Rowe's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
        Thompson's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
        Young's works. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
        Home's plays. 12mo. 3/
        Mallet's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
        Mason's poetical works. 5/
        Terence. Eng. 3/
        Moliere. Eng. 15/
        Farquhar's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
        Vanbrugh's plays. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
        Steele's plays. 3/
        Congreve's works. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
        Garric's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo.  10/
        Foote's dramatic works. 2 v. 8vo. 10/
        Rousseau's Eloisa. Eng. 4 v. 12mo.  12/
        ----- Emilius and Sophia. Eng.  4 v. 12mo. 12/
        Marmontel's moral tales. Eng. 2 v.  12mo. 12/
        Gil Blas. by Smollett. 6/
        Don Quixot. by Smollett 4 v. 12mo.  12/
        David Simple. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Roderic Random.               }
        2 v. 12mo. 6/               }
      Peregrine Pickle.             }  _these are written by Smollett_
      4 v. 12mo. 12/                }
      Launcelot                     }
        Graves. 6/                  }
      Adventures of a               }
        guinea. 2 v.                }
        12mo. 6/                    }

      Pamela. 4 v. 12mo.            }
        12/                         }   _these are by Richardson._
      Clarissa. 8 v. 12mo.          }
        24/
      Grandison. 7 v.               }
        12mo. 9/                    }
      Fool of quality. 3 v.         }
        12mo. 9/                    }

      Feilding's works. 12 v. 12mo. pound 1.16

      Constantia. 2 v.              }
        12mo. 6/                    }  _by Langhorne._
      Solyman and                   }
        Almena. 12mo.               }
        3/                          }

      Belle assemblee. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
      Vicar of Wakefeild. 2 v. 12mo. 6/. by
        Dr. Goldsmith
      Sidney Bidulph. 5 v. 12mo. 15/
      Lady Julia Mandeville. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Almoran and Hamet. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Tristam Shandy. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7
      Sentimental journey. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Fragments of antient poetry.  Edinburgh. 2/
      Percy's Runic poems. 3/
      Percy's reliques of antient English
        poetry. 3 v. 12mo. 9/
        Percy's Han Kiou Chouan. 4 v.  12mo. 12/
        Percy's Miscellaneous Chinese peices. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Chaucer. 10/
      Spencer. 6 v. 12mo. 15/

        Waller's poems. 12mo. 3/
        Dodsley's collection of poems. 6 v.  12mo. 18/
        Pearch's collection of poems. 4 v.  12mo. 12/
        Gray's works. 5/
        Ogilvie's poems. 5/
        Prior's poems. 2 v. 12mo. Foulis. 6/
        Gay's works. 12mo. Foulis. 3/
        Shenstone's works. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
        Dryden's works. 4 v. 12mo. Foulis.  12/
        Pope's works. by Warburton. 12mo.  pound 1.4
        Churchill's poems. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
        Hudibrass. 3/
        Swift's works. 21 v. small 8vo. pound 3.3
        Swift's literary correspondence. 3 v.  9/
        Spectator. 9 v. 12mo. pound 1.7
        Tatler. 5 v. 12mo. 15/
        Guardian. 2 v. 12mo. 6/
        Freeholder. 12mo. 3/
        Ld. Lyttleton's Persian letters. 12mo.  3/
 
        _CRITICISM ON THE FINE ARTS._
 
      Ld. Kaim's elements of criticism.
          2 v. 8vo. 10/
        Burke on the sublime and beautiful.
        8vo. 5/
      Hogarth's analysis of beauty. 4to.
        pound 1.1
      Reid on the human mind. 8vo. 5/
      Smith's theory of moral sentiments.
        8vo. 5/
      Johnson's dictionary. 2 v. fol. pound 3
      Capell's prolusions. 12mo. 3/

           _POLITICKS, TRADE._

      Montesquieu's spirit of the laws.
        2 v. 12mo. 6/
      Locke on government. 8vo. 5/
      Sidney on government. 4to. 15/
      Marmontel's Belisarius. 12mo. Eng.
        3/
      Ld. Bolingbroke's political works.
        5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5
      Montesquieu's rise & fall of the Roman
        governmt. 12mo. 3/
      Steuart's Political oeconomy. 2 v.
        4to. pound 1.10
      Petty's Political arithmetic. 8vo. 5/

        _RELIGION._

      Locke's conduct of the mind in
        search of truth. 12mo. 3/
      Xenophon's memoirs of Socrates. by
        Feilding. 8vo. 5/
      Epictetus. by Mrs. Carter. 2 v.
        12mo. 6/
      Antoninus by Collins. 3/
      Seneca. by L'Estrange. 8vo. 5/
      Cicero's Offices. by Guthrie. 8vo. 5/
      Cicero's Tusculan questions. Eng. 3/
      Ld. Bolingbroke's Philosophical
        works. 5 v. 8vo. pound 1.5
      Hume's essays. 4 v. 12mo. 12/
      Ld. Kaim's Natural religion. 8vo. 6/
      Philosophical survey of Nature. 3/
      Oeconomy of human life. 2/
      Sterne's sermons. 7 v. 12mo. pound 1.1
      Sherlock on death. 8vo. 5/
      Sherlock on a future state. 5/

      _LAW._

      Ld. Kaim's Principles of equity. fol.
        pound 1.1
      Blackstone's Commentaries. 4 v.
        4to. pound 4.4
      Cuningham's Law dictionary. 2 v.
        fol. pound 3

      _HISTORY. ANTIENT._

      Bible. 6/
      Rollin's Antient history. Eng. 13 v.
        12mo. pound 1.19
      Stanyan's Graecian history. 2 v. 8vo.
        10/
      Livy. (the late translation). 12/
      Sallust by Gordon. 12mo. 12/
      Tacitus by Gordon. 12mo. 15/
      Caesar by Bladen. 8vo. 5/
      Josephus. Eng. 1.0
      Vertot's Revolutions of Rome. Eng.
        9/
      Plutarch's lives. by Langhorne. 6 v.
        8vo. pound 1.10
      Bayle's Dictionary. 5 v. fol. pound 7.10.
      Jeffery's Historical & Chronological
        chart. 15/

      _HISTORY. MODERN._

      Robertson's History of Charles the
        Vth. 3 v. 4to. pound 3.3
      Bossuet's history of France. 4 v.
        12mo. 12/
      Davila. by Farneworth. 2 v. 4to.
        pound 1.10.
      Hume's history of England. 8 v.
        8vo. pound 2.8.
      Clarendon's history of the rebellion.
        6 v. 8vo. pound 1.10.
      Robertson's history of Scotland.
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      _NATURAL PHILOSOPHY.  NATURAL HISTORY &c._

      Nature displayed. Eng. 7 v. 12mo.
      Franklin on Electricity. 4to. 10/
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        5/
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        pound 2.10.
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        Nourse. 12mo. 1765. 3/
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      Lady M. W. Montague's letters. 3 v.
        12mo. 9/

      _MISCELLANEOUS._

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        dead. 8vo. 5/
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        THE SUBLINE OSSIAN

        _To Charles McPherson_
        _Albemarle, in Virga, Feb. 25, 1773_

        DEAR SIR, -- Encouraged by the small acquaintance which I had
the pleasure of having contracted with you during your residence in
this country, I take the liberty of making the present application to
you.  I understood you were related to the gentleman of your name
(Mr. James McPherson), to whom the world is so much indebted for the
elegant collection, arrangement, and translation of Ossian's poems.
These pieces have been and will, I think, during my life, continue to
be to me the sources of daily pleasures.  The tender and the sublime
emotions of the mind were never before so wrought up by the human
hand.  I am not ashamed to own that I think this rude bard of the
North the greatest poet that has ever existed.  Merely for the
pleasure of reading his works, I am become desirous of learning the
language in which he sung, and of possessing his songs in their
original form.  Mr. McPherson, I think, informs us he is possessed of
the originals.  Indeed, a gentleman has lately told me he had seen
them in print; but I am afraid he has mistaken a specimen from
Temora, annexed to some of the editions of the translation, for the
whole works.  If they are printed, it will abridge my request and
your trouble, to the sending me a printed copy; but if there be more
such, my petition is, that you would be so good as to use your
interest with Mr. McPherson to obtain leave to take a manuscript copy
of them, and procure it to be done.  I would choose it in a fair,
round hand, on fine paper, with a good margin, bound in parchments as
elegantly as possible, lettered on the back, and marbled or gilt on
the edges of the leaves.  I would not regard expense in doing this.
I would further beg the favor of you to give me a catalogue of the
books written in that language, and to send me such of them as may be
necessary for learning it.  These will, of course, include a grammar
and dictionary.  The cost of these, as well as the copy of Ossian,
will be (for me), on demand, answered by Mr. Alexander McCaul,
sometime of Virginia, merchant, but now of Glasgow, or by your friend
Mr. Ninian Minzees, of Richmond, in Virginia, to whose care the books
may be sent.  You can, perhaps, tell me whether we may ever hope to
see any more of those Celtic pieces published.  Manuscript copies of
any which are in print, it would at any time give me the greatest
happiness to receive.  The glow of one warm thought is to me worth
more than money.  I hear with pleasure from your friend that your
path through life is likely to be smoothed by success.  I wish the
business and the pleasures of your situation would admit leisure now
and then to scribble a line to one who wishes you every felicity, and
would willingly merit the appellation of, dear sir, Your friend and
humble servant.

        NEWS FROM BOSTON

        _To William Small_
        _May 7, 1775_

        DEAR SIR, -- I had the pleasure by a gentleman who saw you at
Birmingham to hear of your welfare.  By Capt. Aselby of the
True-patriot belonging to Messrs.  Farrell & Jones of Bristol I send
you 3 doz. bottles of Madeira, being the half of a present which I
had laid by for you.  The capt was afraid to take more on board lest
it should draw upon him the officers of the customs.  The remaining
three doz. therefore I propose to send by Cap;att Drew belonging to
the same mercantile house, who is just arrived here.  That which goes
by Aselby will be delivered by him to your order, the residue by
Drew, or by Farrell & Jones, I know not which as yet.  I hope you
will find it fine as it came to me genuine from the island & has been
kept in my own cellar eight years.  Within this week we have received
the unhappy news of an action of considerable magnitude, between the
King's troops and our brethren of Boston, in which it is said five
hundred of the former, with the Earl of Percy, are slain.  That such
an action has occurred, is undoubted, though perhaps the
circumstances may not have reached us with truth.  This accident has
cut off our last hope of reconciliation, and a phrensy of revenge
seems to have seized all ranks of people.  It is a lamentable
circumstance, that the only mediatory power, acknowledged by both
parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation of his divided
people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the
flames, as we find him constantly doing, in every speech and public
declaration.  This may, perhaps, be intended to intimidate into
acquiescence, but the effect has been most unfortunately otherwise.
A little knowledge of human nature, and attention to its ordinary
workings, might have foreseen that the spirits of the people here
were in a state, in which they were more likely to be provoked, than
frightened, by haughty deportment.  And to fill up the measure of
irritation, a proscription of individuals has been substituted in the
room of just trial.  Can it be believed, that a grateful people will
suffer those to be consigned to execution, whose sole crime has been
the developing and asserting their rights?  Had the Parliament
possessed the power of reflection, they would have avoided a measure
as impotent, as it was inflammatory.  When I saw Lord Chatham's bill,
I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could have been brought
about.  The difference between his terms, and those offered by our
Congress, might have been accommodated, if entered on, by both
parties, with a dispostion to accommodate.  But the dignity of
Parliament, it seems, can brook no opposition to its power.  Strange,
that a set of men, who have made sale of their virtue to the
Minister, should yet talk of retaining dignity!  But I am getting
into politics, though I sat down only to ask your acceptance of the
wine, and express my constant wishes for your happiness.  This
however seems to be ensured by your philosophy & peaceful vocation.
I shall still hope that amidst public dissention private friendship
may be preserved inviolate and among the warmest you can ever possess
is that of your humble servt.

        RECONCILIATION OR INDEPENDENCE

        _To John Randolph_
        _Monticello, August 25, 1775_

        DEAR SIR, -- I received your message by Mr. Braxton &
immediately gave him an order on the Treasurer for the money which
the Treasurer assured me should be answered on his return.  I now
send the bearer for the violin & such music appurtaining to her as
may be of no use to the young ladies.  I beleive you had no case to
her.  If so, be so good as to direct Watt Lenox to get from Prentis's
some bays or other coarse woollen to wrap her in & then to pack her
securely in a wooden box.  I am sorry the situation of our country
should render it not eligible to you to remain longer in it.  I hope
the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to
this unnatural contest.  There may be people to whose tempers and
dispositions contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a
continuance of confusion, but to me it is of all states but one, the
most horrid.  My first wish is a restoration of our just rights; my
second, a return of the happy period, when, consistently with duty, I
may withdraw myself totally from the public stage, and pass the rest
of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing every desire
of ever hearing what passes in the world.  Perhaps (for the latter
adds considerably to the warmth of the former wish), looking with
fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help
hoping you may be able to contribute towards expediting this good
work.  I think it must be evident to yourself, that the Ministry have
been deceived by their officers on this side of the water, who (for
what purpose I cannot tell) have constantly represented the American
opposition as that of a small faction, in which the body of the
people took little part.  This, you can inform them, of your own
knowledge, is untrue.  They have taken it into their heads, too, that
we are cowards, and shall surrender at discretion to an armed force.
The past and future operations of the war must confirm or undeceive
them on that head.  I wish they were thoroughly and minutely
acquainted with every circumstance relative to America, as it exists
in truth.  I am persuaded, this would go far towards disposing them
to reconciliation.  Even those in Parliament who are called friends
to America, seem to know nothing of our real determinations.  I
observe, they pronounced in the last Parliament, that the Congress of
1774 did not mean to insist rigorously on the terms they held out,
but kept something in reserve, to give up; and, in fact, that they
would give up everything but the article of taxation.  Now, the truth
is far from this, as I can affirm, and put my honor to the assertion.
Their continuance in this error may, perhaps, produce very ill
consequences.  The Congress stated the lowest terms they thought
possible to be accepted, in order to convince the world they were not
unreasonable.  They gave up the monopoly and regulation of trade, and
all acts of Parliament prior to 1764, leaving to British generosity
to render these, at some future time, as easy to America as the
interest of Britain would admit.  But this was before blood was
spilt.  I cannot affirm, but have reason to think, these terms would
not now be accepted.  I wish no false sense of honor, no ignorance of
our real intentions, no vain hope thatpartial concessions of right
will be accepted, may induce the Ministry to trifle with
accommodation, till it shall be out of their power ever to
accommodate.  If, indeed, Great Britain, disjointed from her
colonies, be a match for the most potent nations of Europe, with the
colonies thrown into their scale, they may go on securely.  But if
they are not assured of this, it would be certainly unwise, by trying
the event of another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid,
which, perhaps, may not be attainable, but on condition of
everlasting avulsion from Great Britain.  This would be thought a
hard condition, to those who still wish for reunion with their parent
country.  I am sincerely one of those, and would rather be in
dependence on Great Britain, properly limited, than on anyother
nation on earth, or than on no nation.  But I am one of those, too,
who, rather than submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed
by the British Parliament, and which late experience has shown they
will so cruelly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole Island
in the ocean.

        If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may change
his disposition, it will, perhaps, be in your power, by assisting to
do this, to render service to the whole empire, at the most critical
time, certainly, that it has ever seen.  Whether Britain shall
continue the head of the greatest empire on earth, or shall return to
her original station in the political scale of Europe, depends,
perhaps, on the resolutions of the succeeding winter.  God send they
may be wise and salutary for us all.  I shall be glad to hear from
you as often as you may be disposed to think of things here.  You may
be at liberty, I expect, to communicate some things, consistently
with your honor, and the duties you will owe to a protecting nation.
Such a communication among individuals, may be mutually beneficial to
the contending parties.  On this or any future occasion, if I affirm
to you any facts, your knowledge of me will enable you to decide on
their credibility; if I hazard opinions on the dispositions of men or
other speculative points, you can only know they are my opinions.  My
best wishes for your felicity, attend you, wherever you go, and
believe me to be assuredly, Your friend and servant.

        P. S. My collection of classics, & of books of parliamentary
learning particularly is not so complete as I could wish.  As you are
going to the land of literature & of books you may be willing to
dispose of some of yours here & replace them there in better
editions.  I should be willing to treat on this head with any body
you may think proper to empower for that purpose.

        SAXONS, NORMANS, AND LAND TENURE

        _To Edmund Pendleton_
        _Philadelphia, Aug. 13, 1776_

        DEAR SIR, -- Your's of Aug. 3. came to hand yesterday; having
had no moment to spare since, I am obliged to set down to answer it
at a Committee table while the Committee is collecting.  My thoughts
therefore on the subject you propose will be merely extempore.  The
opinion that our lands were allodial possessions is one which I have
very long held, and had in my eye during a pretty considerable part
of my law reading which I found always strengthened it.  It was
mentioned in a very hasty production, intended to have been put under
a course of severe correction, but produced afterwards to the world
in a way with which you are acquainted.  This opinion I have thought
& still think to prove if ever I should have time to look into books
again.  But this is only meant with respect to the English law as
transplanted here.  How far our acts of assembly or acceptance of
grants may have converted lands which were allodial into feuds I have
never considered.  This matter is now become a mere speculative
point; & we have it in our power to make it what it ought to be for
the public good.

 
        It may be considered in the two points of view 1st. as bringing
a revenue into the public treasury.  2d. as a tenure.  I have only
time to suggest hints on each of these heads.  1. Is it consistent
with good policy or free government to establish a perpetual revenue?
is it not against the practice of our wise British ancestors? have
not the instances in which we have departed from this in Virginia
been constantly condemned by the universal voice of our country? is
it safe to make the governing power when once seated in office,
independent of it's revenue? should we not have in contemplation &
prepare for an event (however deprecated) which may happen in the
possibility of things; I mean a reacknowledgment of the British
tyrant as our king, & previously strip him of every prejudicial
possession?  Remember how universally the people run into the idea of
recalling Charles the 2d after living many years under a republican
government.  -- As to the second was not the separation of the
property from the perpetual use of lands a mere fiction?  Is not it's
history well known, & the purposes for which it was introduced, to
wit, the establishment of a military system of defence?

        Was it not afterwards made an engine of immense oppression?  Is
it wanting with us for the purpose of military defence?  May not it's
other legal effects (such as them at least as are valuable) be
performed in other more simple ways?  Has it not been the practice of
all other nations to hold their lands as their personal estate in
absolute dominion?  Are we not the better for what we have hitherto
abolished of the feudal system?  Has not every restitution of the
antient Saxon laws had happy effects?  Is it not better now that we
return at once into that happy system of our ancestors, the wisest &
most perfect ever yet devised by the wit of man, as it stood before
the 8th century.

        The idea of Congress selling out unlocated lands has been
sometimes dropped, but we have alwais met the hint with such
determined opposition that I believe it will never be proposed.  -- I
am against selling the lands at all.  The people who will migrate to
the Westward whether they form part of the old, or of a new colony
will be subject to their proportion of the Continental debt then
unpaid.  They ought not to be subject to more.  They will be a people
little able to pay taxes.  There is no equity in fixing upon them the
whole burthen of this war, or any other proportion than we bear
ourselves.  By selling the lands to them, you will disgust them, and
cause an avulsion of them from the common union.  They will settle
the lands in spite of everybody.  -- I am at the same time clear that
they should be appropriated in small quantities.  It is said that
wealthy foreigners will come in great numbers, & they ought to pay
for the liberty we shall have provided for them.  True, but make them
pay in settlers.  A foreigner who brings a settler for every 100, or
200 acres of land to be granted him pays a better price than if he
had put into the public treasury 5/ or 5 pound.  That settler will be
worth to the public 20 times as much every year, as on our old plan
he would have paid in one paiment.  I have thrown these loose
thoughts together only in obedience to your letter, there is not an
atom of them which would not have occurred to you on a moment's
contemplation of the subject.  Charge yourself therefore with the
trouble of reading two pages of such undigested stuff.

        By Saturday's post the General wrote us that Ld. Howe had got
(I think 100) flat bottomed boats alongside, & 30 of them were then
loaded with men; by which it was concluded he was preparing to
attack, yet this is Tuesday & we hear nothing further.  The General
has by his last return, 17000 some odd men, of whom near 4000 are
sick & near 3000 at out posts in Long Island &c.  So you may say he
has but 10000 effective men to defend the works of New York.  His
works however are good & his men in spirits, which I hope will be
equal to an addition of many thousands.  He had called for 2000 men
from the flying camp which were then embarking to him & would
certainly be with him in time even if the attack was immediate.  The
enemy have (since Clinton & his army joined them) 15.000 men of whom
not many are sick.  Every influence of Congress has been exerted in
vain to double the General's force.  It was impossible to prevail on
the people to leave their harvest.  That is now in, & great numbers
are in motion, but they have no chance to be there in time.  Should
however any disaster befall us at New York they will form a great
army on the spot to stop the progress of the enemy.  I think there
cannot be less than 6 or 8000 men in this city & between it & the
flying camp.  Our council complain of our calling away two of the
Virginia battalions.  But is this reasonable.  They have no British
enemy, & if human reason is of any use to conjecture future events,
they will not have one.  Their Indian enemy is not to be opposed by
their regular battalions.  Other colonies of not more than half their
military strength have 20 battalions in the field.  Think of these
things & endeavor to reconcile them not only to this, but to yield
greater assistance to the common cause if wanted.  I wish every
battalion we have was now in New York.  -- We yesterday received
dispatches from the Commissioners at Fort Pitt.  I have not read
them, but a gentleman who has, tells me they are favorable.  The
Shawanese & Delewares are disposed to peace.  I believe it, for this
reason.  We had by different advices information from the Shawanese
that they should strike us, that this was against their will, but
that they must do what the Senecas bid them.  At that time we knew
the Senecas meditated war.  We directed a declaration to be made to
the six nations in general that if they did not take the most
decisive measures for the preservation of neutrality we would never
cease waging war with them while one was to be found on the face of
the earth.  They immediately changed their conduct and I doubt not
have given corresponding information to the Shawanese and Delewares.

        I hope the Cherokees will now be driven beyond the Missisipi &
that this in future will be declared to the Indians the invariable
consequence of their beginning a war.  Our contest with Britain is
too serious and too great to permit any possibility of avocation from
the Indians.  This then is the season for driving them off, & our
Southern colonies are happily rid of every other enemy & may exert
their whole force in that quarter.

        I hope to leave this place some time this month.
        I am Dear Sir, Your affectionate friend

        P. S.  Mr. Madison of the college & Mr. Johnson of Fredsb'gh
are arrived in New York.  They say nothing material had happened in
England.  The French ministry was changed.

        THE VIRGINIA CONSTITUTION

        _To Edmund Pendleton_
        _Philadelpha, Aug. 26, 1776_

        DEAR SIR -- Your's of the 10'th. inst. came to hand about three
days ago, the post having brought no mail with him the last week.
You seem to have misapprehended my proposition for the choice of a
Senate.  I had two things in view: to get the wisest men chosen, & to
make them perfectly independent when chosen.  I have ever observed
that a choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished
for it's wisdom.  This first secretion from them is usually crude &
heterogeneous.  But give to those so chosen by the people a second
choice themselves, & they generally will chuse wise men.  For this
reason it was that I proposed the representatives (& not the people)
should chuse the Senate, & thought I had notwithstanding that made
the Senators (when chosen) perfectly independant of their electors.
However I should have no objection to the mode of election proposed
in the printed plan of your committee, to wit, that the people of
each county should chuse twelve electors, who should meet those of
the other counties in the same district & chuse a senator.  I should
prefer this too for another reason, that the upper as well as lower
house should have an opportunity of superintending & judging of the
situation of the whole state & be not all of one neighborhood as our
upper house used to be.  So much for the wisdom of the Senate.  To
make them independent, I had proposed that they should hold their
places for nine years, & then go out (one third every three years) &
be incapable for ever of being re-elected to that house.  My idea was
that if they might be re-elected, they would be casting their eye
forward to the period of election (however distant) & be currying
favor with the electors, & consequently dependant on them.  My reason
for fixing them in office for a term of years rather than for life,
was that they might have in idea that they were at a certain period
to return into the mass of the people & become the governed instead
of the governor which might still keep alive that regard to the
public good that otherwise they might perhaps be induced by their
independance to forget.  Yet I could submit, tho' not so willingly to
an appointment for life, or to any thing rather than a mere creation
by & dependance on the people.  I think the present mode of election
objectionable because the larger county will be able to send & will
always send a man (less fit perhaps) of their own county to the
exclusion of a fitter who may chance to live in a smaller county.  --
I wish experience may contradict my fears.  -- That the Senate as
well as lower [or shall I speak truth & call it upper] house should
hold no office of profit I am clear; but not that they should of
necessity possess distinguished property.  You have lived longer than
I have and perhaps may have formed a different judgment on better
grounds; but my observations do not enable me to say I think
integrity the characteristic of wealth.  In general I beleive the
decisions of the people, in a body, will be more honest & more
disinterested than those of wealthy men: & I can never doubt an
attachment to his country in any man who has his family & peculium in
it: -- Now as to the representative house which ought to be so
constructed as to answer that character truly.  I was for extending
the right of suffrage (or in other words the rights of a citizen) to
all who had a permanent intention of living in the country.  Take
what circumstances you please as evidence of this, either the having
resided a certain time, or having a family, or having property, any
or all of them.  Whoever intends to live in a country must wish that
country well, & has a natural right of assisting in the preservation
of it.  I think you cannot distinguish between such a person residing
in the country & having no fixed property, & one residing in a
township whom you say you would admit to a vote.  -- The other point
of equal representation I think capital & fundamental.  I am glad you
think an alteration may be attempted in that matter.  -- The
fantastical idea of virtue & the public good being a sufficient
security to the state against the commission of crimes, which you say
you have heard insisted on by some, I assure you was never mine.  It
is only the sanguinary hue of our penal laws which I meant to object
to.  Punishments I know are necessary, & I would provide them, strict
& inflexible, but proportioned to the crime.  Death might be
inflicted for murther & perhaps for treason if you would take out of
the description of treason all crimes which are not such in their
nature.  Rape, buggery &c -- punish by castration.  All other crimes
by working on high roads, rivers, gallies &c. a certain time
proportioned to the offence.  But as this would be no punishment or
change of condition to slaves (me miserum!) let them be sent to other
countries.  By these means we should be freed from the wickedness of
the latter, & the former would be living monuments of public
vengeance.  Laws thus proportionate & mild should never be dispensed
with.  Let mercy be the character of the lawgiver, but let the judge
be a mere machine.  The mercies of the law will be dispensed equally
& impartially to every description of men; those of the judge, or of
the executive power, will be the eccentric impulses of whimsical,
capricious designing man.  -- I am indebted to you for a topic to
deny to the Pensylvania claim to a line 39 complete degrees from the
equator.  As an advocate I shall certainly insist on it; but I wish
they would compromise by an extension of Mason & Dixon's line.  --
They do not agree to the temporary line proposed by our assembly.

        We have assurance (not newspaper, but Official) that the French
governors of the West Indies have received orders not only to furnish
us with what we want but to protect our ships.  They will convoy our
vessels, they say, thro' the line of British cruisers.  What you will
see in the papers of capt Weeks is indubitably true.  The inhabitants
of S't. Pierre's went out in boats to see the promised battle, but
the British captain chose not to shew.  -- By our last letters from
N. York the enemy had landed 8000 men on Long island.  On Friday a
small party, about 40, of them were out maroding & had got some
cattle in a barn.  Some riflemen (with whom was our Jamieson)
attacked them, took away the cattle, they retired as far as the house
of Judge Lifford where were their officer's quarters, they were
beaten thence also, & the house burnt by the riflemen.  It is alwais
supposed you know that good execution was done.  One officer was
killed & left with 9 guineas in his pocket, which shews they were in
a hurry; the swords & fusees of three other officers were found, the
owners supposed to be killed or wounded & carried away.  On Saturday
about 2000 of them attempted to march to Bedford.  Colo Hans's
battalion of 300 Pennsylvania riflemen having posted themselves in a
cornfeild & a wood to advantage attacked them.  The enemy had some of
their Jagers with the m, who it seems are German riflemen used to the
woods.  General Sullivan (who commands during the illness of Gen'l.
Green) sent some musquetry to support the riflemen.  The enemy gave
way & were driven half a mile beyond their former station.  Among the
dead left on the way, were three Jagers.  Gen'l. Washington had sent
over 6 battal's. to join Sullivan who had before three thousand, some
say & rightly I beleive 6000; & had posted 5 battalions more on the
water side ready to join Sullivan if the enemy should make that the
field of trial, or to return to N. York if wanted there.  A general
embarkation was certainly begun. 13.  transports crouded with men had
fallen down to the narrows & others loading.  So that we expect every
hour to hear of this great affair.  Washington by his last return had
23,000 men of whom however 5000 were sick.  Since this, Colo Aylett
just returned from there, tells us he has received 16 new England
battalions, so that we may certainly hope he has 25,000 effective,
which is about the strength of the enemy probably, tho' we have never
heard certainly that their last 5000, are come, in which case I
should think they have but 20,000.  Washington discovers a
confidence, which he usually does only on very good grounds.  He sais
his men are high in spirits.  Those ordered to Long island went with
the eagerness of young men going to a dance.  A few more skirmishes
would be an excellent preparative for our people.  Provisions on
Staten island were become so scarce that a cow sold for ten pounds, a
sheep for ten dollars.  They were barreling up all the horse flesh
they could get.  -- Colo Lee being not yet come I am still here, &
suppose I shall not get away till about this day se'nnight.  I shall
see you in Williamsburgh the morning of the Assembly.  Adieu.

        FIRST LETTER TO ADAMS

        _To John Adams_
        _Williamsburgh, May 16, 1777_

        DEAR SIR -- Matters in our part of the continent are too much
in quiet to send you news from hence.  Our battalions for the
Continental service were some time ago so far filled as rendered the
recommendation of a draught from the militia hardly requisite, and
the more so as in this country it ever was the most unpopular and
impracticable thing that could be attempted.  Our people even under
the monarchical government had learnt to consider it as the last of
all oppressions.  I learn from our delegates that the Confederation
is again on the carpet.  A great and a necessary work, but I fear
almost desperate.  The point of representation is what most alarms
me, as I fear the great and small colonies are bitterly determined
not to cede.  Will you be so good as to recollect the proposition I
formerly made you in private and try if you can work it into some
good to save our union?  It was that any proposition might be
negatived by the representatives of a majority of the people of
America, or of a majority of the colonies of America.  The former
secures the larger the latter the smaller colonies.  I have mentioned
it to many here.  The good whigs I think will so far cede their
opinions for the sake of the Union, and others we care little for.
The journals of congress not being printed earlier gives more
uneasiness than I would ever wish to see produced by any act of that
body, from whom alone I know our salvation can proceed.  In our
assembly even the best affected think it an indignity to freemen to
be voted away life and fortune in the dark.  Our house have lately
written for a M.S. copy of your journals, not meaning to desire a
communication of any thing ordered to be kept secret.  I wish the
regulation of the post office adopted by Congress last September
could be put in practice.  It was for the riders to travel night and
day, and to go their several stages three times a week.  The speedy
and frequent communication of intelligence is really of great
consequence.  So many falshoods have been propagated that nothing now
is beleived unless coming from Congress or camp.  Our people merely
for want of intelligence which they may rely on are become lethargick
and insensible of the state they are in.  Had you ever a leisure
moment I should ask a letter from you sometime directed to the care
of Mr. Dick, Fredericksburgh: but having nothing to give in return it
would be a tax on your charity as well as your time.  The esteem I
have for you privately, as well as for your public importance will
always render assurances of your health and happiness agreeable.  I
am Dear Sir Your friend and servt:

        "THE FAVORITE PASSION OF MY SOUL"

        _To Giovanni Fabbroni_
        _Williamsburg in Virginia, June 8, 1778_

        SIR, -- Your letter of Sep. 15. 1777 from Paris comes safe to
hand.  We have not however had the pleasure of seeing Mr. De Cenis,
the bearer of it in this country, as he joined the army in
Pennsylvania as soon as he arrived.  I should have taken particular
pleasure in serving him on your recommendation.  From the kind
anxiety expressed in your letter as well as from other sources of
information we discover that our enemies have filled Europe with
Thrasonic accounts of victories they had never won and conquests they
were fated never to make.  While these accounts alarmed our friends
in Europe they afforded us diversion.  We have long been out of all
fear for the event of the war.  I enclose you a list of the killed,
wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of
hostilities at Lexington in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since
which there has been no event of any consequence.  This is the best
history of the war which can be brought within the compass of a
letter.  I believe the account to be near the truth, tho' it is
difficult to get at the numbers lost by an enemy with absolute
precision.  Many of the articles have been communicated to us from
England as taken from the official returns made by their General.  I
wish it were in my power to send you as just an account of our loss.
But this cannot be done without an application to the war office
which being in another county is at this time out of my reach.  I
think that upon the whole it has been about one half the number lost
by them, in some instances more, but in others less.  This difference
is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every
soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his
infancy.  If there could have been a doubt before as to the event of
the war it is now totally removed by the interposition of France, &
the generous alliance she has entered into with us.  Tho' much of my
time is employed in the councils of America I have yet a little
leisure to indulge my fondness for philosophical studies.  I could
wish to correspond with you on subjects of that kind.  It might not
be unacceptable to you to be informed for instance of the true power
of our climate as discoverable from the thermometer, from the force &
direction of the winds, the quantity of rain, the plants which grow
without shelter in winter &c.  On the other hand we should be much
pleased with contemporary observations on the same particulars in
your country, which will give us a comparative view of the two
climates.  Farenheit's thermometer is the only one in use with us, I
make my daily observations as early as possible in the morning &
again about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, these generally showing the
maxima of cold & heat in the course of 24 hours.  I wish I could
gratify your Botanical taste; but I am acquainted with nothing more
than the first principles of that science; yet myself & my friends
may furnish you with any Botanical subjects which this country
affords, and are not to be had with you; and I shall take pleasure in
procuring them when pointed out by you.  The greatest difficulty will
be the means of conveyance during the continuance of the war.

        If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this
world, it is to your country its music.  This is the favorite passion
of my soul, & fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a
state of deplorable barbarism.  From the line of life in which we
conjecture you to be, I have for some time lost the hope of seeing
you here.  Should the event prove so, I shall ask your assistance in
procuring a substitute, who may be a proficient in singing, & on the
Harpsichord.  I should be contented to receive such an one two or
three years hence, when it is hoped he may come more safely and find
here a greater plenty of those useful things which commerce alone can
furnish.  The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the
indulgence of a domestic band of musicians, yet I have thought that a
passion for music might be reconciled with that economy which we are
obliged to observe.  I retain for instance among my domestic servants
a gardener (Ortolans), a weaver (Tessitore di lino e lin), a cabinet
maker (Stipeltaio) and a stone cutter (Scalpellino laborante in
piano) to which I would add a vigneron.  In a country where like
yours music is cultivated and practised by every class of men I
suppose there might be found persons of those trades who could
perform on the French horn, clarinet or hautboy & bassoon, so that
one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets, & hautboys
& a bassoon, without enlarging their domestic expenses.  A certainty
of employment for a half dozen years, and at the end of that time to
find them if they choose a conveyance to their own country might
induce them to come here on reasonable wages.  Without meaning to
give you trouble, perhaps it might be practicable for you in [your]
ordinary intercourse with your people, to find out such men disposed
to come to America.  Sobriety and good nature would be desirable
parts of their characters.  If you think such a plan practicable, and
will be so kind as to inform me what will be necessary to be done on
my part I will take care that it shall be done.  The necessary
expenses, when informed of them, I can remit before they are wanting,
to any port in France, with which country alone we have safe
correspondence.  I am Sir with much esteem your humble servant.

        "A TRUE WHIG IN SCIENCE"

        _To David Rittenhouse_
        _Monticello in Albemarle, Virginia, July 19, 1778_

        DEAR SIR, -- I sincerely congratulate you on the recovery of
Philadelphia, and wish it may be found uninjured by the enemy -- how
far the interests of literature may have suffered by the injury or
removal of the Orrery (as it is miscalled) the publick libraries,
your papers & implements, are doubts which still excite anxiety.  We
were much disappointed in Virginia generally on the day of the great
eclipse, which proved to be cloudy.  In Williamsburgh, where it was
total, I understand only the beginning was seen.  At this place which
is in Lat. 38 degrees-8' and Longitude West from Williamsburgh about
1 degrees-45' as is conjectured, eleven digits only were supposed to
be covered, as it was not seen at all till the moon had advanced
nearly one third over the sun's disc.  Afterwards it was seen at
intervals through the whole.  The egress particularly was visible.
It proved however of little use to me for want of a time piece that
could be depended on; which circumstance, together with the
subsequent restoration of Philadelphia to you, has induced me to
trouble you with this letter to remind you of your kind promise of
making me an accurate clock; which being intended for astronomical
purposes only, I would have divested of all apparatus for striking or
for any other purpose, which by increasing it's complication might
disturb it's accuracy.  A companion to it, for keeping seconds, and
which might be moved easily, would greatly add to it's value.  The
theodolite, for which I spoke to you also, I can now dispense with,
having since purchased a most excellent one.

        Writing to a philosopher, I may hope to be pardoned for
intruding some thoughts of my own tho' they relate to him personally.
Your time for two years past has, I believe, been principally
employed in the civil government of your country.  Tho' I have been
aware of the authority our cause would acquire with the world from
it's being known that yourself & Doc't. Franklin were zealous friends
to it and am myself duly impressed with a sense of the arduousness of
government, and the obligation those are under who are able to
conduct it, yet I am also satisfied there is an order of geniusses
above that obligation, & therefore exempted from it, nobody can
conceive that nature ever intended to throw away a Newton upon the
occupations of a crown.  It would have been a prodigality for which
even the conduct of providence might have been arraigned, had he been
by birth annexed to what was so far below him.  Cooperating with
nature in her ordinary economy we should dispose of and employ the
geniusses of men according to their several orders and degrees.  I
doubt not there are in your country many persons equal to the task of
conducting government: but you should consider that the world has but
one Ryttenhouse, & that it never had one before.  The amazing
mechanical representation of the solar system which you conceived &
executed, has never been surpassed by any but the work of which it is
a copy.  Are those powers then, which being intended for the
erudition of the world are, like air and light, the world's common
property, to be taken from their proper pursuit to do the commonplace
drudgery of governing a single state, a work which my be executed by
men of an ordinary stature, such as are always & everywhere to be
found?  Without having ascended mount Sinai for inspiration, I can
pronounce that the precept, in the decalogue of the vulgar, that they
shall not make to themselves "the likeness of anything that is in the
heavens above" is reversed for you, and that you will fulfil the
highest purposes of your creation by employing yourself in the
perpetual breach of that inhibition.  For my own country in
particular you must remember something like a promise that it should
be adorned with one of them.  The taking of your city by the enemy
has hitherto prevented the proposition from being made & approved by
our legislature.  The zeal of a true whig in science must excuse the
hazarding these free thoughts, which flow from a desire of promoting
the diffusion of knowledge & of your fame, and from one who can
assure you truly that he is with much sincerity & esteem Your most
obed't. & most humble serv't.

        P. S.  If you can spare as much time as to give me notice of
the receipt of this, & what hope I may form of my clocks, it will
oblige me.  If sent to Fredericksburgh it will come safe to hand.

        WAR AND HUMANITY

        _To Patrick Henry_
        _Albemarle, March 27, 1779_

        Sir, -- A report prevailing here, that in consequence of some
powers from Congress, the Governor and Council have it in
contemplation to remove the Convention troops, either wholly or in
part, from their present situation, I take the liberty of troubling
you with some observations on that subject.  The reputation and
interest of our country, in general, may be affected by such a
measure: it would, therefore, hardly be deemed an indecent liberty in
the most private citizen, to offer his thoughts to the consideration
of the Executive.  The locality of my situation, particularly in the
neighborhood of the present barracks, and the public relation in
which I stand to the people among whom they are situated, together
with a confidence which a personal knowledge of the members of the
Executive gives me, that they will be glad of information from any
quarter, on a subject interesting to the public, induce me to hope
that they will acquit me of impropriety in the present
representation.

        By an article in the Convention of Saratoga, it is stipulated,
on the part of the United States, that the officers shall not be
separated from their men.  I suppose the term officers, includes
_general_ as well as _regimental_ officers.  As there are general
officers who command all the troops, no part of them can be separated
from these officers without a violation of the article: they cannot,
of course, be separated from one another, unless the same general
officer could be in different places at the same time.  It is true,
the article adds the words, "as far as circumstances will admit."
This was a necessary qualification; because, in no place in America,
I suppose, could there have been found quarters for both officers and
men together; those for the officers to be according to their rank.
So far, then, as the circumstances of the place where they should be
quartered, should render a separation necessary, in order to procure
quarters for the officers, according to their rank, the article
admits that separation.  And these are the circumstances which must
have been under the contemplation of the parties; both of whom, and
all the world beside (who are ultimate judges in the case), would
still understand that they were to be as near in the environs of the
camp, as convenient quarters could be procured; and not that the
qualification of the article destroyed the article itself, and laid
it wholly at our discretion.  Congress, indeed, have admitted of this
separation; but are they so far lords of right and wrong as that our
consciences may be quiet with their dispensation?  Or is the case
amended by saying they leave it optional in the Governor and Council
to separate the troops or not?  At the same time that it exculpates
not them, it is drawing the Governor and Council into a participation
in the breach of faith.  If indeed it is only proposed, that a
separation of the troops shall be referred to the consent of their
officers; that is a very different matter.  Having carefully avoided
conversation with them on public subjects, I cannot say, of my own
knowledge, how they would relish such a proposition.  I have heard
from others, that they will choose to undergo anything together,
rather than to be separated, and that they will remonstrate against
it in the strongest terms.  The Executive, therefore, if voluntary
agents in this measure, must be drawn into a paper war with them, the
more disagreeable, as it seems that faith and reason will be on the
other side.  As an American, I cannot help feeling a thorough
mortification, that our Congress should have permitted an infraction
of our public honor; as a citizen of Virginia, I cannot help hoping
and confiding, that our Supreme Executive, whose acts will be
considered as the acts of the Commonwealth, estimate that honor too
highly to make its infraction their own act.  I may be permitted to
hope, then, that if any removal takes place, it will be a general
one; and, as it is said to be left to the Governor and Council to
determine on this, I am satisfied that, suppressing every other
consideration, and weighing the matter dispassionately, they will
determine upon this sole question, Is it for the benefit of those for
whom they act, that the Convention troops should be removed from
among them?  Under the head of interest, these circumstances, viz.,
the expense of building barracks, said to have been pound 25,000, and
of removing the troops back-wards and forwards, amounting to, I know
not how much, are not to be permitted, merely because they are
Continental expenses; for we are a part of the Continent; we must pay
a shilling of every dollar wasted.  But the sums of money which, by
these troops, or on their account, are brought into, and expended in
this State, are a great and local advantage.  This can require no
proof.  If, at the conclusion of the war, for instance, our share of
the Continental debt should be twenty millions of dollars, or say
that we are called on to furnish an annual quota of two millions four
hundred thousand dollars, to Congress, to be raised by tax, it is
obvious that we should raise these given sums with greater or less
ease, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of money found in
circulation among us.  I expect that our circulating money is
[increased?], by the presence of these troops, at the rate of $30,000
a week, at the least.  I have heard, indeed, that an objection arises
to their being kept within this State, from the information of the
commissary that they cannot be subsisted here.  In attending to the
information of that officer, it should be borne in mind that the
county of King William and its vicinities are one thing, the
territory of Virginia another.  If the troops could be fed upon long
letters, I believe the gentleman at the head of that department in
this country, would be the best commissary upon earth.  But till I
see him determined to act, not to write; to sacrifice his domestic
ease to the duties of his appointment, and apply to the resources of
this country, wheresoever they are to be had, I must entertain a
different opinion of him.  I am mistaken if, for the animal
subsistence of the troops hitherto, we are not principally indebted
to the genius and exertions of Hawkins, during the very short time he
lived after his appointment to that department, by your board.  His
eye immediately pervaded the whole State, it was reduced at once to a
regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into movement and
animation by the fiat of a comprehensive mind.  If the Commonwealth
of Virginia cannot furnish these troops with bread, I would ask of
the commissariat, which of the thirteen is now become the grain
colony?  If we are in danger of famine from the addition of four
thousand mouths, what is become of that surplus of bread, the
exportation of which used to feed the West Indies and Eastern States,
and fill the colony with hard money?  When I urge the sufficiency of
this State, however, to subsist these troops, I beg to be understood,
as having in contemplation the quantity of provisions necessary for
their real use, and not as calculating what is to be lost by the
wanton waste, mismanagement, and carelessness of those employed about
it.  If magazines of beef and pork are suffered to rot by slovenly
butchering, or for want of timely provision and sale; if quantities
of flour are exposed, by the commissaries entrusted with the keeping
it, to pillage and destruction; and if, when laid up in the
Continental stores, it is still to be embezzled and sold, the land of
Egypt itself would be insufficient for their supply, and their
removal would be necessary, not to a more plentiful country, but to
more able and honest commissaries.  Perhaps the magnitude of this
question, and its relation to the whole State, may render it worth
while to await the opinion of the National Council, which is now to
meet within a few weeks.  There is no danger of distress in the
meantime, as the commissaries affirm they have a great sufficiency of
provisions for some time to come.  Should the measure of removing
them into another State be adopted, and carried into execution,
before the meeting of Assembly, no disapprobation of theirs will
bring them back, because they will then be in the power of others,
who will hardly give them up.

        Want of information as to what may be the precise measure
proposed by the Governor and Council, obliges me to shift my ground,
and take up the subject in every possible form.  Perhaps, they have
not thought to remove the troops out of this State altogether, but to
some other part of it.  Here, the objections arising from the
expenses of removal, and of building new barracks, recur.  As to
animal food, it may be driven to one part of the country as easily as
to another: that circumstance, therefore, may be thrown out of the
question.  As to bread, I suppose they will require about forty or
forty-five thousand bushels of grain a year.  The place to which it
is to be brought to them, is about the centre of the State.  Besides,
that the country round about is fertile, all the grain made in the
counties adjacent to any kind of navigation, may be brought by water
to within twelve miles of the spot.  For these twelve miles, wagons
must be employed; I suppose half a dozen will be a plenty.  Perhaps,
this part of the expense might have been saved, had the barracks been
built on the water; but it is not sufficient to justify their being
abandoned now they are built.  Wagonage, indeed, seems to the
commissariat an article not worth economising.  The most wanton and
studied circuity of transportation has been practised: to mention
only one act, they have bought quantities of flour for these troops
in Cumberland, have ordered it to be wagoned down to Manchester, and
wagoned thence up to the barracks.  This fact happened to fall within
my own knowledge.  I doubt not there are many more such, in order
either to produce their total removal, or to run up the expenses of
the present situation, and satisfy Congress that the nearer they are
brought to the commissary's own bed, the cheaper they will be
subsisted.  The grain made in the western counties may be brought
partly in wagons, as conveniently to this as to any other place;
perhaps more so, on account of its vicinity to one of the best passes
through the Blue Ridge; and partly by water, as it is near to James
river, to the navigation of which, ten counties are adjacent above
the falls.  When I said that the grain might be brought hither from
all the counties of the State adjacent to navigation, I did not mean
to say it would be proper to bring it from all.  On the contrary, I
think the commissary should be instructed, after the next harvest,
not to send one bushel of grain to the barracks from below the falls
of the rivers, or from the northern counties.  The counties on tide
water are accessible to the calls for our own army.  Their supplies
ought, therefore, to be husbanded for them.  The counties in the
northwestern parts of the State are not only within reach for our own
grand army, but peculiarly necessary for the support of Macintosh's
army; or for the support of any other northwestern expedition, which
the uncertain conduct of the Indians should render necessary;
insomuch, that if the supplies of that quarter should be misapplied
to any other purpose, it would destroy, in embryo, every exertion,
either for particular or general safety there.  The counties above
tide water, in the middle and southern and western parts of the
country, are not accessible to calls for either of those purposes,
but at such an expense of transportation as the article would not
bear.  Here, then, is a great field, whose supplies of bread cannot
be carried to our army, or rather, which will raise no supplies of
bread, because there is nobody to eat them.  Was it not, then, wise
in Congress to remove to that field four thousand idle mouths, who
must otherwise have interfered with the pasture of our own troops?
And, if they are removed to any other part of the country, will it
not defeat this wise purpose?  The mills on the waters of James
river, above the falls, open to canoe navigation, are very many.
Some of them are of great note, as manufacturers.  The barracks are
surrounded by mills.  There are five or six round about
Charlottesville.  Any two or three of the whole might, in the course
of the winter, manufacture flour sufficient for the year.  To say the
worst, then, of this situation, it is but twelve miles wrong.  The
safe custody of these troops is another circumstance worthy
consideration.  Equally removed from the access of an eastern or
western enemy; central to the whole State, so that should they
attempt an irruption in any direction, they must pass through a great
extent of hostile country; in a neighborhood thickly inhabited by a
robust and hardy people zealous in the American cause, acquainted
with the use of arms, and the defiles and passes by which they must
issue: it would seem, that in this point of view, no place could have
been better chosen.

        Their health is also of importance.  I would not endeavor to
show that their lives are valuable to us, because it would suppose a
possibility, that humanity was kicked out of doors in America, and
interest only attended to.  The barracks occupy the top and brow of a
very high hill, (you have been untruly told they were in a bottom.)
They are free from bog, have four springs which seem to be plentiful,
one within twenty yards of the piquet, two within fifty yards, and
another within two hundred and fifty, and they propose to sink wells
within the piquet.  Of four thousand people, it should be expected,
according to the ordinary calculations, that one should die every
day.  Yet, in the space of near three months, there have been but
four deaths among them; two infants under three weeks old, and two
others by apoplexy.  The officers tell me, the troops were never
before so healthy since they were embodied.

        But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captivity, his
wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed?  I think
not.  It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors of war
as much as possible.  The practice, therefore, of modern nations, of
treating captive enemies with politeness and generosity, is not only
delightful in contemplation, but really interesting to all the world,
friends, foes, and neutrals.  Let us apply this: the officers, after
considerable hardships, have all procured quarters, comfortable and
satisfactory to them.  In order to do this, they were obliged, in
many instances, to hire houses for a year certain, and at such
exorbitant rents, as were sufficient to tempt independent owners to
go out of them, and shift as they could.  These houses, in most
cases, were much out of repair.  They have repaired them at a
considerable expense.  One of the general officers has taken a place
for two years, advanced the rent for the whole time, and been
obliged, moreover, to erect additional buildings for the
accommodation of part of his family, for which there was not room in
the house rented.  Independent of the brick work, for the carpentry
of these additional buildings, I know he is to pay fifteen hundred
dollars.  The same gentleman, to my knowledge, has paid to one person
three thousand six hundred and seventy dollars for different articles
to fix himself commodiously.  They have generally laid in their
stocks of grain and other provisions, for it is well known that
officers do not live on their rations.  They have purchased cows,
sheep, &c., set in to farming, prepared their gardens, and have a
prospect of comfort and quiet before them.  To turn to the soldiers:
the environs of the barracks are delightful, the ground cleared, laid
off in hundreds of gardens, each enclosed in its separate paling;
these well prepared, and exhibiting a fine appearance.  General
Riedezel alone laid out upwards of two hundred pounds in garden seeds
for the German troops only.  Judge what an extent of ground these
seeds would cover.  There is little doubt that their own gardens will
furnish them a great abundance of vegetables through the year.  Their
poultry, pigeons and other preparations of that kind, present to the
mind the idea of a company of farmers, rather than a camp of
soldiers.  In addition to the barracks built for them by the public,
and now very comfortable, they have built great numbers for
themselves, in such messes as fancied each other; and the whole
corps, both officers and men, seem now happy and satisfied with their
situation.  Having thus found the art of rendering captivity itself
comfortable, and carried it into execution, at their own great
expense and labor, their spirits sustained by the prospect of
gratifications rising before their eyes, does not every sentiment of
humanity revolt against the proposition of stripping them of all
this, and removing them into new situations, where, from the advanced
season of the year, no preparations can be made for carrying
themselves comfortably through the heats of summer; and when it is
known that the necessary advances for the conveniences already
provided, have exhausted their funds and left them unable to make the
like exertions anew.  Again, review this matter, as it may regard
appearances.  A body of troops, after staying a twelvemonth at
Boston, are ordered to take a march of seven hundred miles to
Virginia, where, it is said, they may be plentifully subsisted.  As
soon as they are there, they are ordered on some other march,
because, in Virginia, it is said, they cannot be subsisted.
Indifferent nations will charge this either to ignorance, or to whim
and caprice; the parties interested, to cruelty.  They now view the
proposition in that light, and it is said, there is a general and
firm persuasion among them, that they were marched from Boston with
no other purpose than to harass and destroy them with eternal
marches.  Perseverance in object, though not by the most direct way,
is often more laudable than perpetual changes, as often as the object
shifts light.  A character of steadiness in our councils, is worth
more than the subsistence of four thousand people.

        There could not have been a more unlucky concurrence of
circumstances than when these troops first came.  The barracks were
unfinished for want of laborers, the spell of weather the worst ever
known within the memory of man, no stores of bread laid in, the
roads, by the weather and number of wagons, soon rendered impassable:
not only the troops themselves were greatly disappointed, but the
people in the neighborhood were alarmed at the consequences which a
total failure of provisions might produce.  In this worst state of
things, their situation was seen by many and disseminated through the
country, so as to occasion a general dissatisfaction, which even
seized the minds of reasonable men, who, if not affected by the
contagion, must have foreseen that the prospect must brighten, and
that great advantages to the people must necessarily arise.  It has,
accordingly, so happened.  The planters, being more generally sellers
than buyers, have felt the benefit of their presence in the most
vital part about them, their purses, and are now sensible of its
source.  I have too good an opinion of their love of order to believe
that a removal of these troops would produce any irregular proofs of
their disapprobation, but I am well assured it would be extremely
odious to them.

        To conclude.  The separation of these troops would be a breach
of public faith, therefore I suppose it is impossible; if they are
removed to another State, it is the fault of the commissaries; if
they are removed to any other part of the State, it is the fault of
the commissaries; and in both cases, the public interest and public
security suffer, the comfortable and plentiful subsistence of our own
army is lessened, the health of the troops neglected, their wishes
crossed, and their comforts torn from them, the character of whim and
caprice, or, what is worse, of cruelty, fixed on us as a nation, and,
to crown the whole, our own people disgusted with such a proceeding.

        I have thus taken the liberty of representing to you the facts
and the reasons, which seem to militate against the separation or
removal of these troops.  I am sensible, however, that the same
subject may appear to different persons, in very different lights.
What I have urged as reasons, may, to sounder minds, be apparent
fallacies.  I hope they will appear, at least, so plausible, as to
excuse the interposition of

        Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant.

        THE TRAITOR ARNOLD

        _To J. P. G. Muhlenberg_
        _Richmond, Jan. 31, 1781_

        SIR, -- Acquainted as you are with the treasons of Arnold, I
need say nothing for your information, or to give you a proper
sentiment of them.  You will readily suppose that it is above all
things desirable to drag him from those under whose wing he is now
sheltered.  On his march to and from this place I am certain it might
have been done with facility by men of enterprise & firmness.  I
think it may still be done though perhaps not quite so easily.
Having peculiar confidence in the men from the Western side of the
Mountains, I meant as soon as they should come down to get the
enterprise proposed to a chosen number of them, such whose courage &
whose fidelity would be above all doubt.  Your perfect knowlege of
those men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, induce me
to ask you to pick from among them proper characters, in such number
as you think best, to reveal to them our desire, & engage them to
undertake to seize and bring off this greatest of all traitors.
Whether this may be best effected by their going in as friends &
awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise is left to themselves.  The
smaller the number the better; so that they be sufficient to manage
him.  Every necessary caution must be used on their part, to prevent
a discovery of their design by the enemy, as should they be taken,
the laws of war will justify against them the most rigorous sentence.
I will undertake if they are successful in bringing him off alive,
that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them.  And
to men formed for such an enterprise it must be a great incitement to
know that their names will be recorded with glory in history with
those of Vanwert, Paulding & Williams.  The enclosed order from Baron
Steuben will authorize you to call for & dispose of any force you may
think necessary, to place in readiness for covering the enterprise &
securing the retreat of the party.  Mr.  Newton the bearer of this, &
to whom its contents are communicated in confidence, will provide men
of trust to go as guides.  These may be associated in the enterprise
or not, as you please; but let that point be previously settled that
no difficulties may arise as to the parties entitled to participate
of the reward.  You know how necessary profound secrecy is in this
business, even if it be not undertaken.

        WELCOME TO THE MARGUIS

        _To Lafayette_
        _Richmond, March 10th, 1781_

        SIR, -- Intending that this shall await your arrival in this
State I with great joy welcome you on that event.  I am induced to
from the very great esteem your personal character and the Hopes I
entertain of your relieving us from our enemy within this State.
Could any circumstances have rendered your presence more desirable or
more necessary it is the unfortunate one which obliges me to enclose
you the enclosed papers.

        I trust that your future Acquaintance with the Executive of the
State will evince to you that among their faults is not to be counted
a want of dispostion to second the views of the Commander against our
common Enemy.  We are too much interested in the present scene & have
too much at stake to leave a doubt on that Head.  Mild Laws, a People
not used to prompt obedience, a want of provisions of War & means of
procuring them render our orders often ineffectual, oblige us to
temporise & when we cannot accomplish an object in one way to attempt
it in another.  Your knowledge of these circumstances with a temper
to accommodate them ensure me your cooperation in the best way we
can, when we shall be able to pursue the way we would wish.

        I still hope you will find our preparations not far short of
the Information I took the Liberty of giving you in my letter of the
8th instant.  I shall be very happy to receive your first
Applications for whatever may be necessary for the public service and
to convince you of our disposition to promote it as far as the
Abilities of the State and Powers of the Executive will enable us.

        APPEAL TO THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF

        _To George Washington_
        _Charlottesville, May 28th, 1781_

        SIR, -- I make no doubt you will have heard, before this shall
have the honour of being presented to your Excellency, of the
junction of Ld Cornwallis with the force at Petersburg under Arnold,
who had succeeded to the command on the death of Majr. Genl Phillips.
I am now advised that they have evacuated Petersburg, joined at
Westover a reinforcement of 2000 men just arrived from New york,
crossed James River, and on the 26th instant, were three miles
advanced on their way towards Richmond; at which place Majr Genl the
Marquis Fayette, lay with three thousand men Regulars and militia:
these being the whole number we could arm, until the arrival of the
1100 arms from Rhode Island, which are about this time at the place
where our Public stores are deposited.  The whole force of the Enemy
within this State, from the best intelligence I have been able to
get, is I think about 7000 men, infantry and cavalry, including,
also, the small garrison left at Portsmouth: a number of privateers,
which are constantly ravaging the Shores of our rivers, prevent us
from receiving any aid from the Counties lying on navigable waters;
and powerful operations meditated against our Western frontier, by a
joint force of British, and Indian Savages, have as your Excellency
before knew, obliged us to embody, between two and three thousand men
in that quarter.  Your Excellency will judge from this State of
things, and from what you know of our country, what it may probably
suffer during the present campaign.  Should the Enemy be able to
produce no opportunity of annihilating the Marquis's army a small
proportion of their force may yet restrain his movements effectually
while the greater part employed in detachment to waste an unarmed
country and lead the minds of the people to acquiesce under those
events which they see no human power prepared to ward off.  We are
too far removed from the other scenes of war to say whether the main
force of the Enemy be within this State.  But I suppose they cannot
anywhere spare so great an army for the operations of the field.
Were it possible for this circumstance to justify in your Excellency
a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the
universal voice, that the presence of their beloved Countryman, whose
talents have so long been successfully employed, in establishing the
freedom of kindred States, to whose person they have still flattered
themselves they retained some right and have ever looked up as their
dernier resort in distress.  That your appearance among them I say
would restore full confidence of salvation, and would render them
equal to whatever is not impossible.  I cannot undertake to foresee
and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a
resolution: The whole subject is before you of which I see only
detached parts; and your judgment will be formed on a view of the
whole.  Should the danger of this State and its consequence to the
Union be such as to render it best for the whole that you should
repair to its assistance the difficulty would be how to keep men out
of the field.  I have undertaken to hint this matter to your
Excellency not only on my own sense of its importance to us but at
the solicitations of many members of weight in our Legislature which
has not yet Assembled to speak their own desires.

        A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution
has prepared for those oppressed with the labours of my office and a
long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands has
prepared my way for retirement to a private station: still as an
individual I should feel the comfortable effects of your presence,
and have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive
for that gratitude, esteem, & respect with which I have the honour to
be, your Excellency's most obedient humble servant.

        LIMITS OF PUBLIC DUTY

        _To James Monroe_
        _Monticello, May 20, 1782_

        DEAR SIR, -- I have been gratified with the receipt of your two
favours of the 6th & 11th inst.  It gives me pleasure that your
county has been wise enough to enlist your talents into their
service.  I am much obliged by the kind wishes you express of seeing
me also in Richmond, and am always mortified when anything is
expected from me which I cannot fulfill, & more especially if it
relate to the public service.  Before I ventured to declare to my
countrymen my determination to retire from public employment, I
examined well my heart to know whether it were thoroughly cured of
every principle of political ambition, whether no lurking particle
remained which might leave me uneasy when reduced within the limits
of mere private life.  I became satisfied that every fibre of that
passion was thoroughly eradicated.  I examined also in other views my
right to withdraw.  I considered that I had been thirteen years
engaged in public service, that during that time I had so totally
abandoned all attention to my private affairs as to permit them to
run into great disorder and ruin, that I had now a family advanced to
years which require my attention & instruction, that to these were
added the hopeful offspring of a deceased friend whose memory must be
forever dear to me who have no other reliance for being rendered
useful to themselves & their country, that by a constant sacrifice of
time, labour, loss, parental & family duties, I had been so far from
gaining the affection of my countrymen, which was the only reward I
ever asked or could have felt, that I had even lost the small
estimation I before possessed.  That however I might have comforted
myself under the disapprobation of the well-meaning but uninformed
people yet that of their representatives was a shock on which I had
not calculated: that this indeed had been followed by an exculpatory
declaration.  But in the meantime I had been suspected & suspended in
the eyes of the world without the least hint then or afterwards made
public which might restrain them from supposing that I stood
arraigned for treason of the heart and not merely weakness of the
head; and I felt that these injuries, for such they have been since
acknowledged had inflicted a wound on my spirit which will only be
cured by the all-healing grave.  If reason & inclination unite in
justifying my retirement, the laws of my country are equally in favor
of it.  Whether the state may command the political services of all
it's members to an indefinite extent, or if these be among the rights
never wholly ceded to the public power, is a question which I do not
find expressly decided in England.  Obiter dictums on the subject I
have indeed met with, but the complexion of the times in which these
have dropped would generally answer them, besides that this species
of authority is not acknowledged in our profession.  In this country
however since the present government has been established the point
has been settled by uniform, pointed & multiplied precedents.
Offices of every kind, and given by every power, have been daily &
hourly declined & resigned from the declaration of independance to
this moment.  The genl assembly has accepted these without
discrimination of office, and without ever questioning them in point
of right.  If a difference between the office of a delegate & any
other could ever have been supposed, yet in the case of Mr. Thompson
Mason who declined the office of delegate & was permitted so to do by
the house that supposition has been proved to be groundless.  But
indeed no such distinction of offices can be admitted.  Reason and
the opinions of the lawyers putting all on a footing as to this
question and so giving to the delegate the aid of all the precedents
of the refusal of other offices.  The law then does not warrant the
assumption of such a power by the state over it's members.  For if it
does where is that law? nor yet does reason, for tho' I will admit
that this does subject every individual if called on to an equal tour
of political duty yet it can never go so far as to submit to it his
whole existence.  If we are made in some degree for others, yet in a
greater are we made for ourselves.  It were contrary to feeling &
indeed ridiculous to suppose that a man had less right in himself
than one of his neighbors or indeed all of them put together.  This
would be slavery & not that liberty which the bill of rights has made
inviolable and for the preservation of which our government has been
charged.  Nothing could so completely divest us of that liberty as
the establishment of the opinion that the state has a _perpetual_
right to the services of all it's members.  This to men of certain
ways of thinking would be to annihilate the blessing of existence; to
contradict the giver of life who gave it for happiness & not for
wretchedness; and certainly to such it were better that they had
never been born.  However with these I may think public service &
private misery inseparably linked together, I have not the vanity to
count myself among those whom the state would think worth oppressing
with perpetual service.  I have received a sufficient memento to the
contrary.  I am persuaded that having hitherto dedicated to them the
whole of the active & useful part of my life I shall be permitted to
pass the rest in mental quiet.  I hope too that I did not mistake the
modes any more than the matter of right when I preferred a simple act
of renunciation to the taking sanctuary under those disqualifications
provided by the law for other purposes indeed, but which afford
asylum also for rest to the wearied.  I dare say you did not expect
by the few words you dropped on the right of renunciation to expose
yourself to the fatigue of so long a letter, but I wished you to see
that if I had done wrong I had been betrayed by a semblance of right
at least.

        I take the liberty of inclosing to you a letter for Genl
Chastellux for which you will readily find means of conveyance.  But
I meant to give you more trouble with the one to Pelham who lives in
the neighborhood of Manchester & to ask the favor of you to send it
by your servant express which I am in hopes may be done without
absenting him from your person but during those hours in which you
will be engaged in the house.  I am anxious that it should be
received immediately.  Mrs Jefferson has added another daughter to
our family.  She has been ever since & still continues very
dangerously ill.  It will give me great pleasure to see you here
whenever you can favor us with your company.  You will find me still
busy but in lighter occupations.  But in these & all others you will
find me to retain a due sense of your friendship & to be with sincere
esteem, Dr Sir
                 Your mo ob & mo hble servt.

        P. S.  did you ever receive a copy of the Parl. debates &
Histor.  Register with a letter left for you with Mr Jas. Buchanan?

        "A SINGLE EVENT. . ."

        _To Chastellux_
        _Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782_

        DEAR SIR, -- I received your friendly letters of ----- and June
30 but the latter not till the 17th of Oct.  It found me a little
emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the
world as she was whose loss occasioned it.  Your letter recalled to
my memory that there were persons still living of much value to me.
If you should have thought me remiss in not testifying to you sooner
how deeply I had been impressed with your worth in the little time I
had the happiness of being with you you will I am sure ascribe it to
it's true cause the state of dreadful suspense in which I had been
kept all the summer & the catastrophe which closed it.  Before that
event my scheme of life had been determined.  I had folded myself in
the arms of retirement, and rested all prospects of future happiness
on domestic & literary objects.  A single event wiped away all my
plans and left me a blank which I had not the spirits to fill up.  In
this state of mind an appointment from Congress found me, requiring
me to cross the Atlantic.  And that temptation might be added to duty
I was informed at the same time from his Excy the Chevalier de
Luzerne that a vessel of force would be sailing about the middle of
Dec. in which you would be passing to France.  I accepted the
appointment and my only object now is so to hasten over those
obstacles which would retard my departure as to be ready to join you
in your voyage, fondly measuring your affections by my own &
presuming your consent.  It is not certain that by any exertion I can
be in Philadelphia by the middle of December.  The contrary is most
probable.  But hoping it will not be much later and counting on those
procrastinations which usually attend the departure of vessels of
size I have hopes of being with you in time.  This will give me full
leisure to learn the result of your observations on the natural
bridge, to communicate to you my answers to the queries of Monsr de
Marbois, to receive edification from you on these and on other
subjects of science, considering chess too as a matter of science.
Should I be able to get out in tolerable time and any extraordinary
delays attend the sailing of the vessel I shall certainly do myself
the honor of waiting on his Excy Count Rochambeau at his Head
quarters and assuring him in person of my high respect and esteem for
him -- an object of which I have never lost sight.  To yourself I am
unable to express the warmth of those sentiments of friendship &
attachment with which I have the honour to be, Dr Sir,
                                         Your most obedt & mo hble servt.

        ADVICE TO A YOUNG DAUGHTER

        _To Martha Jefferson_
        _Annapolis, Nov. 28, 1783_

        MY DEAR PATSY -- After four days journey I arrived here without
any accident and in as good health as when I left Philadelphia.  The
conviction that you would be more improved in the situation I have
placed you than if still with me, has solaced me on my parting with
you, which my love for you has rendered a difficult thing.  The
acquirements which I hope you will make under the tutors I have
provided for you will render you more worthy of my love, and if they
cannot increase it they will prevent it's diminution.  Consider the
good lady who has taken you under her roof, who has undertaken to see
that you perform all your exercises, and to admonish you in all those
wanderings from what is right or what is clever to which your
inexperience would expose you, consider her I say as your mother, as
the only person to whom, since the loss with which heaven has been
pleased to afflict you, you can now look up; and that her displeasure
or disapprobation on any occasion will be an immense misfortune which
should you be so unhappy as to incur by any unguarded act, think no
concession too much to regain her good will.  With respect to the
distribution of your time the following is what I should approve.

        from 8. to 10 o'clock practise music.
        from 10. to 1. dance one day and draw another
        from 1. to 2. draw on the day you dance, and write a letter the
next day.
        from 3. to 4. read French.
        from 4. to 5. exercise yourself in music.
        from 5. till bedtime read English, write &c.

        Communicate this plan to Mrs. Hopkinson and if she approves of
it pursue it.  As long as Mrs. Trist remains in Philadelphia
cultivate her affections.  She has been a valuable friend to you and
her good sense and good heart make her valued by all who know her and
by nobody on earth more than by me.  I expect you will write to me by
every post.  Inform me what books you read, what tunes you learn, and
inclose me your best copy of every lesson in drawing.  Write also one
letter every week either to your aunt Eppes, your aunt Skipwith, your
aunt Carr, or the little lady from whom I now inclose a letter, and
always put the letter you so write under cover to me.  Take care that
you never spell a word wrong.  Always before you write a word
consider how it is spelt, and if you do not remember it, turn to a
dictionary.  It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.  I
have placed my happiness on seeing you good and accomplished, and no
distress which this world can now bring on me could equal that of
your disappointing my hopes.  If you love me then, strive to be good
under every situation and to all living creatures, and to acquire
those accomplishments which I have put in your power, and which will
go far towards ensuring you the warmest love of your affectionate
father,
        P. S.  Keep my letters and read them at times that you may
always have present in your mind those things which will endear you
to me.

        THE MAMMOTH AND WESTERN EXPLORATION

        _To George Rogers Clark_
        _Annapolis, Dec. 4, 1783_

        DEAR SIR -- I received here about a week ago your obliging
letter of Oct. 12. 1783. with the shells and seeds for which I return
you many thanks.  You are also so kind as to keep alive the hope of
getting for me as many of the different species of bones, teeth and
tusks of the _Mammoth_ as can now be found.  This will be most
acceptable.  Pittsburg and Philadelphia or Winchester will be the
surest channel of conveyance.  I find they have subscribed a very
large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the
Missisipi to California.  They pretend it is only to promote knolege.
I am afraid they have thoughts of colonising into that quarter.  Some
of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to
search that country.  But I doubt whether we have enough of that kind
of spirit to raise the money.  How would you like to lead such a
party?  Tho I am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the
question.  The definitive treaty of peace is at length arrived.  It
is not altered from the preliminaries.  The cession of the territory
West of Ohio to the United states has been at length accepted by
Congress with some small alterations of the conditions.  We are in
daily expectation of receiving it with the final approbation of
Virginia.  Congress have been lately agitated by questions where they
should fix their residence.  They first resolved on Trentown.  The
Southern states however contrived to get a vote that they would give
half their time to Georgetown at the Falls of Patowmac.  Still we
consider the matter as undecided between the Delaware and Patowmac.
We urge the latter as the only point of union which can cement us to
our Western friends when they shall be formed into separate states.
I shall always be happy to hear from you and am with very particular
esteem Dr. Sir Your friend & humble servt.

        MORE ADVICE

        _To Martha Jefferson_
        _Annapolis, Dec. 11, 1783_

        MY DEAR PATSY -- I wrote you by the post this day fortnight,
since which I h received two letters from you.  I am afraid that you
may not have sent to the post office and therefore that my letter may
be still lying there.  Tho' my business here may not let me write to
you every week yet it will not be amiss for you to enquire at the
office every week.  I wrote to Mr. House by the last post.  Perhaps
his letter may still be in the office.  I hope you will have good
sense enough to disregard those foolish predictions that the world is
to be at an end soon.  The almighty has never made known to any body
at what time he created it, nor will he tell any body when he means
to put an end to it, if ever he means to do it.  As to preparations
for that event, the best way is for you to be always prepared for it.
The only way to be so is never to do nor say a bad thing.  If ever
you are about to say any thing amiss or to do any thing wrong,
consider before hand.  You will feel something within you which will
tell you it is wrong and ought not to be said or done: this is your
conscience, and be sure to obey it.  Our maker has given us all, this
faithful internal Monitor, and if you always obey it, you will always
be prepared for the end of the world: or for a much more certain
event which is death.  This must happen to all: it puts an end to the
world as to us, and the way to be ready for it is never to do a wrong
act.  I am glad you are proceeding regularly under your tutors.  You
must not let the sickness of your French master interrupt your
reading French, because you are able to do that with the help of your
dictionary.  Remember I desired you to send me the best copy you
should make of every lesson Mr. Cimitiere should set you.  In this I
hope you will be punctual because it will let me see how you are
going on.  Always let me know too what tunes you play.  Present my
compliments to Mrs. Hopkinson, Mrs. House and Mrs. Trist.  I had a
letter from your uncle Eppes last week informing me that Polly is
very well, and Lucy recovered from an indispostion.  I am my dear
Patsy your affectionate father,

        AMERICAN "POLITICS & POVERTY"

        _To Chastellux_
        _Annapolis, Jan. 16, 1784_

        DEAR SIR -- L't. Colo Franks being appointed to carry to Paris
one of the copies of our ratifn of the Def. treaty, & being to depart
in the instant of his appointm't. furnishes me a hasty oppy of
obtruding myself on your recollection.  Should this prove troublesome
you must take the blame as having exposed yourself to my esteem by
letting me become acquainted with your merit.  Our transactions on
this side the water must now have become uninteresting to the rest of
the world.  We are busy however among ourselves endeavoring to get
our new governments into regular and concerted motion.  For this
purpose I beleive we shall find some additions requisite to our
Confederation.  As yet every thing has gone smoothly since the war.
We are diverted with the European acc'ts. of the anarchy & opposition
to govmt in America.  Nothing can be more untrue than these
relations.  There was indeed some disatisfaction in the army at not
being paid off before they were disbanded, and a very trifling mutiny
of 200 souldiers in Philadelphia, on the latter occasion Congress
left that place disgusted with the pusillanimity of the govmt and not
from any want of security to their own persons.  The indignation
which the other states felt at this insult to their delegates has
enlisted them more warmly in support of Congress & the people, the
legislature, & the Exec. themselves of Pennsvta have made the most
satisfactory atonements.  Some people also of warm blood undertook to
resolve as commees for proscribing the refugees.  But they were few,
scattered here & there through the several states, were absolutely
unnoticed by those both in & out of power, and never expressed an
idea of not acquiescing ultimately under the decisions of their
governments.  The greatest difficulty we find is to get money from
them.  The reason is not founded in their unwillingness, but in their
real inability.  You were a witness to the total destruction of our
commerce, devastation of our country, and absence of the precious
metals.  It cannot be expected that these should flow in but through
the channels of commerce, or that these channels can be opened in the
first instant of peace.  Time is requisite to avail ourselves of the
productions of the earth, and the first of these will be applied to
renew our stock of those necessaries of which we had been totally
exhausted.  But enough of America it's politics & poverty.  --
Science I suppose is going on with you rapidly as usual.  I am in
daily hopes of seeing something from your pen which may portray us to
ourselves.  Aware of the bias of self love & prejudice in myself and
that your pictures will be faithful I am determined to annihilate my
own opinions and give full credit to yours.  I must caution you to
distrust information from my answers to Monsr. de Marbois' queries.
I have lately had a little leisure to revise them.  I found some
things should be omitted, many corrected, and more supplied &
enlarged.  They are swelled to treble bulk.  Being now too much for
M.S. copies I think the ensuing spring to print a dozen or 20 copies
to be given to my friends, not suffering another to go out.  As I
have presumed to place you in that number I shall take the liberty of
sending you a copy as a testimony of the sincere esteem and affection
with which I have the honor to be D'r Sir Your mo. ob.  & mo. hbl
serv't

        WESTERN COMMERCE
 
        _To George Washington_
        _Annapolis, Mar. 15, 1784_

        D'r. SIR, -- Since my last nothing new has occurred, I suppose
the crippled state of Congress is not new to you.  We have only 9
states present, 8. of whom are represented by two members each, and
of course, on all great questions not only an unanimity of States but
of members is necessary.  An unanimity which never can be obtained on
a matter of any importance.  The consequence is that we are wasting
our time & labour in vain efforts to do business. -- Nothing less
than the presence of 13. States, represented by an odd number of
delegates will enable us to get forward a single capital point.  The
deed for the cession of Western territory by Virginia was executed &
accepted on the 1'st instant.  I hope our country will of herself
determine to cede still further to the meridian of the mouth of the
great Kanhaway.  Further she cannot govern; so far is necessary for
her own well being.  The reasons which call for this boundary (which
will retain all the waters of the Kanhaway) are 1.  That within that
are our lead mines.  2. This river rising in N.  Carola traverses our
whole latitude and offers to every part of it a channel for
navigation & commerce to the Western Country, but 3. It is a channel
which can not be opened but at immense expense and with every
facility which an absolute power over both shores will give.  4. This
river & it's waters forms a band of good land passing along our whole
frontier, and forming on it a barrier which will be strongly seated.
5. For 180 miles beyond these waters is a mountainous barren which
can never be inhabited & will of course form a safe separation
between us & any other State.  6. This tract of country lies more
convenient to receive it's government from Virginia than from any
other State.  7. It will preserve to us all the upper parts of
Yohogany & Cheat rivers within which much will be done to open these
which are the true doors to the Western commerce.  The union of this
navigation with that of the Patowmac is a subject on which I
mentioned that I would take the liberty of writing to you.  I am sure
it's value and practicability are both well known to you.  This is
the moment however for seizing it if ever we mean to have it.  All
the world is becoming commercial.  Was it practicable to keep our new
empire separated from them we might indulge ourselves in speculating
whether commerce contributes to the happiness of mankind.  But we
cannot separate ourselves from them.  Our citizens have had too full
a taste of the comforts furnished by the arts & manufactures to be
debarred the use of them.  We must then in our defence endeavour to
share as large a portion as we can of this modern source of wealth &
power.  That offered to us from the Western Country is under a
competition between the Hudson, the Patowmac & the Missisipi itself.
Down the last will pass all heavy commodities.  But the navigation
through the gulf of Mexico is so dangerous, & that up the Missisipi
so difficult & tedious, that it is not probable that European
merchandize will return through that channel.  It is most likely that
flour, lumber & other heavy articles will be floated on rafts which
will be themselves an article of sale as well as their loading, the
navigators returning by land or in light batteaux.  There will
therefore be a rivalship between the Hudson & Patowmac for the
residue of the commerce of all the country Westward of L. Erie, on
the waters of the lakes, of the Ohio & upper parts of the Missisipi.
To go to N. York, that part of the trade which comes from the lakes
or their waters must first be brought into L. Erie.  So also must
that which comes from the waters of the Missisipi, and of course must
cross at some portage into the waters of the lakes.  When it shall
have entered L. Erie it must coast along it's Southern Shore on
account of the number & excellence of it's harbours, the Northern,
tho' shortest, having few harbours & these unsafe.  Having reached
Cuyahoga, to proceed on to N. York will be 970 miles from thence &
five portages, whereas it is but 430 miles to Alexandria, if it turns
into the Cuyahoga & passes through that, Big beaver, Ohio, Yohogany
(or Monongahela & Cheat) & Patowmac, & there are but two portages.
For the trade of the Ohio or that which shall come into it from it's
own waters or the Missisipi, it is nearer to Alexandria than to New
York by 730 miles, and is interrupted by one portage only.  Nature
then has declared in favour of the Patowmac, and through that channel
offers to pour into our lap the whole commerce of the Western world.
But unfortunately the channel by the Hudson is already open & known
in practice; ours is still to be opened.  This is the moment in which
the trade of the West will begin to get into motion and to take it's
direction.  It behoves us then to open our doors to it.  I have
lately pressed this subject on my friends in the General assembly,
proposing to them to endeavor to have a tax laid which shall bring
into a separate chest from five to ten thousand pounds a year, to be
employed first in opening the upper waters of the Ohio & Patowmac,
where a little money & time will do a great deal, leaving the great
falls for the last part of the work.  To remove the idea of
partiality I have suggested the propriety & justice of continuing
this fund till all the rivers shall be cleared successively.  But a
most powerful objection always arises to propositions of this kind.
It is that public undertakings are carelessly managed and much money
spent to little purpose.  To obviate this objection is the purpose of
my giving you the trouble of this discussion.  You have retired from
public life.  You have weighed this determination & it would be
impertinence in me to touch it.  But would the superintendence of
this work break in too much on the sweets of retirement & repose?  If
they would I stop here.  Your future time & wishes are sacred in my
eye.  If it would be only a dignified amusement to you, what a
monument of your retirement would it be!  It is one which would
follow that of your public life and bespeak it the work of the same
great hand.  I am confident that would you either alone or jointly
with any persons you think proper be willing to direct this business,
it would remove the only objection the weight of which I apprehend.
Tho' the tax should not come in till the fall, it's proceeds should
be anticipated by borrowing from some other fund to enable the work
to be begun this summer.  When you view me as not owning, nor ever
having a prospect of owning one inch of land on any water either of
the Patowmac or Ohio, it will tend to apologize for the trouble I
have given you of this long letter, by showing that my zeal in this
business is public & pure.  The best atonement for the time I have
occupied you will be not to add to it longer than while I assure you
of the sincerity & esteem with which I have the honour to be D'r. Sir
Your most obedient & most humble servt.

        P. S. The hurry of time in my former letter prevented my
thanking you for your polite & friendly invitation to Mount Vernon.
I shall certainly pay my respects there to Mrs Washington & yourself
with great pleasure whenever it shall be in my power.

        THE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI

        _To George Washington_
        _Annapolis, Apr. 16, 1784_

        DEAR SIR -- I received your favor of Apr. 8. by Colo. Harrison.
The subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood
connected with it, has been matter of anxiety to me; because whatever
may be the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, as in
it's course it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have
wished to see you standing on ground separated from it, and that the
character which will be handed to future ages at the head of our
revolution may in no instance be compromitted in subordinate
altercations.  The subject has been at the point of my pen in every
letter I have written to you, but has been still restrained by the
reflection that you had among your friends more able counsellors,
and, in yourself, one abler than them all.  Your letter has now
rendered a duty what was before a desire, and I cannot better merit
your confidence than by a full and free communication of facts &
sentiments, as far as they have come within my observation.  When the
army was about to be disbanded, & the officers to take final leave,
perhaps never again to meet, it was natural for men who had
accompanied each other thro' so many scenes of hardship, of
difficulty and danger, who in a variety of instances must have been
rendered mutually dear by those aids & good offices to which their
situations had given occasion; it was natural I say for these to
seize with fondness any proposition which promised to bring them
together again at certain & regular periods.  And this I take for
granted was the origin & object of this institution; & I have no
suspicion that they foresaw, much less intended, those mischiefs,
which exist perhaps in the forebodings of politicians only.  I doubt
however whether, in it's execution, it would be found to answer the
wishes of those who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was
intended to preserve.  The members would be brought together at their
annual assemblies no longer to encounter a common enemy, but to
encounter one another in debate & sentiment.  For something I suppose
is to be done at these meetings, & however unimportant, it will
suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradiction & irritation.
The way to make friends quarrel is to put them in disputation under
the public eye.  An experience of near twenty years has taught me
that few friendships stand this test, & that public assemblies, where
every one is free to act & speak, are the most powerful