Thomas Jefferson - Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson

T >> Thomas Jefferson >> Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson

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Governor M'Kean, in his letter to M'Corkle of July 16th, 1817, has
thrown some lights on the transactions of that day: but, trusting to his
memory chiefly, at an age when our memories are not to be trusted, he
has confounded two questions, and ascribed proceedings to one which
belonged to the other. These two questions were, 1st, the Virginia
motion of June the 7th, to declare Independence; and 2nd, the actual
Declaration, its matter and form. Thus he states the question on the
Declaration itself, as decided on the 1st of July; but it was the
Virginia motion which was voted on that day in committee of the whole;
South Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania, then voting against it. But the
ultimate decision in the House, on the report of the Committee, being,
by request, postponed to the next morning, all the states voted for it,
except New York, whose vote was delayed for the reason before stated. It
was not till the 2nd of July, that the Declaration itself was taken up;
nor till the 4th, that it was decided, and it was signed by every member
present, except Mr. Dickinson.

The subsequent signatures of members who were not then present, and some
of them not yet in office, is easily explained, if we observe who they
were; to wit, that they were of New York and Pennsylvania. New York
did not sign till the 15th, because it was not till the 9th, (five days
after the general signature,) that their Convention authorized them to
do so. The Convention of Pennsylvania, learning that it had been signed
by a majority only of their delegates, named a new delegation on the
20th, leaving out Mr. Dickinson, who had refused to sign, Willing and
Humphreys, who had withdrawn, reappointing the three members who had
signed, Morris, who had not been present, and five new ones, to wit,
Rush, Clymer, Smith, Taylor, and Ross: and Morris and the five new
members were permitted to sign, because it manifested the assent of
their full delegation, and the express will of their Convention, which
might have been doubted on the former signature of a minority only. Why
the signature of Thornton, of New Hampshire, was permitted so late
as the 4th of November, I cannot now say; but undoubtedly for some
particular reason, which we should find to have been good, had it been
expressed. These were the only post-signers, and you see, sir,
that there were solid reasons for receiving those of New York and
Pennsylvania, and that this circumstance in no wise affects the faith of
this Declaratory Charter of our rights, and of the rights of man.

With a view to correct errors of fact before they become inveterate by
repetition, I have stated what I find essentially material in my papers,
but with that brevity which the labor of writing constrains me to use.

On the four particular articles of inquiry in your letter, respecting
your grandfather, the venerable Samuel Adams, neither memory nor
memorandums enable me to give any information. I can say that he was
truly a great man, wise in council, fertile in resources, immovable in
his purposes, and had, I think, a greater share than any other member,
in advising and directing our measures in the Northern war. As a
speaker, he could not be compared with his living colleague and
namesake, whose deep conceptions, nervous style, and undaunted firmness,
made him truly our bulwark in debate. But Mr. Samuel Adams, although not
of fluent elocution, was so rigorously logical, so clear in his views,
abundant in good sense, and master always of his subject, that he
commanded the most profound attention whenever he rose in an assembly,
by which the froth of declamation was heard with the most sovereign
contempt. I sincerely rejoice that the record of his worth is to be
undertaken by one so much disposed as you will be, to hand him down
fairly to that posterity, for whose liberty and happiness he was so
zealous a laborer.

With sentiments of sincere veneration for his memory, accept yourself
this tribute to it, with the assurances of my great respect.

Th: Jefferson.

P. S. August 6th, 1822. Since the date of this letter, to wit, this
day, August 6, '22, I have received the new publication of the Secret
Journals of Congress, wherein is stated a resolution of July 19th,
1776, that the Declaration passed on the 4th, be fairly engrossed on
parchment, and when engrossed, be signed by every member; and another
of August 2nd, that being engrossed and compared at the table, it was
signed by the members; that is to say, the copy engrossed on parchment
(for durability) was signed by the members, after being compared at the
table with the original one signed on paper, as before stated. I add
this P. S. to the copy of my letter to Mr. Wells, to prevent confounding
the signature of the original with that of the copy engrossed on
parchment.

[NOTE C]--August, 1774, Instructions to the first Delegation

On the Instructions given to the first Delegation of Virginia to
Congress, in August, 1774.

The Legislature of Virginia happened to be in session in Williamsburg,
when news was received of the passage, by the British Parliament, of the
Boston Port Bill, which was to take effect on the first day of June
then ensuing. The House of Burgesses, thereupon, passed a resolution,
recommending to their fellow-citizens that that day should be set apart
for fasting and prayer to the Supreme Being, imploring him to avert the
calamities then threatening us, and to give us one heart and one mind
to oppose every invasion of our liberties. The next day, May the 20th,
1774, the Governor dissolved us. We immediately repaired to a room in
the Raleigh tavern, about one hundred paces distant from the Capitol,
formed ourselves into a meeting, Peyton Randolph in the chair, and
came to resolutions, declaring, that an attack on one colony to enforce
arbitrary acts, ought to be considered as an attack on all, and to
be opposed by the united wisdom of all. We, therefore, appointed a
Committee of Correspondence, to address letters to the Speakers of
the several Houses of Representatives of the colonies, proposing
the appointment of deputies from each, to meet annually in a general
Congress, to deliberate on their common interests, and on the measures
to be pursued in common. The members then separated to their several
homes, except those of the Committee, who met the next day, prepared
letters according to instructions, and despatched them by messengers
express, to their several destinations. It had been agreed, also by the
meeting, that the Burgesses, who should be elected under the writs then
issuing, should be requested to meet in Convention on a certain day in
August, to learn the result of these letters, and to appoint delegates
to a Congress, should that measure be approved by the other colonies. At
the election, the people re-elected every man of the former Assembly, as
a proof of their approbation of what they had done. Before I left home
to attend the Convention, I prepared what I thought might be given,
in instruction, to the Delegates who should be appointed to attend the
General Congress proposed. They were drawn in haste, with a number of
blanks, with some uncertainties and inaccuracies of historical facts,
which I neglected at the moment, knowing they could be readily corrected
at the meeting. I set out on my journey, but was taken sick on the road,
and was unable to proceed. I therefore sent on, by express, two copies,
one under cover to Patrick Henry, the other to Peyton Randolph, who I
knew would be in the chair of the Convention. Of the former no more was
ever heard or known. Mr. Henry probably thought it too bold, as a first
measure, as the majority of the members did. On the other copy being
laid on the table of the Convention, by Peyton Randolph, as the
proposition of a member who was prevented from attendance by sickness
on the road, tamer sentiments were preferred, and, I believe, wisely
preferred; the leap I proposed being too long, as yet, for the mass of
our citizens. The distance between these, and the instructions actually
adopted, is of some curiosity, however, as it shows the inequality of
pace with which we moved, and the prudence required to keep front and
rear together. My creed had been formed on unsheathing the sword at
Lexington. They printed the paper, however, and gave it the title of 'A
Summary View of the Rights of British America.' In this form it got to
London, where the opposition took it up, shaped it to opposition views,
and, in that form, it ran rapidly through several editions.

Mr. Marshall, in his history of General Washington, chapter 3, speaking
of this proposition for Committees of correspondence and for a General
Congress, says, 'this measure had already been proposed in town meeting
in Boston,' and some pages before he had said, that 'at a session of
the General Court of Massachusetts, in September, 1770, that Court, in
pursuance of a favorite idea of uniting all the colonies in one system
of measures, elected a Committee of correspondence, to communicate with
such Committees as might be appointed by the other colonies.' This is an
error. The Committees of correspondence, elected by Massachusetts, were
expressly for a correspondence among the several towns of that province
only. Besides the text of their proceedings, his own note X, proves
this. The first proposition for a general correspondence between the
several states, and for a General Congress, was made by our meeting of
May, 1774. Botta, copying Marshall, has repeated his error, and so it
will be handed on from copyist to copyist, _ad infinitum_. Here follow
my proposition, and the more prudent one which was adopted.

'Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said deputies, when
assembled in General Congress, with the deputies from the other states
of British America, to propose to the said Congress that an humble and
dutiful address be presented to his Majesty, begging leave to lay before
him, as Chief Magistrate of the British empire, the united complaints of
his Majesty's subjects in America; complaints which are excited by many
unwarrantable encroachments and usurpations, attempted to be made by the
legislature of one part of the empire upon the rights which God and the
laws have given equally and independently to all. To represent to his
Majesty that, these, his States, have often individually made humble
application to his imperial throne, to obtain, through its intervention,
some redress of their injured rights; to none of which was ever even
an answer condescended. Humbly to hope that this, their joint address,
penned in the language of truth, and divested of those expressions of
servility which would persuade his Majesty that we are asking favors,
and not rights, shall obtain from his Majesty a more respectful
acceptance; and this his Majesty will think we have reason to expect,
when he reflects that he is no more than the chief officer of the
people, appointed by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers,
to assist in working the great machine of government, erected for their
use, and, consequently, subject to their superintendence; and in order
that these, our rights, as well as the invasions of them, may be laid
more fully before his Majesty, to take a view of them from the origin
and first settlement of these countries.

'To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to America,
were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Europe, and
possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of departing from
the country in which chance, not choice, has placed them, of going in
quest of new habitations, and of there establishing new societies, under
such laws and regulations, as to them shall seem most likely to promote
public happiness. That their Saxon ancestors had, under this universal
law, in like manner left their native wilds and woods in the North of
Europe, had possessed themselves of the island of Britain, then less
charged with inhabitants, and had established there that system of laws
which has so long been the glory and protection of that country. Nor was
ever any claim of superiority or dependence asserted over them, by that
mother country from which they had migrated: and were such a claim made,
it is believed his Majesty's subjects in Great Britain have too firm a
feeling of the rights derived to them from their ancestors, to bow down
the sovereignty of their state before such visionary pretensions. And it
is thought that no circumstance has occurred to distinguish, materially,
the British from the Saxon emigration. America was conquered, and her
settlements made and firmly established, at the expense of individuals,
and not of the British public. Their own blood was spilt in acquiring
lands for their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that
settlement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves they
conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. No shilling
was ever issued from the public treasures of his Majesty, or his
ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after the
colonies had become established on a firm and permanent fooling. That
then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain for her commercial
purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend them assistance, against
an enemy who would fain have drawn to herself the benefits of their
commerce, to the great aggrandizement of herself, and danger of Great
Britain. Such assistance, and in such circumstances, they had often
before given to Portugal and other allied states, with whom they carry
on a commercial intercourse. Yet these states never supposed, that
by calling in her aid, they thereby submitted themselves to her
sovereignty. Had such terms been proposed, they would have rejected them
with disdain, and trusted for better to the moderation of their enemies,
or to a vigorous exertion of their own force. We do not, however, mean
to underrate those aids, which, to us, were doubtless valuable, on
whatever principles granted: but we would show that they cannot give a
title to that authority which the British Parliament would arrogate over
us; and that they may amply be repaid, by our giving to the inhabitants
of Great Britain such exclusive privileges in trade as may be
advantageous to them, and, at the same time, not too restrictive to
ourselves. That settlement having been thus effected in the wilds of
America, the emigrants thought proper to adopt that system of laws,
under which they had hitherto lived in the mother country, and to
continue their union with her, by submitting themselves to the same
common sovereign, who was thereby made the central link, connecting the
several parts of the empire thus newly multiplied.

'But that not long were they permitted, however far they thought
themselves removed from the hand of oppression, to hold undisturbed,
the rights thus acquired at the hazard of their lives and loss of their
fortunes. A family of Princes was then on the British throne, whose
treasonable crimes against their people brought on them, afterwards, the
exertion of those sacred and sovereign rights of punishment, reserved
in the hands of the people for cases of extreme necessity, and judged by
the constitution unsafe to be delegated to any other judicature. While
every day brought forth some new and unjustifiable exertion of power
over their subjects on that side the water, it, was not to be expected
that those here, much less able at that time to oppose the designs of
despotism, should be exempted from injury. Accordingly, this country,
which had been acquired by the lives, the labors, and fortunes of
individual adventurers, was by these Princes, at several times, parted
out and distributed among the favorites and followers of their fortunes;
and, by an assumed right of the crown alone, were erected into distinct
and independent governments; a measure, which, it is believed, his
Majesty's prudence and understanding would prevent him from imitating at
this day; as no exercise of such power, of dividing and dismembering a
country, has ever occurred in his Majesty's realm of England, though now
of very ancient standing; nor could it be justified or acquiesced under
there, or in any other part of his Majesty's empire.

'That the exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world,
possessed by the American colonists, as of natural right, and which
no law of their own had taken away or abridged, was next the object
of unjust encroachment. Some of the colonies having thought proper to
continue the administration of their government in the name and
under the authority of his Majesty, King Charles the First, whom,
notwithstanding his late deposition by the Commonwealth of England, they
continued in the sovereignty of their State, the Parliament, for the
Commonwealth, took the same in high offence, and assumed upon themselves
the power of prohibiting their trade with all other parts of the world,
except the Island of Great Britain. This arbitrary act, however, they
soon recalled, and by solemn treaty entered into on the 12th day of
March, 1651, between the said Commonwealth by their Commissioners, and
the colony of Virginia by their House of Burgesses, it was expressly
stipulated by the eighth article of the said treaty, that they should
have "free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places and
with all nations, according to the laws of that Commonwealth." But that,
upon the restoration of his Majesty, King Charles the Second, their
rights of free commerce fell once more a victim to arbitrary power: and
by several acts of his reign, as well as of some of his successors, the
trade of the colonies was laid under such restrictions, as show what
hopes they might form from the justice of a British Parliament, were its
uncontrolled power admitted over these States.*

*12. C.2. c. 18. 15. C.2. c.11. 25. C.2. c.7. 7. 8. W. M.
c.22. 11. W.34. Anne. 6. C.2. c.13.

History has informed us, that bodies of men, as well as individuals, are
susceptible of the spirit of tyranny. A view of these acts of Parliament
for regulation, as it has been affectedly called, of the American trade,
if all other evidences were removed out of the case, would undeniably
evince the truth of this observation. Besides the duties they impose
on our articles of export and import, they prohibit our going to any
markets northward of Cape Finisterra, in the kingdom of Spain, for the
sale of commodities which Great Britian will not take from us, and for
the purchase of others, with which she cannot supply us; and that, for
no other than the arbitrary purpose of purchasing for themselves, by
a sacrifice of our rights and interests, certain privileges in their
commerce with an allied state, who, in confidence that their exclusive
trade with America will be continued, while the principles and power of
the British Parliament be the same, have indulged themselves in every
exorbitance which their avarice could dictate, or our necessities
extort; have raised their commodities called for in America, to
the double and treble of what they sold for, before such exclusive
privileges were given them, and of what better commodities of the same
kind would cost us elsewhere; and, at the same time, give us much less
for what we carry thither, than might be had at more convenient ports.
That these acts prohibit us from carrying, in quest of other purchasers,
the surplus of our tobaccos, remaining after the consumption of Great
Britain is supplied: so that we must leave them with the British
merchant, for whatever he will please to allow us, to be by him
re-shipped to foreign markets, where he will reap the benefits of
making sale of them for full value. That, to heighten still the idea of
Parliamentary justice, and to show with what moderation they are like to
exercise power, where themselves are to feel no part of its weight, we
take leave to mention to his Majesty certain other acts of the British
Parliament, by which they would prohibit us from manufacturing, for our
own use, the articles we raise on our own lands, with our own labor. By
an act passed in the fifth year of the reign of his late Majesty, King
George the Second, an American subject is forbidden to make a hat for
himself, of the fur which he has taken, perhaps on his own soil; an
instance of despotism, to which no parallel can be produced in the
most arbitrary ages of British history. By one other act, passed in
the twenty-third year of the same reign, the iron which we make, we are
forbidden to manufacture; and, heavy as that article is, and necessary
in every branch of husbandry, besides commission and insurance, we are
to pay freight for it to Great Britain, and freight for it back again,
for the purpose of supporting, not men, but machines, in the island of
Great Britain. In the same spirit of equal and impartial legislation, is
to be viewed the act of Parliament, passed in the fifth year of the
same reign, by which American lands are made subject to the demands
of British creditors, while their own lands were still continued
unanswerable for their debts; from which one of these conclusions must
necessarily follow, either that justice is not the same thing in America
as in Britain, or else that the British Parliament pay less regard to
it here than there. But, that we do not point out to his Majesty the
injustice of these acts, with intent to rest on that principle the cause
of their nullity; but to show that experience confirms the propriety of
those political principles, which exempt us from the jurisdiction of the
British Parliament. The true ground on which we declare these acts void,
is, that the British Parliament has no right to exercise authority over
us.

'That these exercises of usurped power have not been confined to
instances alone, in which themselves were interested; but they have
also intermeddled with the regulation of the internal affairs of the
colonies. The act of the 9th of Anne for establishing a post-office in
America seems to have had little connection with British convenience,
except that of accommodating his Majesty's ministers and favorites with
the sale of a lucrative and easy office.

'That thus have we hastened through the reigns which preceded his
Majesty's, during which the violations of our rights were less alarming,
because repeated at more distant intervals, than that rapid and bold
succession of injuries, which is likely to distinguish the present from
all other periods of American story. Scarcely have our minds been able
to emerge from the astonishment, into which one stroke of Parliamentary
thunder has involved us, before another more heavy and more alarming is
fallen on us. Single acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental
opinion of a day; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished
period, and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too
plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to slavery.

[Illustration: Acts of King George and Parliament, page107]

'That the act passed in the fourth year of his Majesty's reign, entitled
"an act [ Act for granting certain duties.]

'One other act passed in the fifth year of his reign, entitled "an act
[Stamp Act.]

'One other act passed in the sixth year of his reign, entitled "an act
[Act declaring the right of Parliament over the colonies.]

'And one other act passed in the seventh year of his reign, entitled an
act [ Act for granting duties on paper, tea, &c.

'Form that connected chain of parliamentary usurpation, which has
already been the subject of frequent applications to his Majesty, and
the Houses of Lords and Commons of Great Britain; and, no answers having
yet been condescended to any of these, we shall not trouble his Majesty
with a repetition of the matters they contained.

'But that one other act passed in the same seventh year of his reign,
having been a peculiar attempt, must ever require peculiar mention. It
is entitled "an act [Act suspending Legislature of New York.]

'One free and independent legislature hereby takes upon itself to
suspend the powers of another, free and independent as itself. Thus
exhibiting a phenomenon unknown in nature, the creator and creature of
its own power. Not only the principles of common sense, but the common
feelings of human nature must be surrendered up, before his Majesty's
subjects here can be persuaded to believe, that they hold their
political existence at the will of a British Parliament. Shall these
governments be dissolved, their property annihilated, and their people
reduced to a state of nature, at the imperious breath of a body of men
whom they never saw, in whom they never confided, and over whom they
have no powers of punishment or removal, let their crimes against the
American public be ever so great? Can any one reason be assigned, why
one hundred and sixty thousand electors in the island of Great Britain
should give law to four millions in the states of America, every
individual of whom is equal to every individual of them in virtue, in
understanding, and in bodily strength? Were this to be admitted, instead
of being a free people, as we have hitherto supposed, and mean to
continue ourselves, we should suddenly be found the slaves, not of one,
but of one hundred and sixty thousand tyrants; distinguished, too, from
all others, by this singular circumstance, that they are removed from
the reach of fear, the only restraining motive which may hold the hand
of a tyrant.