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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Virginia,

August 13, 1777.

Honorable Sir,

I forbear to write you news, as the time of Mr. Shore's departure being
uncertain, it might be old before you receive it, and he can, in person,
possess you of all we have. With respect to the State of Virginia in
particular, the people seem to have laid aside the monarchical, and
taken up the republican government, with as much ease as would have
attended their throwing off an old and putting on a new suit of clothes.
Not a single throe has attended this important transformation. A
half dozen aristocratical gentlemen, agonizing under the loss of
pre-eminence, have sometimes ventured their sarcasms on our political
metamorphosis. They have been thought fitter objects of pity than of
punishment. We are at present in the complete and quiet exercise of well
organized government, save only that our courts of justice do not open
till the fall. I think nothing can bring the security of our continent
and its cause into danger, if we can support the credit of our paper. To
do that, I apprehend one of two steps must be taken. Either to procure
free trade by alliance with some naval power able to protect it; or, if
we find there is no prospect of that, to shut our ports totally to all
the world, and turn our colonies into manufactories. The former would be
most eligible, because most conformable to the habits and wishes of
our people. Were the British Court to return to their senses in time to
seize the little advantage which still remains within their reach from
this quarter, I judge that, on acknowledging our absolute independence
and sovereignty, a commercial treaty beneficial to them, and perhaps
even a league of mutual offence and defence, might, not seeing the
expense or consequences of such a measure, be approved by our people, if
nothing in the mean time, done on your part, should prevent it. But
they will continue to grasp at their desperate sovereignty, till every
benefit short of that is for ever out of their reach. I wish my domestic
situation had rendered it possible for me to join you in the very
honorable charge confided to you. Residence in a polite Court, society
of literati of the first order, a just cause and an approving God, will
add length to a life for which all men pray, and none more than

Your most obedient

and humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER V.--TO PATRICK HENRY, March 27, 1779

TO HIS EXCELLENCY 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, [The troops under Burgoyne, captured at
Saratoga.] 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 any thing 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 L25,000, and of removing the troops backwards and
forwards, amounting to I know not how much, are not to be pre-termitted,
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, 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
sub-sistence 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 mean time, 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 economizing. 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 no body
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
fog, 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 Riedesel, 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 spirit 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 infected with 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 suppose it 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,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER VI.--TO JOHN PAGE, January 22, 1779

TO JOHN PAGE.

Williamsburg,

January 22, 1779.

Dear Page,

I received your letter by Mr. Jamieson. It had given me much pain, that
the zeal of our respective friends should ever have placed you and me
in the situation of competitors. I was comforted, however, with the
reflection, that it was their competition, not ours, and that
the difference of the numbers which decided between us, was too
insignificant to give you a pain, or me a pleasure, had our dispositions
towards each other been such as to admit those sensations. I know you
too well to need an apology for any thing you do, and hope you will for
ever be assured of this; and as to the constructions of the world, they
would only have added one to the many sins for which they are to go to
the devil. As this is the first, I hope it will be the last, instance
of ceremony between us. A desire to see my family, which is in Charles
City, carries me thither to-morrow, and I shall not return till Monday.
Be pleased to present my compliments to Mrs. Page, and add this to the
assurances I have ever given you, that I am, dear Page,

your affectionate friend,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER VII.--TO GENERAL WASHINGTON, June 23, 1779

TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL WASHINGTON.

Williamsburg,

June 23, 1779.

Sir,

I have the pleasure to enclose you the particulars of Colonel Clarke's
success against St. Vincennes, as stated in his letter but lately
received; the messenger, with his first letter, having been killed. I
fear it will be impossible for Colonel Clarke to be so strengthened,
as to enable him to do what he desires. Indeed, the express who brought
this letter, gives us reason to fear, St. Vincennes is in danger from
a large body of Indians, collected to attack it, and said, when he
came from Kaskaskias, to be within thirty leagues of the place. I also
enclose you a letter from Colonel Shelby, stating the effect of his
success against the seceding Cherokees and Chuccamogga. The damage done
them, was killing half a dozen, burning eleven towns, twenty thousand
bushels of corn, collected probably to forward the expeditions which
were to have been planned at the council which was to meet Governor
Hamilton at the mouth of Tennessee, and taking as many goods as sold for
twenty-five thousand pounds. I hope these two blows coming together,
and the depriving them of their head, will, in some measure, effect the
quiet of our frontiers this summer. We have intelligence, also, that
Colonel Bowman, from Kentucky, is in the midst of the Shawnee country,
with three hundred men, and hope to hear a good account of him. The
enclosed order being in its nature important, and generally interesting,
I think it proper to transmit it to you, with the reasons supporting
it.* It will add much to our satisfaction, to know it meets your
approbation.