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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How are these evils to be prevented? 1. At their first general meeting,
let them distribute the funds on hand to the existing objects of their
destination, and discontinue all further contributions. 2. Let them
declare, at the same time, that their meetings, general and particular,
shall thenceforth cease. 3. Let them melt up their eagles, and add
the mass to the distributable fund, that their descendants may have no
temptation to hang them in their button-holes.

These reflections are not proposed as worthy the notice of M. de
Meusnier. He will be so good as to treat the subject in his own way, and
no body has a better. I will only pray him to avail us of his forcible
manner, to evince that there is evil to be apprehended, even from the
ashes of this institution, and to exhort the society in America to
make their reformation complete; bearing in mind, that we must keep the
passions of men on our side, even when we are persuading them to do what
they ought to do.

Page 268. '_Et en effet la population_,' &c. Page 270. '_Plus de
confiance_.'

To this, we answer, that no such census of the numbers was ever given
out by Congress, nor ever presented to them: and further, that
Congress never have, at any time, declared by their vote, the number of
inhabitants in their respective States. On the 22nd of June, 1775, they
first resolved to emit paper money. The sum resolved on was two millions
of dollars. They declared, then, that the twelve confederate colonies
(for Georgia had not yet joined them) should be pledged for the
redemption of these bills. To ascertain in what proportion each State
should be bound, the members from each were desired to say, as nearly as
they could, what was the number of the inhabitants of their respective
States. They were very much unprepared for such a declaration. They
guessed, however, as well as they could. The following are the numbers,
as they conjectured them, and the consequent apportionment of the two
millions of dollars.

[Illustration: Population Estimates--1775, page422]

Georgia, having not yet acceded to the measures of the other States, was
not quotaed; but her numbers were generally estimated at about thirty
thousand, and so would have made the whole, two million four hundred
and forty-eight thousand persons, of every condition. But it is to
be observed, that though Congress made this census the basis of their
apportionment, yet they did not even give it a place on their journals;
much less, publish it to the world with their sanction. The way it got
abroad was this. As the members declared from their seats the number of
inhabitants which they conjectured to be in their State, the secretary
of Congress wrote them on a piece of paper, calculated the portion of
two millions of dollars, to be paid by each, and entered the sum only in
the journals. The members, however, for their own satisfaction, and the
information of their States, took copies of this enumeration, and sent
them to their States. From thence, they got into the public papers: and
when the English news-writers found it answer their purpose to compare
this with the enumeration of 1783, as their principle is 'to lie boldly,
that they may not be suspected of lying,' they made it amount to three
millions one hundred and thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and nine,
and ascribed its publication to Congress itself.

in April, 1785, Congress being to call on the States to raise a million
and a half of dollars annually, for twenty-five years, it was necessary
to apportion this among them. The States had never furnished them with
their exact numbers. It was agreed, too, that in this apportionment,
five slaves should be counted as three freemen only. The preparation
of this business was in the hands of a committee; they applied to the
members for the best information they could give them, of the numbers
of their States. Some of the States had taken pains to discover their
numbers. Others had done nothing in that way, and, of course, were now
where they were in 1775, when their members were first called on to
declare their numbers. Under these circumstances, and on the principle
of counting three fifths only of the slaves, the committee apportioned
the money among the States, and reported their work to Congress. In
this, they had assessed South Carolina as having one hundred and seventy
thousand inhabitants. The delegates for that State, however, prevailed
on Congress to assess them on the footing of one hundred and fifty
thousand only, in consideration of the state of total devastation, in
which the enemy had left their country. The difference was then laid on
the other States, and the following was the result.

[Illustration: Population Estimates--1785, page424]

Still, however, Congress refused to give the enumeration the sanction of
a place on their journals, because it was not formed on such evidence,
as a strict attention to accuracy and truth required. They used it from
necessity, because they could get no better rule, and they entered on
their journals only the apportionment of money. The members, however, as
before, took copies of the enumeration, which was the ground work of
the apportionment, sent them to their States, and thus, this second
enumeration got into the public papers, and was, by the English,
ascribed to Congress, as their declaration of their present numbers.
To get at the real numbers which this enumeration supposes, we must add
twenty thousand to the number, on which South Carolina was quotaed; we
must consider, that seven hundred thousand slaves are counted but as
four hundred and twenty thousand persons, and add, on that account, two
hundred and eighty thousand. This will give us a total of two millions
six hundred and thirty-nine thousand three hundred inhabitants, of every
condition, in the thirteen States; being two hundred and twenty-one
thousand three hundred more, than the enumeration of 1775, instead of
seven hundred and ninety-eight thousand five hundred and nine less,
which the English papers asserted to be the diminution of numbers, in
the United States, according to the confession of Congress themselves.

Page 272.'_Comportera, peut etre, une population de 30,000,000_.' The
territory of the United States contains about a million of square miles,
English. There is, in them, a greater proportion of fertile lands, than
in the British dominions in Europe. Suppose the territory of the United
States, then, to attain an equal degree of population, with the British
European dominions; they will have an hundred millions of inhabitants.
Let us extend our views to what may be the population of the two
continents of North and South America, supposing them divided at the
narrowest part of the isthmus of Panama. Between this line and that
of 50 deg. of north latitude, the northern continent contains about five
millions of square miles, and south of this line of division, the
southern continent contains about seven millions of square miles. I do
not pass the 50th degree of northern latitude in my reckoning, because
we must draw a line somewhere, and considering the soil and climate
beyond that, I would only avail my calculation of it, as a make-weight,
to make good what the colder regions, within that line, may be supposed
to fall short in their future population. Here are twelve millions of
square miles, then, which, at the rate of population before assumed,
will nourish twelve hundred millions of inhabitants, a number greater
than the present population of the whole globe is supposed to amount to.
If those who propose medals for the resolution of questions, about which
nobody makes any question, those who have invited discussion on the
pretended problem, Whether the discovery of America was for the good
of mankind? if they, I say, would have viewed it only as doubling
the numbers of mankind, and, of course, the quantum of existence and
happiness, they might have saved the money and the reputation which
their proposition has cost them. The present population of the inhabited
parts of the United States is of about ten to the square mile; and
experience has shown us, that wherever we reach that, the inhabitants
become uneasy, as too much compressed, and go off, in great numbers,
to search for vacant country. Within forty years, their whole territory
will be peopled at that rate. We may fix that, then, as the term, beyond
which the people of those States will not be restrained within their
present limits; we may fix that population, too, as the limit which they
will not exceed, till the whole of those two continents are filled up
to that mark; that is to say, till they shall contain one hundred and
twenty millions of inhabitants. The soil of the country, on the western
side of the Mississippi, its climate, and its vicinity to the United
States, point it out as the first which will receive population from
that nest. The present occupiers will just have force enough to repress
and restrain the emigrations, to a certain degree of consistence. We
have seen, lately, a single person go, and decide on a settlement in
Kentucky, many hundred miles from any white inhabitant, remove thither
with his family and a few neighbors, and though perpetually harassed
by the Indians, that settlement in the course of ten years has acquired
thirty thousand inhabitants; its numbers are increasing while we are
writing, and the State, of which it formerly made a part, has offered it
independence.

Page 280, line five. '_Huit des onze Etats_,' &c. Say, 'there were ten
States present; six voted unanimously for it, three against it, and one
was divided: and seven votes being requisite to decide the proposition
affirmatively, it was lost. The voice of a single individual of the
State which was divided, or of one of those which were of the negative,
would have prevented this abominable crime from spreading itself over
the new country. Thus we see the fate of millions unborn, hanging on the
tongue of one man, and Heaven was silent in that awful moment! But it
is to be hoped it will not always be silent, and that the friends to the
rights of human nature will, in the end, prevail.

On the 16th of March, 1785, it was moved in Congress, that the same
proposition should be referred to a committee, and it was referred by
the votes of eight States against three. We do not hear that any thing
further is yet done on it.'

Page 286. '_L'autorite du Congres etoit necessaire_.' The substance of
the passage alluded to, in the journal of Congress, May the 26th, 1784,
is, 'That the authority of Congress to make requisitions of troops,
during peace, is questioned; that such an authority would be dangerous,
combined with the acknowledged one of emitting or of borrowing money;
and that a few troops only, being wanted, to guard magazines and
garrison the frontier posts, it would be more proper, at present, to
recommend than to require.'

*****

Mr. Jefferson presents his compliments to M. de Meusnier, and sends him
copies of the thirteenth, twenty-third, and twenty-fourth articles of
the treaty between the King of Prussia and the United States.

If M. de Meusnier proposes to mention the facts of cruelty, of which
he and Mr Jefferson spoke yesterday, the twenty-fourth article will
introduce them properly, because they produced a sense of the necessity
of that article. These facts are, 1. The death of upwards of eleven
thousand American prisoners, in one prison-ship (the Jersey), and in the
space of three years. 2. General Howe's permitting our prisoners, taken
at the battle of Germantown, and placed under a guard, in the yard
of the State-house of Philadelphia, to be so long without any food
furnished them, that many perished with hunger. Where the bodies lay,
it was seen that they had eaten all the grass around them, within their
reach, after they had lost the power of rising or moving from their
place. 3. The second fact was the act of a commanding officer: the
first, of several commanding officers, and, for so long a time, as must
suppose the approbation of government. But the following was the act
of government itself. During the periods that our affairs seemed
unfavorable, and theirs successful, that is to say, after the evacuation
of New York, and again after the taking of Charleston, in South
Carolina, they regularly sent our prisoners, taken on the seas and
carried to England, to the East Indies. This is so certain, that in
the month of November or December, 1785, Mr. Adams having officially
demanded a delivery of the American prisoners sent to the East Indies,
Lord Caermarthen answered, officially, 'that orders were immediately
issued for their discharge.' M. de Meusnier is at liberty to quote this
fact. 4. A fact, to be ascribed not only to the government, but to the
parliament, who passed an act for that purpose, in the beginning of the
war, was the obliging our prisoners, taken at sea, to join them, and
fight against their countrymen. This they effected by starving and
whipping them. The insult on Captain Stanhope, which happened at Boston
last year, was a consequence of this. Two persons, Dunbar and Lowthorp,
whom Stanhope had treated in this manner (having particularly inflicted
twenty-four lashes on Dunbar), meeting him at Boston, attempted to beat
him. But the people interposed, and saved him. The fact is referred to
in that paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which says, 'He
has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas,
to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their
friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.' This was
the most afflicting to our prisoners, of all the cruelties exercised on
them. The others affected the body only, but this the mind; they were
haunted by the horror of having, perhaps, themselves shot the ball by
which a father or a brother fell. Some of them had constancy enough to
hold out against half-allowance of food and repeated whippings. These
were generally sent to England, and from thence to the East Indies. One
of them escaped from the East Indies, and got back to Paris, where he
gave an account of his sufferings to Mr. Adams, who happened to be then
at Paris.

M. de Meusnier, where he mentions that the slave-law has been passed
in Virginia, without the clause of emancipation, is pleased to mention,
that neither Mr. Wythe nor Mr. Jefferson was present, to make the
proposition they had meditated; from which, people, who do not give
themselves the trouble to reflect or inquire, might conclude, hastily,
that their absence was the cause why the proposition was not made; and,
of course, that there were not, in the Assembly, persons of virtue and
firmness enough to propose the clause for emancipation. This supposition
would not be true. There were persons there, who wanted neither the
virtue to propose, nor talents to enforce the proposition, had they seen
that the disposition of the legislature was ripe for it. These worthy
characters would feel themselves wounded, degraded, and discouraged by
this idea. Mr. Jefferson would therefore be obliged to M. de Meusnier to
mention it in some such manner as this. 'Of the two commissioners, who
had concerted the amendatory clause for the gradual emancipation
of slaves, Mr. Wythe could not be present, he being a member of the
judiciary department, and Mr. Jefferson was absent on the legation
to France. But there were not wanting in that Assembly, men of virtue
enough to propose, and talents to vindicate this clause. But they saw,
that the moment of doing it with success, was not yet arrived, and that
an unsuccessful effort, as too often happens, would only rivet still
closer the chains of bondage, and retard the moment of delivery to
this oppressed description of men. What a stupendous, what an
incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes,
imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and,
the next moment, be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him
through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of
which is fraught with more misery, than ages of that which he rose in
rebellion to oppose! But we must await, with patience, the workings
of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the
deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their
tears shall be full, when their groans shall have involved heaven itself
in darkness, doubtless, a God of justice will awaken to their distress,
and by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at
length, by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to the
things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a
blind fatality.'

[The following are the articles of the treaty with Prussia,
referred to in the preceding observations.]

Article 13. And in the same case, of one of the contracting parties
being engaged in war with any other power, to prevent all the
difficulties and misunderstandings, that usually arise respecting the
merchandise heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and
military stores of every kind, no such articles, carried in the vessels,
or by the subjects or citizens of one of the parties, to the enemies of
the other, shall be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation or
condemnation, and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it
shall be lawful to stop such vessels and articles, and to detain them
for such length of time, as the captors may think necessary to prevent
the inconvenience or damage that might ensue from their proceeding,
paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest
shall occasion to the proprietors: and it shall further be allowed
to use, in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the
military stores so detained, paying the owners the full value of
the same, to be ascertained by the current price at the place of its
destination. But in the case supposed, of a vessel stopped for articles
heretofore deemed contraband, if the master of the vessel stopped will
deliver out the goods supposed to be of contraband nature, he shall be
admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not, in that case be carried
into any port, nor further detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on
her voyage.

Article 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties,
the merchants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be
allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts, and settle their
affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without
molestation or hindrance: and all women and children, scholars of
every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artisans, manufacturers, and
fishermen, unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or
places, and, in general, all others whose occupations are for the common
subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their
respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor
shall their houses be burned or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields
wasted by the armed force of the enemy, into whose power, by the events
of war, they may happen to fall: but if any thing is necessary to be
taken from them, for the use of such armed force, the same shall be
paid for at a reasonable price. And all merchant and trading vessels,
employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby
rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more
easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and
unmolested. And neither of the contracting parties shall grant or issue
any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or
destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce.

Article 24. And to prevent the destruction of prisoners of war, by
sending them into distant and inclement countries, or by crowding them
into close and noxious places, the two contracting parties solemnly
pledge themselves to each other and the world, that they will not adopt
any such practice: that neither will send the prisoners whom they may
take from the other, into the East Indies or any other parts of Asia or
Africa: but that they shall be placed in some part of their dominions
in Europe or America, in wholesome situations; that they shall not be
confined in dungeons, prison-ships, nor prisons, nor be put into irons,
nor bound, nor otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. That
the officers shall be enlarged, on their paroles, within convenient
districts, and have comfortable quarters, and the common men be disposed
in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and
lodged in barracks as roomy and good, as are provided by the party, in
whose power they are, for their own troops; that the officers shall
be daily furnished by the party, in whose power they are, with as many
rations, and of the same articles and quality, as are allowed by them,
either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in their own
army; and all others shall be daily furnished by them, with such rations
as they allow to a common soldier in their own service; the value
whereof shall be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of
accounts for the subsistence of prisoners, at the close of the war:
and the said accounts shall not be mingled with, or set off against any
others, nor the balances due on them, be withheld as a satisfaction
or reprisal for any other article, or for any other cause, real
or pretended, whatever. That each party shall be allowed to keep a
commissary of prisoners, of their own appointment, with every separate
cantonment of prisoners in possession of the other, which commissary
shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases, shall be allowed to
receive and distribute whatever comforts may be sent to them by their
friends, and shall be free to make his reports, in open letters, to
those who employ him. But if any officer shall break his parole, or any
other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after
they shall have been designated to him, such individual officer, or
other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article,
as provides for his enlargement on parole or cantonment. And it is
declared, that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor
any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending this,
or the next preceding article, but, on the contrary, that the state of
war is precisely that for which they are provided, and during which,
they are to be as sacredly observed, as the most acknowledged articles
in the law of nature and nations.

LETTER CLII.--TO MR. RITTENHOUSE, January 25,1786

TO MR. RITTENHOUSE.

Paris, January 25,1786.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of September the 28th came to hand a few days ago. I thank
you for the details on the subject of the southern and western lines.
There remains thereon, one article, however, which I will still beg
you to inform me of; viz. how far is the western boundary beyond the
meridian of Pittsburg? This information is necessary, to enable me to
trace that boundary in my map. I shall be much gratified, also, with
a communication of your observations on the curiosities of the western
country. It will not be difficult to induce me to give up the theory of
the growth of shells, without their being the nidus of animals. It is
only an idea, and not an opinion with me. In the Notes, with which I
troubled you, I had observed that there were three opinions as to the
origin of these shells. 1. That they have been deposited even in the
highest mountains, by an universal deluge. 2. That they, with all the
calcareous stones and earths, are animal remains. 3. That they grow
or shoot as crystals do. I find that I could swallow the last opinion,
sooner than either of the others; but I have not yet swallowed it.
Another opinion might have been added, that some throe of nature has
forced up parts which had been the bed of the ocean. But have we
any better proof of such an effort of nature, than of her shooting a
lapidific juice into the form of a shell? No such convulsion has taken
place in our time, nor within the annals of history: nor is the distance
greater, between the shooting of the lapidific juice into the form of a
crystal or a diamond, which we see, and into the form of a shell, which
we do not see, than between the forcing volcanic matter a little above
the surface, where it is in fusion, which we see, and the forcing the
bed of the sea fifteen thousand feet above the ordinary surface of the
earth, which we do not see. It is not possible to believe any of these
hypotheses; and if we lean towards any of them, it should be only
till some other is produced, more analogous to the known operations of
nature. In a letter to Mr. Hopkinson, I mentioned to him that the
Abbe Rochon, who discovered the double refracting power in some of the
natural crystals, had lately made a telescope with the metal called
platina, which, while it is as susceptible of as perfect a polish as the
metal heretofore used for the specula of telescopes, is insusceptible of
rust, as gold and silver are. There is a person here, who has hit on a
new method of engraving. He gives you an ink of his composition. Write
on copper plates, any thing of which you would wish to take several
copies, and, in an hour, the plate will be ready to strike them off; so
of plans, engravings, &c. This art will be amusing to individuals, if
he should make it known. I send you herewith, the Nautical Almanacs for
1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, which are as late as they are published.
You ask, how you may reimburse the expense of these trifles? I answer,
by accepting them; as the procuring you a gratification, is a higher one
to me than money. We have had nothing curious published lately. I do not
know whether you are fond of chemical reading. There are some things in
this science worth reading. I will send them to you, if you wish it. My
daughter is well, and joins me in respects to Mrs. Rittenhouse and the
young ladies. After asking when we are to have the Lunarium, I will
close with assurances of the sincere regard and esteem, with which I am,
Dear Sir, your most obedient,