The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 7, Correspondence and Papers 1792 – 1793 – Paul Leicester Ford, Thomas Jefferson
The political theories and usages originated or adopted by Thomas Jefferson have shown such persistence and permanence in their value to our people and government as to demonstrate a far deeper and broader principle underlying them than is always recognized. In popular estimation, Jefferson stands as the founder of the Democratic party, and the developer of the theory of State Rights; and on these foundations are based the so called “Jeffersonian principles,” and the respect and acceptance, as well as the criticism and contravention, accorded to them. To meet the need of an edition of the writings of Thomas Jefferson, that embraces all his lifetime, this work has been undertaken. Not content with relying upon the Jefferson MSS. in the Department of State, from which, substantially, the former editions were compiled, the present editor, while making full use of the records of the Department, has obtained many interesting documents from the papers of Jefferson still in the hands of his descendants; the papers of the Continental Congress; the archives of the State of Virginia; the files of the French Foreign Office; the private papers of Washington, Adams, Madison, Monroe, Steuben, and Gates; as well as from many state archives, historical societies, and private collections throughout the country. This is volume seven out of twelve, covering the years 1792 to 1793.
The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 7, Correspondence and Papers 1792 – 1793.
Format: eBook.
The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Volume 7, Correspondence and Papers 1792 – 1793.
ISBN: 9783849653927.
Excerpt from the text:
May 29, 1792.
Sir,—
Your favor of Mar 5 has been longer unanswered than consisted with my wishes to forward as much as possible explanations of the several matters it contained. But these matters were very various, & the evidence of them not easily to be obtained, even where it could be obtained at all. It has been a work of time & trouble to collect from the different States all the acts themselves of which you had cited the titles, and to investigate the judiciary decisions which were classed with those acts as infractions of the treaty of peace. To these causes of delay may be added the daily duties of my office, necessarily multiplied during the sessions of the legislature.
§ 1. I can assure you with truth that we meet you on this occasion with the sincerest dispositions to remove from between the two countries those obstacles to a cordial friendship which have arisen from an inexecution of some articles of the treaty of peace. The desire entertained by this country to be on the best terms with yours, has been constant, & has manifested itself through it’s different forms of administration by repeated overtures to enter into such explanations & arrangements as should be right & necessary to bring about a complete execution of the treaty. The same dispositions lead us to wish that the occasion now presented should not be defeated by useless recapitulations of what had taken place anterior to that instrument. It was with concern therefore I observed that you had thought it necessary to go back to the very commencement of the war, & [to enumerate & comment in several parts of your letter, on all the acts of our different legislatures passed during the whole course of it. I will quote a single passage of this kind from page 9.
“During the war the respective legislatures of the U. S. passed laws to confiscate & sell, to sequester, take possession of & lease the estates of the loyalists, & to apply the proceeds thereof towards the redemption of certificates & bills of credit, or towards defraying the expenses of the war, to enable debtors to pay into the state treasuries or loan offices paper money, then exceedingly depreciated, in discharge of their debts. Under some of the laws, many individuals were attainted by name, others were banished for ever from the country, &, if found within the state, declared felons without benefit of clergy. In some states, the estates and rights of married women, of widows, & of minors, and of persons who have died within the territories possessed by the British arms were forfeited. Authority, also was given to the executive department to require persons who adhered to the crown to surrender themselves by a given day, & to abide their trials for High treason; in failure of which the parties so required were attainted, were subjected to, & suffered all the pains, penalties, & forfeitures awarded against persons attainted of High treason. In one state (New York) a power was vested in the courts to prefer bills of indictment against persons alive or dead, who had adhered to the king, or joined his fleets or armies, (if in full life & generally reputed to hold or claim, or, if dead, to have held or claimed, at the time of their decease real or personal estate) & upon notice or neglect to appear & traverse the indictment or upon trial & conviction the persons charged in the indictment, whether in full life or deceased, were respectively declared guilty of the offences charged, & their estates were forfeited, whether in possession, reversion or remainder. In some of the states confiscated property was applied to the purposes of public buildings & improvements: in others was appropriated as rewards to individuals for military services rendered during the war, & in one instance property mortgaged to a British creditor, was liberated from the incumbrance by a special act of the legislative, as a provision for the representatives of the mortgager who had fallen in battle.”
However averse to call up the disagreeable recollections of that day, the respect & duty we owe our country, forbids us to suffer it to be thus placed in the wrong, when it’s justification is so easy. Legislative warfare was begun by the British parliament. The titles of their acts of this kind, shall be subjoined to the end of this letter. The stat. 12 G. 3 c. 24. for carrying our citizens charged with the offences it describes, to be tried in a foreign country; by foreign judges instead of a jury of their vicinage, by laws not their own, without witnesses, without friends or the means of making them; that of the 14 G. 3. c. 39. for protecting from punishment those who should murder an American in the execution of a British law, were previous to our acts of Exile, & even to the commencement of war. Their act of 14. G. 3. c. 19. for shutting up the harbor of Boston, & thereby annihilating, with the commerce of that city, the value of it’s property; that of 15 G. 3. c. 10. forbidding us to export to foreign markets the produce we have hitherto raised and sold at those markets, & thereby leaving that produce useless on our hands; that of 10. G. 3. c. 5. prohibiting all exports even to British markets, & making them legal prize when taken on the high seas, was dealing out confiscation, by wholesale, on the property of entire nations, which our acts, cited by you, retaliated but on the small scale of individual confiscation. But we never retaliated the 4th section of the last mentioned act, under which multitudes of our citizens taken on board our vessels were forced by starving, by periodical whippings, & by constant chains to become the murderers of their countrymen, perhaps of their fathers & brothers. If from this legislative warfare we turn to those scenes of active hostility which wrapped our houses in flame, our families in slaughter, our property in universal devastation, is the wonder that our legislatures did so much, or so little? Compare their situation with that of the British parliament enjoying in ease and safety all the comforts & blessings of the earth, & hearing of these distant events as of the wars of Benaris or the extermination of the Rohillas, & say with candor whether the difference of scene & situation would not have justified a contrary difference of conduct towards each other?]Ref. 003 & in several parts of your letter, to enumerate & comment on all the acts of our different legislatures, passed during the whole course of it, in order to deduce from thence imputations, which your justice would have suppressed, had the whole truth been presented to your view, instead of particular traits, detached from the ground on which they stood. However easy it would be to justify our country, by bringing into view the whole ground, on both sides, to shew that legislative warfare began with the British parliament, that, when they levelled at persons or property, it was against entire towns or countries, without discrimination of cause or conduct, while we touched individuals only, naming them, man by man, after due consideration of each case, and careful attention not to confound the innocent with the guilty; however advantageously we might compare the distant and tranquil situation of their legislature with the scenes, in the midst of which ours were obliged to legislate, and might then ask Whether the difference of circumstance & situation would not have justified a contrary difference of conduct, & whether the wonder ought to be that our legislatures had done so much, or so little—we will waive all this; because it would lead to recollections, as unprofitable as unconciliating. The titles of some of your acts, and a single clause of one of them only shall be thrown among the Documents at the end of this letter; [No. 1. 2.] and with this we will drop forever the curtain on this tragedy!
§ 2. We now come together to consider that instrument which was to heal our wounds & begin a new chapter in our history. The state in which that found things is to be considered as rightful. So says the law of nations.
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