ground. I took with me some of the writings in
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 443
which endeavors have been made to investigate the
passage of Annibal over the Alps, and was just able
to satisfy myself, from a view of the country, that the
descriptions given of his march are not sufficiently
particular to enable us at this day even to guess at his
track across the Alps. In architecture, painting,
sculpture, I found much amusement : but more than
all in their agriculture, many objects of which might
be adopted with us to great advantage. I am per-
suaded there are many parts of our lower country
where the olive tree might be raised, which is assuredly
the richest gift of heaven. I can scarcely except
bread. I see this tree supporting thousands in among
the Alps where there is not soil enough to make
bread for a single family. The caper too might be
cultivated with us. The fig we do raise. I do not
speak of the vine, because it is the parent of misery.
Those who cultivate it are always poor, and he who
would employ himself with us in the culture of corn,
cotton, &c. can procure in exchange much more wine,
& better than he could raise by its direct culture.
I sent you formerly copies of the documents on the
Tagliaferro family which I had received from Mr.
Febroni. I now send the originals. I have procured
for you a copy of Polybius, the best edition ; but the
best edition of Vitruvius, which is with the commen-
taries of Ticinus, is not to be got here. I have sent
to Holland for it. In the mean time the Polybius
comes in a box containing books for Peter Carr & for
some of my friends in Williamsburg & it's vicinities.
I have taken the liberty of addressing this box to you.
444 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
It goes to New York in the packet boat which carries
this letter, & will be forwarded to you by water, by
Mr. Madison. Its freight to New York is paid here.
The transportation from thence to Williamsburgh
will be demanded of you, and shall stand as the
equivalent to the cost of Polybius & Vitruvius if you
please. The difference either way will not be worth
the trouble of erecting & transmitting accounts.
I send you herewith a state of the contents of
the box, and for whom each article is. Among
these are some as you will perceive, of which I ask
your acceptance. It is a great comfort to me that
while here I am able to furnish some amusement to
my friends by sending them such productions of
genius, antient & modern, as might otherwise escape
them ; and I hope they will permit me to avail myself
of the occasion, while it lasts. This world is going
all to war. I hope our's will remain clear of it. It is
already declared between the Turks & Russians, and,
considering the present situation of Holland, it cannot
fail to spread itself all over Europe. Perhaps it may
not be till the next spring that the other powers will
be engaged in it : nor is it as yet clear how they will
arrange themselves. I think it not impossible that
France & the two empires may join against all the
rest. The Patriotic party in Holland will be saved
by this, and the Turks sacrificed. The only thing
which can prevent the union of France & the two
empires, is the difficulty of agreeing about the parti-
tion of the spoils. Constantinople is the key of Asia.
Who shall have it is the question ? I cannot help
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 445
looking forward to the reestablishment of the Greeks
as a people, and the language of Homer becoming
again a living language, as among possible events.
You have now with you Mr. Paradise, who can tell
you how easily the modern may be improved into the
antient Greek. You ask me in your letter what
ameliorations I think necessary in our federal consti-
tution. It is now too late to answer the question,
and it would always have been presumption in me to
have done it. Your own ideas & those of the great
characters who were to be concerned with you in
these discussions will give the law, as they ought to
do, to us all. My own general idea was that the
states should severally preserve their sovereignty in
whatever concerns themselves alone, & that whatever
may concern another state, or any foreign nation,
should be made a part of the federal sovereignty.
That the exercise of the federal sovereignty should
be divided among three several bodies, legislative,
executive, & judiciary, as the state sovereignties are :
and that some peaceable means should be contrived
for the federal head to enforce compliance on the part
of the states. I have reflected on your idea of wooden
or ivory diagrams for the geometrical demonstrations.
I should think wood as good as ivory ; & that in this
case it might add to the improvement of the young
gentlemen ; that they should make the figures them-
selves. Being furnished by a workman with a piece
of veneer, no other tool than a penknife & a wooden
rule would be necessary. Perhaps pasteboards, or
common cards might be still more convenient. The
446 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
difficulty is, how to reconcile figures which must have
a very sensible breadth, to our ideas of a mathematical
line, which, having neither breadth nor thickness,
will revolt more at these than at simple lines drawn
on paper or slate. If after reflecting on this proposi-
tion you would prefer having them made here, lay
your commands on me and they shall be executed.
I return you a thousand thousand thanks for your
goodness to my nephew. After my debt to you for
whatever I am myself, it is increasing it too much to
interest yourself for his future fortune. But I know
that, to you, a consciousness of doing good is a luxury
ineffable. You have enjoyed it already beyond all
human measure, and that you may long live to enjoy
it and to bless your country & friends is the sincere
prayer of him who is with every possible sentiment of
esteem & respect, dear Sir, your most obedient &
most humble servant.
TO CHARLES THOMSON. j. MSS.
PARIS Sep. 20, 1787,
DEAR SIR, Your favor of April 28 did not come
to my hands till the ist inst. Unfortunately the boxes
of plants, which were a day too late to come by the
April packet, missed the packet of June 10 also, &
only came by that of July 25. They are not yet
arrived at Paris, but I expect them daily. I am
sensible of your kind attention to them, and that as
you were leaving New York you took the course
which bade fair to be the best. That they were for-
gotten in the hands in which you placed them, was
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 447
probably owing to too much business & more im-
portant. I have desired Mr. Madison to refund to
you the money you were so kind as to advance for me.
The delay of your letter will apologize for this delay
of the repayment. I thank you also for the extract
of the letter you were so kind as to communicate to
me on the antiquities found in the Western country.
I wish that the persons who go thither would make
very exact descriptions of what they see of that kind,
without forming any theories. The moment a per-
son forms a theory his imagination sees in every
object only the traits which favor that theory. But
it is too early to form theories on those antiquities.
We must wait with patience till more facts are col-
lected. I wish your philosophical society would col-
lect exact descriptions of the several monuments as
yet known, and insert them naked in their Transac-
tions, and continue their attention to those hereafter
to be discovered. Patience & observation may enable
us in time to solve the problem whether those who
formed the scattering monuments in our Western
country, were colonies sent off from Mexico, or the
founders of Mexico itself? Whether both were the
descendants or the progenitors of the Asiatic redmen.
The Mexican tradition mentioned by Dr. Robertson,
is an evidence, but a feeble one, in favor of the one
opinion. The number of languages radically differ-
ent, is a strong evidence in favor of the contrary one.
There is an American of the name of Ledyard, he
who was with Captain Cook on his last voyage &
wrote an account of that voyage, who is gone to St.
448 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
Petersburg, from thence he was to go to Kam-
schatka, to cross over thence to the northwest coast
of America, & to penetrate through the main conti-
nent to our side of it. He is a person of ingenuity
& information. Unfortunately he has too much
imagination. However, if he escapes safely, he will
give us new, curious, & useful information. I had a
letter from him dated last March, when he was about
to leave St. Petersburgh on his way to Kamschatka.
With respect to the information of the strata of
rocks, I had observed them between the Blue ridge
& North Mountain in Virginia to be parallel with the
pole of the earth. I observed the same thing in most
instances in the Alps between Cette & Turin : but in
returning along the precipices of the Pyrinees 1 where
they hang over the Mediterranean, their direction
was totally different and various ; and you mention
that in our Western country they are horizontal.
This variety proves they have not been formed by
subsidence as some writers of theories of the earth
have pretended, for then they should always have
been in circular strata, & concentric. It proves too
that they have not been formed by the rotation of
the earth on its axis, as might have been suspected
had all these strata been parallel with that axis.
They may indeed have been thrown up by explosions,
as Whitehurst supposes, or have been the effect of
convulsions. But there can be no proof of the ex-
plosion, nor is it probable that convulsions have
deformed every spot of the earth. It is now generally
1 Jefferson meant Apennines.
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 449
agreed that rock grows, and it seems that it grows in
layers in every direction, as the branches of trees
grow in all directions. Why seek further the solution
of this phenomenon ? Everything in nature decays.
If it were not reproduced then by growth, there
would be a chasm. I remember you asked me in a
former letter whether the steam mill in London was
turned by the steam immediately or by the inter-
mediate agency of water raised by the steam. When I
was in London Boulton made a secret of his mill.
Therefore I was permitted to see it only superficially.
I saw no water wheels, & therefore supposed none. I
answered you accordingly that there were none. But
when I was at Nismes, I went to see the steam mill
there, & they showed it to me in all its parts. I saw that
their steam raised water, & that this water turned a
wheel. I expressed my doubts of the necessity of the
inter-agency of water, & that the London mill was
without it. But they supposed me mistaken ; perhaps
I was so ; I have had no opportunity since of clearing
up the doubt. * * *
TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL. 1 J.MSS.
PARIS Sep. 25, 1787.
DEAR SIR, The copy of your letter of July 9. and
that of Aug. 22. came to hand together. The origi-
nal of the former I never received. My last to you
was dated June 14. I heard indirectly that Mr.
Grand had refused to pay a bill of yours. But he never
said a word to me on the subject, nor mentioned any
1 Parts in italic are in cipher in original.
VOL. iv. 29
450 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
letter of yours in consequence of it. I have stated
the matter to the board of Treasury. I also wrote to
Mr. Adams a state of the same fact. There are at
Amsterdam 100.000 florins at his disposal. Colo.
Smith will endeavor to get for you an order to draw
on that fund. The subject of SmitKs mission to
Portugal appeared to me so causeless as given out that
I imagined it was only the ostensible one, the real
cause remaining a secret between him and Congress,
yet I never heard any other hinted. With respect to
the reimbursement to the Count d'Expilly for the
maintenance of our prisoners at Algiers, I wrote to
Mr. Jay what you had formerly communicated to me,
but am not authorized to give any answer. I think
it important to destroy at Algiers every idea that
Congress will redeem our captives there, perhaps at
any price, much less at that paid by Spain. It seems
to be the general opinion that the redeeming them
would occasion the capture of greater numbers by in-
creasing the incitements to cruise against us. We
must never make it their interest to go out of the
straights in quest of us, and we must avoid entering
into the straights at least till we are rich enough to
arm in that sea. The Spanish consul therefore cannot
too soon withdraw himself from all responsibility for
our prisoners. As to the affair of the frigate of South
Carolina, I communicated to you every thing I knew
on the subject, by inclosing you all the papers which
had come to my hands. I have received letters &
gazettes from America to the 25. of July. The fed-
eral convention was likely to sit to the month of
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 451
October. A thin Congress was sitting at the same
time. They had passed an Ordinance dividing the
country North of Ohio into three states, & providing
both a present and & future form of government for
them. The sale of their lands commence this month.
An idea had got abroad in the Western country that
Congress was ceding to Spain the navigation of the
Mississippi for a certain time. They had taken flame
at it, & were assembling conventions on the subject,
wherein the boldest & most dangerous propositions
were to be made. They are said to be now 60.000
strong, and are more formidable from their spirit than
numbers. This is the only bone of contention which
can arise between Spain & us for ages. It is a pity
it could not be settled amicably. When we con-
sider that the Mississippi is the only issue to the
ocean for five eights of the territory of the U. S. &
how fast that territory peoples, the ultimate event
cannot be mistaken. It would be wise then to take
arrangements according to what must happen.
There had been a hope that the affairs of Holland
might be accomodated without a war. But this hope
has failed. The Prussian troops have entered the
territories of the republick. The stadtholder is now
at the Hague, and there seems to be no force capable
of opposing him. England too has notified this court
by her envoy, two days ago, that she is arming. In
the meantime little provision has been made here
against such an event. M. de Segur declares that six
weeks ago he proposed in council to march 24,000
men into Holland. The archbp. is charged princi-
452 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
pally with having prevented this. He seems to have
been duped by his strong desire for peace, and by
calculating that the K. of Prussia would have acted
on principles of common sense. To complicate the
game still more, you know of the war which has
arisen between Russia & the Turks. You know also
that it was excited there, as well as at Berlin by the
English. Former alliances thus broke, Prussia having
thrown herself into the scale opposed to France,
Turkey having abandoned her councils and followed
the instigations of her enemies, what remains for
this country to do ? / know that Russia proposed a
confederation with this court, that this court without
committing itself wished 1481. 941. I know the
final determination of the emperor was that he came
into the proposition, has formed a line from the
Russian to the Turkish confines by 4. camps of
30,000 men in one, & 50,000 in each of the
others. Yet it does not seem that France has closed
the proposal in favor of which every principle of
common sense enlists itself. The qiieen, Breteuil
and Montmorin have been for some time decidedly
for this triple alliance which especially if aided by
Spain would give law to the world. The premier
is still accused with hesitation. They begin to say
that thtt he is a patriotic Minister and an able one
for peace he has not energy enough for war. If
this takes place the consequences to Prussia and
the Stadtholder may be easily foreseen. Whether
it does or not the Turks must quit Europe. Neu-
trality should be our plan : because no nation should
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 453
without urgent necessity begin a second war while
the debts of the former remain unpaid. The accu-
mulation of debts is a most fearful evil. But ever
since the accession of the present King of England,
that court has unerringly done what common sense
would have dictated not to do. Now common sense
dictates that they should avoid forcing us to take
part against them, because this brings on them a
heavy land war. Therefore they will not avoid it :
they will stop our ships, visit and harrass them, seize
them on the most frivolous pretexts and oblige us to
take from them Canada & Nova Scotia, which it is
not our interest to possess. Mr. Eden sets out in a
few days for Madrid. You will have to oppose in
him the most bitter enemy against our country
which exists. His late and sudden elevation makes
the remembrance of the contempt we shewed
to his mission in America rankle the more in his
breast. Whether his principles will restrain him to
fair modes of opposition, I am not well enough
acquainted with him to say. I know nothing of him
but his parliamentary history, and that is not in his
favor. As he wishes us every possible ill, all the lies
of the London papers are true history in his creed,
and will be propagated as such, to prejudice against
us the mind of the Court where you are. You will
find it necessary to keep him well in your eye, and
to trace all his foot-steps. You know doubtless that
M. de Brienne has been appointed Minister of War,
& the Count de la Luzerne Minister of Marine. He
is brother of the Chevalier, & at present in St. Do-
454 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
mingo of which he is commandant. The Count de
Moustier goes Minister to America, the Chevalier
de la Luzerne preferring the promise of the first
vacant embassy. Lambert is Comptrolleur general.
De la Borde & Cabarus have successively refuse dthe
office of Directeur du tresor royale. Having now
got the maps for the Notes on Virginia, I will send
by the Count d'Aranda two copies, one for yourself,
& one for Mons r - de Campomenes. By the same
conveyance I will forward the Ratification of the
treaty with Morocco, & ask the favor of you to con-
trive it to that court. Mr. Barclay is gone to
America.
TO JOHN ADAMS. j. MSS.
PARIS Sep. 28, 1787.
DEAR SIR, I received your favor by Mr. Cutting,
and thank you sincerely for the copy of your book.
The departure of a packet boat, which always gives
me full emploiment for sometime before has only
permitted me to look into it a little. I judge of it
from the first volume which I thought formed to do
a great deal of good. The first principle of a good
government is certainly a distribution of it's powers
into executive, judiciary & legislative and a subdivi-
sion of the latter into two or three branches. It is a
good step gained, when it is proved that the English
constitution, acknowledged to be better than all
which have preceded it, is only better in proportion
as it has approached nearer to this distribution of
powers. From this the last step is easy, to shew by
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 455
a comparison of our constitutions with that of Eng-
land, how much more perfect they are. The article
of Confederations is surely worthy of your pen. It
would form a most interesting addition to shew what
have been the nature of the Confederations whicll
have existed hitherto, what were their excellencies &
what their defects. A comparison of ours with them
would be to the advantage of ours, and would increase
the veneration of our countrymen for it. It is a mis-
fortune that they do not sufficiently know the value
of their constitutions & how much happier they are
rendered by them than any other people on earth by
the governments under which they live. You know
all that has happened in the United Netherlands.
You know also that our friends Van Staphorsts will
be among the most likely to become objects of sever-
ity, if any severities should be exercised. Is the
money in their hands entirely safe? If it is not, I
am sure you have already thought of it. Are we to
suppose the game already up, and that the Stadt-
holder is to be reestablished, perhaps erected into a
monarch, without this country lifting a finger in oppo-
sition to it? If so, it is a lesson the more for us. In
fact what a crowd of lessons do the present miseries
of Holland teach us? Never to have an hereditary
officer of any sort : never to let a citizen ally himself
with kings : never to call in foreign nations to settle
domestic differences, never to suppose that any nation
will expose itself to war for us, &c. Still I am not
without hopes that a good rod is in soak for Prussia,
and that England will feel the end of it. It is known
456 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
to some that Russia made propositions to the em-
peror & France for acting in concert, that the em-
peror consents and has disposed four camps of
180,000 men from the limits of Turkey to those of
Prussia. This court hesitates, or rather it's premier
hesitates ; for the queen, Montmorin & Breteuil are
for the measure. Should it take place, all may yet
come to rights, except for the Turks, who must retire
from Europe, and this they must do were France
Quixotic enough to undertake to support them. We
I hope shall be left free to avail ourselves of the ad-
vantages of neutrality : and yet much I fear the Eng-
lish, or rather their stupid king, will force us out of
it. For thus I reason. By forcing us into the war
against them they will be engaged in an expensive
land war as well as a sea war. Common sense dic-
tates therefore that they should let us remain neuter :
ergo they will not let us remain neuter. I never yet
found any other general rule for foretelling what they
will do, but that of examining what they ought not
to do.
You will have heard doubtless that M. Lambert is
Comptroller general, that the office of Directeur gen-
eral du tresor royal, has been successively refused by
Mons^ de la Borde & Mons r Cabarrus ; that the
Conte de Brienne, brother of the Archbishop, is
Minister of War, and the Count de la Luzerne Minis-
ter of Marine. They have sent for him from his
government in the West Indies. The Chevalier de
la Luzerne has a promise of the vacant Embassy. It
will be that of London if Adhemar can be otherwise
1787] THOMAS JEFFERSON. 457
disposed of. The Chevalier might have had that of
Holland if he would. The Count de Moustier will
sail about the middle of next month. Count d'Aranda
leaves us in a few days. His successor is hourly ex-
pected.
I have the honor to be with my best respects to
Mrs. Adams, & sentiments of perfect esteem & re-
gard to yourself dear Sir your most obedient & most
humble servant.
P. S. Since writing the above, I learn thro a 1547.
1406. 610. 943. 708. mi. 173. 1363. 1411. 1001.
1246. & is 1250. 501. 1418. 1339. with the 390. 758.
808. 830. Perhaps as a proof of this we may soon
1064. 520. 1506. 773. 1363. 1508. 1268. 1209. 1017.
1128. 1196. 70. 519. 1401.
TO COMTE DE BUFFON. J. MSS.
PARIS Octob. i, 1787.
SIR, I had the honour of informing you some time
ago that I had written to some of my friends in
America, desiring they would send me such of the
spoils of the Moose, Caribou, Elk & deer as might
throw light on that class of animals ; but more par-
ticularly to send me the complete skeleton, skin, &
horns of the Moose, in such condition as that the
skin might be sewed up & stuffed on it's arrival here.
I am happy to be able to present to you at this
moment the bones & skin of a Moose, the horns of
the Caribou, the elk, the deer, the spiked horned
buck, & the Roebuck of America. They all come
458 THE WRITINGS OF [1787
from New Hampshire & Massachusetts. I give you
their popular names, as it rests with yourself to decide
their real names. The skin of the Moose was drest
with the hair on, but a great deal of it has come off,
and the rest is ready to drop off. The horns of the
elk are remarkably small. I have certainly seen of
them which would have weighed five or six times as
much. This is the animal which we call elk in the
Southern parts of America, and of which I have given
some description in the Notes on Virginia, of which
I had the honour of presenting you a copy. I really
doubt whether the flat-horned elk exists in America ;