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right should be done, and what it would be right for me to do, were I on the spot, or were I apprized of all existing circumstances. Indeed, were you two to think my claim an improper one, I would wish it to be suppressed, as I have so much confidence in your judgment, that I should suspect my own in any case, where it varied from yours, and more especially in one where it is liable to be warped by feeling. Give me leave, then, to ask your consultation with Mr. Madison on this subject, and to assure you, that whatever you are so good as to do herein, will be perfectly approved, and considered as a great obligation conferred on him, who has the honor to be, &c.

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

Paris, May 27, 1788.

Dear Sir,

and 29th, and May the That of January the

Your favors of April the 14th 8th, have lately come to hand. 29th, by M. de Molinedo, had been left here during my absence on a journey to Amsterdam. That gentleman had gone, as I presume, before my return, from my being unable to learn any thing of him.

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With respect to the isthmus of Panama, I am assured by Burgoin, (who would not choose to be named however,) that a survey was made, that a canal appeared very practicable, and that the idea was suppressed for political reasons altogether. He has seen and minutely examined

the report. This report is to me a vast desideratum, for reasons political and philosophical. I cannot help suspecting the Spanish squadron to be gone to South America, and that some disturbances have been excited there by the British. The Court of Madrid may suppose we would not see this with an unwilling eye. This may be true as to the uninformed part of our people; but those who look into futurity farther than the present moment or age, and who combine well what is, with what is to be, must see that our interests well understood, and our wishes are that Spain shall (not forever) but, very long retain her possessions in that quarter; and that her views and ours must, in a good degree, and for a long time concur. It is said in our gazettes, that the Spaniards have sunk one of our boats on the Mississippi, and that our people retaliated on one of theirs. But my letters not mentioning the fact, have made me hope it is not true, in which hope your letter confirms me. There are now one one hundred thousand inhabitants in Kentucky. They have accepted the offer of independence, on the terms proposed by Virginia, and they have decided that their independent government shall begin on the first day of the next year. In the meantime, they claim admittance into Congress. Georgia has ceded her western territory to the United States, to take place with the commencement of the new Federal Government. I do not know the boundaries. There has been some dispute of etiquette with the new French Minister which has disgusted him.

The following is a state of the progress and prospects of the new plan of government.

VOL. III.-52

The conduct of Massachusetts has been noble. She accepted the constitution, but voted that it should stand as a perpetual instruction to her delegates, to endeavor to obtain such and such reformations; and the minority, though very strong both in numbers and abilities, declared viritim and seriatim, that acknowledging the principle that the majority must give the law, they would now support the new constitution with their tongues, and with their blood, if necessary. I was much pleased with many and essential parts of this instrument from the beginning. But I thought I saw in it many faults, great and small. What I have read and reflected, has brought me over from several of my objections of the first moment, and to acquiesce under some others. Two only remain of essential consideration, to wit: the want of a bill of rights, and the expunging the principle of necessary rotation in the offices of President and Senator. At first, I wished that when nine States should have accepted the constitution, so as to ensure us what is good in it, the other four might hold off till the want of the bill of rights at least might be supplied.

But I am now con

vinced that the plan of Massachusetts is the best, that is, to accept, and to amend afterwards. If the States which were to decide after her, should all do the same, it is impossible, but that they must obtain the essential amendments. It will be more difficult, if we lose this instrument, to recover what is good in it, than to correct what is bad, after we shall have adopted it. It has, therefore, my hearty prayers, and I await with anxiety. for news of the votes of Maryland, South Carolina and Virginia. There is no doubt that General Washington will accept the Presidentship; though he is silent on the

subject. He would not be chosen to the Virginia Convention. A riot has taken place in New York, which I will state to you from an eye witness. It has long been a practice with the surgeons of that city to steal from the grave, bodies recently buried. A citizen had lost his wife; he went the first or second evening after her burial to pay a visit to her grave. He found that it had been disturbed, and suspected from what quarter. He found means to be admitted to the anatomical lecture of that day, and on his entering the room, saw the body of his wife, naked and under dissection. He raised the people immediately. The body in the meantime, was secreted. They entered into and searched the houses of the physicians, whom they most suspected, but found nothing. One of them, however, more guilty or more timid than the rest, took asylum in the prison.

The mob considered this an acknowledgment of guilt. They attacked the prison. The Governor ordered militia to protect the culprits and suppress the mob. The militia thinking the mob had just provocation, refused to turn out. Hereupon, the people of more reflection, thinking it more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the form of law, than that he should escape, armed themselves, and went to protect the physician. They were received by the mob with a volley of stones, which wounded several of them. They hereupon, fired on the mob and killed four. By this time they received a re-inforcement of other citizens of the militia horse, the appearance of which, in the critical moment, dispersed the mob. So ended this chapter of history, which I have detailed to you, because it may be represented as a political riot, when politics had nothing

to do with it. Mr. Jay and Baron Steuben were both grievously wounded in the head by stones.

The former still kept his bed, and the latter his room, when the packet sailed, which was the 24th of April.

I have the honor to be, &c.

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY.

Sir,

Paris, May 30, 1788.

A further delay of Mr. Warville, enables me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of April 24th, by Mr. Paradise. Nothing new has occurred since the date of my other letters which go by this conveyance, except that about one-third of the Baillages have accepted their appointments. If the others pretty generally should do the same, and the Chatelet be brought over, it will place Government pretty much at their ease, to pursue their other views of change. The only symptoms of violence which have appeared, have been in Brittany, Provence and Languedoc.

I have the honor to be, &c.

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM JOHN JAY TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Dear Sir,

Office for Foreign Affairs,
September 23, 1788.

My last to you was dated the 9th June, since which,

I have been honored with yours of the 4th, 23d, and 30th

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