personally, and he knew them to be analagous to those of our country. We had often before had occasions of knowing each other; his peculiar bitterness towards us had sufficiently appeared, and I had never concealed from him that I considered the British as our natural enemies, and as the only nation on earth who wished us ill from the bottom of their souls. And I am satisfied that were our continent to be swallowed up by the ocean, Great Britain would be in a bonfire from one end to the other. Mr. Adams, as you know, has asked his recall. This has been granted; and Colonel Smith is to return, too, Congress having determined to put an end to their commission at that Court. I suspect and hope they will make no new appointment.

Our new Constitution is powerfully attacked in the American newspapers. The objections are, that its effect would be to form the thirteen States into one; that, proposing to melt all down into one General Government, they have fenced the people by no declaration of rights; they have not renounced the power of keeping a standing army; they have not secured the liberty of the press; they have reserved the power of abolishing trials by jury in civil cases; they have proposed that the laws of the Federal Legislatures shall be paramount to the laws and constitutions of the States; they have abandoned rotation in office; and, particularly, their President may be reëlected from four years to four years, for life, so as to render him a King for life, like a King of Poland; and they have not given him either the check or aid of a council. To these they add calculations of expense, &c., &c., to frighten the people.

You will perceive that these objections are serious, and some of them not without foundation. The Constitution, however, has been received with a very general enthusiasm, and, as far as can be judged from external demonstrations, the bulk of the people are eager to adopt it. In the Eastern States the printers will print nothing against it unless the writer subscribes his name. Massachusetts and Connecticut have called conventions in January to consider of it. In New York there is a division. The Governor (Clinton) is known to be hostile to it. Jersey, it is thought, will certainly accept it. Pennsylvania is divided, and all the bitterness of her factions has been kindled anew on it. But the party in favor of it is strongest, both in and out of the Legislature. This is the party anciently of Morris, Wilson, &c. Delaware will do what Pennsylvania shall do.

Maryland is thought favorable to it, yet it is supposed Chase and Paca will oppose it. As to Virginia, two of her delegates, in the first place, refused to sign it. These were Randolph, the Governor, and George Mason. Besides these, Henry, Harrison, Nelson, and the Lees are against it. General Washington will be for it, but it is not in his character to exert himself much in the case. Madison

will be its main pillar, but though an immensely powerful one, it is questionable whether he can bear the weight of such a host. So that the presumption is that Virginia will reject it. We know nothing of the disposition of the States south of this. Should it fall through, as it is possible, nothwithstanding the enthusiasm with which it was received in the first moment, it is probable that Congress will propose that the objections which the people shall make to it, being once known, another convention shall be assembled to adopt the improvements generally acceptable, and omit those found disagreeable. In this way union may be produced under a happy constitution, and one which shall not be too energetic, as are the constitutions of Europe. I give you these details, because, possibly you may not have received them all. The sale of our western lands is immensely successful. Five millions of acres have been sold at private sale, for a dollar an acre, in certificates, and, at the public sale, some of them had sold as high as two dollars and forty cents the acre. The sales had not been bugun two months. By these means taxes, &c., our domestic debt, originally twenty-eight millions of dollars, was reduced, by the first day of last October, to twelve millions, and they were then in treaty for two millions of acres more at a dollar, private sale. Our domestic debt will thus be soon paid off, and that done, the sales will go on for money, at a cheaper rate, no doubt, for the payment of our foreign debt. The petite guerre always waged by the Indians seems not to abate the ardor of purchase or emigration. Kentucky is now counted at sixty thousand. Frankland is also growing fast.

I have been told that the cutting through the Isthmus of Panama, which the world has so often wished, and supposed practicable, has at times been thought of by the Government of Spain, and that they once proceeded so far as to have a survey and examination made of the ground; but that the result was, either impracticability or too great difficulty. Probably the Count de Campomanes or Don Ulloa can give you information on this head. I should be exceedingly

pleased to get as minute details as possible on it, and even copies of the survey, report, &c., if they could be obtained at a moderate expense. I take the liberty of asking your assistance in this.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN ADAMS.

Dear Sir,

Paris, December 12, 1787.

In the month of July, I received from Fiseaux & Co., of Amsterdam, a letter notifying me that the principal of their loan to the United States would become due the first day of January. I answered them that I had neither powers nor information on the subject, but would transmit their letter to the Board of Treasury. I did so, by the packet which sailed from Havre August the 10th. The earliest answer possible would have been by the packet which arrived at Havre three or four days ago. But by her I do not receive the scrip of a pen from any body. This makes me suppose my letters were committed to Paul Jones, who was to sail a week after the departure of the packet; and that possibly he may be the bearer of orders from the Treasury to pay Fiseaux's loan with the money you borrowed. But it is also possible he may bring no order on the subject. The slowness with which measures are adopted on our side the water does not permit us to count on punctual answers; but, on the contrary, renders it necessary for us to suppose, in the present case, that no orders will arrive in time, and to consider whether any thing, and what, should be done? As it may be found expedient to transfer all our foreign debts to Holland, by borrowing there, and as it may always be prudent to preserve a good credit in that country, because we may be forced into wars, whether we will or not, I should suppose it very imprudent to suffer our credit to be annihilated for so small a sum as fifty-one thousand guilders. The injury will be greater, too, in proportion to the smallness of the sum; for they will ask, "how can a people be trusted for large sums, who break their faith for such small ones?" You know best what effect it will have on the minds of the money lenders of that country, should we fail in this payment. You know best, solely, whether it is practicable and prudent for us to have this debt paid without orders. I refer the matter, therefore, wholly to your consideration,

willing to participate with you in any risk and any responsibility whlch may arise. I think it one of those cases where it is a duty to risk one's self. You will perceive by the enclosed, the necessity of an immediate answer, and that if you think any thing can and should be done, all the necessary authorities from you should accompany your letter. In the meantime, should I receive any orders from the Treasury by Paul Jones, I will pursue them, and consider whatever you shall have proposed or done, as non avenue.

I am, with much affection, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, December 20, 1787.

Dear Sir, My last to you was of October the 8th, by the Count de Moustier. Yours of July the 18th, September the 6th, and October the 25th, were successively received, yesterday, the day before, and three or four days before that. I have only had time to read the letters; the printed papers communicated with them, however interesting, being obliged to lie over till I finish my despatches for the packet, which despatches must go from hence the day after to-morrow. I have much to thank you for, first and most for the cyphered paragraph respecting myself. These little informations are very material towards forming my own decisions. I would be glad even to know when any individual member thinks I have gone wrong in any instance. If I know myself it would not excite ill blood in me, while it would assist to guide my conduct, perhaps, to justify it, and to keep me to my duty alert. I must thank you, too, for the information in Thomas Burk's case; though you will have found, by a subsequent letter, that I have asked of you a further investigation of that matter. It is to gratify the lady who is at the head of the convent wherein my daughters are, and who, by her attachment and attention to them, lays me under great obligations. I shall hope, therefore, still to receive from you the result of all the further inquiries my second letter had asked. The parcel of rice, which you informed me had miscarried, accompanied my letter to the delegates of South Carolina. Mr. Bourgoin was to be the bearer of both, and both were delivered together into the hands of his relation here, who introduced him to me, and who, at a subsequent moment,

undertook to convey them to Mr. Bourgoin. This person was an engraver, particularly recommended to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Hopkinson. Perhaps he may have mislaid the little parcel of rice among his baggage. I am much pleased that the sale of western lands is so successful. I hope they will absorb all the certificates of our domestic debt speedily, in the first place, and that then, offered for cash, they will do the same by our foreign ones.

The season admitting of operations in the Cabinet, and those being in a great measure secret, I have little to fill a letter. I will therefore make up the deficiency by adding a few words on the constitution proposed by our Convention.

I like much the general idea of framing a Government which would go on of itself peaceably, without needing continual recurrence to the State Legislatures. I like the organization of the Government into legislative, judiciary, and executive. I like the power given the Legislature to levy taxes, and for that reason solely, I approve of the greater house being chosen by the people directly. For, though I think a house so chosen, will be very far inferior to the present Congress, will be very illy qualified to legislate for the Union, for foreign nations, &c., yet this evil does not, weigh against the good of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle that the people are not to be taxed but by representatives chosen immediately by themselves. I am captivated by the compromise of the opposite claims of the great and little States, of the latter to equal, and the former to proportional influence. I am much pleased, too, with the substitution of the method of voting by persons instead of that of voting by States; and I like the negative given to the Executive, conjointly with a third of either House, though I should have liked it better had the judiciary been associated for that purpose, or invested separately with a similar power. There are other good things of less moment.

I will now tell you what I do not like: First, the omission of a bill of rights, providing clearly and without the aid of sophism for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction against monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land, and not by the laws of nations. To say, as Mr. Wilson does, that a bill of rights was not necessary, because all is reserved in the case of the General Government which is not given, while in the particular ones all is given which is not