Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
I enclose herein a resolution of Congress recalling Mr. Lambe, which I
will beg the favor of you to have delivered him. I have written to Mr.
Adams on the subject of directing him to settle with Mr. Barclay, and
attend his answer. In the mean time, I am not without hopes Mr. Barclay
has done the business. I send also a note desiring Mr. Lambe to deliver
you his cipher: and a copy of a letter from the minister of finance here
to me, announcing several regulations in favor of our commerce.
My Notes on Virginia, having been hastily written, need abundance of
corrections. Two or three of these are so material, that I am reprinting
a few leaves to substitute for the old. As soon as these shall be ready,
I will beg your acceptance of a copy. I shall be proud to be permitted
to send a copy also to the Count de Campomanes, as a tribute to his
science and his virtues. You will find in them, that the Natural Bridge
has found an admirer in me also. I should be happy to make with you the
tour of the curiosities you will find therein mentioned. That kind of
pleasure surpasses much, in my estimation, whatever I find on this side
the Atlantic. I sometimes think of building a little hermitage at the
Natural Bridge (for it is my property), and of passing there a part of
the year at least.
I have received American papers to the 1st of November. Some tumultuous
meetings of the people have taken place in the eastern States; i.e. one
in Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, and one in New Hampshire. Their
principal demand was a respite in the judiciary proceedings. No injury
was done, however, in a single instance, to the person or property
of any one, nor did the tumult continue twenty-four hours in any one
instance. In Massachusetts this was owing to the discretion which the
malcontents still preserved; in Connecticut and New Hampshire the body
of the people rose in support of government, and obliged the malcontents
to go to their homes. In the last mentioned State they seized about
forty, who were in jail for trial. It is believed this incident will
strengthen our government. Those people are not entirely without excuse.
Before the war these States depended on their whale-oil and fish.
The former was consumed in England, and much of the latter in the
Mediterranean. The heavy duties on American whale-oil, now required in
England, exclude it from that market: and the Algerines exclude them
from bringing their fish into the Mediterranean. France is opening
her ports for their oil, but in the mean while their ancient debts are
pressing them, and they have nothing to pay with. The Massachusetts
Assembly, too, in their zeal for paying their public debt, had laid
a tax too heavy to be paid, in the circumstances of their State. The
Indians seem disposed, too, to make war on us. These complicated causes
determined Congress to increase their forces to two thousand men. The
latter was the sole object avowed, yet the former entered for something
into the measure.
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