The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
History
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 3 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
P. S. June 18. The motion under debate with the Commons, for constituting
their Assembly, passed yesterday by a majority of four hundred and odd,
against eighty odd. The latter were for it in substance, but wished some
particular amendment. They proceeded instantly to the subject of taxation.
A member, who called on me this moment, gave me a state of the proceedings
of yesterday, from memory, which I enclose you. He left the House a little
before the question was put, because he saw there was no doubt of its
passing, and his brother, who remained till the decision, informed him of
it. So that we may expect, perhaps, in the course of to-morrow, to see
whether the government will interpose with a bold hand, or will begin a
negotiation. But in the meantime, this letter must go off. I will find
some other opportunity, however, of informing you of the issue.
[_Character of Mr. Neckar, accompanying the preceding letter._]
Nature bestowed on Mr. Neckar an ardent passion for glory, without, at the
same time, granting him those qualities required for its pursuit by direct
means. The union of a fruitful imagination, with a limited talent, with
which she has endowed him, is always incompatible with those faculties of
the mind which qualify their possessor to penetrate, to combine, and to
comprehend all the relations of objects.
He had probably learned in Geneva, his native country, the influence which
riches exercise on the success of ambition, without having recourse to
the school of Paris, where he arrived about the twenty-eighth year of
his age. A personal affair with his brother, in which the chiefs of the
republic conducted themselves unjustly towards him, the circumstances of
which, moreover, exposed him to ridicule, determined him to forsake his
country. On taking his leave, he assured his mother that he would make
a great fortune at Paris. On his arrival, he engaged himself as clerk,
at a salary of six hundred livres, with the banker Thelusson, a man of
extreme harshness in his intercourse with his dependents. The same cause
which obliged other clerks to abandon the service of Thelusson, determined
Neckar to continue in it. By submitting to the brutality of his master
with a servile resignation, whilst, at the same time, he devoted the
most unremitting attention to his business, he recommended himself to his
confidence, and was taken into partnership. Ordinary abilities only, were
requisite to avail him of the multitude of favorable circumstances, which,
before he entered into the administration, built up a fortune of six
millions of livres. He owed much of his good fortune to his connections
with the Abbé Terrai, of whose ignorance he did not scruple to profit.
His riches, his profession, his table, and a virtuous, reasonable and
well-informed wife, procured him the acquaintance of many persons of
distinction, among whom were many men of letters, who celebrated his
knowledge and wisdom.
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