ducted itself so atrociously. This may bring on war. If it does we will meet it like men; but it may not bring on war, and then the experiment will have been a happy one.-To TENCH COXE. iv, 105. FORD ED., vi, 508. (M., May 1794.) 5999. NON-IMPORTATION, Principle of. To yield the principle of the non-importation act would be yielding the only peaceable instrument for coercing all our rights.THE ANAS. FORD ED., i, 322. (Feb. 1807.) VS. IM 6000. NON-IMPORTATION PRESSMENTS.-If [the British] keep up impressments, we must adhere to non-intercourse, manufacturer's and a navigation act.TO JAMES MADISON. v, 362. FORD ED., ix, 208. (M., Sep. 1808.) 6001. NON-INTERCOURSE, Unpopular. Our affairs are certainly now at their ultimate point of crisis. I understand the Eastern republicans will agree to nothing which shall render non-intercourse effectual, and that in any question of that kind, the federalists will have a majority. There remains, then, only war or submission, and if we adopt the former, they will desert us.-To W. C. NICHOLAS. 488. (M., Dec. 1809.) NORFOLK.-See ALEXANDRIA. 6002. NORTH CAROLINA, Political conditions in.-North Carolina is at present in the most dangerous state. The lawyers all tories, the people substantially republican, but uninformed and deceived by the lawyers, who are elected of necessity because few other candidates. The medicine for that State must be very mild and secretly administered. But nothing should be spared to give them true information.-To P. N. NICHOLAS. iv, 328. FORD ED., vii, 440. (Pa., April 1800.) NORTH (Lord), Ability GEORGE III., CONTROL OF. 6003. NORTH (Lord), Hostile to America.-Lord North's hostility to us is notorious.-To BENJAMIN HARRISON. FORD ED., ii, 414. (A., March 1784.) till late in the session. They supposed it would bring on a dissolution of their body whenever they should deliver it to him; and they wished previously to get some important acts passed. For this reason they kept it up. I think Lord Dunmore did not quit the metropolis till he knew that the answer framed by the House was a rejection of the Proposition, though that answer was not yet communicated to him regularly.-NOTES ON M. SOULES'S WORK. ix, 302. FORD ED., iv, 309. (P., 1786.) 6005. On the receipt of Lord North's Proposition, in May or June, 1775, Lord Dunmore called the Assembly. Peyton Randolph, the President of Congress, and Speaker of the House of Burgesses, left the former body and came home to hold the Assembly, leaving in Congress the other deleHouse. gates who were the ancient leaders of our He, therefore, asked me to prepare the answer to Lord North's Proposition, which I did. Mr. Nicholas, whose mind had as yet acquired no tone for that contest, combatted the answer from alpha to omega, and succeeded in diluting it in one or two small instances. It was firmly supported, however, in Committee of the Whole, by Peyton Randolph, who had brought with him the spirit of the body over which he had presided, and it was carried, with very little alteration, by strong majorities. I was the bearer of it myself to Congress, by whom, as it was the first answer given to the Proposition by any Legislature, it was received with peculiar satisfaction.TO WILLIAM WIRT. vi, 487. FORD ED., ix 475(M., 1815.) NORTHWEST BOUNDARIES. BOUNDARY.-See 6006. NOTES ON VIRGINIA, History of. Before I had left America, that is to say, in the year 1781, I had received a letter from M. de Marbois, of the French legation in of.-See Philadelphia, informing me that he had been instructed by his government to obtain such statistical accounts of the different States of our Union, as might be useful for their information; and addressing to me a number of queries relative to the State of Virginia. I had always made it a practice, whenever an opportunity occurred, of obtaining any information of our country which might be of use to me in any station, public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of recurrence, when I had occasion for a particular one. I thought this a good occasion to embody their substance, which I did in the order of M. Marbois's queries, so as to answer his wish, and to arrange them for my own use. Some friends, to whom they were occasionally communicated, wished for copies; but their volume rendering this too laborious by hand, I proposed to get a few printed for their gratification. I was asked such a price, however, as exceeded the importance of the object. On my arrival at Paris, I found it could be done for a fourth of what I had been asked here. I, therefore, corrected and enlarged them, and had two hundred copies printed, under the title of " Notes on Virginia ". I gave a very few copies to some particular persons in Europe, and sent the rest to my friends in America. An European copy, by the death of the owner, got into the hands of a bookseller, who engaged its translation, and, when ready for the press, communicated his intentions and manuscript to me, suggesting that I should correct it without asking any other permission for the publication. I never 6004. NORTH (Lord), Proposition of.— I was under appointment to attend the General Congress; but knowing the importance of the answer to be given to the Conciliatory Proposition, and that our leading whig characters were then in Congress, I determined to attend on the Assembly, and, though a young member, to take on myself the carrying through an answer to the Proposition. The Assembly met the 1st of June. I drew and proposed the answer, and carried it through the House with very little alteration, against the opposition of our timid members who wished to speak a different language. This was finished before the 11th of June, because on that day, I set out from Williamsburg to Philadelphia, and was the bearer of an authenticated copy of this instrument to Congress. The effect it had in fortifying their minds, and in deciding their measures, renders its true date important; because only Pennsylvania had as yet answered the Proposition. Virginia was the second. known how Massachusetts would answer it; and the example of these three principal Colonies would determine the measures of all the others, and of course the fate of the Proposition. Congress received it, therefore, with much satisfaction. The Assembly of Virginia did not deliver the answer to Lord Dunmore It was had seen so wretched an attempt at translation. Interverted, abridged, mutilated, and often reversing the sense of the original, I found it a blotch of errors from beginning to end. I corrected some of the most material, and, in that form, it was printed in French. A London bookseller, on seeing the translation, requested me to permit him to print the English original. I thought it best to do so, to let the world see that it was not really so bad as the French translation had made it appear. And this is the true history of that publication.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 61. FORD ED., i, 85. (1821.) 6007. NOTES ON VIRGINIA, Principles in. The experience of nearly forty years additional in the affairs of mankind has not altered a single principle [in the Notes on Virginia "].-To JOHN MELISH. vi, 404. FORD ED., iii, 79. (M., 1814.) * 6008. NOTES ON VIRGINIA, Slavery and.-I had two hundred copies [of my "Notes on Virginia "] printed, but do not put them out of my own hands, except two or three copies here and two which I shall send to America, to yourself and Colonel Monroe. * I beg you to peruse it carefully, because I ask your advice on it, and ask nobody's else. I wish to put it into the hands of the young men at the College [William and Mary,] as well on account of the political as the physical parts. But there are sentiments on some subjects which I apprehend might be displeasing to the country, perhaps to the Assembly, or to some who lead it. I do not wish to be exposed to their censure; nor do I know how far their influence, if exerted, might effect a misapplication of law to such a publication were it made. Communicate it, then, in confidence to those whose judgments and information you would pay respect to; and if you think it will give no offense, I will send a copy to each of the students of William and Mary College, and some others to my friends and to your disposal; otherwise I shall send over only a very few copies to particular friends in confidence and burn the rest. Answer me soon and without reserve. Do not view me as an author, and attached to what he has written. I am neither. They were at first intended only for Marbois. When I had enlarged them, I thought first of giving copies to three or four friends. I have since supposed they might set our young students into a useful train of thought, and in no event do I propose to admit them to go to the public at large. To JAMES MADISON. FORD ED., iv, 46. (P., May 1785.) I send you a copy of the * * 6009. Notes on Virginia ". * I have taken measures to prevent its publication. My reason is that I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery and of our [State] Constitution may produce an irritation, which will revolt the minds of our countrymen against reformation in these two articles, and thus do more harm than good.-TO JAMES MONROE. i, 347. FORD ED., iv, 53. (P., 1785.) 6010. NOVA SCOTIA, Conciliation of. -Is it impossible to persuade our countrymen to make peace with the Nova Scotians? I am persuaded nothing is wanting but advances on our part; and that it is in our power to draw off the greatest proportion of that settlement, and thus to free ourselves from rivals [in the fisheries] who may become of consequence. We are at present cooperating with Great Britain, whose policy it is to give aliment to that bitter enmity between her States and ours, which may secure her against their ever joining 6011. NULLIFICATION, British statutes. We do not point out to his Majesty the injustice of these acts [of Parliament], with intent to rest on that principle the cause of their nullity; but to show that experience confirms the propriety of those political principles which exempt us from the jurisdiction of the British Parliament. The true ground on which we declare these acts void is, that the British Parliament has no right to exercise authority over us.-RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA. i, 129. FORD ED., i, 434. (P.F., 1774.) ance me. 6015. OATH OF OFFICE, Presidential. -I propose to take the oath or oaths of office as President of the United States, on Wednesday the 4th inst., at 12 o'clock, in the Senate chamber. May I hope the favor of your attendto administer the oath? As the two Houses have notice of the hour, I presume a precise punctuality to it will be expected from I would pray you, in the meantime, to consider whether the oath prescribed in the Constitution be not the only one necessary to take? It seems to comprehend the substance of that prescribed by the act of Congress to all officers, and it may be questionable whether the Legislature can require any new oath from the President. I do not know what has been done in this heretofore; but I presume the oaths administered to my predecessors are recorded in the Secretary of State's office.-TO JOHN MARSHALL. iv, 364. (W., March 2, 1801.) 6016. OBSCURITY, Happiness in.-He is happiest of whom the world says least, good or bad. To JOHN ADAMS. FORD ED., iv, 297. (P., 1786.) 6017. OCCUPATIONS, Agricultural.— The class principally defective is that of Agriculture. It is the first in utility, and ought to be the first in respect. The same artificial means which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts among its handmaids the most respectable sciences, such as Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics, generally, Natural History, Botany. In every college and university, a professorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be honored as the first. Young men closing their academical education with this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, instead of crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and invigorate a calling now languishing under contempt and oppression. The charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a love which the present state of society does not call for, converted into schools of agriculture, might restore them to that branch qualified to enrich and honor themselves, and to increase the productions of the nation instead of consuming them. An abolition of the useless offices, so much accumulated in all governments, might close this drain also from the labors of the field, and lessen the burthens imposed on them. By these, and the better means which will occur to others, the surcharge of the learned, might in time be drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizens, the sum of industry be increased, and that of misery diminished.-To DAVID WILLIAMS. iv, 513. (W., 1803.) 6018. OCCUPATIONS, Choice of.Every one has a natural right to choose that vocation in life which he thinks most likely to give him comfortable subsistence.-THOUGHTS ON LOTTERIES. ix, 505. FORD ED., X, 366. (M., Feb. 1826.) 6019. OCCUPATIONS, Governmental regulation. The greatest evils of populous society have ever appeared to me to spring from the vicious distribution of its members among the occupations called for. I have no doubt that those nations are essentially right, which leave this to individual choice, as a better guide to an advantageous distribution than any other which could be devised. But when, by a blind concourse, particular occupations are ruinously overcharged, and others left in want of hands, the national authorities can do much towards restoring the equilibrium.-To DAVID WILLIAMS. iv, 512. (W., 1803.) 6020. OCCUPATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS.-Among the ancients, the redundance of population was sometimes checked by exposing infants. To the moderns, America has offered a more humane resource. Many, who cannot find employment in Europe, accordingly come here. Those who can labor, do well for the most part. Of the learned class of emigrants, a small proportion find employments analogous to their talents. But many fail, and return to complete their course of misery in the scenes where it began.-TO DAVID WILLIAMS. iv, 514. (W., 1803.) 6021. OCEAN, American supremacy.The day is within my time as well as yours, when we may say by what laws other nations shall treat us on the sea. And we will say it. TO WILLIAM SHORT. iv, 415. FORD ED., viii, 98. (W., 1801.) See NAVY. 6022. The possession of Louisiana will cost France * * * a war which will annihilate her on the ocean, and place that element under the despotism of two nations, which I am not reconciled to the more because my own would be one of them. -To M. DUPONT DE NEMOURS. (W., April 1802.) iv, 435. 6023. OCEAN, Barrier of liberty.-I am happy in contemplating the peace, prosperity, liberty and safety of my country, and especially the wide ocean, the barrier of all FORD ED., these.-To MARQUIS LAFAYETTE. ix, 302. (M., 1811.) | 6024. OCEAN, Claimed by England.—I despair of accommodation with [the British government], because I believe they are weak enough to intend seriously to claim the ocean as their conquest, and think to amuse us with embassies and negotiations, until the claim shall have been strengthened by time and exercise, and the moment arrive when they may boldly avow what hitherto they have only squinted at.-To PRESIDENT MADISON. 468. (M., Sep. 1809.) 6025. v, It has now been some years that I am perfectly satisfied that Great Britain's intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions.-TO HENRY DEARBORN. v, 529. FORD ED., ix, 278. (M., 1810.) 6026. It can no longer be doubted that Great Britain means to claim the ocean as her conquest, and to suffer not a cock-boat, as they express it, to traverse it but on paying them a transit duty to support the very fleet which is to keep the nations under tribute, and to rivet the even yoke around their necks. Although their government has never openly avowed this, yet their orders of council, in their original form, were founded on this principle, and I have observed for years past, that however ill success may at times have induced them to amuse by negotiation, they have never on any occasion dropped a word disclaiming this pretension, nor one which they would have to retract when they shall judge the times ripe for openly asserting it. They do not wish war with us, but will meet it rather than relinquish their purpose.-To JOHN HOLLINS. v, 597. (M., May 1811.) 6027. * * * The intention which the British now formally avow of taking possession of the ocean as their exclusive domain, and of suffering no commerce on it but through their ports, makes it the interest of all mankind to contribute their efforts to bring such usurpations to an end.-To CLEMENT CAINE. vi, 14. FORD ED., ix, 330. (M., Sep. 1811.) 6028. Ever since the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, the object of Great Britain has visibly been the permanent conquest of the ocean, and levying a tribute on every vessel she permits to sail on it, as the Barbary powers do on the Mediterranean, which they call their sea.-To WILLIAM SHORT. vi, 128. (M., June 1813.) See EMBARGO and IMPRESSMENT. treaty of confederation to go to war for injuries done to others.-To DR. George Logan. FORD ED., viii, 23. (W., March 1801.) See NAVIGATION and SHIPS. 6036. OCEAN, Lawlessness on.-The sea has become a field of lawless and indiscriminate rapine and violence.-To iv, 223. (Pa., 1798.) 6037. OCEAN, Piracy.—I sincerely wish usurpation of the sea has become a national fer the appointment of their consuls to their ministers.-To JOHN ADAMS. i, 502. (P., 1785.) 6033. OCEAN, England's policy.-If the British ministry are changing their policy towards us, it is because their nation, or rather the city of London, which is the nation to them, is shaking as usual, by the late 6039. OFFICE, Appointment to.—I like reverses in Spain. I have for some time as little as you do to have the gift of apbeen persuaded that the government of Eng-pointments. I hope Congress will not transland was systematically decided to claim a dominion of the sea, and to levy contributions on all nations, by their licenses to navigate, in order to maintain that dominion to which their own resources are inadequate. The mobs of their cities are unprincipled enough to support this policy in prosperous times, but change with the tide of fortune, and the ministers to keep their places, change with them.-TO PRESIDENT MADISON. v, 442. FORD ED., ix, 251. (M., April 1809.) See ENGLAND. 6034. OCEAN, English ascendency.An English ascendency on the ocean is safer for us than that of France.-To JAMES MONROE. V, 12. FORD ED., viii, 450. (W., 1806.) not. 6035. OCEAN, Freedom of.-I join you * * * in a sense of the necessity of restoring freedom to the ocean. But I doubt, with you, whether the United States ought to join in an armed confederacy for that purpose; or rather I am satisfied they ought It ought to be the very first object of our pursuits to have nothing to do with the European interests and politics. Let them be free or slaves at will, navigators or agriculturists, swallowed into one government or divided into a thousand, we have nothing to fear from them in any form. * * To take part in their conflicts would be to divert our energies from creation to destruction. Our commerce is so valuable to them that they will be glad to purchase it when the only price we ask is to do us justice. I believe we have in our own hands the means of peaceable coercion; and that the moment they see our government so united as that they can make use of it, they will for their own interest be disposed to do us justice. In this way you shall not be obliged by any 6040. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, me donne un ingrat, et cent ennemis.-To JOHN DICKINSON. v, 31. FORD ED., ix, 10. (W., 1807.) I know none but public motives in making appointments.-To JOSEPH B. VARNUM. V, 223. (W., 1807.) 6041. 6042. I am thankful at all times for information on the subject of appointments, even when it comes too late to be used. It is more difficult and more painful than all the other duties of my office, and one in which I am sufficiently conscious that inTo JOSEPH B. VARNUM. voluntary error must often be committed.— v, 223. (W., 1807.) 6043. My usage is to make the best appointment my information and judgment enable me to do, and then fold myself up in the mantle of conscience, and abide unmoved the peltings of the storm. And oh! for the day when I shall be withdrawn from it; when I shall have leisure to enjoy my family, my friends, my farm and books.-To DR. BENJAMIN RUSH. v, 225. (W., 1808.) 6044. I shall make no new appointments which can be deferred until the 4th of March, thinking it fair to leave to my successor to select the agents for his own administration.-To DR. LOGAN. v, 404. (W., Dec. 1808.) See OFFICE-HOLDERS. 6045. OFFICE, Choice of.-It is not for an individual to choose his post. You are to marshal us as may be best for the public good.-To PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. iii, 125. FORD ED., v, 141. (Dec. 1789.) 6046. A good citizen should take his stand where the public authority marshals him.-TO LA DUCHESSE D'AUVILLE. iii, 135. FORD ED., V, 153. (N.Y., 1790.) 6047. I never thought of questioning the free exercise of the right of my fellow citizens, to marshal those whom they call into their service according to their fitness, nor ever presumed that they were not the best judges of that.-To JAMES SULLI VAN. iv, 168. FORD ED., vii, 116. (M., 1797.) 6048. I profess so much of the Roman principle, as to deem it honorable for the general of yesterday to act as a corporal to-day, if his services can be useful to his country; holding that to be false pride, which postpones the public good to any private or personal considerations.-To WILLIAM DUANE. vi, 80. FORD ED., ix, 367. (M., Oct. 1812.) 6049. OFFICE, Claims to.-In appointments to public offices of mere profit, I have ever considered faithful service in either our first or second* revolution as giving preference of claim, and that appointments on that principle would gratify the public, and strengthen confidence so necessary to enable the Executive to direct the whole public force to the best advantage of the nation.To JOHN Page. v, 135. FORD ED., ix, 117. (W., July 1807.) ex 6050. OFFICE, Declination of.-Whether the State may command the political services of all its members to an indefinite extent, or, if these be among the rights never wholly ceded to the public power, is a question which I do not find pressly decided in England. Obiter dictums on the subject I have indeed met with, but the complexion of the times in which these have dropped would generally answer them; besides that, this species of authority is not acknowledged in our profession. In this country, however, since the present government has been established, the point has been settled by uniform, pointed and multiplied precedents. Offices of every kind, and given by every power, have been daily and hourly declined and resigned from the Declaration of Independence to this moment. The General Assembly has accepted these without discrimination of office, and without ever questioning them in point of right. If the difference between the office of a delegate and any other could ever have been supposed, yet in the case of Mr. Thompson Mason, who declined the office of delegate, and was permitted so to do by the House, that supposition has been proved to be groundless. But, indeed, no such distinction of offices can be admitted. Reason, and the opinions of the lawyers, putting all on a footing as to this question, and so giving to the delegate the aid of all the precedents of the refusal of other offices. The law then does not warrant the assumption of such a power by the State The political revolution of 1800.-EDITOR. over its members. For if it does, where is that law? nor yet does reason. For though I will admit that this does subject every individual, if called on, to an equal tour of political duty, yet it never can go so far as to submit to it his whole existence. If we greater, are we made for ourselves. It were are made in some degree for others, yet in a contrary to feeling and, indeed, ridiculous to suppose that a man had less right in himself than one of his neighbors, or indeed, all of them put together. This would be slavery, and not that liberty which the bill of rights [of Virginia] has made inviolable, and for the preservation of which our government has been charged. Nothing could so completely divest us of that liberty as the establishment of the opinion, that the State has. a perpetual right to the services of all its members. This, to men of certain ways of thinking, would be to annihilate the blessing of existence, and to contradict the Giver of wretchedness. And certainly, to such it were life, who gave it for happiness and not for better that they had never been born.-To (M., 1782.) JAMES MONROE. i, 318. FORD ED., iii, 57. It is not easy 6054. OFFICE, A duty.-To my fellowcitizens the debt of service has been fully and faithfully paid. I acknowledge that such a debt exists, that a tour of duty, in whatever line he can be most useful to his country, is due from every individual. perhaps to say of what length exactly this length it should not be. Not of our whole life, tour should be, but we may safely say of what for instance, for that would be to be born a slave-not even of a very large portion of it. and twenty years; one half of which has I have now been in the public service four been spent in total occupation with their affairs, and absence from my own. served my tour then.-To JAMES MADISON. I have ii, 577. FORD ED., vi, 290. (June 1793.) |