myself and another part of the Administration, as to render it peculiarly unpleasing, and to destroy the necessary harmony.-THE ANAS. ix, 166. FORD ED., i, 256. (Aug. 1793.)

ac

7462. RETIREMENT, Washington opposed to Jefferson's.-The President calls on me [to-day, August 6], at my house in the country, and introduces my letter of July 31, announcing that I should resign at the close of the next month. He again expressed his repentance at not having resigned himself, and how much it was increased by seeing that he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he had counted; that he did not know where he should look to find characters to fill up the offices; that mere talents did not suffice for the Department of State, but it required a person conversant in foreign affairs, perhaps quainted with foreign courts; that without this, the best talents would be awkward and at loss. He told me that Colonel Hamilton had three or four weeks ago written to him, informing him that private as well as public reasons had brought him to the determination to retire, and that he should do it towards the close of the next session. He said he had often before intimated dispositions to resign, but never as decisively before; that he supposed he had fixed on the latter part of next session, to give an opportunity to Congress to examine into his conduct; that our going out at times so different increased his difficulty; for if he had both places to fill at once, he might consult both the particular talents and geographical situation of our successors. He expressed great apprehension at the fermentation which seemed to be working in the mind of the public; that many descriptions of persons, actuated by different causes, appeared to be uniting; what it would end in he knew not; a new Congress was to assemble, more numerous, perhaps of a different spirit; the first expressions of their sentiments would be important; if I would only stay to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably. -THE ANAS. ix, 165. FORD ED., i, 256. (Aug. 1793.)

7463. RETIREMENT, Welcome.-The moment of my retiring [from the Secretaryship of State] is now approaching, and is to me as land was to Columbus in his first American voyage.-To DAVID HUMPHREYS. iii, 490. (Nov. 1792.) 7464. I now contemplate the approach of the moment of my retirement with the fondness of a sailor who has land in view. -TO THOMAS PINCKNEY. FORD ED., vi, 132. (Pa., Nov. 1792.)

7465.

When I came into office, it was with a resolution to retire from it as soon as I could with decency. It pretty early appeared to me that the proper moment would be the first of those epochs at which the Constitution seems to have contemplated a periodical change or renewal of the public servants. I look to that period with the longing of a wave-worn mariner, who has at length the land in view, and shall count the days and hours which still lie between me and it.-To PRESIDENT WASHINGTON. iii, 467. FORD ED., vi, 108. (M., Sep. 1792.) See APPROBATION.

*

7466. RETRENCHMENT, Salutary.— These views of reducing our burdens are formed on the expectation that a sensible, and at the same time a salutary reduction may take place in our habitual expenditures. For this purpose,

those of the civil government, the army and navy, will need revisal.-FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. viii, 9. FORD ED., viii, 119. (Dec. 1801.)

7467. REVENGE, For abuse.-I shall take no other revenge [for the slanders heaped upon me] than, by a steady pursuit of economy and peace, and by the establishment of republican principles in substance and in form, to sink federalism into an abyss from which there shall be no resurrection for it.-To LEVI LINCOLN. iv, 451. FORD ED., viii, 175. (W.. Oct. 1802.)

7468. REVENUE, Imports and.-Our revenue will be less than it would be were we to continue to import instead of manufacturing our coarse goods. But the increase of population and production will keep pace with that of manufactures, and maintain the quantum of exports at the present level at least; and the imports need be equivalent to them, and conseon them be undiminished. quently the revenu、 To DUPONT DE NEMOURS. v, 583. FORD ED.. ix, 319. (M., 1811.) See DEBT (UNITED STATES), INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, SURPLUS and TAXATION.

7469. REVOLUTION, Completion of.The generation which commences a revolution rarely completes it. Habituated from their infancy to passive submission of body and mind to their kings and priests, they are not qualified when called on to think and provide for themselves; and their inexperience, their ignorance and bigotry make them instruments often, in the hands of the Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and purposes. This is the present situation of Europe and Spanish America.-To JOHN ADAMS. vii, 307. FORD ED., X, 269. (M., 1823.)

7470. REVOLUTION, Right of.-Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations [begun at a distinguished period and], pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to expunge * their former systems of government. DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AS DRAWN BY Jefferson.

7471. REVOLUTION (American), Appeal to British people.-In defence of our persons and properties under actual violation, we took up arms. When that violence shall be removed, when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, hostilities shall cease on our part also. For the achievement of this happy event, we call for and confide in the good offices of our fellow-subjects beyond the Atlantic. Of their friendly dispositions we do not cease to hope; aware, as they must be, that they have nothing more to expect from the same common enemy, than the

Congress struck out the words in brackets and substituted "alter" for "expunge ".--EDITOR.

198.

FORD ED., i, 453. (May 1775.)

7473. REVOLUTION (American), Beginning of.-The question who commenced the Revolution? is as difficult as that of the first inventors of a thousand good things. For example, who first discovered the principle of gravity? Not Newton; for Galileo, who died the year that Newton was born, had measured its force in the descent of gravid bodies. Who invented the Lavoiserian chemistry? The English say Dr. Black, by the preparatory discovery of latent heat. Who invented the steamboat? Was it Gerbert, the Marquis of Worcester, Newcommen, Savary, Papin, Fitch, Fulton? The fact is, that one new idea leads to another, that to a third, and so on through a course of time until some one, with whom no one of these ideas was original, combines all together, and produces what is justly called a new invention. I suppose it would be as difficult to trace our Revolution to its first embryo. We do not know how long it was hatching in the British cabinet before they ventured to make the first of the experiments which were to develop it in the end and to produce complete parliamentary supremacy. Those you mention in Massachusetts as preceding the Stamp Act, might be the first visible symptoms of that design. The proposition of that Act in 1764, was the first here. Your opposition, therefore, preceded ours, as there than here, and the truth, I suppose, is, was sooner given that the opposition in whenever the encroachment was presented to it. every colony began This question of priority is as the inquiry would be who first, of the three hundred Spartans, offered his name to Leonidas?—To DR. BENJAMIN WATERHOUSE. vii, 99. FORD ED., X. 102. (M., 1818.)

occas on

*

7474. It would * * be as difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began, and what incident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo becomes an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning. -TO JOHN ADAMS. vii, 104. FORD ED., X, 107. (M., 1818.)

7475.

A * * ** misapprehension of * * * a passage in Mr. [William] Wirt's book, for which I am quoted. has produced a * ** reclamation of the part of Massachusetts, by some of her most distinguished and estimable citizens. I had been applied to by Mr. Wirt for such facts respecting Mr. [Patrick] Henry, as my intimacy with him and participation in the transactions of the day, *Commenting on this passage, PARTON, in his Life of Jefferson, says: "We may judge of the strength of the tie between the mother country and the Colonies, by the fact that so un-English a mind as Jefferson's clung with sentimental fondness to the union long after there was any reasonable hope of their preserving it." Dr. Small, Jefferson's professor and friend at William and Mary College, was then living in England.-EDITOR,

768

The ex

might have placed within my knowledge. I acCordingly committed them to paper; and Virginia being the theatre of his action, was the speaking of him. only subject within my contemplation, while Of the resolutions and measures here, in which he had the acknowledged lead, Henry certainly gave the first impulse to the used the expression that Mr. ball of revolution". (Wirt, page 41.) pression is, indeed, general, and in all its extension, would comprehend all the sister States; but indulgent construction would restrain it. as was really meant, to the subject matter under contemplation, which was Virginia alone; according to the rule of the lawyers and a fair canon of general criticism, that every expression should be construed secundum subjectam materiem. Where the first attack was made. there must have been, of course, the first act of resistance, and that was in Massachusetts. Henry's embodying a force of militia from Our [Virginia's] first overt act of war was Mr. several counties, regularly armed and organmaking reprisal on the King's treasury at the ized, marching them in military array and seat of government, for the public powder taken away by his Governor. This was in the last days of April, 1775. Your formal battle of Lexington was ten or twelve days before that. which greatly overshadowed in importance, as it preceded in time. our little affray, which merely amounted to a levying of arms against military affrays before the regular battle of the King; and, very possibly, you had had Lexington.-To SAMUEL A. WELLS. i, vii, 120. FORD ED., X, 128. (M., 1819.) cruelty in.-See CRUELTY. REVOLUTION (American), British

116.

1775.)

(American),

it is now totally removed by the interposition of France, and the generous alliance she has entered into with us.-To i, 208. FORD ED., ii, 157. (Wg., 1778.)

7481. REVOLUTION (American), Gage's perfidy.-Hostilities thus commenced [at Lexington, &c.], on the part of the ministerial army have been since by them pursued without regard to faith or fame. The inhabitants of the town of Boston, in order to procure their enlargement, having entered into treaty with General Gage, their Governor, it was stipulated that the said inhabitants, having first deposited their arms with their own magistrates, should have liberty to depart from out of the said town taking with them their other effects. Their arms they accordingly delivered in, and claimed the stipulated license of departing with their effects. But in open violation of plighted faith and honor, in defiance of the sacred obligation of treaty which savage nations observe, their arms, deposited with their own magistrates to be preserved as their property, were immediately seized by a body of armed men under orders from the said General; the greater part of the inhabitants were detained in the town, and the few permitted to depart were compelled to leave their most valuable effects behind. We leave the world to its own reflections on this atrocious perfidy.-DECLARATION ON TAKING UP ARMS. FORD ED., i, 471. (July 1775.)

even

7483.

Looking with fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain, I cannot help hoping that you may be able to contribute towards expediting this good work. I think it must be evident to yourself, that the Ministry have been deceived by their officers on this side of the water, who (for what purpose I cannot tell) have constantly represented the American opposition as that of a small faction, in which the body of the people took little part. This, you can inform them, of your own knowledge, is untrue. They have taken it into their heads, too. that we are cowards, and shall surrender at discretion to an armed force. *** I wish they were thoroughly and minutely acquainted with every circumstance relative to America, as it exists in truth. I am persuaded, this would go far towards disposing them to reconciliation.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 200. FORD ED., i, 482. (M., August 1775.) If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may change his disposition, it will, perhaps, be in your power, by assisting to do this, to render service to the whole empire, at the most critical time, certainly, that it has ever seen. Whether Britain shall continue the head of the greatest empire on earth, or shall return to her original station in the political scale of Europe, depends, perhaps, on the resolutions of the succeeding win

7484.

This John Randolph was the King's Attorney General, and a son of Sir John Randolph. He sided with the Crown and went to England. Peyton Randolph was his brother.-EDITOR.

ter. God send they may be wise and salutary for us all.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 201. FORD ED., i, 484. (M., August 1775.)

7485. One bloody campaign will probably decide, everlastingly, our future course; and I am sorry to find a bloody camraign is decided on. If our winds and waters should not combine to rescue their shores from slavery, and General Howe's reinforcements should arrive in safety, we have hopes he will be inspirited to come out of Boston and take another drubbing; and we must drub him soundly, before the sceptred tyrant will know we are not mere brutes, to crouch under his hand, and kiss the rod with which he designs to scourge us.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 203. FORD ED., i, 493. (M., Nov. 1775.)

7486. REVOLUTION (American), Influence on France.-The American Revolution seems first to have awakened the thinking rart of the French nation in general from the sleep of despotism in which they were sunk.AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 69. FORD ED., i, 96. (1821.) See REVOLUTION, FRENCH.

(American),

7487. REVOLUTION Losses in. I think that upon the whole [our loss in the war] has been about one-half the number lost by the British. *** This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy.— To i, 208. FORD ED., ii, 157. (Wg.,

1778.)

7488. REVOLUTION (American), Memory of. The memory of the American RevoIrtion will be immortal, and will immortalize those who record it. The reward is encouraging, and will justify all those pains which a rigorous investigation of facts will render necessary.To HILLIARD D'AUBERTEUIL. i, 535. (P., 1786.)

7489. REVOLUTION (American), Mythical British victories.-From the kind anxiety expressed in your letter, as well as from other sources of information, we discover that our enemies have filled Europe with Thrasonic accounts of victories they had never won and conquests they were fated never to make. While these accounts alarmed our friends in Europe, they afforded us diversion.-To i, 207. FORD ED., ii, 156. (Wg., 1778.)

7490. REVOLUTION (American), New England and Virginia.-Throughout the whole of the Revolution, Virginia and the four New England States acted together; indeed they made the Revolution. Their five votes were always to be counted on; but they had to pick up the remaining two for a majority, when and where they could. DANIEL WEBSTER'S CONVERSATION WITH JEfferson. FORD ED., X,

329.

7491. REVOLUTION

(American), Peace propositions.-Though this Congress, during the dependence of these States on the British crown with unwearied supplications sued for peace and just redress, and though they still retain a sincere disposition to peace; yet as his Britannic majesty by an obstinate perseverance in injury and a callous indifference to the sufferings and the complaints of these States, has driven them to the necessity of declaring themselves independent, this Congress bound by the voice of their constituents, which coincides with their own sentiments, have no power to enter into conference or to receive any From Lexington to the end of 1777.-EDITOR.

propositions on the subject of peace which do not, as a preliminary, acknowledge these States to be sovereign and independent: and that whenever this shall have been authoritatively admitted on the part of Great Britain, they shall at all times and with that earnestness which the love of peace and justice inspires, be ready to enter into conference or treaty for the purpose of stopping the effusion of so much kindred blood.-RESOLUTIONS ON PEACE PROPOSI

TIONS.

FORD ED., ii, 90. (Aug. 1776.) 7492. REVOLUTION (American), Resources of.-The main confidence of the Colonies was in their own resources. They considered foreign aid as probable and desirable, but not essential. I believe myself, from the whole of what I have seen of our resources and perseverance, 1, that had we never received any foreign aid, we should not have obtained our independence; but that we should have made a peace with Great Britain on any terms we pleased, short of that, which would have been a subjection to the same king, a union of force in war, &c. 2. That had France supplied us plentifully with money, suppose about four millions of guineas a year, without entering into the war herself at all, we should have established our Independence; but it would have cost more time, and blood, but less money. 3. That France, aiding us as she did, with money and forces, shortened much the time, lessened the expense of blood, but at a greater expense of money to her than would have otherwise been requisite.-NOTES ON M. SOULES'S WORK. ix, 297. FORD ED., iv, 305. (P., 1786.) 7493.

The submission of the States would not have been effected but by a long course of disasters, and such, too, as were irreparable in their nature. Their resources were great, and their determination so rooted, that they would have tried the last of them.NOTES ON M. SOULES'S WORK. ix, 297. FORd ed., iv, 305. (P., 1786.)

7494. REVOLUTION (American), Royal incendiarism.-It is a lamentable circumstance, that the only mediatory power, acknowledged by both parties, instead of leading to a reconciliation his divided people, should pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames, as we find him constantly do'ng, in every speech and public declaration.-To DR. WILLIAM SMALL. i, 199. FORD ED., i, 454. (May 1775.) See GEORGE III.

7495. REVOLUTION (American), Separation.-There is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain, than I do. But by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. We want neither inducement nor power, to declare and assert a separation. It is will, alone, which is wanting, and that is growing apace under the fostering hand of our King.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 203.

FORD ED., i, 493. (Pa., November 1775.)

7496. REVOLUTION (American), Spirit of.-Even those in Parliament who are called friends to America seem to know nothing of our real determinations. I observe, they pronounced in the last Parliament that the Congress of 1774 did not mean to insist rigorously on the terms they held out, but kept something in reserve to give up; and, in fact, that they would give up everything but the article of taxation. Now, the truth is far from this, as I

can affirm, and put my honor to the assertion. Their continuance in this error may, perhaps, produce very ill consequences. The Congress stated the lowest terms they thought possible to be accepted, in order to convince the world they were not unreasonable. They gave up the monopoly and regulation of trade and all acts of Parliament prior to 1764. leaving to British generosity to render these, at some time, as easy to America as the interest of Britain would admit. But this was before blood was spilt. I cannot affirm, but have reason to think these terms would not now be accepted.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 200. FORD ED., i, 483. (M., 1775.)

7497. REVOLUTION

(American),

Treaty of peace.-The terms obtained for us are indeed great, and are so deemed by your country, a few ill-designing debtors excepted.— TO JOHN JAY. i, 332. FORD ED., iii, 316. (Pa.. 1783.)

REVOLUTION (American), Underlying causes of.-See COLONIES (AMERICAN).

7498. REVOLUTION (American), Unnatural contest.-I hope the returning wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to this unnatural contest.-To JOHN RANDOLPH. i, 200. FORD ED., i, 482. (M., August 1775.) 7499. REVOLUTION (American), Washington and.-The moderation and virtue of a single character have probably prevented this Revolution from being closed, as most others have been, by a subversion of that liberty it was intended to establish.-To GENERAL WASHINGTON. i, 335. FORD ED., iii, 467. (A., 1784.) See COLONIES, CORNWALLIS, DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, GEORGE III., PARLIAMENT, RIGHTS OF BRITISH AMERICA, WAR and WASHINGTON.

7500. REVOLUTION (French), American revolution and.-Celebrated writers of France and England had already sketched good principles on the subject of government; yet the American Revolution seems first to have awakened the thinking part of the French nation in general from the sleep of despotism in which they were sunk. The officers, too, who had been to America, were mostly young men, less shackled by habit and prejudice, and more ready to assent to the suggestions of common others. sense, and feeling of common rights, than They came back with new ideas and impressions. The press, notwithstanding its shackles, began to disseminate them; conversation assumed new freedoms. Politics became the theme of all societies, male and female. and a very extensive and zealous party was formed, which acquired the appellation of the Patriotic Party, who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, sighed for occasions of reforming it. This party comprehended all the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at leisure to think, the men of letters. the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility, partly sentiments became matter of mode, and as such. from reflection, partly from mode; for these united most of the young women to the party. -AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 69. FORD ED., i, 96. (1821.)

7502. REVOLUTION (French), Clergy and nobles. It was imagined the ecclesiastical elections would have been generally in favor of the higher clergy; on the contrary, the lower clergy have obtained five-sixths of these deputations. These are the sons of peasants, who have done all the drudgery of the service for ten, twenty, and thirty guineas a year, and whose oppressions and penury, contrasted with the pride and luxury of the higher clergy, have rendered them perfectly disposed to humble the latter. They have done it, in many instances, with a boldness they were thought insusceptible of. Great hopes have been formed that these would concur with the Tiers Etat in voting by persons. In fact, about half of them seem as yet so disposed; but the bishops are intriguing, and drawing them over with the address which has ever marked ecclesiastical intrigue.-To JOHN JAY. iii, 27. (P., May 1789.)

REVOLUTION (French), Fall of Bastile.-See BASTILE.

7505. REVOLUTION (French), Famine and. We have had such a winter here as is not on record. The mercury was 182 below freezing on Reaumur's scale, and I think it was nearly two months varying between that and zero. It gave occasion for a display of the benevolent character of this nation, which, great as I had thought it, went beyond my expectations. There seems to be a very general apprehension of the want of bread this spring. Supplies are hoped from our country, and indeed they have already reduced the price of flour at Bordeaux from 361. to 331. the barrel. -TO COUNT DE MOUSTIER. ii, 590. (P., March 1789.)

*

United States, and there will be about the same country direct.y. quantity of rice sent from Charleston to this * * Paris consumes about a shipload a day (say two hundred and fifty tons).-To WILLIAM CARMICHAEL. iii, 22. (P., May 1789.)

7508.

There have been some

mobs, occasioned by the want of bread, in different parts of the kingdom, in which there may have been some lives lost, perhaps a dozen or twenty. These had no professed connection,, generally, with the constitutional revolution. A more serious riot happened lately in Paris, in which about one hundred of the mob were killed. This execution uas been universally approved, as they seemed to have no view but mischief and plunder.-To JAMES MADISON. iii, (P., May 1789.)

34.

7509.

The want of bread had been foreseen for some time past, and M. de Montmorin had desired me to notify it in America, and that, in addition to the market price, a premium should be given on what should be brought from the United States. Notice was accordingly given, and produced considerable supplies. Subsequent information made the importations from America, during the months of March, April and May, into the Atlantic ports of France, amount to about twenty-one thousand barrels of flour, besides what went to other ports, and in other months; while our supplies to their West Indian islands relieved them also from that drain. This distress for bread continued till July.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY. i, 89. FORD ED., i, 123. (1821.)

taxes,

7510. REVOLUTION (French), Financial abuses.-The discovery of the abominable abuses of public money by the late Comptroller General, some new expenses of the Court, not of a piece with the projects of reformation, and the imposition of new have, in the course of a few weeks, raised a spirit of discontent in the nation, so great and so general, as to threaten serious consequences. The parliaments in general, and particularly that of Paris, put themselves at the head of this effervescence, and direct its object to the calling of the States General, who have not been assembled since 1614. The object is to fix a constitution, and to limit expenses. The King has been obliged to hold a bed of justice, to enforce the registering the new taxes; the parliament on their side, propose to issue a prohibition against their execution. Very possibly this may bring on their exile.-To GENERAL WASHINGTON. ii, 251. (P., 1787.)

7511. REVOLUTION (French), Flight of the King.-We are now under the first impression of the news of the King s flight from Paris, and his recapture. It would be unfortunate were it in the power of any one man to defeat the issue of so beautiful a revolution. I hope and trust it is not, and that. for the good of suffering humanity all over the earth, that revolution will be established and spread through the whole world.-To SIR JOHN SINCLAIR. iii, 284. (Pa., 1791.)

7512. You have heard of the peril into which the French Revolution is brought by the flight of their King. Such are the fruits of that form of government which heaps importance on idiots, and of which the tories of the present day are trying to preach our favor.-To EDWARD RUTLEDGE. iii, 285. FORD ED., V, 376. (Pa., 1791.)

into