thing sacred, that the part they ascribed to me was entirely a calumny. Logan called on me 4. or 5. days before his departure, & asked & received a certificate (in my private capacity) of his citizenship & circumstances of life, merely as a protection, should he be molested in the present turbulent state of Europe. I have given such to an hundred others, & they have been much more frequently asked & obtained by tories than whigs. I did not write a scrip of a pen by him to any person. From long acquaintance he knew my wishes for peace & my political sentiments generally, but he received no particular declaration of them then nor one word of authority to speak in my name, or anybody's name on that or any other subject. It was an enterprise founded in the enthusiasm of his own character. own ground & made his own way. virtuous, and the effect meritorious. He went on his TO JAMES MADISON. MAD. MSS. Jan 30, 99. My last to you was of the 16th, since which yours of the 12th is received, and it's contents disposed of properly. These met such approbation as to have occasioned an extraordinary impression of that day's paper. Logan's bill is passed. The lower house, by a majority of 20. passed yesterday a bill continuing the suspension of intercourse with France, with a new clause enabling the President to admit intercourse with the rebellious negroes under Toussaint, who has an agent here, and has thrown off dependence on France. The H of R have also voted 6. 74's & 6. 18's, in part of the additional navy, say 552 guns, which in England would cost 5,000 D, & here 10,000, consequently more than the whole 5. millions for which a loan is now opened at 8. per cent. The maintenance is estimated at £1,000 (lawful) a gun annually. A bill has been this day brought into the Senate for authorizing the Pt in case of a declaration of war or danger of invasion by any European power to raise an eventual army of 30. regiments, infantry, cavalry, & artillery in addition to the additional army, the provisional army, & the corps of volunteers, which last he is authorized to brigade, officer, exercise, & pay during the time of exercise. And all this notwithstanding Gerry's correspondence recently received, & demonstrating the aversion of France to consider us as enemies. All depends on her patiently standing the measures of the present session, and the surrounding her islands with our cruisers, & capturing their armed vessels on her own coasts. If this is borne awhile, the public opinion is most manifestly wavering in the middle States, & was even before the publication of Gerry's correspondence. In New York, Jersey, & Pennsylvania, every one attests them, and Genl Sumpter, just arrived, assures me that the republicans in S C have gained 50. per cent. in numbers since the election, which was in the moment of the X. Y. Z. fever. I believe there is no doubt the republican governor would be elected here now, & still less for next Octo ber. The gentlemen of N C seem to be satisfied that their new delegation will furnish but 3. perhaps only 2. anti-republicans; if so, we shall be gainers on the whole. But it is on the progress of public opinion we are to depend for rectifying the proceedings of the next Congress. The only question is whether this will not carry things beyond the reach of rectification. Petitions & remonstrances against the alien & sedition laws are coming from various parts of N Y, Jersey, & Pensyva: some of them very well drawn. I am in hopes Virginia will stand so countenanced by those States as to repress the wishes of the government to coerce her, which they might venture on if they supposed she would be left alone. Firmness on our part, but a passive firmness, is the true course. Anything rash or threatening might check the favorable dispositions of these middle States, & rally them again around the measures which are ruining us. Buonaparte appears to have settled Egypt peacefully, & with the consent of those inhabitants, & seems to be looking towards the E. Indies, where a most formidable co-operation has been prepared for demolishing the British power. I wish the affairs of Ireland were as hopeful, and the peace with the north of Europe. Nothing new here as to the price of tobo, the river not having yet admitted the bringing any to this market. Spain being entirely open to ours, & depending on it for her supplies during the cutting off of her intercourse with her own colonies by the superiority of the British at sea, is much in our favor. I forgot to add that the bill for the eventual army, authorizes the President to borrow 2. millions more. Present my best respects to mrs. Madison, health & affectionate salutations to yourself. Adieu. TO JAMES MADISON. MAD. MSS. PHILADELPHIA, Feb 5, 99. I wrote you last on the 30th of Jan; since which yours of the 25th is received. At the date of my letter I had only heard the bill for the eventual army read once. I conceived it additional to the Provisional army &c. I must correct the error. The bill for the provisional army (about 10,000 men) expires this session without having been carried into execution. The eventual army (about 30,000) is a substitute. I about 30,000 say because some calculate the new establishment of a regiment we are now passing to a little over, & some a little under 1,000 officers & privates. The whole land army contemplated is the existing army 5000. The additional army 9000. The eventual army 30,000. And the volunteer army, the amount of which is not known. But besides that it is 44,000 men, and nobody pretends to say that there is from any quarter the least real danger of invasion. These may surely be set down at 500 dollars per annum a man though they pretend that the existing army costs but 300. The reason of that is that there are not actually above 3000 of them, the 5,000 being merely on paper. The bill for continuing the suspension of intercourse with France & her dependencies, is still before the Senate, but will pass by a very great vote. An attack is made on what is called Toussaint's clause, the object of which, as is charged by the one party and admitted by the other, is to facilitate the separation of the island from France. The clause will pass however, by about 19. to 8., or perhaps 18. to 9. Rigaud, at the head of the people of color, maintains his allegiance. But they are only 25,000 souls, against 500,000, the number of the blacks. The treaty made with them by Maitland is (if they are to be separated from France) the best thing for us. They must get their provisions from us. It will indeed be in English bottoms, so that we shall lose the carriage. But the English will probably forbid them the ocean, confine them to their island, & thus prevent their becoming an American Algiers. It must be admitted too, that they may play them off on us when they please. Against this there is no remedy but timely measures on our part, to clear ourselves, by degrees, of the matter on which that lever can work. The opposition to Livermore was not republican. I have however seen letters from New Hampshire from which it appears that the public sentiment there is no longer progressive in any direction, but that at present it is dead water. That during the whole of their late session not a word has been heard of Jacobinism, disorganization &c. No reproach of any kind cast on the republicans, that there has been a general complaint |