3. American merchants trading on British capital. Another great portion. 4. Speculators & Holders in the banks & public funds. 5. Officers of the federal government with some exceptions. 6. Office-hunters, willing to give up principles for places. A numerous & noisy tribe. 7. Nervous persons, whose languid fibres have more analogy with a passive than active state of things. The Republican part of our Union comprehends 1. The entire body of landholders throughout the United States. 2. The body of labourers, not being landholders, whether in husbanding or the arts. The latter is to the aggregate of the former party probably as 500 to one; but their wealth is not as disproportionate, tho' it is also greatly superior, and is in truth the foundation of that of their antagonists. Trifling as are the numbers of the Antirepublican party, there are circumstances which give them an appearance of strength & numbers. They all live in cities, together, & can act in a body readily & at all times; they give chief employment to the newspapers, & therefore have most of them under their command. The Agricultural interest is dispersed over a great extent of country, have little means of intercommunication with each other, and feeling their own strength & will, are conscious that a single exertion of these will at any time crush the machinations against their government. As in the commerce of human life, there are commodities adapted to every demand, so there are newspapers adapted to the Antirepublican palate, and others to the Republican. Of the former class are the Columbian Centinel, the Hartford newspaper, Webster's Minerva, Fenno's Gazette of the U. S., Davies's Richmond paper &c. Of the latter are Adams's Boston paper, Greenleaf's of New York, Freneau's of New Jersey, Bache's of Philadelphia, Pleasant's of Virginia &c. Pleasant's paper comes out twice a week, Greenleaf's & Freneau's once a week, Bache's daily. I do not know how often Adam's. I shall according to your desire endeavor to get Pleasant's for you for 1794, & 95. and will have it forwarded through 96 from time to time to your correspondent at Baltimore. While on the subject of authorities and information, the following works are recommended to Professor Ebeling. Minot's history of the insurrection in Massachusetts in 1786. 8° Mazzei. Recherches historiques et politiques sur les E. U. de l'Amerique. 4 vol. 8 This is to be had from Paris. The author is an exact man. The article Etats Unis de l'Amerique' in the Dictionnaire d'Economie politique et diplomatique, de l'Encyclopedie methodique. This article occupies about 90. pages, is by De Meusnier, and his materials were worthy of confidence, except so far as they were taken from the Abbé Raynal. Against these effusions of an imagination in delirio it is presumed Professor Ebeling needs not be put on his guard. The earlier editions of the Abbé Raynal's work were equally bad as to both South & North America. A gentleman however of perfect information as to South America, undertook to reform that part of the work, and his changes & additions were for the most part adopted by the Abbé in his latter editions. But the North-American part remains in it's original state of worthlessness. TO ARCHIBALD STUART.1 MONTICELLO, Jan. 3, '96. DEAR SIR, I troubled you once before on the subject of my nails, and must trouble you once more, but hope my present plan will protect you from all further embarrasment with it. I set out with refusing to retail, expecting the merchants of my neighborhood and the upper country would have given a preference to my supplies, because delivered here at the Richmond wholesale prices, and at hand to be called for in small parcels, so that they need not to 'From the original in the possession of the Virginia Historical Society. VOL. VII.-4 keep large sums invested in that article & lying dead on their hands. The importing merchants however decline taking them from a principle of suppressing every effort towards domestic manufacture, & the merchants who purchase here being much under the influence of the importers, take their nails from them with their other goods. I have determined therefore to establish deposits of my nails to be retailed at Milton, Charlottesville, Staunton, Wormester, & Warren, but first at the three first places, because I presume my present works, which turn out a ton a month, will fully furnish them, and two additional fires which will be at work in a short time, will raise it to a ton and a half a month, and enable me to extend my supplies to Wormester & Warren. I shall retail at Richmond wholesale prices, laying on 5 percent at Milton & Charlottesville for commission to the retailers, and 10. percent at the other places for commission & transportation. My present retailing prices at Staunton would be Sixes 121 per lb. equal to 7/3 per M 66 equal to 10/ It is tolerably certain that the moment my deposit opens there will be an entire stoppage to the sale of all imported nails, for a body can retail them in the upper country at the Richmond wholesale prices, advanced only 5 or 10 percent. and as I mean to employ only one person in each place to retail, it will be of some advantage to the merchant who will undertake it, to have the entire monopoly of the nail business, & so draw to his store every one who wants nails, besides the commission of 5 percent, which in an article to be sold for ready money only, and where he does not employ a farthing of his own capital, I am advised is a sufficient allowance for commission. I should expect them to send me a copy of their sales once a month, and to hold the proceeds ready for my draughts at stated periods, say monthly. I trouble you to engage some person whom you can recommend for punctuality, to retail for me. I heard very favorable accounts of a Mr. Stuart, merch of Staunton, & should not hesitate to prefer him if he will undertake it. If not, pray do me the favor to find some other. I have written you the details, not that you need trouble yourself with explaining them to any person but that you may put this letter into his hands. As soon as you will name to me the person you engage I will send him an assortment of nails by the first waggons which will take them in.-Will you be so good as to procure for me a good bearskin, dressed, with a soft skin & the hair on. Dr. Johnson will on your application be so good as to pay for it, and take credit on his account with me. My respectful salutations to Mrs. Stuart, and assurances of attachment to yourself from yours affectionately. TO GEORGE WYTHE. J. MSS. MONTICELLO, January 16, 1796. In my letter which accompanied the box containing my collection of Printed laws, I promised to send you by post a statement of the contents of the box. On taking up the subject I found it better to take a more general view of the whole of the laws I possess, as well Manuscript as printed, as also of those which I do not possess, and suppose to be no longer extant. This general view you will have in the enclosed paper, whereof the articles stated to be printed constitute the contents of the box I sent you. Those in MS. were not sent, because not supposed to have been within your view, and because some of them will not bear removal, being so rotten, that in turning over a leaf it sometimes falls into powder. These I preserve by wrapping & sewing them up in oiled cloth, so that neither air nor moisture can have access to them. Very early in the course of my researches into the laws of Virginia, I observed that many of them were already lost, and many more on the point of being lost, as existing only in single copies in the hands of careful or curious individuals, on whose death they would probably be used for waste paper. I set myself therefore to work, to collect all which were then existing, in order that when the day should come in which the public should advert to the magnitude of their loss in these precious monuments of our property, and our history, a part of their regret might be spared by information that a portion has been saved from the wreck, which is worthy of their attention & |