and the old principle adhered to. Still it does not follow but that a sound principle may have been smothered by powerful states acting on a temporary interest, and that we have always a right to correct ancient errors, & to establish what is more conformable to reason & convenience. This is the ground we must take. I shall rejoice to see Mrs. Madison, yourself & the class heroine here. Observe that the governor is at Richmond every other Saturday. He goes down this day & will be back on Tuesday. Accept assurances of my affectionate friendship. TO PIERCE BUTLER. J. MSS. MONTICELLO, Aug. 26, 1801. DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the 14th came to hand on the 20th. I thank you for the information it contained. It is of that kind which I am anxious to receive. After so long and complete an exclusion from office as republicans have suffered in so much that every place is filled with their opponents justice as well as principle requires that they should have some participation. I believe they will be contented with less than their just share for the sake of peace & conciliation. This latter motive has weighed powerfully with me to do as little in the way of removal as circumstances will admit: for after the bloody severance of the nation into two parts which our predecessors affected, the first duty of every patriot is to reunite and heal the severed parts. Exclusive possession [faded] one party; removal the other. Yet both must be brought together. The [faded] of the Southern republicans has been really magnanimous. In Maryland little has been asked, in Virginia N. Cara, Georgia, not one. think we are yet well enough informed to do anything, but I am extremely happy to find you disapprove of much removal. You say "there are perhaps two or three at most, who, it appears to you should be removed, that the citizens in particular whose continuance in office will disgust every republican in the state." May I ask of you who is the one, who are the two or three? I do it under the seal of confidence & with no earthly wish than to use it for the best purpose of the common cause. Our views are to do little more in the way of removal. get through it in the course of the year. After which the measures we shall pursue & propose will I hope have the effect of forming into one body all except the monarchical federalists who are incurable & hopeless. Accept assurances of my friendly attachment & high respect. As to S. Carol I do not We shall TO THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. (LEVI LINCOLN.) J. MSS. DEAR SIR, MONTICELLO, Aug. 26, 1801. * I am glad to learn from you that the answer to New Haven had a good effect in Massachusetts on the republicans, & no ill effects on the sincere federalists. I had foreseen, years ago, that the first republican President who should come into office after all the places in the government had become exclusively occupied by federalists, would have a dreadful operation to perform. That the republicans would consent to a continuation of everything in federal hands, was not to be expected, because neither just nor politic. On him, then, was to devolve the office of an executioner, that of lopping off. I cannot say that it has worked harder than I expected. You know the mod eration of our views in this business, and that we all concurred in them. We determined to proceed with deliberation. This produced impatience in the republicans, and a belief we meant to do nothing. Some occasion of public explanation was eagerly desired, when the New Haven remonstrance offered us that occasion. The answer was meant as an explanation to our friends. It has had on them, everywhere, the most wholesome effect. Appearances of schismatizing from us have been entirely done away. I own I expected it would check the current with which the republican federalists were returning to their brethren, the republicans. I extremely lamented this effect; for the moment which should convince me that a healing of the nation into one is impracticable, would be the last moment of my wishing to remain where I am. (Of the monarchical federalists I have no expectations. They are incurables, to be taken care of in a mad house, if necessary, & on motives of charity.) I am much pleased, therefore, with your information that the republican federalists are still coming in to the desired union. The Eastern newspapers had given me a different impression, because I supposed the printers knew the taste of their customers, and cooked their dishes to their palates. The Palladium is understood to be the clerical paper, & from the clergy I expect no mercy. They crucified their Saviour, who preached that their kingdom was not of this world; and all who practise on that precept must expect the extreme of their wrath. The laws of the present day withhold their hands from blood; but lies and slander still remain to them. I am satisfied that the heaping of abuse on me, personally, has been with the design & hope of provoking me to make a general sweep of all federalists out of office. But as I have carried no passion into the execution of this disagreeable duty, I shall suffer none to be excited. The clamor which has been raised will not provoke me to remove one more, nor deter me from removing one less, than if not a word had been said on the subject. In Massachusetts, you may be assured, great moderation will be used. Indeed, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania & Delaware, are the only States where anything considerable is desired. In the course of the summer all which is necessary will be done; and we may hope that this cause of offence being at an end, the measures we shall pursue & propose for the amelioration of the public affairs will be so confessedly salutary as to unite all men not monarchists in principle. We have considerable hopes of republican senators from S. Carolina, Maryland & Delaware, & some as to Vermont. In any event, we are secure of a majority in the Senate; and consequently that there will be a concert of action between the Legislature & executive. The removal of excrescences from the judiciary is the universal demand. We propose to re-assemble at Washington on the last day of September. Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem & high respect. TO THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. J. MSS. MONTICELLO, August 28, 1801. DEAR SIR,-Your favors of the 18th and 24th came by yesterday's post. I am sorry Mr. Clay declines the consulship; it would have been very pleasing to us to replace our minister at Lisbon by such a consul as Clay. Perhaps reconsideration and inquiry into the advantages of the situation may reconcile it to him. I have not here my bundle of claims for office, and therefore cannot propose a successor for Colonel White in Jersey. Your acquaintance in the State will better enable you to do it. I have written to three gentlemen of great discretion, one at Norfolk, the others near Hampton, on the subject of Chisman. I have an answer from the one at Norfolk, who has never heard of him. I shall hear from the others before the next post. I have known Mr. Page from the time we were boys and classmates together and love him as a brother, but I have always known him the worst judge of man existing. He has fallen a sacrifice to the ease with which he gives his confidence to those who deserve it not. Still, if we hear nothing against Chisman, we may venture to do what may be agreeable to Mr. Page. I am very anxious to do something useful for him; and so universally is he esteemed in this country, that no man's promotion would be more generally approved. He has not an enemy in the world. But we have but one officer here whom the general voice, Whig and Tory, marks for removal; and I am not well enough acquainted with its duties to be certain that they are adapted to Mr. Page's talent. The explanation you give of the nature of the office proposed for Jonas Clarke silences my doubts, and I agree to the appointment. I think we should do justice to Campbell and Gardner, and cannot suppose the Auditor will think hard of replacing them in their former berths. He has seen us restore officers where we thought their removal unjust, and cannot therefore view it in this case as meant to censure himself specially. Specific restitution is the particular measure of justice which the case calls for. The doctrine as to the admission of prizes, maintained by the government from the commencement of the war between England, France, &c., to this day, has been this: the treaties give a right to armed vessels, with their prizes, to go where they please (consequently into our ports), and that these prizes shall not be detained, seized, nor adjudicted; but that the armed vessel may depart as speedily as may be, with her prize, to the place of her commission; and we are not to suffer their enemies to sell in our ports the prizes taken by their privateers. Before the British treaty, no stipulation stood in the way of permitting France to sell her prizes here; and we did permit it, but expressly as a favor, not as a right. See letter of August 16, 1793, to Gouverneur Morris, § 4, and other letters in that correspondence, which I cannot now turn to. These stipulations admit the prizes to put into our ports in cases of necessity, or perhaps of convenience, but no right to remain if disagreeable to us; and absolutely not to be sold. We have accordingly lately ordered away a British vessel brought in by a Spanish armed ship, and I have given it as my opinion to Mr. Madison that the British snow Windsor, lately brought in by the Prisoners she was carrying, ought to be sent away. My opinion is, that whatever we are free to do we ought to do to throw difficulties in the way of the depredations committed on commerce, and chiefly our own commerce. In the case of the Spanish privateer at Wilmington North Carolina, who wants to sell as much of his prize as will |