144

JEFFERSON'S DRAFT OF INSTRUCTIONS.

[CHAP. III. noderation. Their limits with us under the former Government were generally illdefined, questionable, and the frequent cause of war. Sincerely desirous of living in their peace, of cultivating it by every act of justice and friendship, and of rendering them better neighbors by introducing among them some of the most useful arts, it was necessary to begin by a precise definition of boundary. Accordingly, at the treaties held with them, our mutual boundaries were settled; and notwithstanding our just right to concessions adequate to the circumstances of the case, we required such only as were inconsiderable; and for even these, in order that we might place them in a state of perfect conciliation, we paid them a valuable consideration, and granted them annuities in money which have been regularly paid, and were equal to the prices for which they have usually sold their lands."

He described the recent aggressions of the Indians, and added:

"Really desirous of living in peace with them, we have redoubled our efforts to produce the same disposition in them. We have borne with their aggressions, forbidden all returns of hostility against them, tied up the hands of our people, insomuch that few instances of retaliation have occurred even from our suffering citizens; we have multiplied our gratifications to them, fed them, when starving, from the produce of our own fields and labor. No longer ago than the last winter, when they had no other resource against famine, and must have perished in great numbers, we carried into their country and distributed among them, gratuitously, ten thousand bushels of corn; and that too, at the same time, when their young men were daily committing murders on helpless women and children on our frontiers. And though these depredations now involve more considerable parts of the nation, we are still demanding punishment of the guilty individuals, and shall be contented with it "

After meeting one by one the complaints of Spain, and showing how entirely unfounded they were, he concluded in this noble strain:

"We love and we value peace; we know its blessings from experience. We abhor the follies of war, and are not untried in its distresses and calamities. Unmeddling with the affairs of other nations, we had hoped that our distance and our dispositions would have left us free, in the example and indulgence of peace with all the world. We had, with sincere and particular dispositions, courted and cultivated the friendship of Spain. We have made to it great sacrifices of time and interest, and were disposed to believe she would see her interests also in a perfect coalition and good understanding with us. Cherishing still the same sentiments, we have chosen, in the present instance, to ascribe the intimations in this letter to the particular character of the writers, displayed in the peculiarity of the

The letter of Messrs. Viar and Jaudennes, the Spanish Commissioners to the United States, already mentioned, communicating the treaties between Spain and the Indians, and the intentions of their Government.

CHAP. III.]

THE PRESIDENT's attitude.

145

style of their communications, and therefore, we have removed the cause from them to their sovereign, in whose justice and love of peace we have confidence. If we are disappointed in this appeal, if we are to be forced into a contrary order of things, our mind is made up. We shall meet it with firmness. The necessity of our position will supersede all appeal to calculation now, as it has done heretofore. We confide in our own strength, without boasting of it; we respect that of others, without fearing it. If we cannot otherwise prevail on the Creeks to discontinue their depredations, we will attack them in force. If Spain chooses to consider our defence against savage butchery as a cause of war to her, we must meet her also in war, with regret, but without fear; and we shall be happier, to the last moment, to repair with her to the tribunal of peace and reason.

"The President charges you to communicate the contents of this letter to the Court of Madrid, with all the temperance and delicacy which the dignity and character of that Court render proper; but with all the firmness and self-respect which befit a nation conscious of its rectitude, and settled in its purpose."

This dispatch was at once forwarded to Madrid by a courier. It was considered a "last effort for the preservation of honorable peace,' " but the chance of peace was looked upon as "absolutely desperate." Spain had recently sent reinforcements to New Orleans and strengthened her posts higher on the Mississippi. Everything boded a speedy war. But amidst all surrounding embarrassments, the President's mind retained its firm and manly tone. As plainly as the Secretary of State, he saw the monstrous folly and dishonor of attempting to conciliate a coalition of inveterate foes, who could only be propitiated by base sacrifices, and this simply to avoid the necessity of throwing our weight into the same scale with our only European friend.

France had executed its monarch, whom a party in America pronounced "an unfortunate Prince, whose reign was a continued demonstration of the goodness and benevolence of his heart, of his attachment to the people of whom he was the monarch," "brought precipitately and ignominiously to the block without any substantial proof of guilt as yet disclosed." France had established a Republic, and massacres like those of 2d and 3d of September had heralded its advent. Marat and Robespierre held conspicuous places in its Convention. Atheistical doctrines had been advanced in the Convention and "heard with Loud applauses." The declaration of 15th December placed France in an aggressive attitude towards kingly governments.

1 Jefferson to Madison, June 29th.

FOL. II.--10

Jefferson to Monroe, July 14th

146

THE PRESIDENT'S ATTITUDE.

[CHAP. III. She had "prostrated and ravished the monuments of religious worship; passion, tumult and violence had usurped those seats, where reason and cool deliberation ought to preside." Such were the assertions of the leading Federalists,' and they were true, if the habitual vacillation, and constant violation of engagements, by a weak Prince, under the domination of bad advisers, was not, in the ruler of a people, "guilt" for which he could be held properly responsible.

But, were the United States exonerated, by these temporary excesses, from all ties of gratitude and kindly feeling to the French nation? Was the Government of that country founded on more gigantic crimes than those of the despotisms against which it was struggling? Had not even the constitutional Government of England been cemented by violations of social and moral order-and her religious establishment erected out of the "prostrated and ravished monuments" of that Church on which French atheism had recently laid its impious hands? Had any great change in European political or religious institutions and particularly any advance in political liberalisınbeen accomplished without convulsion and bloody violence? And was Republicanism alone to be held responsible for the disorders of its transition from a preceding state? Were sister republics to join in loving pact with old blood-stained Absolutism, with the very hate which the aid of France to America had begotten, with purely selfish national antipathies and rivalries, to hunt the intruder from the pale of nations? Had any of her aggressiveness been directed against us? Was it anything better than an insincere pretence to hold her very form of government responsible for an aggressive spirit, when monarchy in every form, and of every hue, was leagued for her destruction?

General Washington did not, as we have declared, subscribe to the doctrines or the feelings of the Federal leaders in these particulars. Lips, unpractised to deceive, had just declared to Genet, "his sincere and cordial regard for his nation." All his

If it is pretended this was merely pro forma, take the following purely gratuitous declaration contained in a letter written by Gen. Washington (May 24th) to the Provis ional Executive Council of France in behalf of a now private citizen (M. de Ternant) and not on any public business:

"I assure you, with a sincere participation of the great and constant friendship which these United States bear to the French nation, of the interest they feel in whatever con

CHAP. III.] HIS CONCURRENCE WITH JEFFERSON.

147.

preceding action had comported with that declaration. And the Spanish instructions of June 30th, present us with what must be regarded as the final disposal of substantially a test question, showing that he was now as fixed in his resolve as on the 31st of October, 1792, against an Anglo-Spanish alliance,' and, on the other hand, that he was firmly bent on a line of action which was thought, at the time, most likely to draw us into a war with Spain, and consequently England, in which event we should necessarily act with France, and against common enemies. The last was not the object which dictated the policy of either the President or Secretary of State. It was but incidental to a policy requisite to protect the rights and dignity of our nation. But, even in that light, it was far enough from that monomaniacal hostility to the French Republic, which rather than honorably cooperate with it, welcomed insult or degrading alliance from any other quarter.

An unequivocal proof of the perfect understanding and confidence which subsisted between the President and Secretary of State, in regard to our foreign relations, has chanced to become a matter of record. The following is from Sparks's Correspondence of Washington, vol. x. p. 348.

SIR,

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE.

PHILADELPHIA, 1 June, 1798.

To call upon Mr. Hammond, without further delay, for the result of the reference to his court concerning the surrender of the western posts, or to await the decision of the trial at Richmond on the subject of British debts before it be done, is a question on which my mind has balanced some time.

If your own judgment is not decidedly in favor of one or the other, it is my desire, as the heads of the departments are now together, that you will take their opinions thereupon and act accordingly.

I am, ctc.

The heads of departments then together (a Cabinet meeting was held June 1st) discussed the propriety of sending a mes

cerns their happiness and prosperity, and of their wishes for a perpetual fraternity with them; and I pray God to have them and you very great and good friends and allies, in his holy keeping."

This letter was not sent; but this fact has no bearing on the sincerity of its decla rations. (See Sparks's Washington, vol. x. p. 347.)

See ante, p. 99.

1.18

HIS CONCURRENCE WITH JEFFERSON.

[CHAP. III. senger to the Choctaws, etc., as already seen, but the propriety of calling upon Mr. Hammond is in no wise even alluded to in such records as we possess of their proceedings.' This shows that the Secretary of State's judgment was "decidedly in favor of one or the other course," and that he did not take the opinions the Cabinet.

Having dispatched some very important intervening business, Jefferson addressed the following note to the British. Minister:

PHILADELPHIA, June 19, 1793.

SIR, I had the honor to address you a letter on the 29th of May was twelvemonth, on the articles still unexecuted of the treaty of peace between the two nations. The subject was extensive and important, and therefore rendered a certain degree of delay in the reply to be expected. But it has now become such as naturally to generate disquietude. The interest we have in the western posts, the blood and treasure which their detention costs us daily, cannot but produce a corresponding anxiety on our part. Permit me, therefore, to ask when I may expect the honor of a reply to my letter, and to assure you of the sentiments of respect with which I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

The call on England at a moment of so much irritation, and when she was loudly complaining at our recent conduct, for her final answer in regard to surrendering our western (so called, but which now would be termed northern) posts, hitherto forcibly detained by her, and doing this the next day after receiving the insolent manifesto of the Spanish Commissioners, and just eleven days before forwarding our decisive ultimatum to Spain, presents unmistakable evidence that President Washington, at this period, was resolved to brave the Anglo-Spanish Coalition, unless concessions were made to us which not a man in America expected would be made.

We are not without another and significant hint of the President's motives, in the following letter:

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE.

PHILADELPHIA, 20 June, 1793.

SIR, I leave it to you and the heads of the other two departments, to say what or whether any answer should be given to the British Minister's letter of the 19th. It

1 Q. v. Hamilton's Works. vol. iv. p. 409.