University of Virginia Library

TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Dear Sir,—Yours of the 18th of March never
reached me till the 4th inst. It came by post from
N. York, which it did not leave till the 21 of July.
My last was dated in April, & went by Mr. Mazzei,
who picked it up at N. York and promised to deliver
it with his own hand.

The machinations of G. B. with regard to Commerce
have produced much distress and noise in the
Northern States, particularly in Boston, from whence
the alarm has spread to New York & Philda. Your
correspondence with Congs will no doubt have furnished
you with full information on this head. I only
know the general fact, and that the sufferers are everywhere
calling for such augmentation of the power of
Congress as may effect relief. How far the Southern
States & Virginia in particular will join in this proposition
cannot be foreseen. It is easy to foresee that
the circumstances which in a confined view distinguish
our situation from that of our brethren, will
be laid hold of by the partizans of G. B, by those
who are or affect to be jealous of Congress, and
those who are interested in the present course of
business, to give a wrong bias to our Councils. If
anything should reconcile Virga to the idea of giving
Congress a power over her trade, it will be that
this power is likely to annoy G. B. against whom
the animosities of our Citizens are still strong. They
seem to have less sensibility to their commercial interests;
which they very little understand, and which
the mercantile class here have not the same motives
if they had the same capacity to lay open to the public,
as that class have in the States North of us. The
price of our Staple since the peace is another cause of
inattention in the planters to the dark side of our
commercial affairs. Should these or any other causes
prevail in frustrating the scheme of the Eastern &
Middle States of a general retaliation on G. B. I

[37] tremble for the event. A majority of the States deprived
of a regular remedy for their distresses by the
want of a federal spirit in the minority must feel
the strongest motives to some irregular experiments.
The danger of such a crisis makes me surmise that the
policy of G. B. results as much from the hope of effecting
a breach in our Confederacy as of monopolizing our
trade.

Our internal trade is taking an arrangement from
which I hope good consequences. Retail Stores are
spreadg all over the country, many of them carried on
by native adventurers, some of them branched out
from the principal Stores at the heads of navigation.
The distribution of the business, however into the
importing & the retail departments has not yet taken
place. Should the port bill be established it will I
think quickly add this amendment which indeed must
in a little time follow of itself. It is the more to be
wished for as it is the only radical cure for credit to
the consumer which continues to be given to a degree
which if not checked will turn the diffusive retail of
merchandize into a nuisance. When the Shop keeper
buys his goods of the wholesale merchant, he must
buy at so short a credit, that he can venture to give
none at all.

You ask me to unriddle the dissolution of the
Commee of the States at Annapolis. I am not sure
that I am myself possessed fully of the causes different
members of Congress having differed in their accounts
of the matter. My conception of it is that the

abrupt departure of some of the Eastern delegates,
which destroyed the quorum & which Dana is said to
have been at the bottom of proceeded partly from irritations
among the commẽe partly from dislike to the
place of their session, and partly from an impatience
to get home, which prevailed over their regard for their
private characters, as well as for their public duty.

Subsequent to the date of mine in which I gave my
idea of fayette I had further opportunities of penetrating
his character. Though his foibles did not disappear
all the favorable traits presented themselves in a
stronger light on closer inspection. He certainly possesses
talents which might figure in any line. If he is
ambitious it is rather of the praise which virtue dedicates
to merit than of the homage which fear renders to
power his disposition is naturally warm & affectionate,
and his attachment to the U. S. unquestionable. Unless
I am grossly deceived, you will find his zeal sincere
and useful, whenever it can be employed in behalf of the
U. S. with [out] opposition to the essential interests of
France.

The opposition to the general assessment gains
ground. At the instance of some of its adversaries I
drew up the remonstrance herewith inclosed. It has
been sent thro' the medium of confidential persons in a
number of the upper Counties, and I am told will be
pretty extensively signed. The presbyterian clergy,
have at length espoused the side of the opposition,
being moved either by a fear of their laity or a jealousy
of the episcopalians. The mutual hatred of
these sects has been much inflamed by the late Act

incorporating the latter. I am far from being sorry
for it, as a coalition between them could alone endanger
our religious rights, and a tendency to such an event
had been suspected. The fate of the Circuit Courts is
uncertain. They are threatened with no small danger
from the diversity of opinions entertained among the
friends of some reform in that department. But the
greatest danger is to be feared from those who mask
a secret aversion to any reform under a zeal for such
a one as they know will be rejected. The Potowmack
Company are going on with very flattering prospects.
Their subscriptions some time ago amounted to upwards
of four-fifths of the whole sum. I have the
pleasure also to find by an advertisement from the
managers for James River that more than half
the sum is subscribed for that undertaking, and that
the subscribers are to meet shortly for the purpose of
organizing themselves & going to work. I despair of
seeing the Revisal taken up at the ensuing Session.
The number of copies struck are so deficient (there
being not above three for each County) and there has
been such delay in distributing them (none of the
Counties having recd them till very lately & some
probably not yet, tho' they were ready long ago,) that
the principal end of their being printed has been
frustrated. Our fields promise very short crops both
of Corn & Tobo. The latter was much injured by the
grass hopper & other insects; the former, somewhat by
the bug in the Southern parts of the State, but both
have suffered most from dry weather which prevails
at present in this part of the Country, and has
generally prevailed I understand in most other parts.
It seems certain that no future weather can make a
great crop of either particularly of Tobo, so great a
proportion of the hills being without plants in them &
so many more with plants in them which must come
to nothing. Notwithstanding this prospect, its price
has fallen from 36s. to 32 & 30s. on James River &
28s. on Rappahannock. The scarcity of cash is one
cause.[38] Harrison late Gov. was elected in Surry,
whither he previously removed with his family a contest
for the chair will no doubt ensue should he fail he
will be for Congress. I have not yet recd any of the
books which you have been so kind as to pick up
for me, but expect their arrival daily, as you were
probably soon after the date of your last apprised that
I was withdrawn from the nomination which led you
to suspend the forwarding them. I am invited by
Col: Monroe to an option of rambles this fall, one of
which is into the Eastern States. I wish much to
accept so favorable an opportunity of executing the
plan from which I was diverted last fall; but cannot
decide with certainty whether it will be practicable or
not. I have in conjunction with a friend here a project
of Interest on the anvil, which will carry me at
least as far as Phila or New York where I shall be
able to take my final resolution.