University of Virginia Library

Y

9203. YAZOO LANDS, Speculation in.

—Arthur Campbell * * * says the Yazoo
bargain is likely to drop with the consent of the
purchasers. He explains it thus: They expected
to pay for the lands in public paper at
par, which they had bought at half a crown a
pound. Since the rise in the value of the public
paper, they have gained as much on that
as they would have done by investing it in the
Yazoo lands; perhaps more, as it puts a large
sum of specie at their command, which they
can turn to better account. They are, therefore,
likely to acquiesce under the determination
of the government of Georgia to consider
the contract as forfeited by non-payment.—
To President Washington. Washington ed. iii, 251. Ford ed., v, 324.
(Pa., 1791)

9204. YAZOO LANDS, Title to.—

I * * * return the petition of Mr. Moultrie on behalf
of the South Carolina Yazoo Company. Without
noticing that some of the highest functions
of sovereignty are assumed in the very papers
which he annexes as his justification, I am of
opinion that the government should formally
maintain this ground; that the Indians have a
right to the occupation of their lands, independent
of the States within whose chartered
lines they happen to be; that until they cede
them by treaty or other transaction equivalent
to a treaty, no act of a State can give a right
to such lands; that neither under the present
Constitution, nor the ancient confederation,
had any State or person a right to treat with
the Indians, without the consent of the General
Government; that that consent has never
been given to any treaty for the cession of the
lands in question; that the government is determined
to exert all its energy for the patronage
and protection of the rights of the Indians,
and the preservation of peace between the
United States and them; and that if any settlements
are made on lands not ceded by them,
without the previous consent of the United
States, the government will think itself bound,
not only to declare to the Indians that such
settlements are without the authority or protection
of the United States, but to remove
them also by the public force.—
To Henry Knox. Washington ed. iii, 280. Ford ed., v, 370.
(Pa., 17911791)gt;

9205. YELLOW FEVER, Cities and.—

[As to] the town which you have done me the
honor to name after me, and to lay out according
to an idea I had formerly expressed to you,
I am thoroughly persuaded that it will be found

handsome and pleasant, and I do believe it
to be the best means of preserving the cities
of America from the scourge of the yellow
fever, which being peculiar to our country, must
be derived from some peculiarity in it. That
peculiarity I take to be our cloudless skies. In
Europe, where the sun does not shine more
than half the number of days in the year which
it does in America, they can build their town
in a solid block with impunity; but here a
constant sun produces too great an accumulation
of heat to admit that. Ventilation is indispensably
necessary. Experience has taught
us that in the open air of the country the
yellow fever is not only not generated, but
ceases to be infectious.—
To Governor Harrison. Washington ed. iv, 471.
(W. 1803)

9206. YELLOW FEVER, Cities and.—[continued].

I have supposed it practicable
to prevent its generation by building our cities on a more open plan. Take, for
instance, the checker board for a plan. Let
the black squares only be building squares, and
the white ones be left open, in turf and trees.
Every square of houses will be surrounded by
four open squares, and every house will front
an open square. The atmosphere of such a
town would be like that of the country, insusceptible
of the miasmata which produce yellow
fever. I have proposed that the enlargements
of the city of New Orleans * * * shall be
on this plan.—
To C. F. Volney. Washington ed. iv, 572.
(W. 1805)

9207. YELLOW FEVER, Cities and.—[further continued].

I really wish effect to
the hints in my letter to you for so laying off
the additions to the city of New Orleans, as to
shield it from yellow fever. My confidence
in the idea is founded in the acknowledged experience
that we have never seen the genuine yellow fever extend itself into the country, or
even to the outskirts or open parts of a closebuilt
city. In the plan I propose, every square
would be surrounded, on every side, by open
and pure air, in fact, be a separate town with
fields or open suburbs around it.—
To Governor Claiborne. Washington ed. v, 520.
(M. 1810)

9208. YELLOW FEVER, Infectious.—

On the question whether the yellow fever is
infectious or endemic, the medical faculty is
divided into two parties, and it certainly is
not the office of the public functionary to denounce
either party as Dr. Rush proposes. Yet,
so far as they are called on to act, they must
form for themselves an opinion to act on. In
the early history of the disease, I did suppose
it to be infectious. Not reading any of the
party papers on either side, I continued in this
supposition until the fever at Alexandria
brought facts under my own eye, as it were,
proving it could not be communicated but in a
local atmosphere, pretty exactly circumscribed.
With the composition of this atmosphere we
are unacquainted. We know only that it is
generated near the water side, in close built
cities, under warm climates. According to the
rules of philosophizing when one sufficient
cause for an effect is known, it is not within
the economy of nature to employ two. If local
atmosphere suffices to produce the fever, miasmata
from a human subject are not necessary
and probably do not enter into the cause. Still,
it is not within my province to decide the question;
but as it may be within yours to require
the performance of quarantine or not, I execute
a private duty in submitting Dr. Rush's letter
to your consideration.—
To Governor Page. Ford ed., viii, 316.
(M. 1804)

9209. YELLOW FEVER, Origin.—

Facts
appear to have established that it is originated
here by a local atmosphere, which is never gen
erated but in the lower, closer, and dirtier parts
of our large cities, and in the neighborhood of
the water; and that, to catch the disease, you
must enter the local atmosphere. Persons having
taken the disease in the infected quarter,
and going into the country, are nursed and
buried by their friends, without an example
of communicating it. * * * It is certainly
an epidemic, not a contagious disease.—
To C. F. Volney. Washington ed. iv, 570.
(W. 1805)

9210. YELLOW FEVER, Quarantine and.—

In the course of the several visitations
by this disease [yellow fever], it has appeared
that it is strictly local, incident to the cities and
on the tide waters only; incommunicable in the
country, either by persons under the disease
or by goods carried from diseased places; that
its access is with the autumn, and that it disappears
with the early frosts. These restrictions,
within narrow limits of time and space,
give security event to our maritime cities, during
three-fourths of the year, and to the country
always. Although from these facts it appears
unnecessary, yet to satisfy the fears of foreign
nations, and cautions on their part not to be
complained of in a danger whose limits are yet
unknown to them, I have strictly enjoined on
the officers at the head of the customs to certify
with exact truth for every vessel sailing for a
foreign port, the state of health respecting this
fever which, prevailed at the place from which
she sailed. Under every motive from character
and duty to certify the truth, I have no doubt
they have faithfully executed this injunction.
Much real injury has, however, been sustained
from a propensity to identify with this endemic,
and to call by the same name, fevers of very
different kinds, which have always been known
at all times and in almost all countries, and
never have been placed among those deemed
contagious. As we advance in our knowledge
of this disease, as facts develop the source from
which individuals receive it, the State authorities
charged with the care of the public health,
and Congress with that of the general commerce,
will become able to regulate with effect
their respective functions in these departments.
The burden of quarantines is at home as well
as abroad; their efficacy merits examination.
Although the health laws of the States should
be found to need no present revisal by Congress,
yet commerce claims that their attention
be ever awake to them.—
Fifth Annual Message. Washington ed. viii, 46. Ford ed., viii, 387.
(Dec. 1805)

—YEOMANRY, Beggared.—See Embargo, 2589.

9211. YORKTOWN, Gratitude to France.—

If in the minds of any, the motives
of gratitude to our good allies were not sufficiently
apparent, the part they have borne in
this action [Yorktown] must amply evince
them.—
To General Washington. Washington ed. i, 314. Ford ed., iii, 51.
(M. 1781)

9212. YOUNG MEN, Education.—

I am
not a friend to placing young men in populous
cities [for their education] because they acquire
there habits and partialities which do
not contribute to the happiness of their after
life.—
To Dr. Wistar. Washington ed. v, 104. Ford ed., ix, 79.
(W. 1807)

9213. YOUNG MEN, Education.—[continued].

A part of my occupation,
and by no means the least pleasing, is the
direction of the studies of such young men as
ask it. They place themselves in the neighboring
village and have the use of my library

and counsel, and make a part of my society.
In advising the course of their reading, I endeavor
to keep their attention fixed on the
main objects of all science, the freedom and
happiness of man. So that coming to bear a
share in the councils and government of their
country, they will keep ever in view the sole
objects of all legitimate government.—
To General Kosciusko. Washington ed. v, 509.
(M. 1810)

9214. YOUNG MEN, Enthusiasm of.—

Bonaparte will conquer the world if they
[the European powers] do not learn his secret
of composing armies of young men only,
whose enthusiasm and health enable them to
surmount all obstacles.—
To Mr. Bidwell. Washington ed. v, 16.
(W. 1806)

9215. YOUNG MEN, Future rulers.—

They [the students of the University of Virginia] are exactly the persons who are to
succeed to the government of our country,
and to rule its future enmities, its friendships
and fortunes.—
To J. Evelyn Denison. Washington ed. vii, 415.
(M. 1825)

9216. YOUNG MEN, Patronizing.—

I
have written to you in the style to which I
have been always accustomed with you, and
which perhaps it is time I should lay aside.
But while old men are sensible enough of
their own advance in years, they do not sufficiently
recollect it in those whom they have
seen young.—
To William Short. Washington ed. iii, 503. Ford ed., vi, 156.
(Pa., 1793)

9217. YOUNG MEN, Public life and.—

Wythe's school is numerous. They hold
weekly courts and assemblies in the Capitol.
The professors join in it, and the young men
dispute with elegance, method and learning.
This single school, by throwing from time to
time new hands well principled, and well-informed
into the Legislature, will be of infinite
value.—
To James Madison. Ford ed., ii, 322.
(R. 1780)

9218. YOUNG MEN, Reform and.—

The
[French] officers, who had been to America,
were mostly young men, less shackled by
habit and prejudice, and more ready to assent
to the suggestions of common sense and
feeling of common rights, than others. They
come back [to France] with new ideas and
impressions.—
Autobiography. Washington ed. i, 69. Ford ed., i, 96.
(1821)

9219. YOUNG MEN, Self-government and.—

Three sons, and hopeful ones too, are a
rich treasure. I rejoice when I hear of young
men of virtue and talents, worthy to receive,
and likely to preserve the splendid inheritance
of self-government, which we have acquired
and shaped for them.—
To Judge Tyler. Washington ed. iv, 549.
(W. 1804)

9220. YOUNG MEN, Self-government and.—[continued].

The sentiments you express
* * * are particularly solacing to
those who, having labored faithfully in establishing
the right of self-government, see in
the rising generation, into whose hands it is
passing, that purity of principle, and energy
of character, which will protect and preserve
it through their day, and deliver it over to
their sons as they receive it from their fathers.—
R. to A. Pittsburg Young Republicans. Washington ed. viii, 141.
(1808)

9221. YOUNG MEN, Slavery and.—

I
look to the rising generation, and not to the
one now in power, for these great reformations.
[Respecting slavery.]—
To General Chastellux. Washington ed. i, 340. Ford ed., iii, 71.
(P. 1785)

9222. YOUNG MEN, Slavery and.—[continued].

The college of William
and Mary * * * is the place where are
collected together all the young men of Virginia
under preparation for public life. * * * I am satisfied if you could resolve to address
an exhortation to those young men, with all
that eloquence of which you are master, that
its influence on the future decision of this
important question [slavery] would be great,
perhaps decisive.—
To Dr. Price. Washington ed. i, 377. Ford ed., iv, 83.
(P. 1785)

9223. YOUNG MEN, Slavery and.—[further continued].

[In Virginia] * * * the sacred side [in the conflict with slavery] is gaining daily recruits from the influx into
office of young men grown and growing up.
These have sucked in the principles of liberty,
as it were, with their mothers' milk; and it is
to them I look with anxiety to turn the fate
of this question.—
To Dr. Price. Washington ed. i, 377. Ford ed., iv, 83.
(P. 1785)

9224. YOUNG MEN, Surrender to.—

I
leave the world and its affairs to the young
and energetic, and resign myself to their care,
of whom I have endeavored to take care when
young.—
To Charles Pinckney. Washington ed. vii, 180. Ford ed., x, 162.
(M. 1820)

9225. YOUNG WOMEN, Power of.—

All
the handsome young women [of Paris] are
for the Tiers Etat, and this is an army more
powerful in France than the 200,000 men of
the King.—
To David Humphreys. Washington ed. iii, 11. Ford ed., v, 87.
(P. 1789)