University of Virginia Library

TO JOEL BARLOW.

Dear Sir,—Mr. Morris delivered yesterday morning
the dispatches committed to him, including your
letters to me.

The reasons for hastening the departure of the vessel
now ordered to France, will not permit the Secy. of State to do much more than acknowledge the
receipt of your communications. The instructions
you wish relative to the question of a Commercial

Treaty with F. at this time, as well as the requisite
terms, should such an one be admissible, will be subjects
of due consideration and early communication.

I see with pleasure the auspicious attentions which
have distinguished your intercourse with the F.
Govt., and the convincing views presented, on your
part, of the commercial policy which it ought to adopt
towards the U. S. From these sources encouragement
is drawn. In other respects the prospect suggests
distrust rather than expectation. The delay
in answering your note, the vagueness of the answer
when given; the refusal to sign the contents of the
paper presented by you, even in the ordinary & unexceptionable
form proposed; and the substitution
of a verbal for a written notification of the orders to
the Custom Houses, &c &c, by which our merchants
were to be invited to the F. Market, are circumstances
which necessarily attract serious notice.
The reserve manifested on the subject of the paper
alluded to is the more remarkable as a written sanction
to it would have so little committed them. Beyond
a freedom of the French ports to the products
of the U. S. under all the existing limitations & incumbrances,
it pledged nothing more than a melioration
of formalities as to ownership and origin; leaving
Colonial produce on the old footing of special licences.
The liberation of the remaining Ships & Cargoes
could surely have created no difficulty, if any real
purpose of friendship or good faith be entertained.
It would seem therefore that the objection must have
lain against the clause forbidding captures & seizures,

for other cause than forged papers. The recent condemnations
in the Baltic cases, and the avowal of the
F. Consul in Denmark that all vessels, whithersoever bound, with Colonial produce were within the orders
to capture, favor this conjecture; and if it be the true
one, adjustment is hopeless; and the consequences
obvious. I do not forget that your understanding
of all these particulars was better than mine can be,
and that my constructions may be merely colorable.
I wish this may be the case, but we find so little of
explicit dealing or substantial redress mingled with
the compliments and encouragements which cost
nothing because they may mean nothing, that suspicions
are unavoidable; and if they be erroneous, the
fault does not lie with those who entertain them.

From the scanty attention I can now give to the
subject of a commercial Treaty with F. I am at a loss
for the necessity of it, or the motives of F. to set it
on foot, if it be not meant to gain time, and be guided
by events.[46] On our side we have nothing to stipulate,
which is not secured to her, as long as she merits
it, by our general system which leaves our exports &
imports free, without any duties on the former, and
with moderate ones on the latter. It is on her side
that changes & securities are necessary to a friendly
reciprocity; and these will for the present be satisfactory
to us in the form of stable regulations fairly
executed. Among them a reduced tarif favoring

all our great Staples, and a transit thro' F. ports to
inland markets, are indispensable to a continued
admission of F. staples. The system of licences must
be abolished, if not by F. by us. The neglect of the
subject by Congs. is remarkable, but the event cannot
be doubtful. Such a mode of commerce corrupts one
class of Citizens and disgusts all the rest; & when
the trade licensed is in foreign, not native articles, the
evil preponderates still more over the profit. The
F. Govt. seems to have taken up a radical error with
regard to the commercial interests of the two Countries.
It overrates our desire of her commodities.
The present footing of the commerce is intolerable
to the U. S. and it will be prohibited, if no essential
change takes place. At all times it will be a barter
of food & raw materials for superfluities, in great
part; and altogether so (with the temporary exception
of colonial re-exports) as long as a balance in
money is prevented by the existing policy of France,
and a return of useful fabrics by the war. Why
might not certificates of origin from F. Consuls, or
still better of direct shipments from our ports, take
the place of licenses. The advantages of the change
are numerous & obvious. Mr. Gallatin promises to
say something to Mr. Lee on this head.

I am concerned that the prospect of indemnity for
the Rambouillet and other spoliations is so discouraging
as to have led to the idea of seeking it thro'
King Joseph. Were there no other objection than
the effect on the public mind here, this would be an
insuperable one. The gratification of the sufferers

by the result would be lost in the general feeling
agst the measure. But Joseph is not yet settled
on the Spanish Throne; When so, defacto, he will be
sovereign neither de facto, nor de jure, of any Spanish
part of this Continent; the whole of which, if it had
not on other accounts a right to separate from the
peninsula, would derive it from the usurpation of
Joseph. So evident is it that he can never be Kg of
a Spanish Province, either by conquest or consent,
that the Independence of all of them, is avowedly
favored by the policy which rules him. Nor would
a purchase under Joseph, place us an inch nearer our
object. He could give us neither right, nor possession;
and we should be obliged to acquire the latter
by means which a grant from him would be more
likely to embarrass than promote. I hope therefore
that the French Government will be brought to feel
the obligation & the necessity of repairing the wrongs,
the flagrant wrongs in question, either by payments
from the Treasury or negotiable substitutes. Without
one or other or some fair equivalent there can be
neither cordiality nor confidence here; nor any restraint
from self redress in any justifiable mode of
effecting it; nor any formal Treaty on any subject.
With Justice on this subject, formal stipulations on
others might be combinable.

As the Hornet had reached F. before the sailing
of the Constitution, and the latter had not a very
short passage, we shall soon look for further communications
from you. I hope they will correspond
equally with your patriotic exertions, and the public

calculations. If they do not exhibit the conduct of
the F. Govt. in better colors than it has yet assumed,
there will be but one sentiment in this country, & I
need not say what that will be.

Be assured of my affectionate esteem.