University of Virginia Library

TO MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

I have received, my dear friend, your kind letter
of July 22, inclosing your printed opinion on the
Election project. It was very slow in reaching me.

I am very glad to find, by your letter, that you
retain, undiminished the warm feelings of friendship
so long reciprocal between us; and, by your "opinion,"
that you are equally constant to the cause of liberty
so dear to us both. I hope your struggles in it
will finally prevail in the full extent required by
the wishes, and adapted to the exigencies of your
Country.

We feel here all the pleasure you express at the
progress of reformation on your Continent. Despotism
can only exist in darkness, and there are too
many lights now in the political firmament, to
permit it to reign any where, as it has heretofore
done, almost every where. To the events in Spain
& Naples has succeeded already, an auspicious epoch
in Portugal. Free States seem indeed to be propagated
in Europe, as rapidly as new States are on this

side of the Atlantic: Nor will it be easy for their
births or their growths if safe from dangers within
to be strangled by external foes, who are not now
sufficiently united among themselves, are controuled
by the aspiring sentiments of their people,
are without money of their own, and are no longer
able to draw on the foreign fund which has hitherto
supplied their belligerent necessities.

Here, we are, on the whole, doing well, and giving
an example of a free system, which I trust will be
more of a Pilot to a good Port, than a Beacon
warning from a bad one. We have, it is true, occasional
fevers, but they are of the transient kind
flying off thro' the surface, without preying on the
vitals. A Govt. like ours has so many safety-valves
giving vent to overheated passions, that it carries
within itself a relief agst. the infirmities from which
the best of human Institutions cannot be exempt.
The subject which ruffles the surface of public affairs
most at present, is furnished by the transmission of
the "Territory" of Missouri from a state of nonage to
a maturity for self-Govt. and for a membership in the
Union. Among the questions involved in it, the one
most immediately interesting to humanity is the question
whether a toleration or prohibition of slavery
Westward of the Mississippi, would most extend its
evils. The humane part of the argument against
the prohibition, turns on the position, that whilst the
importation of slaves from abroad is precluded, a
diffusion of those in the Country, tends at once to
meliorate their actual condition, and to facilitate

their eventual emancipation. Unfortunately, the
subject which was settled at the last session of Congress,
by a mutual concession of the parties, is
reproduced on the Arena, by a clause in the Constitution
of Missouri, distinguishing between free
persons of Colour, and white persons; and providing
that the Legislature of the new State shall exclude
from it the former. What will be the issue of the
revived discussion is yet to be seen. The case opens
the wider field as the Constitutions & laws of the
different States are much at variance in the civic
character given to free people of colour; those of
most of the States, not excepting such as have
abolished slavery, imposing various disqualifications
which degrade them from the rank & rights of white
persons. All these perplexities develope more &
more the dreadful fruitfulness of the original sin
of the African trade.

I will not trouble you with a full Picture of our
economics. The cessation of neutral gains, the
fiscal derangements incident to our late war, the inundation
of foreign merchandizes since, and the
spurious remedies attempted by the local authorities,
give to it some disagreeable features. And
they are made the more so, by a remarkable downfal
in the prices of two of our great Staples Bread-stuffs
& Tobacco, carrying privations to every man's
door, and a severe pressure to such as labour under
debts for the discharge of which, they relied on crops
& prices which have failed. Time however will
prove a sure Physician for these maladies. Adopting

the remark of a British Senator applied with
less justice to his Country, at the commencement of
the revolutionary Contest, we may say, that "altho'
ours may have a sickly countenance, we trust she
has a strong Constitution."

I see that the bickerings between our Govts. on
the point of tonnage has not yet been terminated.
The difficulty, I should flatter myself, cannot but
yield to the spirit of amity, & the principles of
reciprocity entertained by the parties.

You would not, believe me, be more happy to see
me at lagrange, than I should be to see you at
Montpr. where you wd. find as zealous a farmer, tho'
not so well cultivated a farm as Lagrange presents.
As an interview can hardly be expected to take
place at both, I may infer from a comparison of
our ages a better chance of your crossing the Atlantic
than of mine. You have also a greater inducement
in the greater number of friends whose gratifications
would at least equal your own. But if we are not
likely to see one another, we can do what is the next
best, communicate by letter what we wd. most wish
to express in person, and particularly can repeat
those sentiments of affection & esteem, which,
whether expressed or not, will ever be most sincerely
felt by your old & steadfast friend.