“Not but that we shall still endeavor to go on in peace and friendship with our neighbors as long as we can, if our rights of navigation and deposit are respected; but as we foresee that the caprices of the local officers and the abuse of those rights by our boatmen and navigators, which neither government can prevent, will keep up a state of irritation which cannot long be kept inactive, we should be criminally improvident not to take at once eventual measures for strengthening ourselves for the contest.”
The essence and genius of Jefferson’s statesmanship lay in peace. Through difficulties, trials, and temptations of every kind he held fast to this idea, which was the clew to whatever seemed inconsistent, feeble, or deceptive in his administration. Yielding often, with the suppleness of his nature, to the violence of party, he allowed himself to use language which at first sight seemed inconsistent, and even untruthful; but such concessions were momentary: the unswerving intent could always be detected under every superficial disguise; the consistency of the career became more remarkable on account of the seeming inconsistencies of the moment. He was pliant and yielding in manner, but steady as the magnet itself in aim. His manœuvres between the angry West and the arbitrary First Consul of France offered an example of his political method. He meant that there should be no war. While waiting to hear the result of Monroe’s mission he wrote to an English correspondent a letter[199] which expressed his true feelings with apparent candor:—
“We see ... with great concern the position in which Great Britain is placed, and should be sincerely afflicted were any disaster to deprive mankind of the benefit of such a bulwark against the torrent which has for some time been bearing down all before it. But her power and prowess by sea seem to render everything safe in the end. Peace is our passion, and wrongs might drive us from it. We prefer trying every other just principle, right and safety, before we would recur to war.”
END OF VOL. I.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sketches of Debate in the First Senate, by William Maclay, p. 212.
[2] The Quarterly Review (London, 1841), p. 24.
[3] The Quarterly Review (London, 1841), p. 23.
[4] Massachusetts Historical Society’s Proceedings, vol. xix. 1881-1882.
[5] Grigsby’s Convention of 1776, p. 85.