Monticello, May 27, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I received yesterday yours of the 23d, and now return you Woolsey's and Astor's letters. I send you one also which I have received from a Mr. Thorne, on the evasions of the embargo on Lake Champlain. The conduct of some of our officers there, and of some excellent citizens, has been very meritorious, and I will thank you to express any degree of approbation you think proper, in my name, for Captain Mayo. Woolsey appears also to deserve assurances of approbation. If you think Thorne's suggestion of some militia at Point au Fer necessary and proper, be so good as to consult General Dearborne, who will give any order you and he approve. With respect to the coasting trade, my wish is only to carry into full effect the intentions of the embargo laws. I do not wish a single citizen in any of the States to be deprived of a meal of bread, but I set down the exercise of commerce, merely for profit, as nothing when it carries with it the danger of defeating the objects of the embargo. I have more faith, too, in the Governors. I cannot think that any one of them would wink at abuses of that law. Still, I like your circular of the 20th, and the idea there brought forward of confining the shipment to so small a proportion of the bond as may correspond with the exaggeration of price and foreign markets, and thus restrain the adventurer from gaining more than he would lose by dishonesty. Flour, by the latest accounts, I have observed, sold at about eight times its cost here, while the legal penalties are but about three prices—by restraining them to an eighth they will be balanced. But as prices rise must not our rules be varied? Had the practicability of this mode of restraint occurred before the recurrence to the Governors, I should have preferred it, because it is free from the objection of favoritism to which the Governors will be exposed, and if you find it work well in practice, we may find means to have the other course discontinued. Our course should be to sacrifice everything to secure the effect of the law, and nothing beyond that.
I enclose you an application of Neilson & Son, to which you will please to have given whatever answer is conformable to general rules. The petition of Gardner and others, masters of the Rhode Island packet ships, which I enclose you, does not specify the particular act required from us for their relief. If it be to declare that the open sea in front of their coast is a bay or a river, the matter of fact, as well as the law, renders that impossible. I really think it desirable to relieve their case, in any way which is lawful, because it is one, which though embraced by the words of the law, is not within its object. You mention that a principal method of evading the embargo is by loading secretly and going off without clearance. The naval department must aid us against this. As I shall leave this for Washington in about ten or twelve days, I now desire the post-office there to send no letters to this place after receiving this notice. All further matters relative to the embargo will therefore be answered verbally as soon as they could by letter. I salute you with great affection and respect.
TO MR. BOWDOIN.
Monticello, May 29, 1808.
Dear Sir,—I received the favor of your letter, written soon after your arrival, a little before I left Washington, and during a press of business preparatory to my departure on a short visit to this place; this has prevented my earlier congratulations to you on your safe return to your own country. There, judging from my own experience, you will enjoy much more of the tranquil happiness of life, than is to be found in the noisy scenes of the great cities of Europe. I am also aware that you had at Paris additional causes of disquietude; these seem inseparable from public life, and, indeed, are the greatest discouragements to entering into or continuing in it. Perhaps, however, they sweeten the hour of retirement, and secure us from all dangers of regret. On the subject of that disquietude, it is proper for me only to say that, however unfortunate the incident, I found in it no cause of dissatisfaction with yourself, nor of lessening the esteem I entertain for your virtues and talents; and, had it not been disagreeable to yourself, I should have been well pleased that you could have proceeded on your original destination.
While I thank you for the several letters received from you during your absence, I have to regret the miscarriage of some of those I wrote you. Not having my papers here, I cannot cite their dates by memory; but they shall be the subject of another letter on my return to Washington.
You find us on your return in a crisis of great difficulty. An embargo had, by the course of events, become the only peaceable card we had to play. Should neither peace, nor a revocation of the decrees and orders in Europe take place, the day cannot be distant when that will cease to be preferable to open hostility. Nothing just or temperate has been omitted on our part, to retard or to avoid this unprofitable alternative. Our situation will be the more singular, as we may have to choose between two enemies, who have both furnished cause of war. With one of them we could never come into contact; with the other great injuries may be mutually inflicted and received. Let us still hope to avoid, while we prepare to meet them.
Hoping you will find our cloudless skies and benign climate more favorable to your health than those of Europe, I pray you to accept my friendly salutations, and assurances of great esteem and consideration.