TO MR. BOTTA.
Monticello, July 15, 1810.
Sir,—I am honored with your letter of the 12th of January, and although the work you therein mention is not yet come to hand, I avail myself of an occasion, now rendered rare and precarious between our two countries, of anticipating the obligation I shall owe for the pleasure I shall have in perusing it, and of travelling over with you the important scenes, quorum pars minima fui, scenes which have given an impulsion to the world, which, as to ourselves, has been a great blessing, but whether to Europe or not, can only be estimated by him who sees the future as well as the present and past. We are certainly indebted to those who think our revolution worthy of their pen, and who will do justice to our actions and motives; and to yourself I have no doubt we shall owe this obligation, and I now make you my acknowledgments with confidence and pleasure. It will be a worthy preface to the history of this age of revolutions, to be ended we know not when nor how. I pray you to accept the assurances of my great respect and consideration.
TO MR. LAMBERT.
Monticello, July 16, 1810.
Sir,—An indispensable piece of business which has occupied me for a month past, obliged me to suspend all correspondence during that time. This must apologize for my late acknowledgment of your favor of May 19th, and for the tardy expression of my thanks for so much of the papers you enclosed as respected myself. The approbation of my political conduct by my republican countrymen generally, is a pillow of sweet repose to me, undisturbed by the noise of the enemies to our form of government. The political sentiments expressed by your society are in the pure spirit of the principles of our revolution; so long as these prevail, we are safe from everything which can assail us from without or within.
Your several communications on the first meridian, have been regularly handed to the Philosophical Society; not corresponding regularly with any of the members, I have received no information respecting them. I have formerly observed to you that while I entertain no doubt of their accuracy, my own familiarity with the subject had been too long suspended, to enable me to render a critical opinion on them. My occupations here are almost exclusively given to my farm and affairs. They furnish me exercise, health and amusement, and with the recreations of family and neighborly society, fill up most of my time, and give a tranquillity necessary to my time of life. With my best wishes for your prosperity, accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.
TO GENERAL DEARBORNE.
Monticello, July 16, 1810.
Dear General and Friend,—Your favor of May the 31st was duly received, and I join in congratulations with you on the resurrection of republican principles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the hope that the professors of these principles will not again easily be driven off their ground. The federalists, during their short-lived ascendency, have nevertheless, by forcing us from the embargo, inflicted a wound on our interests which can never be cured, and on our affections which will require time to cicatrize. I ascribe all this to one pseudo-republican, Story. He came on (in place of Crowningshield, I believe) and staid only a few days; long enough, however, to get complete hold of Bacon, who, giving in to his representations, became panic-struck, and communicated his panic to his colleagues, and they to a majority of the sound members of Congress. They believed in the alternative of repeal or civil war, and produced the fatal measure of repeal. This is the immediate parent of all our present evils, and has reduced us to a low standing in the eyes of the world. I should think that even the federalists themselves must now be made, by their feelings, sensible of their error. The wealth which the embargo brought home safely, has now been thrown back into the laps of our enemies, and our navigation completely crushed, and by the unwise and unpatriotic conduct of those engaged in it. Should the orders prove genuine, which are said to have been given against our fisheries, they too are gone; and if not true as yet, they will be true on the first breeze of success which England shall feel, for it has now been some years that I am perfectly satisfied her intentions have been to claim the ocean as her conquest, and prohibit any vessel from navigating it, but on such a tribute as may enable her to keep up such a standing navy as will maintain her dominion over it. She has hauled in, or let herself out, been bold or hesitating, according to occurrences, but has in no situation done anything which might amount to a relinquishment of her intentions. I have ever been anxious to avoid a war with England, unless forced by a situation more losing than war itself. But I did believe we could coerce her to justice by peaceable means, and the embargo, evaded as it was, proved it would have coerced her had it been honestly executed. The proof she exhibited on that occasion, that she can exercise such an influence in this country as to control the will of its government and three-fourths of its people, and oblige the three-fourths to submit to one-fourth, is to me the most mortifying circumstance which has occurred since the establishment of our government. The only prospect I see of lessening that influence, is in her own conduct, and not from anything in our power. Radically hostile to our navigation and commerce, and fearing its rivalry, she will completely crush it, and force us to resort to agriculture, not aware that we shall resort to manufactures also, and render her conquests over our navigation and commerce useless, at least, if not injurious to herself in the end, and perhaps salutary to us, as removing out of our way the chief causes and provocations to war.