He supposes the error to have proceeded from having in some cases set down the same article of expense twice; but he says the above" is exact enough to give general ideas."

The President returned to the capital on the 5th of October.

MY DEAR MARIA :

TO MARIA JEFFERSON EPPES.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 1802.

I arrived here on the fourth day of my journey without accident. On the day and next day after my arrival I was much indisposed with a general soreness all over, a ringing in the head and deafness. It is wearing off slowly, and was probably produced by travelling very early two mornings in the fog. I have desired Mr. Jefferson to furnish you with whatever you may call for on my account; and I insist on your calling freely. It never was my intention that a visit for my gratification should be at your expense. It will be absolutely necessary for me to send fresh horses to meet you, as no horses, after the three first days' journey, can encounter the fourth, which is hilly beyond anything you have ever seen. I shall expect to learn from you soon the day of your departure, that I may make proper arrangements. Present me affectionately to Mr. Eppes, and accept yourself my tenderest love.

TH. JEFFERSON.

Receiving a letter from Livingston (who had not yet got the President's of April 18th), mentioning the alienation from the United States which pervaded all the prominent circles of France, the President did not in the least unbend from his previous attitude. He replied October 10th:

"The departure of Madame Brugnard for France furnishes me a safe conveyance of a letter, which I cannot avoid embracing, although I have nothing particular for the subject of it. It is well, however, to be able to inform you, generally, through a safe channel, that we stand completely corrected of the error, that either the Government or the nation of France has any remains of friendship for us. The portion of that country which forms an exception, though respectable in weight, is weak in numbers. On the contrary, it appears evident, that an unfriendly spirit prevails in the most important individuals of the Government towards us. In this state of things, we shall so take our distance between the two rival nations, as,

remaining disengaged till necessity compels us, we may haul finally to the enemy of that which shall make it necessary. We see all the disadvantageous consequences of taking a side, and shall be forced into it only by a more disagreeable alternative; in which event, we must countervail the disadvantages by measures which will give us splendor and power, but not as much happiness as our present system. We wish, therefore, to remain well with France. But we see that no consequences, however ruinous to them, can secure us with certainty against the extravagance of her present rulers. I think, therefore, that while we do nothing which the first nation on earth would deem crouching, we had better give to all our communications with them a very mild, complaisant, and even friendly complexion, but always independAsk no favors, leave small and irritating things to be conducted by the individuals interested in them, interfere ourselves but in the greatest cases, and then not push them to irritation. No matter at present existing between them and us is important enough to risk a breach of peace; peace being indeed the most important of all things for us, except the preserving an erect and independent attitude. Although I know your own judgment leads you to pursue this line identically, yet I thought it just to strengthen it by the concurrence of my own."

ent.

He wrote Mr. Gallatin on the 13th, expressing the opinion that the act for building piers in the Delaware was unconstitutional, so far as it was based on the right of Congress to regulate commerce, and that "it would lead to a bottomless expense, and to the greatest abuses." He thought, however, it might be brought within the Constitution under the head of providing and maintaining a navy, as it "provided receptacles for it and places to cover and preserve it;" and we, he says "ought always to presume that the real intention which is alone consistent with the Constitution." He thought the same objection existed to the construction of lighthouses as a regulation of commerce; but that "the utility of the thing had sanctioned the infraction." "But if on that infraction we built a second, on that second a third, etc., any one of the powers in the Constitution might be made to comprehend every power of government."

He wrote the Attorney-General on the 23d, congratulating him on the fact that the Republicans had gained ground generally in the recent elections, and that they "had lost ground in not a single district of the United States, excepting Kent county in Delaware, where a religious dissension occasioned it." His magnanimity towards the Federalists-still the incumbents of much the largest portion of the best offices within his giftwhile nearly every Federal press in the United States was reeking with the filthy scurrilities of Callender, is manifested in the following passages:

"Their bitterness increases with their desperation. They are trying slanders now which nothing could prompt but a gall which blinds their judgments as well as their consciences. I shall take no other revenge than, by a steady pursuit of economy and peace, and by the establishment of Republican principles in substance and in form, to sink Federalism into an abyss from which there shall be no resurrection for it. I still think our original idea as to office is best: that is, to depend for the obtaining a just participation, on deaths, resignations, and delinquencies. This will least affect the tranquillity of the people, and prevent their giving into the suggestion of our enemies, that ours has been a contest for office, not for principle. This is rather a slow operation, but it is sure if we pursue it steadily, which, however, has not been done with the undeviating resolution I could have wished. To these means of obtaining a just share in the transaction of the public business shall be added one other, to wit, removal for electioneering activity, or open and industrious opposition to the principles of the present Government, legislative and executive. Every officer of the Government may vote at elections according to his conscience; but we should betray the cause committed to our care, were we to permit the influence of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause. Your present situation will enable you to judge of prominent offenders in your State, in the case of the present election. I pray you to seek them, to mark them, to be quite sure of your ground, that we may commit no error or wrong, and leave the rest to me. I have been urged to remove Mr. Whittemore, the surveyor of Gloucester, on grounds of neglect of duty and industrious opposition. Yet no facts are so distinctly charged as to make the step sure which we should take in this. Will you take the trouble to satisfy yourself on this point? I think it not amiss that it should be known that we are determined to remove officers who are active or open mouthed against the Government, by which I mean the legislature as well as the Executive."

On the 16th of October, Morales, the Spanish Intendant of Louisiana, issued a proclamation withdrawing the privilege of deposit at New Orleans, which had been granted to citizens of the United States by the treaty of 1795 for three years, with a stipulation that it should not be taken away without conceding "an equivalent on another part of the bank of the Mississippi." The last condition was wholly overlooked or disregarded. This procedure produced a great excitement in our western States. The Governor of Kentucky transmitted information of it to the President on the 30th of November. On the 1st of December, the Legislature of that State memorialized Congress, complaining of the infraction of the treaty. But the facts did not reach the President in time to be communicated in his opening message to Congress. That body had stood adjourned to the 6th of December, but a quorum of the Senate did not convene until

the 14th.

The President's message, after enumerating those pleasing circumstances in our national affairs "which marked the good.

ness of that being from whose favor they flowed"-" peace and friendship abroad, law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with our Indian neighbors; our burdens lightened, yet our income sufficient for the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example," proceeded to state, that on the return of peace to Europe, it was to be expected that our carrying trade would be diminished; but that it had been further seriously injured by the "monopolizing discrimi nations" of some powers. Where the relinquishment of these could not be brought about by friendly discussion, he said it would be for the legislature to decide whether they were to be met with countervailing discriminations, or whether the evil was to be provided for some other way. He laid before the House "with satisfaction" an act of the British Parliament authorizing a mutual abolition of the duties and countervailing duties permitted under the treaty of 1794. He declared "it showed on their part a spirit of justice and friendly accommodation which it was our duty and our interest to cultivate with all nations." He recommended more stringent laws providing for the return of our seamen discharged in foreign ports.

The cession of Louisiana to France was only alluded to. He said it would make a change in our foreign relations which would doubtless have a just weight in any deliberations of the legislature connected with that subject."

He stated that our fleet before Tripoli had been reinforced, under the apprehension that the other Barbary powers might take part in the war; but this apprehension had proved unfounded for the present. Tripoli had been so closely watched that but one American merchant vessel had fallen a prey to its cruisers.

He communicated for ratification the convention with Georgia for the cession of the territory lying west of her; informed the House how far he had proceeded in settling boundaries with the Indians; suggested the expediency of encouraging the settlement of the relinquished Choctaw territory "as an outpost of the United States, surrounded by strong neighbors and distant from its support," and that a monopoly which would prevent its becoming populated should be guarded against by making actual habitation a condition of the continuance of title.

In the department of finance he informed Congress that the external duties had rapidly increased; that besides answering all the regular exigencies of government, upwards of nine millions (including one million raised by the sale of bank stock) had been paid from the Treasury in one year towards the principal and interest of the public debt, making a reduction of nearly five millions and a half in its principal; and that four millions and a half remained in the Treasury, in a course of application to a further discharge of debt and current demands. But he said, " as the effect of peace on the amount of duties was not yet fully ascertained, it was the more necessary to practice every useful economy, and to incur no expense which might be avoided without prejudice."

After mentioning some facts in regard to the cessation of internal taxes, and in regard to certain fiscal operations, he proceeded to say:

"When effects so salutary result from the plans you have already sanctioned, when merely by avoiding false objects of expense we are able, without a direct tax, without internal taxes, and without borrowing, to make large and effectual payments towards the discharge of our public debt, and the emancipation of our posterity from that moral canker, it is an encouragement, fellow citizens, of the highest order to proceed as we have begun, in substituting economy for taxation, and in pursuing what is useful for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practised by others under different circumstances. And whensoever we are destined to meet events which shall call forth all the energies of our countrymen, we have the firmest reliance on those energies, and the comfort of leaving for calls like these the extraor dinary resources of loans and internal taxes. In the meantime, by payments of the principal of our debt, we are liberating, annually, portions of the external taxes, and forming from them a growing fund still further to lessen the necessity of recurring to extraordinary resources.'

No change was recommended in the military establishment. A review of the militia law was urged. The only change proposed for the navy was the procuring some sinaller vessels for Barbary service in the place of those larger ones which were not sufficiently available on so shallow a coast. It was recommended that the first further annual appropriations for naval defences should be expended in saving those already possessed. As no care or attention could preserve vessels lying in the water and exposed to the sun, from rapid decay, he suggested that those not in use be laid up in dry docks under cover from the sun, to be constructed at Washington. He stated that an