thousand sequins or twenty-seven thousand pounds sterling for the captives escaped; that is nearly one thousand pounds each. The greater part of the Regency were for an immediate declaration of war against France; but the Dey urged the heavy war the Turks were at present engaged in, that it would be better not to draw another Power on them at present; that they would decline renewing the treaty of one hundred years, which expired two years ago, so as to be free to act hereafter; but for the present they ought to accept payment for the capture as a satisfaction. They accordingly declared to the French Consul that they would put him and all his countrymen into irons, unless the sixty thousand sequins were paid. The Consul told him his instructions were positively that they should not be paid. In this situation stood matters between that pettifogging nest of robbers and this great kingdom, which will finish, probably, by crouching under them, and paying the sixty thousand sequins. From the personal characters of the present Administration, I should have hoped, under any other situation than the present, they might have ventured to quit the beaten track of politics hitherto pursued, in which the honor of their nation has been calculated at nought, and to join in a league for keeping up a perpetual cruise against the pirates, which, though a slow operation, would be a sure one for destroying all their vessels and seamen, and turning the rest of them to agriculture. But a desire of not bringing upon them another difficulty, will probably induce the Ministers to do as their predecessors have done. The enclosed paper of this morning gives some particulars of the action between the Russians and Swedes, the manifesto of the Empress, and the declaration of the Court of Versailles as to the affair of Trincomali.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

FROM JOHN JAY TO THOMAS JEFFERSON.

Dear Sir,

Office for Foreign Affairs, November 25, 1788.

My last to you was dated the 23d September last. It mentioned my having received your letters of 4th, 23d, and 30th May. I have since been favored with four others, viz: 29th July, and 3d, 10th, and 11th August, with the papers mentioned to be enclosed. They

have not been laid before Congress, although I transmitted them to the President for that purpose; for a sufficient number of members to form a House have not since convened. The members present have, nevertheless, read them. The occurrences they mention are interesting, and your attention in transmitting them gives pleasure. The circumstance of Mr. Deane's letter-book and account-book being offered to you for sale is a singular one. I wish I wish you had purchased them. On this subject I cannot, indeed, give you any instructions or authority; but I will venture to advise you in express terms to make the purchase. I have no doubt that Congress will be satisfied with it. To me it appears expedient, and the same opinion prevails among the members of Congress who have read your letter.

I enclose a copy of a letter of the 5th of August last from Mr. Robert Montgomery, at Alicant. I find his letter was a copy; the original never came to my hands. The facts stated in this letter merit attention, and, as the business it alludes to is in your department, I take the earliest opportunity of making this communication. To me it appears highly probable that every maritime nation in Europe is well content that war should subsist between Barbary and the United States, and in my opinion none of them (except perhaps Spain for particular reasons) will really and sincerely promote any measures tending to the establishment of peace between us. If this be so, it is important that as much secrecy as possible should be observed in all our proceedings relative to that object. I wish the Porte could be sounded on this subject. Overtures for a treaty from us to that Court made at this period would probably be grateful, and might eventually terminate all our difficulties with Algiers, &c., especially as the Emperor of Morocco will promote it.

Much remains to be done, and much to be attempted; but without a competent Government and adequate funds no national affairs can be well managed.

Mr. Nesbit will deliver this letter to you, and you will find enclosed with it, one directed to Mr. Carmichael, and there is in it a cypher for him. Be so obliging, therefore, as to keep it by you, and if possible out of the reach of the police, until you can have an opportunity of sending it to him by some person of confidence.

Mr. Gouverneur Morris expects to sail in the same vessel with Mr. Nesbit, and will either go with or soon follow him to Paris. As

you are personally acquainted with this gentleman, it cannot be necessary for me to introduce him to you, or recommend him to your friendly attentions. It is in his power to give you minute information on many interesting subjects.

With sincere esteem and regard, &c.,

JOHN JAY.

Since my last to you I have been honored with yours of the 18th and 29th of May, and 5th of June. My latest American intelligence is of the 24th of June, when nine certainly, and probably ten States had accepted the new Constitution, and there was no doubt of the eleventh, (North Carolina,) because there was no opposition there. In New York two thirds of the State were against it, and certainly, if they had been called to the decision in any other stage of the business, they would have rejected it; but before they put it to the vote, they would certainly have heard that eleven States had joined in it, and they would find it safer to go with those eleven than put themselves in opposition, with Rhode Island only. Though I am pleased with this successful issue of the new Constitution, yet I am more so to find that one of its principal defects (the want of a declaration of rights) will pretty certainly be remedied. I suppose this because I see that both people and conventions in almost every State have concurred in demanding it. Another defect, the perpetual reeligibility of the same President, will probably not be cured during the life of General Washington. His merit has blinded our countrymen to the danger of making so important an officer reëligible. I presume there will not be a vote against him in the United States. It is more doubtful who will be Vice President. The age of Dr. Franklin, and the doubt whether he would accept it, are the only circumstances that admit a question, but that he would be the man. After these two characters of first magnitude, there are so many which present themselves equally, on the second line, that we cannot see which of them will be singled out. John Adams, Hancock, Jay, Madison, Rutledge, will be all voted for. Congress has acceded to the prayers of Kentucky, to become an independent member of the

Union. A committee was occupied in settling the plan of receiving them, and their government is to commence on the 1st day of January next.

You are, I dare say, pleased, as I am, with the promotion of our countryman, Paul Jones. He commanded the right wing in the first engagement between the Russian and Turkish galleys. His absence from the second, proves his superiority over the Captain Pacha, as he did not choose to bring his ships into the shoals in which the Pacha ventured, and lost those entrusted to him. I consider this officer as the principal hope of our future efforts on the ocean. You will have heard of the action between the Swedes and Russians on the Baltic. As yet, we have only the Swedish version of it. I apprehend this war must catch from nation to nation, till it becomes general.

With respect to the internal affairs of this country, I hope they will be finally arranged, and without having cost a drop of blood. Looking on as a bystander, no otherwise interested than as entertaining a sincere love for the nation in general, and a wish to see their happiness promoted, keeping myself clear of the particular views and passions of individuals, I applaud extremely the patriotic proceedings of the present Ministry. Provincial Assemblies established, the States General called, the right of taxing the nation without their consent abandoned, corvées abolished, torture abolished, the criminal code reformed, are facts which will do eternal honor to their administration in history. But were I their historian, I should not equally applaud their total abandonment of their foreign affairs. A bolder front in the beginning would have prevented the first loss, and consequently all the others. Holland, Prussia, Turkey, and Sweden lost, without the acquisition of a single new ally, are painful reflections for the friends of France. They may, indeed, have in their places the two empires, and perhaps Denmark, in which case, physically speaking, they will stand on as good ground as before; but not on as good moral ground. Perhaps, seeing more of the internal working of the machine, they saw more than we do, the physical impossibility of having money to carry on a war. Their justification must depend on this, and their atonement in the eternal good they are doing to their country. This makes me completely their friend. I am, with great respect, sir, &c.,

TH: JEFFERSON.

Sir,

FROM THOMAS JEFFERSON TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, August 26, 1788.

I had the honor to write to you on the 3d, 10th, and 11th instant, with a postscript of the 12th, all of which went by Mrs. Barclay. Since that date we received an account of the third victory obtained by the Russians over the Turks on the Black sea, in which the Prince of Nassau, with his galleys, destroyed two frigates, three smaller vessels, and six galleys. The Turkish power on that sea is represented by their enemies as now annihilated. There is reason to believe, however, that this is not literally true, and that, aided by the supplies furnished by the English, they are making extraordinary efforts to reestablish their marine. The Russian Minister here has shewn the official report of Admiral Greigh on the combat of July · 17th, in which he claims the victory, and urges in proof of it that he kept the field of battle. His report is said to have been written on it. As this paper, together with the report of the Swedish Admiral, is printed in the Leyden Gazette of the 15th instant, I enclose it to you. The Court of Denmark has declared it will furnish to Russia the aid stipulated in their treaty; and it is not doubted they will go beyond this, and become principals in the war. The next probable moves are that the King of Prussia will succor Sweden and Poland against Russia by land, and a possible consequence is, that England may send a squadron into the Baltic to restore the equilibrium in that

sea.

In my letter of the 11th, I observed to you that this country would have two difficulties to struggle with till the meeting of their States General, and that one of these was the want of money. This has, in fact, overborne all their resources, and the day before yesterday they published an urrêt, suspending all reimbursements of capital, and reducing the payments of the principal mass of demands for interest to twelve sous in the livre, the remaining eight sous to be paid with certificates. I enclose you a newspaper, with the arrêt. In this paper you will see the exchange of yesterday; and I have inserted that of the day before, to shew you the fall. The consternation is as yet too great to let us judge of the issue. It will probably open the public mind to the necessity of a change in their Constitution, and to the substituting the collected wisdom of the whole in place of a single will, by which they have been hitherto