To John Adams from Thomas Jefferson, 1 July 1787
From Thomas Jefferson
Paris July 1. 1787.1
Dear Sir
I returned about three weeks ago from a very useless voiage, useless, I mean, as to the object which first suggested it, that of trying the effect of the mineral waters of Aix en Provence on my hand. I tried these because recommended among six or eight others as equally beneficial, & because they would place me at the beginning of a tour to the seaports of Marseilles, Bourdeaux, Nantes & Lorient which I had long meditated, in hopes that a knowlege of the places & persons concerned in our commerce & the information to be got from them might enable me sometimes to be useful.2 I had expected to satisfy myself at Marseilles of the causes of the difference of quality between the rice of Carolina & that of Piedmont which is brought in quantities to Marseilles. not being able to do it I made an excursion of three weeks into the rice country beyond the Alps, going through it from Vercelli to Pavia about 60 miles. I found the difference to be, not in the management as had been supposed both here & in Carolina, but in the species of rice, & I hope to enable them in Carolina to begin the Cultivation of the Piedmont rice & carry it on hand in hand with their own that they may supply both qualities, which is absolutely necessary at this market. I had before endeavored to lead the depot of rice from Cowes to Honfleur, and hope to get it received there on such terms as may draw that branch of commerce from England to this country. it is an object of 250,000 guineas a year. while passing thro’ the towns of Turin, Milan & Genoa, I satisfied myself of the practicability of introducing our whale oil for their consumption & I suppose it would be equally so in the other great cities of that country. I was sorry that I was not authorized to set the matter on foot. the merchants with whom I chose to ask conferences, met me freely, and communicated fully, knowing I was in a public character. I could however only prepare a disposition to meet our oil merchants. on the article of tobacco I was more in possession of my ground, and put matters into a train for inducing their government to draw their tobaccos directly from the U.S. & not as heretofore from G.B.3 I am now occupied with the new ministry here to put the concluding hand to the new regulations for our commerce with this country, announced in the letter of M. de Calonnes which I sent you last fall.4 I am in hopes in addition to those, to obtain a suppression of the duties on Tar, pitch, & turpentine, and an extension of the privileges of American whale oil, to their fish oils in general. I find that the quantity of Codfish oil brought to Lorient is considerable. this being got off hand (which will be in a few days) the chicaneries & vexations of the farmers on the article of tobacco, and their elusions of the order of Bernis, call for the next attention.5 I have reason to hope good dispositions in the new ministry towards our commerce with this country. besides endeavoring on all occasions to multiply the points of contact & connection with this country, which I consider as our surest main-stay under every event, I have had it much at heart to remove from between us every subject of misunderstanding or irritation. our debts to the king, to the officers, & the farmers are of this description. the having complied with no part of our engagements in these draws on us a great deal of censure, & occasioned a language in the Assemblies des notables very likely to produce dissatisfaction between us. Dumas being on the spot in Holland, I had asked of him some time ago, in confidence, his opinion on the practicability of transferring these debts from France to Holland, & communicated his answer to Congress, pressing them to get you to go over to Holland and try to effect this business. your knowlege of the ground & former successes occasioned me to take this liberty without consulting you, because I was sure you would not weigh your personal trouble against public good. I have had no answer from Congress, but hearing of your journey to Holland have hoped that some money operation had led you there. if it related to the debts of this country I would ask a communication of what you think yourself at liberty to communicate, as it might change the form of my answers to the eternal applications I receive. the debt to the officers of France carries an interest of about 2000 guineas, so we may suppose it’s principal is between 30. & 40,000. this makes more noise against than all our other debts put together.6
I send you the arrets which begin the reformation here, & some other publications respecting America: together with copies of letters received from Obryon & Lambe.7 it is believed that a naval armament has been ordered at Brest in correspondence with that of England. we know certainly that orders are given to form a camp in the neighborhood of Brabant, & that Count Rochambeau has the command of it. it’s amount I cannot assert. report says 15,000 men.8 this will derange the plans of oeconomy. I take the liberty of putting under your cover a letter for mr̃s Kinloch of South Carolina, with a packet, and will trouble you to enquire for her & have them delivered. the packet is of great consequence, & therefore referred to her care, as she will know the safe opportunities of conveying it. should you not be able to find her, and can forward the packet to it’s address by any very safe conveiance I will beg you to do it.9 I have the honour to be with sentiments of the most perfect friendship & esteem Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble servant
Th: Jefferson
RC (Adams Papers); internal address: “H. E. Mr. Adams.”; endorsed: “Mr Jefferson. 1. July / ansd. 10. 1787.”; notation by CFA: “published in his Writings / Vol 2d. p 171.” That is, , 2:171–173.
1. Jefferson also wrote to AA on 1 July, thanking her for her care of his daughter Mary (Polly) in London and asking for her views on political events in Europe (, 8:106–107).
2. Jefferson had dislocated his right wrist in a fall several months earlier and intended to take the waters at Aix for further healing. On 28 Feb. Jefferson departed Paris and, as a private citizen, made an extensive and costly tour of southern France and Italy, returning on 10 June. He made comprehensive notes on the region’s crops, wine, people, historical sites, rare antiquities, agricultural techniques, and classical architecture, including many of these observations in his “Hints to Americans Travelling in Europe,” which he sent to Thomas Lee Shippen and John Rutledge Jr. to use as a guidebook on their grand tour (vol. 18:465; , 11:415–464; 13:264–276; , 1:656–670).
3. Jefferson had long hoped that merchants in Naples and Sardinia would bolster Virginia’s tobacco trade, but he did not follow up formally on any plans discussed during this trip (, 7:613; 11:353).
4. See vol. 18:493–494.
5. The “order of Bernis” was the most recent set of Franco-American tobacco trade regulations, hammered out by the French ministry and the Farmers General in May 1786 at the Château de Berni, Charles Alexandre de Calonne’s country estate. Despite the interventions of Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette, both nations found the new rules hard to enforce. Three factors hindered Jefferson’s regulatory oversight: a lack of congressional support, the danger of Barbary pirates’ captures of American ships, and frequent violations of the regulations by the Farmers General (vol. 18:95; , 9:457–461, 597; 10:196, 197; 11:514).
6. For Jefferson’s lengthy efforts to pay the French officers who served in the American Revolution, see vol. 18:100, 101.
7. Not found. Jefferson likely sent copies of the recent French edicts establishing royal councils of trade and provincial assemblies. He also enclosed two letters relating to the failed mission to liberate American captives in Algiers. In his 28 April 1787 letter, enslaved captain Richard O’Bryen begged Jefferson for help as the bubonic plague raged. O’Bryen wrote that U.S. agent John Lamb had “made a regular bargain” with the dey for his crew’s freedom, but while the ransom was recorded “on the public books,” they continued to suffer in captivity. The second letter, sent by Lamb on 20 May, was equally troubling. Refusing to soak his diplomatic cipher sheets in vinegar, as plague quarantine regulations demanded, Lamb opted not to return them to Jefferson. Rather than report further on the American captives’ fate, Lamb summed it up as an “Unhappy mess indeed” and again denounced the Conde d’Expilly, the Spanish negotiator, as “that Vile Man” (, 11:321–322, 368–369, 518).
8. To bolster support for the Dutch Patriots and defend French borders, Louis XVI called for the mobilization of 25 battalions under the command of the Comte de Rochambeau. In light of the escalating fiscal crisis, however, his advisor EÉtienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne vetoed the plan (Bailey Stone, The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of England, France, and Russia, N.Y., 2014, p. 165).