1Contemporary Translation of Destutt de Tracy’s Commentary on Book 2 of Montesquieu’s Esprit des Lois, [after 16 … (Jefferson Papers)
BOOK II. of laws originating directly from the nature of the government. There are only two kinds of government: those founded on the general rights of man, and those founded on particular rights. spirit of laws. book ii. T he ordinary division of governments into republican, monarchical, and despotic, appears to me essentially erroneous. The word republican is itself a very vague term,...
2Contemporary Translation of Extracts from Destutt de Tracy’s Reflections on Montesquieu’s First Twelve Books, [after 16 … (Jefferson Papers)
In the second book, we shall perceive, that all governments may be classed under two heads, namely . . . . those which are founded on the general rights of man . . . . and those which are supposed to be founded on particular rights. Montesquieu has not adopted this distribution; he classes governments according to the accidental circumstances of the number of men invested with authority; and...
3To James Madison from William Duane, 3 May 1809 (Madison Papers)
Public motives, such as I conceive calculated to render service to the interests and honor of your administration, induce me to take the liberty of addressing you. The unhappy conflict which has arisen out of the case of Olmstead is now quieted so far as the law and the parties in that case are invol⟨ved⟩. The Militia men who under a blind opinion of obedience to their superiors have...
4William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 17 August 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
I have had the satisfaction to receive your very kind letter of the 12 instant . It is singular enough that I should have before me at the moment, a history of England in 4to, which I take to be the same which you mention. Several years ago you mentioned the same book to me, and through M r G. Erving then in London I obtained the book before me. Having just completed my Military Dictionary...
5William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 16 July 1810 (Jefferson Papers)
A desire to be preserved in your remembrance has often led me to the verge of writing to you, but knowing with what anxiety you retired from political concerns and the disgust you must naturally have felt at the recollection of the baseness you have seen and the unworthiness which prevails too much in all kinds of affairs, I preferred rather to trust to the ordinary incidents of my situation...
6William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 20 September 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I should not have troubled your retirement upon political subjects had not there been a rumor for some days that you had consented to accept the station of Sec y of State in the present Crisis, and that Mr. Monroe was to assume the War Department ; I must confess I feared it was too good news to be true, but I cannot refrain from expressing a wish that if you could consistently with your...
7To James Madison from William Duane, 5 December 1809 (Madison Papers)
I have revolved for some time in my mind the ideas which in a crude form I have taken the liberty of addressing to you. I presume not to set any higher values on them than liberal intentions and an enthusiastic devotion to the principles and durability of Republican Government, may give them. I neither look for any answer nor do I wish for any thing more than, the gratification of endeavoring...
8William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 17 July 1812 (Jefferson Papers)
I should have answered your obliging letter of the 20 th April , had my mind not been kept in agitation by the pressure which I began to feel heavily in consequence of my opposition to the U. S. Bank , and which although I have in effect surmounted, has left me like a man after a severe disease, with an unusual degree of debility. I had read your admirable work on the batture before I was...
9Enclosure: William Duane’s Notes on the Expediency of Using Black Troops, [ca. 11 August 1814] (Jefferson Papers)
Would it be expedient to use black troops? The probability of an extensive and perhaps durable war, renders it important to anticipate every means by which the public safety may be endangered or secured. There are many who fear a rising of the colored people, this suggests an enquiry,—on three several points 1. What would be the effect of the employment in war of the white population alone? 2....
10William Duane to Thomas Jefferson, 14 February 1813 [postscript, 9 March 1813] (Jefferson Papers)
I could not before this day find an opportunity undisturbed to answer yours of the 22 d ult . Never having been much of a pecuniary calculator, it is absolutely out of my power to say how my account with the Review of Montesquieu stands. When pressed hard last year by the combination of one set of old friends and the desertion of the rest, I found in the sacrifice of a considerable number of...