631Notes on Cabinet Opinions, 26 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 26. 1793. Notes on the proceedings of yesterday. [see the formal opinions given to the President in writing and signed] 1st. Question. we were all of opinion that the treaty should proceed merely to gratify the public opinion, and not from an expectation of success. I expressed myself strongly that the event was so unpromising that I thought the preparations for a campaign should go on...
632Notes on Washington’s Questions on Neutrality and the Alliance with France, [6 May 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Apr. 18. The President sends a set of Questions to be considered and calls a meeting. Tho those sent me were in his own hand writing, yet it was palpable from the style, their ingenious tissu and suite that they were not the President’s, that they were raised upon a prepared chain of argument, in short that the language was Hamilton’s, and the doubts his alone. They led to a declaration of the...
633Notes on the Payment of the Public Debt, [ca. 28 March 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
In how many years will a Debt bearing int. @ 6 pr. Ct. be extinguished by equal annual payments of 7. 8. 9. or 10. pr. ct. on acct of principal & interest? Answer. If the question be reversed the solution is equally easy. viz. What must the equal annual payments be to extinguish a debt in 20 years at 6. per cent? Answer 8.71845 pr. cent on the debt. See Bache’s paper Mar. 2. 93. The rule thus...
634Editorial Note: Jefferson’s Opinion on the Treaties with France (Jefferson Papers)
Thomas Jefferson’s carefully qualified opinion in favor of the continued validity of the 1778 treaties of alliance and commerce with France was designed to resolve a neutrality question of fundamental importance raised by Alexander Hamilton in response to the arrival in Philadelphia early in April 1793 of reliable intelligence of the French Republic’s declaration of war on Great Britain and...
635Notes on Conversations with William Stephens Smith and George Washington, 20 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 20. 1793. Colo. W. S. Smith called on me to communicate intelligence from France. He had left Paris Nov. 9. He says that the French Ministers are entirely broken with Gouvr. Morris, shut their doors to him and will never receive another communication from him. They wished Smith to be the bearer of a message from the Presidt. to this effect, but he declined and they said in that case they...
636Note on Balloons, [ca. 9 January 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Blanchard tells me that it takes 3000 ℔ vitriolic acid } for a single person to ascend in a baloon. 2000 ℔ iron filings the vitriolic acid costs in London 4d. sterl. per ℔. the baloon he ascended in was 22. feet French in diam.
637Notes on Levees and Assumption, 16 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 16. 93. E.R. tells J. Mad. and myself a curious fact which he had from Lear. When the Presidt. went to N.Y. he resisted for 3. weeks the efforts to introduce levees . At length he yeilded, and left it to Humphreys and some others to settle the forms. Accordingly an Antichamber and Presence room were provided, and when those who were to pay their court were assembled, the President set...
638Notes on the Reception of Edmond Charles Genet, 30 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mar. 30. 93. At our meeting at the Presid’s Feb. 25. in discussing the question whether we should furnish to France the 3,000,000. ₶ desired, Hamilton in speaking on the subject used this expression ‘when Mr. Genet arrives, whether we shall recieve him or not, will then be a question for discussion.’ Which expression I did not recollect till E.R. reminded me of it a few days after. Therefore...
639Notes on the Sinking Fund and the Proclamation of Neutrality, 7 May 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
May 7. We met as trustees of the sinking fund . For the opinion I delivered see my note of May 8. to E. R. and for his see his answer of May 9.—On the business of the sinking fund, we had meant to have come to a resolution to ask of the Pres. if there was any money under the loans at our disposal, the occasion of laying it out being favorable. But H. produced a letter just received from our...
640Notes on Conversations with Tobias Lear and John Beckley, 7 April 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Apr. 7. 93. Mr. Lear called on me and introduced of himself a conversation of the affairs of the US. He laughed at the cry of prosperity and the deriving it from the establishment of the treasury: he said that so far from giving into this opinion and that we were paying off our national debt he was clear the debt was growing on us: that he had lately expressed this opinion to the Presidt. who...
641II. Notes for Opinion on the Treaty of Alliance with France, [before 28 April 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
MS ( DLC : TJ Papers, 84: 14560); written entirely in TJ’s hand on one side of a sheet; undated; left margin torn, obliterating several words conjectured in brackets; printed literally. These rough notes form the outline for a rebuttal of the reasoning employed by Alexander Hamilton at the 19 Apr. 1793 Cabinet meeting to justify the right of the United States to suspend or renounce the French...
642Minutes of a Conference with the Illinois and Wabash Indians, [1–4 February 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 1. 1793. The President having addressed the Chiefs of the Wabash and Illinois Indians, John Baptist De Coin , chief of Kaskaskia, spoke as follows. Father. I am about to open to you my heart. I salute first the Great Spirit, the master of life, and then you. I present you a black pipe on the death of our chiefs who have come here and died in your bed. It is the calumet of the dead. Take...
643Enclosure: James Cole Mountflorence’s Account of the French Revolution, 11 November 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have not written to you since the memorable 10th. of August, but do not accuse me of neglect, The tyrannical proceedings of the Municipality of Paris who had erected themselves into one of the most tremendous inquisitorial courts, ten times more arbitrary than the star chamber, or the Dominicans Inquisition in Spain and sicily made it unsafe even for a stranger to trust his thoughts to paper...
644Notes on Washington’s Second Inauguration and Republicanism, 28 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 28. Knox, E.R. and myself met at Knox’s where Hamilton was also to have met, to consider the time manner and place of the President’s swearing in. Hamilton had been there before and had left his opinion with Knox. To wit, that the Presid. should ask a judge to attend him in his own house to administer the oath in the presence of the heads of departments, which oath should be deposited in...
645American Philosophical Society’s Subscription Agreement for André Michaux’s Western Expedition, [ca. 22 January 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Whereas Andrew Michaux, a native of France, and inhabitant of the United States has undertaken to explore the interior country of North America from the Missisipi along the Missouri, and Westwardly to the Pacific ocean, or in such other direction as shall be advised by the American Philosophical society, and on his return to communicate to the said society the information he shall have...
646Editorial Note: Jefferson and the Giles Resolutions (Jefferson Papers)
The draft resolutions printed below as Document I represent Thomas Jefferson’s climactic contribution to the unsuccessful Republican effort in the House of Representatives early in 1793 to censure Alexander Hamilton’s administration as Secretary of the Treasury and bring about his removal from office. This drive against Jefferson’s great antagonist was the high point of the first phase of the...
647II. William Branch Giles’s Resolutions on the Secretary of the Treasury, [27 February 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Resolved , That it is essential to the due administration of the government of the United States, that laws making specific appropriations of monies should be strictly observed by the administrator of the finances thereof. Resolved , That the violation of a law making appropriations of monies, is a violation of that article of the Constitution of the United States, which requires, that no...
648Notes on Stockholders in Congress, 25 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mar. 25. Beckley says he has this day discovered that Benson is a stockholder, also Bourne of R.I. and Key. MS ( DLC ); entirely in TJ’s hand; partially dated; inserted opposite “Anas” entry for 23 Mch. 1793 and written with it and 2 Mch. 1793 entry on the other side of a sheet bearing “Anas” entries for 30 and 31 Mch. 1793. Included in the “Anas.”
649Notes of a Conversation with George Washington, 7 February 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Feb. 7. 1793. I waited on the President with letters and papers from Lisbon. After going through these I told him that I had for some time suspended speaking with him on the subject of my going out of office because I had understood that the bill for intercourse with foreign nations was likely to be rejected by the Senate in which case the remaining business of the department would be too...
650Enclosure: Proposed Form for Patents, [ca. 17 March 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Form of patent. The US. of America to all to whom these letters patent shall come: The words which are scored, are the very words of the law Whereas A.B. a citizen of the state of in the US. hath alledged that he has invented [or discovered] &c. not before known or used has made oath [or affirmation] that he does verily believe that he is the true inventor [or discoverer] thereof : has paid...
651Notes on John Adams and the French Revolution, [15 January 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Jan. 16. At a meeting of the board for the sinking fund, in a conversation after business was over, Mr. Adams declared that ‘men could never be governed but by force ’ that neither virtue prudence, wisdom nor any thing else sufficed to restrain their passions. That the first National convention of France had established a constitution, had excluded themselves from it’s administration for...
652Notes on Alexander Hamilton and the Enforcement of Neutrality, 6 May 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
1793. May 6. The President shews me a draught of a letter from Colo. H. to the Collectors of the customs, desiring them to superintend their neighborhood, watch for all acts of our citizens contrary to laws of neutrality or tending to infringe those laws, and inform him of it; and particularly to see if vessels should be building pierced for guns.—I told the Pr. that at a conference a few days...
653Notes on Alexander Hamilton’s Report on Foreign Loans, [ca. 20 February 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
Extracts from Colo. Hamilton’s letters to Mr. Short, laid before the H. of Representatives. Feb. 1793. A.H.’s letter to W.S. Nov. 26. 92. in the observations on it to justify his idea of a suspension of payment for 6. months, a year, or much longer he says the Executive here had considered and admitted the propriety of a suspension of payments . The opinion given in the first week of Nov. to...
654Notes on Stockholders in Congress, 23 March 1793 (Jefferson Papers)
Mar. 23. 1793. The following list of paper-men is communicated to me by Mr. Beckley . Gilman. S.H. Gerry. S.H. Sedgwick. Ames S.H. Goodhue S.H. Bourne. R.I. suspected only. Trumbul. S.H. Wadsworth.
655I. Notes on Washington’s Questions on Neutrality and the Alliance with France, [before 28 April 1793] (Jefferson Papers)
1st. Principle. the people the source of all authority the Constituent in all treaties this answers Qu. II. III. IV. V. VI. XII. 2d. Principle. the Legislature alone can declare war the question of Guarantee is a question of war. this answers Qu. VII. VIII. IX–X. Qu. XI. Art. 17. French ships of war & privateers with prizes may come & go freely, < with prizes > English do. may not. If...