of our prayers, that the Almighty will be pleased to keep you, our great and beloved friend and ally, under his constant guidance and protection. New York, the 9th day of October, 1789.* TO WILLIAM MCWHIR. New York, 12 October, 1789. SIR, I have received your letter of the 18th ultimo, and am glad to learn from it, that my nephews apply with diligence to arithmetic and English composition. These are two branches in which I have always thought them deficient, and have ever been pressingly desirous, that they should be made well acquainted with them. George may be instructed in the French language, but Lawrence had better apply himself for the present to his arithmetic, writing, and composition. I can As you have failed in your endeavours to obtain a mathematical instructor, it is not probable that any success would attend an advertisement in a paper here. However, I shall have one inserted. give no particular opinion respecting the boy, whom you represent to be an uncommon genius. But I would cheerfully give any reasonable encouragement towards the cultivation of talents, which bid fair to be useful. I am, Sir, &c. The letter from the King of France, to which the above was an answer, announced the death of the Dauphin. In communicating to Congress the intelligence contained in that letter, the President said; "The generous conduct of the French monarch and nation towards this country renders every event that may affect his or their prosperity interesting to us; and I shall take care to assure him of the sensibility with which the United States participate in the affliction, which a loss so much to be regretted must have occasioned both to him and to them." - September 29th. VOL. X. Ꭰ TO COUNT DE ROCHAMBEAU. DEAR GENERAL, New York, 13 October, 1789. I have been honored with the receipt of your letters of the 31st of January and 17th of February last; and I should have had the pleasure to address you sooner, but a tedious indisposition, and very numerous avocations since my recovery, have so entirely engaged my time, as to leave me but very little or no leisure for the agreeable duties of friendship. I embrace the obliging offer of his Excellency the Count de Moustier, who favors my letter with his care, to renew an intercourse which will ever give me pleasure, and to enhance your satisfaction by telling you, that the political affairs of the United States are in so pleasing a train, as to promise respectability to their government and happiness to our citizens. The opposition offered to the reform of our federal constitution has in a great measure subsided, and there is every reason to predict political harmony and individual happiness to the States and citizens of confederated America. The revolution, announced by the intelligence from France, must be interesting to the nations of the world in general, and is certainly of the greatest importance to the country in which it has happened. I am persuaded I express the sentiments of my fellowcitizens, when I offer an earnest prayer, that it may terminate in the permanent honor and happiness of your government and people. With sentiments of respectful affection and esteem, I am, &c. TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. DEAR SIR, New York, 13 October, 1789. In my first moments of leisure I acknowledge the receipt of your several favors. To thank you for the interesting communications contained in those letters, and for the pains you have taken to procure me a watch, is all, or nearly all, I shall attempt in this letter; for I could only repeat things, were I to set about it, which I have reason to believe have been regularly communicated to you in detail, at the periods which gave birth to them. It may not, however, be unpleasing to you to hear in one word, that the national government is organized, and, as far as my information goes, to the satisfaction of all parties; that opposition to it is either no more, or hides its head; that it is hoped and expected it will take strong root; and that the non-acceding States will very soon become members of the Union. No doubt is entertained of North Carolina; nor would there be any of Rhode Island, had not the majority of those people bid adieu, long since, to every principle of honor, common sense, and honesty. A material change however has taken place, it is said, at the late election of representatives, and confident assurances are given, from that circumstance, of better dispositions in their legislature at its next session, now about to be held.* The revolution, which has been effected in France is of so wonderful a nature, that the mind can hardly realize the fact. If it ends as our last accounts, to The grounds taken by the Assembly of Rhode Island, in their opposition to the constitution, are stated in a letter from Governor Collins to President Washington and Congress. See APPENDIX, No. VI. the first of August, predict, that nation will be the most powerful and happy in Europe; but I fear, though it has gone triumphantly through the first paroxysm, it is not the last it has to encounter before matters are finally settled. In a word, the revolution is of too great a magnitude to be effected in so short a space, and with the loss of so little blood. The mortification of the king, the intrigues of the queen, and the discontent of the princes and noblesse, will foment divisions, if possible, in the National Assembly; and they will unquestionably avail themselves of every faux pas in the formation of the constitution, if they do not give a more open, active opposition. In addition to these, the licentiousness of the people on one hand, and sanguinary punishments on the other, will alarm the best disposed friends to the measure, and contribute not a little to the overthrow of their object. Great temperance, firmness, and foresight are necessary in the movements of that body. To forbear running from one extremé to another is no easy matter; and, should this be the case, rocks and shelves, not visible at present, may wreck the vessel, and give a higher toned despotism than the one which existed before. I am, dear Sir, &c. DEAR SIR, TO THOMAS JEFFERSON. New York, 13 October, 1789. In the selection of characters to fill the important offices of government in the United States, I was naturally led to contemplate the talents and disposition, which I knew you to possess and entertain for the service of your country; and, without being able to consult your inclination, or to derive any knowledge of your intentions from your letters either to myself or to any other of your friends, I was determined, as well by motives of private regard as a conviction of public propriety, to nominate you for the Department of State, which, under its present organization, involves many of the most interesting objects of the executive authority. But, grateful as your acceptance of this commission would be to me, I am at the same time desirous to accommodate your wishes, and I have therefore forborne to nominate your successor at the court of Versailles, until I should be informed of your determination. Being on the eve of a journey through the eastern States, with a view to observe the situation of the country, and in a hope of perfectly reestablishing my health, which a series of indispositions has much impaired, I have deemed it proper to make this communication of your appointment, in order that you might lose no time, should it be your wish to visit Virginia during the recess of Congress, which will probably be the most convenient season, both as it may respect your private concerns and the public ser vice. Unwilling as I am to interfere in the direction of your choice of assistants, I shall only take the liberty of observing to you, that, from warm recommendations which I have received in behalf of Mr. Roger Alden, assistant secretary to the late Congress, I have placed all the papers thereunto belonging under his care. Those papers, which more properly appertain to the office of foreign affairs, are under the superintendence of Mr. Jay, who has been so obliging as to continue his good offices, and they are in the immediate charge VOL. X. 6 D* |