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20. Turmoil and Change in America
t will be interesting to the American reader to know how the general appearance of things in Europe struck the republican mind of Mr. Jefferson. His private letters while in Paris addressed to his friends in America comprise the most nervous and in some respects the most valuable portions of his voluminous correspondence. His views of the state of society and manners in Europe, his comparison of its governments, laws, and institutions with those of republican America, and his unremitting exhortations to his countrymen to preserve themselves and the blessings they enjoy free from contamination with the people and principles of the old world, are among the most valuable and interesting legacies which he has bequeathed to his country.
Soon after the restoration of peace, the incompetency of the confederation to sustain the republican structure was so alarmingly felt that even those who had been most ardent in its establishment apostatized in great numbers to the principles of monarchical government as the only refuge of political safety.
The causes of this deflection in political opinion are inherent in the constitution of man; but powerful external reasons cooperated at this period to stimulate and force it on. The people had come out of the war of the revolution oppressed with the debts of the union, with the debts of the individual States, and with their own private debts; and they were utterly unable to discharge any from the best of all causes: the want of pecuniary means. The inability of Congress from the want of coercive powers to cancel the public obligations destroyed the public credit; and the application of judgment and execution in the case of private debts served only to increase the general distress. The interruption of their commerce with Great Britain and the deficiency as yet of other markets for their productions operated with peculiar severity upon the eastern States; and the neglect of a suitable relaxation of the judiciary arm in those governments brought on disastrous consequences. Under the pressure of this general distress, the popular discontent broke out into acts of violence and flagrant insubordination. Tumultuary meetings were held in New Hampshire and Connecticut, and in Massachusetts a formidable insurrection arose which menaced the very foundations of the government.
These disturbances and commotions occasioned a general alarm throughout the union. They excited a sensible distrust of the principles of our government among its most sanguine votaries, while with its enemies, the intelligence of such events was greeted with exultation as affording a happy augury of the downfall of the republic. Now it was that those theoretic ideas of public virtue on which the beautiful edifice of liberty was erected began to be scouted as chimerical. The people were distrusted, and terror was considered the only competent motive of restraint and engine of subordination.
Mr. Jefferson was distant from his country at this disheartening juncture, but his eye watched over her, and the voice of his counsels was heard and felt. His confidence in the soundness of the republican theory underwent no change from those occasional eccentricities in practice which are inseparable from all human institutions and which were chargeable in the present case to the pressure of the times and the weakness of the confederation rather than to any inherent principle of disorganization. His reliance upon the good sense of the people to rectify abuses in a proper manner was so strong that he deemed an occasional rebellion a desirable event, inasmuch as it afforded the best evidence that this sense was active and vigorous; to enlighten it, then, was the only thing necessary to ensure a favorable result. Indeed, his conviction of the capacity of mankind to govern themselves was confirmed by the intelligence of these irregular proofs of their dissatisfaction under the present circumstances; and he took care to impress this opinion upon his numerous correspondents in America on every occasion and in the most emphatic terms. An acquaintance with his private correspondence at this period would afford satisfaction to the lovers of human nature and of human rights.
To Col. Edward Carrington.-- "I am persuaded myself that the good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. They may be led astray for a moment but will soon correct themselves. The people are the only censors of their governors, and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs through the channel of the public papers and to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them. I am convinced that those societies (as the Indians) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretense of governing, they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not exaggerate. This is a true picture of Europe. Cherish, therefore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature in spite of individual exceptions; and experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe and to the general prey of the rich on the poor." (Jan. 16, 1787. ME 6:57)
To James Madison.-- "I am impatient to learn your sentiments on the late troubles in the Eastern states. So far as I have yet seen, they do not appear to threaten serious consequences. Those states have suffered by the stoppage of the channels of their commerce, which have not yet found other issues. This must render money scarce and make the people uneasy. This uneasiness has produced acts absolutely unjustifiable; but I hope they will provoke no severities from their governments. A consciousness of those in power that their administration of the public affairs has been honest may, perhaps, produce too great a degree of indignation; and those characters wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from these instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature has formed man insusceptible of any other government than that of force, a conclusion not founded in truth nor experience. Societies exist under three forms sufficiently distinguishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. Under governments wherein the will of everyone has a just influence, as is the case in England in a slight degree and in our States in a great one. 3. Under governments of force, as is the case in all other monarchies and in most of the other republics. To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a problem not clear in my mind that the first condition is not the best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and happiness. It has its evils, too, the principal of which is the turbulence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietam servitutem. [I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude.] Even this evil is productive of good. It prevents the degeneracy of government and nourishes a general attention to the public affairs. I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government." (Jan. 30, 1787. ME 6:64)
To David Hartley, of England.-- "The most interesting intelligence from America is that respecting the late insurrection in Massachusetts. The cause of this has not been developed to me to my perfect satisfaction. The most probable is that those individuals were of the imprudent number of those who have involved themselves in debt beyond their ability to pay, and that a vigorous effort in that government to compel the payment of private debts and raise money for public ones produced the resistance. I believe you may be assured that an idea or desire of returning to anything like their ancient government never entered into their heads. I am not discouraged by this, for thus I calculate: An insurrection in one of thirteen States in the course of eleven years that they have subsisted amounts to one in any particular State in one hundred and forty-three years -- say a century and a half. This would not be near as many as have happened in every other government that has ever existed. So that we shall have the difference between a light and a heavy government as clear gain. I have no fear but that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master. Could the contrary of this be proved, I should conclude either that there is no God, or that He is a malevolent being." (July 2, 1787. ME 6:150)
To Col. William S. Smith.-- "Wonderful is the effect of impudent and persevering lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves! Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts? And can history produce an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted? I say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not wickedness. God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all and always well-informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had thirteen States independent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each State. What country before ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon, and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure." (Nov. 13, 1787. MR 6:372)
Such is a specimen of the philosophy which Mr. Jefferson poured into the breasts of the public characters of America at this important juncture. His opinions were received with respect by all those with whom he had acted on the theatre of the revolution, and his earnest and unremitting counsels had a powerful influence in checking the anti-republican tendencies which had already risen up. In a short time, the deluge of evils which overflowed the country was traced to its original source; and no sooner was the happy discovery made than the virtue and good sense of the people, in verification of his repeated auguries, nobly interposed, and instead of seeking relief in rebellion and civil war, assembled their wise men together to apply a rational and peaceable remedy.
he first grand movement towards reorganizing the government of the United States upon the basis of the present constitution was made in the General Assembly of Virginia on motion of Mr. Madison. The proposition merely contemplated an amendment of the confederation which should confer on Congress the absolute and exclusive power over the regulation of commerce and resulted in the convocation of a convention for that purpose to meet at Annapolis in September, 1786. The commercial convention failed in point of representation, but it laid the foundation for the call of a grand national convention with powers to revise the entire system of government to meet at Philadelphia the ensuing year.
The opinions of Mr. Jefferson had an undoubted influence in these important proceedings in America. In all his dispatches to the government and in his private letters to the leading political men he had reiterated the necessity of fundamental reformations in the federal compact. The defect which he most deplored was the absence of a uniform power to regulate our commercial intercourse with foreign nations. This disability was the incessant theme of his complaints. It was the primary source, he declared, of those irregularities and embarrassments which continually obstructed his negotiations with the European nations. Those powers who were disposed to treat would never do it so long as the government had no authority to protect them by treaty from the navigation acts of the particular States; and those who were indisposed to treat would forever remain so for the same reason, whilst all would exercise the right to retaliate on the union the restrictions imposed on their commerce by the laws of any one individual State. Jefferson maintained a constant correspondence on these points with Washington, Wythe, Monroe, Langdon, Gerry, and particularly his friend Madison. the intelligence of the first movements in America towards a reformation of the national compact filled him with the liveliest gratification, as is evinced by his letters of that date. A single specimen will suffice to show the general tenor of his correspondence on this subject.
To James Madison.-- "I have heard with great pleasure that our Assembly have come to the resolution of giving the regulation of their commerce to the federal head. I will venture to assert that there is not one of its opposers who, placed on this ground, would not see the wisdom of this measure. The politics of Europe render it indispensably necessary that, with respect to everything external, we be one nation only, firmly hooped together. Interior government is what each State should keep to itself. If it were seen in Europe that all our States could be brought to concur in what the Virginia Assembly has done, it would produce a total revolution in their opinion of us and respect for us. And it should ever be held in mind that insult and war are the consequences of a want of respectability in the national character. As long as the States exercise separately those acts of power which respect foreign nations, so long will there continue to be irregularities committed by some one or other of them which will constantly keep us on an ill footing with foreign nations." (Feb. 8, 1786. ME 5:278)
During the deliberations and discussions of this assembly, those fearful anti-republican heresies which had sprung up during the short interval of peace developed themselves in a more tangible and decided form. Various propositions were submitted to the convention, some of which were dangerous approximations to monarchy. One of these, proposed by Alexander Hamilton, was in fact a compromise between the two principles of royalism and republicanism. According to this plan, the executive and one branch of the legislature were to continue in office during good behavior, and the governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent organs. The proposition, however, was rejected.
Although a stranger to these transactions, Mr. Jefferson could not contemplate the idea of such a convention without great anxiety. His counsels were eagerly solicited by Madison, Wythe and others from time to time during the progress of the convention, and he communicated to them his opinions with modesty and frankness. It is very evident from the tenor of some of his answers that he had received hints of the monarchical dispositions which characterized a portion of the assembly. His fears were so strong from this direction that he leaned heavily the other way in stating his opinions of the necessary reformations.
To Mr. Madison.-- "The idea of separating the executive business of the confederacy from Congress as the judiciary is already in some degree is just and necessary. I had frequently pressed on the members individually while in Congress the doing this by a resolution of Congress for appointing an executive committee to act during the sessions of Congress as the committee of the States was to act during their vacations. But the referring to this committee all executive business as it should present itself would require a more persevering self-denial than I suppose Congress to possess. It will be much better to make that separation by a federal act. The negative proposed to be given them on all the acts of the several legislatures is now for the first time suggested to my mind. Prima facie, I do not like it. It fails in an essential character: that the hole and the patch should be commensurate. But this proposes to mend a small hole by covering the whole garment. Not more than one out of one hundred State acts concern the confederacy. This proposition, then, in order to give them one degree of power which they ought to have gives them ninety-nine more which they ought not to have, upon a presumption that they will not exercise the ninety-nine." (June 20, 1787. ME 6:131)
To Edward Carrington.-- "I confess I do not go as far in the reforms thought necessary as some of my correspondents in America; but if the convention should adopt such propositions, I shall suppose them necessary. My general plan would be, to make the States one as to everything connected with foreign nations, and several as to everything purely domestic. But with all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the best existing or that ever did exist. Its greatest defect is the imperfect manner in which matters of commerce have been provided for." (Aug. 4, 1787. ME 6:227)
To Benjamin Hawkins.-- "I look up with you to the federal convention for an amendment of our federal affairs. Yet I do not view them in so disadvantageous a light at present as some do. And above all things, I am astonished at some people's considering a kingly government as a refuge. Advise such to read the fable of the frogs who solicited Jupiter for a king. If that does not put them to rights, send them to Europe to see something of the trappings of monarchy, and I will undertake that every man shall go back thoroughly cured. If all the evils which can arise among us from the republican form of government from this day to the day of judgment could be put into a scale against what this country [France] suffers from its monarchical form in a week or England in a month, the latter would preponderate. Consider the contents of the Red Book in England or the Almanac Royale of France and say what a people gain by monarchy. No race of kings has ever presented above one man of common sense in twenty generations. The best they can do is to leave things to their ministers; and what are their ministers but a committee badly chosen? If the king ever meddles, it is to do harm." (Aug. 4, 1787. ME 6:232)
To Joseph Jones.-- "I am anxious to hear what our federal convention recommends and what the States will do in consequence of their recommendation... With all the defect of our constitution, whether general or particular, the comparison of our governments with those of Europe is like a comparison of heaven and hell. England, like the earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate station. And yet, I hear there are people among you who think the experience of our governments has already proved that republican governments will not answer. Send those gentry here to count the blessings of monarchy. A king's sister, for instance, stopped on the road and on a hostile journey, is sufficient cause for him to march immediately twenty thousand men to revenge this insult when he had shown himself little moved by the matter of right then in question." (Aug. 14, 1787. ME 6:274)
To George Wythe.-- "You ask me in your letter what ameliorations I think necessary in our federal constitution. It is now too late to answer the question, and it would always have been presumption in me to have done it. Your own ideas and those of the great characters who were to be concerned with you in these discussions will give the law as they ought to do to us all. My own general idea was that the States should severally preserve their sovereignty in whatever concerns themselves alone, and that whatever may concern another State or any foreign nation should be made a part of the federal sovereignty; that the exercise of the federal sovereignty should be divided among three several bodies -- legislative, executive, and judiciary -- as the State sovereignties are, and that some peaceable means should be contrived for the federal head to force compliance on the part of the States." (Sept. 16, 1787. ME 6:299)
To George Washington.-- "I remain in hopes of great and good effects from the decision of the Assembly over which you are presiding. To make our States one as to all foreign concerns, preserve them several as to all merely domestic, to give the federal head some peaceable mode of enforcing its just authority, to organize that head into legislative, executive and judiciary departments are great desiderata in our federal constitution. Yet with all its defects and with those of our particular governments, the inconveniences resulting from them are so light in comparison with those existing in every other government on earth that our citizens may certainly be considered as in the happiest political situation which exists." (Aug. 14, 1787. ME 6:275)
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