ish armed vessels in the Chesapeake, or off the coast. If, by off the coast, he means those which, being generally in our waters, go occasionally out of them to cruize or to acquire a title to communicate with their consul, it is too poor an evasion for him to expect us to be the dupes of. If vessels off the coast, & having never violated the proclamation, wish to communicate with their consul, they may send in by any vessel, without a flag. He gives a proof of their readiness to restore deserters, from an instance of the Chichester lying along-side a wharf at Norfolk. It would have been as applicable if Capt Stopfield and his men had been in a tavern at Norfolk. All this, too, a British sergeant is ready to swear to; & further, that he saw British deserters enlisted in their British uniform, by our officer. As this fact is probably false, & can easily be inquired into, names being given, and as the story of the Chichester can be ascertained by Capt Saunders, suppose you send a copy of the paper to the Secy of the Navy, and recommend to him having an inquiry made. We ought gladly to procure evidence to hang the pirates, if no objection or difficulty occur from the place of trial. If the Driver is the scene of trial, where is she? if in our waters, we can have no communication with her, if out of them, it may be inconvenient to send the witnesses. Altho' there is neither candor nor dignity in soliciting the victualling the Columbine for 4 months for a voyage of 10 days, yet I think you had better give the permission. It is not by these huckstering manoeuvres that the great national question is to be settled. I salute you affectionately.'

1 On the next day Jefferson wrote to Madison:

"It will be very difficult to answer Mr. Erskine's demand respecting the water casks in the tone proper for such a demand. I have heard of one who, having broke his cane over the head of another, demanded paiment for his cane. This demand might well enough have made part of an offer to pay the damages done to the Chesapeake and to deliver up the authors of the murders committed on board her. I return you the papers received yesterday. The Governor has enclosed me a letter from Genl Mathews of August 13, mentioning the recent arrival of a ship in the Chesapeake, bearing the flag of a Vice-Admiral; from whence he concludes that Barclay has arrived. I salute you affectionately."

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(JAMES MADISON.)

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Aug. 20, '07.

Your letter to Dayton I think perfectly right, unless, perhaps, the expression of personal sympathy in the 1st page might be misconstrued, &, coupled with the circumstance that we had not yet instituted a prosecution against him, altho' possessed of evidence. Poor Yznardi seems to have been worked up into distraction by the persecutions of Meade. I enclose you a letter I have received from him. Also one from Warden, attested by Armstrong, by which you will see that the feuds there are not subsiding.

By yesterday's, or this day's mails, you will have received the information that Bonaparte has annihilated the allied armies. The result will doubtless be peace on the continent, an army despatched through Persia to India, & the main army brought back to their former position on the channel. This will oblige England to withdraw everything home, & leave us an open field. An account, apparently worthy of credit, in the Albany paper, is, that the British authorities are withdrawing all their cannon & magazines from Upper Canada to Quebec, considering the former not tenable, & the latter their only fast-hold.

I salute you with sincere affection.

P. S. I had forgotten to express my opinion that deserters ought never to be enlisted; but I think you may go further & say to Erskine, that if ever such a practise has prevailed, it has been without the knolege of the Government, and would have been forbidden, if known, & if any examples of it have existed, (which is doubted,) they must have been few, or they would have become known. The case presented from the Chichester, if true, does not prove the contrary, as the persons there said to have been enlisted are believed to have been American citizens, who, whether impressed or enlisted into the British service, were equally right in returning to the duties they owed to their own country.

TO THOMAS LEIPER.

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Aug. 21, 07.

DEAR SIR,—I pray you to consider this letter so confidential as not to be hinted even to your most intimate friends. You propose General Steele as the successor to the present collector. The following circumstances are to be considered. It is indispensable that the head of the Indian department reside at the seat of government. General Shee was apprised of this at the time of his appointment. It was soon perceived that this was so ineligible to him as to countervail the benefits of the appointment & place him in doubt whether he would not rather relinquish it. We We gave him time for his removal accommodated to his own views; and this has gone over without being noticed, because I had reason to expect a vacancy in the collectorship and had made up my mind to give him that, & the Indian agency to a person residing in Washington. As I suppose Genl. Shee the person whom it is most material to take care of, I wish your candid opinion whether the arrangement I propose is not more desirable than that which would oblige Shee to remove or resign.1

1 On the appointment of Shee the President wrote to James Gamble:

"WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 07.

"SIR,-Your favor of the 17th has been duly received. I have long seen, and with very great regret, the schisms which have taken place among the republicans, & principally those of Pensylvania & New York. As far as I have been able to judge they have not been produced by any difference of political principle, at least any important difference, but by a difference of opinion as to persons. I determined from the first moment to take no part in them, & that the government should know nothing of any such differences. Accordingly it has never been attended to in any appointment or refusal of appointment.

VOL. IX-9

I never expected to be under the necessity of wishing success to Buonaparte. But the English being equally tyrannical at sea as he is on land, & that tyranny bearing on us in every point of either honor or interest, I say, 'down with England' and as for what Buonaparte is then to do to us, let us trust to the chapter of accidents, I cannot, with the Anglomen, prefer a certain present evil to a future hypothetical I salute with friendship & respect.

one.

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(JAMES MADISON.)

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, Aug. 25, 1807.

DEAR SIR, Colo. Newton's inquiries are easily solved, I think, by application of the principles we have assumed. 1. The interdicted ships are enemies. Should they be forced, by stress of weather, to run up into safer harbors, we are to act towards them as we would towards enemies in regular war, in a like case. Permit no intercourse, no supplies; & if they land, kill or capture them as enemies. If they lie still, Decatur has orders not to attack them without stating the case to me, & awaiting instructions. But if they attempt to enter Elizabeth river, he is to attack them without waiting for instructions. 2. Other armed Genl. Shee's personal merit universally acknoleged, was the cause of his appointment as Indian Superintendent, and a subsequent discovery that his removal to this place (the indispensible residence of that officer) would be peculliarly unpleasant to him, suggested his translation to another office, to solve the double difficulty. Rarely reading the controversial pieces between the different sections of Republicans, I have not seen the piece in the Aurora, to which you allude; but I may with truth assure you that no fact has come to my knolege which has ever induced any doubt of your continued attachment to the true principles of republican government. I am thankful for the favorable sentiments you are so kind as to express towards me personally, and trust that an uniform pursuit of the principles & conduct which have procured, will continue to me an approbation which I highly value. I salute you with great esteem & respect."

vessels, putting in from sea in distress, are friends. They must report themselves to the collector, he assigns them their station, & regulates their repairs, supplies, intercourse & stay. Not needing flags, they are under the direction of the collector alone, who should be reasonably liberal as to their repairs & supplies, furnishing them for a voyage to any of their American ports; but I think with him their crews should be kept on board, & that they should not enter Elizabeth river.

I remember Mr. Gallatin expressed an opinion that our negociations with England should not be laid before Congress at their meeting, but reserved to be communicated all together with the answer they should send us, whenever received. I am not of this opinion. I think, on the meeting of Congress, we should lay before them everything that has passed to that day, & place them on the same ground of information we are on ourselves. They will then have time to bring their minds to the same state of things with ours, & when the answer arrives, we shall all view it from the same position. I think, therefore, you should order the whole of the negociation to be prepared in two copies. I salute you affectionately.

TO THE SECRETARY AT WAR.

(HENRY DEARBORN.)

J. MSS.

MONTICELLO, August 28, 07.

DEAR SIR,—I had had the letter of Mr. Jouett of July 6th from Chicago, & that from Governor Hull, of July 14, from Detroit, under consideration some days, when the day before yesterday I received that of the Governor of July 25.

While it appeared that the workings among the Indians of that neighborhood proceeded from their prophet chiefly, & that his endeavors were directed to the restoring them to their antient mode of life, to the feeding & clothing themselves with the produce of the chace, & refusing all those articles of meat, drink, & clothing, which they can only obtain from the whites, and are now rendered necessary by habit, I thought it a transient enthusiasm, which, if let alone, would evaporate innocently of itself; altho' visibly tinctured with a partiality against the U. S. But