as in the universe. Your emperor has done more splendid things, but he never done one which will give happiness to so great a number of human beings as the ceding Louisiana to the U. S.

I wrote to Madame de Tesse on the 21st of Feb and at the same time sent a box of seeds, nuts, acorns &c. to Baltimore, which were forwarded to Bordeaux for her, to the care of Mr. Lee our consul there. I had done the same thing the preceding year. That vessel was taken by the English, detained, but got to France in April. It is so difficult in times of war to get anything carried safely across the Atlantic as to be very discouraging. I shall not fail, however, to repeat my endeavours as to such objects as are in our neighborhood here, until she has a plenty of them. I am panting for retirement, but am as yet nearly two years from that goal. The general solicitations I have received to continue another term give me great consolation, but considerations public as well as personal determine me inflexibly on that measure. Permit me to place here my most friendly respects to M. & Me de Tesse, & Me. de La Fayette, accept for yourself my salutations & assurances of sincere & affectionate esteem.

TO JOHN W. EPPES.

J. MSS.

WASHINGTON, May 28, 07.

DEAR SIR,-Martin arrived here the night before last & delivered safely yours of the 22d. I learn with great pleasure the good health of yourself & the good

family of Eppington & particularly of our dear Francis. I have little fear but that he will outgrow those attacks which have given us such frequent uneasiness. I shall hope to see him well here next winter and that our grounds will be in such a state as to admit him to be more in the open air in the neighborhood of the house. Your mare is not as fat as she was, but is in good traveling order. I have advised Martin to go round by the bridge for fear of accident to the foal crossing in the boat. We have nothing new except an uncommonly friendly letter from the Bey of Tunis: and good reason to believe that Melli-Melli carried to his government favorable & friendly impressions. The news is now all with you. We have heard as yet only the proceedings of the 1st day of Burr's trial, which from the favor of the marshal & judge promises him all which can depend on them. A grand jury of 2 feds, 4 Quids & 10 republicans does not seem to be a fair representation of the state of Virginia. But all this will show the original error of establishing a judiciary independent of the nation, and which, from the citadel of the law can turn it's guns on those they were meant to defend, & controul & fashion their proceedings to it's own will. I have always entertained a high opinion of the marshal's integrity & political correctness. But in a state where there are not more than 8 Quids, how 5 of them should have been summoned on one jury is difficult to explain from accident. Affectionate salutations & constant esteem to you all.

TO THE SECRETARY OF TREASURY.

(ALBERT GALLatin.)

J. MSS.

June 1, '07.

I gave you, some time ago, a project of a more equal tariff on wines than that which now exists. But in that I yielded considerably to the faulty classification of them in our law. I have now formed one with attention, and according to the best information I possess, classing them more rigorously. I am persuaded that were the duty on cheap wines put on the same ratio with the dear, it would wonderfully enlarge the field of those who use wine, to the expulsion of whiskey. The introduction of a very cheap wine (St. George) into my neighborhood, within two years past, has quadrupled in that time the number of those who keep wine, and will ere long increase them tenfold. This would be a great gain to the treasury, & to the sobriety of our country. I will here add my tariff, wherein you will be able to chuse any rate of duty you please, and to decide whether it will not, on a fit occasion, be proper for legislative attention. Affectn salutns.

TO WILLIAM SHORT.1

June 12, 1807.

The proposition in your letter of May 16th, as adding an umpire to our discordant negotiators at Paris, struck me favorably on reading it, and reflection afterward strengthened my first impressions. I made it, therefore, a subject of consultation with my coadjutors, as is our usage. For our government although in theory subject to be directed by the unadvised will of the President, is, and from its origin has been, a very different thing in practice. The minor business in each department is done by

'From the Southern Bivouac, II., 635.

the head of the department on consultation with the President alone; but all matters of importance or difficulty are submitted to all the heads of departments composing the cabinet. Sometimes, by the President's consulting them separately and successively, as they happen to call on him, but in the gravest cases calling them together, discussing the subject maturely, and finally taking the vote, on which the President counts himself but as one. So that in all important cases the Executive is in fact a directory, which certainly the President might control; but of this there was never an example either in the first or the present administration. I have heard, indeed, that my predecessor sometimes decided things against his counsel by dashing and trampling his wig on the floor. This only proves what you and I know, that he had a better heart than head. I see with extreme concern that you have received an impression that my attachment to you has become lessened and that you have drawn this inference from circumstances taking place while you were in Washington. What these circumstances could be is to me incomprehensible, but one thing I certainly know, that they have been misconstrued. That this change could not be previous to my retirement from the government in 1794, your appointments to France, to Holland, to Spain are proofs. And if, during my present place in the government, I have not met your desires, the public motives which have been frankly declared have given the real grounds. You think them not founded in fact; but

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if the testimony we receive is of different complexions, neither should wonder at the difference of conclusion drawn by the other, and I do trust that you will become sensible that there is no necessity, at least, for supposing a change in affections, which are the same now as they have ever been. Certainly I shall not, on my part, permit a difference of view on a single subject to efface the recollections and attachments of a whole life.

TO JOHN NORVELL.

J. MSS.

WASHINGTON, June 14, 1807.

SIR,-Your letter of May 9 has been duly received. The subject it proposes would require time & space for even moderate development. My occupations limit me to a very short notice of them. I think there does not exist a good elementary work on the organization of society into civil government: I mean a work which presents in one full & comprehensive view the system of principles on which such an organization should be founded, according to the rights of nature. For want of a single work of that character, I should recommend Locke on Government, Sidney, Priestley's Essay on the first Principles of Government, Chipman's Principles of Government, & the Federalist. Adding, perhaps, Beccaria on crimes & punishments, because of the demonstrative manner in which he has treated that branch of the subject. If your views of political inquiry go further, to the sub