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Autobiography of
Thomas Jefferson -
January 6, 1821
The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson covers the time period from when
his ancestors came to America from Wales through to the time he was
appointed Secretary of State under President George Washington in 1790.
It covers several interesting historical events including how he wrote
the Declaration of Independence, his service as an ambassador to France
with Benjamin Franklin and his observations of the events leading up to
the French Revolution.
Facts
on Thomas Jefferson
Thomas
Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence
Autobiography
of Thomas Jefferson
January 6, 1821
At the age of 77, I begin to make some memoranda
and state some recollections of dates & facts concerning
myself,
for my own more ready reference & for the information of my
family.
The
tradition in my father's family was that their ancestor came to this
country from Wales, and from near the mountain of Snowdon, the highest
in Gr. Br. I noted once a case from Wales in the law reports where a
person of our name was either pl. or def. and one of the same name was
Secretary to the Virginia company. These are the only instances in
which I have met with the name in that country. I have found it in our
early records, but the first particular information I have of any
ancestor was my grandfather who lived at the place in Chesterfield
called Ozborne's and ownd. the lands afterwards the glebe of the
parish. He had three sons, Thomas who died young, Field who settled on
the waters of Roanoke and left numerous descendants, and Peter my
father, who settled on the lands I still own called Shadwell adjoining
my present residence. He was born Feb. 29, 1707/8, and intermarried
1739. with Jane Randolph, of the age of 19. daur of Isham Randolph one
of the seven sons of that name & family settled at Dungeoness
in
Goochld. They trace their pedigree far back in England &
Scotland,
to which let every one ascribe the faith & merit he chooses.
My
father's education had been quite neglected; but being of a strong
mind, sound judgment and eager after information, he read much and
improved himself insomuch that he was chosen with Joshua Fry professor
of Mathem. in W. & M. college to continue the boundary line
between
Virginia & N. Caroline which had been begun by Colo Byrd, and
was
afterwards employed with the same Mr. Fry to make the 1st map of
Virginia which had ever been made, that of Capt Smith being merely a
conjectural sketch. They possessed excellent materials for so much of
the country as is below the blue ridge; little being then known beyond
that ridge. He was the 3d or 4th settler of the part of the country in
which I live, which was about 1737. He died Aug. 17. 1757, leaving my
mother a widow who lived till 1776, with 6 daurs & 2. sons,
myself
the elder. To my younger brother he left his estate on James river
called Snowden after the supposed birth-place of the family. To myself
the lands on which I was born & live. He placed me at the
English
school at 5. years of age and at the Latin at 9. where I continued
until his death. My teacher Mr. Douglas a clergyman from Scotland was
but a superficial Latinist, less instructed in Greek, but with the
rudiments of these languages he taught me French, and on the death of
my father I went to the revd Mr. Maury a correct classical scholar,
with whom I continued two years, and then went to Wm. and Mary college,
to wit in the spring of 1760, where I continued 2. years. It was my
great good fortune, and what probably fixed the destinies of my life
that Dr. Wm. Small of Scotland was then professor of Mathematics, a man
profound in most of the useful branches of science, with a happy talent
of communication, correct and gentlemanly manners, & an
enlarged
& liberal mind. He, most happily for me, became soon attached
to me
& made me his daily companion when not engaged in the school;
and
from his conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science
& of the system of things in which we are placed. Fortunately
the
Philosophical chair became vacant soon after my arrival at college, and
he was appointed to fill it per interim: and he was the first who ever
gave in that college regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric &
Belles
lettres. He returned to Europe in 1762, having previously filled up the
measure of his goodness to me, by procuring for me, from his most
intimate friend G. Wythe, a reception as a student of law, under his
direction, and introduced me to the acquaintance and familiar table of
Governor Fauquier, the ablest man who had ever filled that office. With
him, and at his table, Dr. Small & Mr. Wythe, his amici omnium
horarum, & myself, formed a partie quarree, & to the
habitual
conversations on these occasions I owed much instruction. Mr. Wythe
continued to be my faithful and beloved Mentor in youth, and my most
affectionate friend through life. In 1767, he led me into the practice
of the law at the bar of the General court, at which I continued until
the revolution shut up the courts of justice. [For a sketch of the life
& character of Mr. Wythe see my letter of Aug. 31. 20. to Mr.
John
Saunderson]
In 1769, I became a member of the legislature by the
choice of the county in which I live, & continued in that until
it
was closed by the revolution. I made one effort in that body for the
permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected: and
indeed, during the regal government, nothing liberal could expect
success. Our minds were circumscribed within narrow limits by an
habitual belief that it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother
country in all matters of government, to direct all our labors in
subservience to her interests, and even to observe a bigoted
intolerance for all religions but hers. The difficulties with our
representatives were of habit and despair, not of reflection &
conviction. Experience soon proved that they could bring their minds to
rights on the first summons of their attention. But the king's council,
which acted as another house of legislature, held their places at will
& were in most humble obedience to that will: the Governor too,
who
had a negative on our laws held by the same tenure, & with
still
greater devotedness to it: and last of all the Royal negative closed
the last door to every hope of amelioration.
On the 1st of
January, 1772 I was married to Martha Skelton widow of Bathurst
Skelton, & daughter of John Wayles, then 23. years old. Mr.
Wayles
was a lawyer of much practice, to which he was introduced more by his
great industry, punctuality & practical readiness, than to
eminence
in the science of his profession. He was a most agreeable companion,
full of pleasantry & good humor, and welcomed in every society.
He
acquired a handsome fortune, died in May, 1773, leaving three
daughters, and the portion which came on that event to Mrs. Jefferson,
after the debts should be paid, which were very considerable, was about
equal to my own patrimony, and consequently doubled the ease of our
circumstances.
When the famous Resolutions of 1765, against the
Stamp-act, were proposed, I was yet a student of law in Wmsbg. I
attended the debate however at the door of the lobby of the H. of
Burgesses, & heard the splendid display of Mr. Henry's talents
as a
popular orator. They were great indeed; such as I have never heard from
any other man. He appeared to me to speak as Homer wrote. Mr. Johnson,
a lawyer & member from the Northern Neck, seconded the resolns,
& by him the learning & the logic of the case were
chiefly
maintained. My recollections of these transactions may be seen pa. 60,
Wirt's life of P. H., to whom I furnished them.
In May, 1769, a
meeting of the General Assembly was called by the Govr., Ld. Botetourt.
I had then become a member; and to that meeting became known the joint
resolutions & address of the Lords & Commons of 1768 --
9, on
the proceedings in Massachusetts. Counter-resolutions, & an
address
to the King, by the H. of Burgesses were agreed to with little
opposition, & a spirit manifestly displayed of considering the
cause of Massachusetts as a common one. The Governor dissolved us: but
we met the next day in the Apollo of the Raleigh tavern, formed
ourselves into a voluntary convention, drew up articles of association
against the use of any merchandise imported from Gr. Britain, signed
and recommended them to the people, repaired to our several counties,
& were re elected without any other exception than of the very
few
who had declined assent to our proceedings.
Nothing of
particular excitement occurring for a considerable time our countrymen
seemed to fall into a state of insensibility to our situation. The duty
on tea not yet repealed & the Declaratory act of a right in the
British parl to bind us by their laws in all cases whatsoever, still
suspended over us. But a court of inquiry held in R. Island in 1762,
with a power to send persons to England to be tried for offences
committed here was considered at our session of the spring of 1773. as
demanding attention. Not thinking our old & leading members up
to
the point of forwardness & zeal which the times required, Mr.
Henry, R. H. Lee, Francis L. Lee, Mr. Carr & myself agreed to
meet
in the evening in a private room of the Raleigh to consult on the state
of things. There may have been a member or two more whom I do not
recollect. We were all sensible that the most urgent of all measures
was that of coming to an understanding with all the other colonies to
consider the British claims as a common cause to all, & to
produce
an unity of action: and for this purpose that a commee of correspondce
in each colony would be the best instrument for intercommunication: and
that their first measure would probably be to propose a meeting of
deputies from every colony at some central place, who should be charged
with the direction of the measures which should be taken by all. We
therefore drew up the resolutions which may be seen in Wirt pa 87. The
consulting members proposed to me to move them, but I urged that it
should be done by Mr. Carr, my friend & brother in law, then a
new
member to whom I wished an opportunity should be given of making known
to the house his great worth & talents. It was so agreed; he
moved
them, they were agreed to nem. con. and a commee of correspondence
appointed of whom Peyton Randolph, the Speaker, was chairman. The Govr.
(then Ld. Dunmore) dissolved us, but the commee met the next day,
prepared a circular letter to the Speakers of the other colonies,
inclosing to each a copy of the resolns and left it in charge with
their chairman to forward them by expresses.
The origination of
these commees of correspondence between the colonies has been since
claimed for Massachusetts, and Marshall II. 151, has given into this
error, altho' the very note of his appendix to which he refers, shows
that their establmt was confined to their own towns. This matter will
be seen clearly stated in a letter of Samuel Adams Wells to me of Apr.
2., 1819, and my answer of May 12. I was corrected by the letter of Mr.
Wells in the information I had given Mr. Wirt, as stated in his note,
pa. 87, that the messengers of Massach. & Virga crossed each
other
on the way bearing similar propositions, for Mr. Wells shows that Mass.
did not adopt the measure but on the receipt of our proposn delivered
at their next session. Their message therefore which passed ours, must
have related to something else, for I well remember P. Randolph's
informing me of the crossing of our messengers.
The next event
which excited our sympathies for Massachusets was the Boston port bill,
by which that port was to be shut up on the 1st of June, 1774. This
arrived while we were in session in the spring of that year. The lead
in the house on these subjects being no longer left to the old members,
Mr. Henry, R. H. Lee, Fr. L. Lee, 3. or 4. other members, whom I do not
recollect, and myself, agreeing that we must boldly take an unequivocal
stand in the line with Massachusetts, determined to meet and consult on
the proper measures in the council chamber, for the benefit of the
library in that room. We were under conviction of the necessity of
arousing our people from the lethargy into which they had fallen as to
passing events; and thought that the appointment of a day of general
fasting & prayer would be most likely to call up &
alarm their
attention. No example of such a solemnity had existed since the days of
our distresses in the war of 55. since which a new generation had grown
up. With the help therefore of Rushworth, whom we rummaged over for the
revolutionary precedents & forms of the Puritans of that day,
preserved by him, we cooked up a resolution, somewhat modernizing their
phrases, for appointing the 1st day of June, on which the Port bill was
to commence, for a day of fasting, humiliation & prayer, to
implore
heaven to avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with
firmness in support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King
& parliament to moderation & justice. To give greater
emphasis
to our proposition, we agreed to wait the next morning on Mr. Nicholas,
whose grave & religious character was more in unison with the
tone
of our resolution and to solicit him to move it. We accordingly went to
him in the morning. He moved it the same day; the 1st of June was
proposed and it passed without opposition. The Governor dissolved us as
usual. We retired to the Apollo as before, agreed to an association,
and instructed the commee of correspdce to propose to the corresponding
commees of the other colonies to appoint deputies to meet in Congress
at such place, _annually_, as should be convenient to direct, from time
to time, the measures required by the general interest: and we declared
that an attack on any one colony should be considered as an attack on
the whole. This was in May. We further recommended to the several
counties to elect deputies to meet at Wmsbg the 1st of Aug ensuing, to
consider the state of the colony, & particularly to appoint
delegates to a general Congress, should that measure be acceded to by
the commees of correspdce generally. It was acceded to, Philadelphia
was appointed for the place, and the 5th of Sep. for the time of
meeting. We returned home, and in our several counties invited the
clergy to meet assemblies of the people on the 1st of June, to perform
the ceremonies of the day, & to address to them discourses
suited
to the occasion. The people met generally, with anxiety & alarm
in
their countenances, and the effect of the day thro' the whole colony
was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man & placing
him
erect & solidly on his centre. They chose universally delegates
for
the convention. Being elected one for my own county I prepared a
draught of instructions to be given to the delegates whom we should
send to the Congress, and which I meant to propose at our meeting. In
this I took the ground which, from the beginning I had thought the only
one orthodox or tenable, which was that the relation between Gr. Br.
and these colonies was exactly the same as that of England &
Scotland after the accession of James & until the Union, and
the
same as her present relations with Hanover, having the same Executive
chief but no other necessary political connection; and that our
emigration from England to this country gave her no more rights over
us, than the emigrations of the Danes and Saxons gave to the present
authorities of the mother country over England. In this doctrine
however I had never been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr.
Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the question What was
the political relation between us & England? Our other patriots
Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton stopped at the half-way house
of John Dickinson who admitted that England had a right to regulate our
commerce, and to lay duties on it for the purposes of regulation, but
not of raising revenue. But for this ground there was no foundation in
compact, in any acknowledged principles of colonization, nor in reason:
expatriation being a natural right, and acted on as such, by all
nations, in all ages. I set out for Wmsbg some days before that
appointed for our meeting, but was taken ill of a dysentery on the
road, & unable to proceed. I sent on therefore to Wmsbg two
copies
of my draught, the one under cover to Peyton Randolph, who I knew would
be in the chair of the convention, the other to Patrick Henry. Whether
Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too lazy to read it (for
he was the laziest man in reading I ever knew) I never learned: but he
communicated it to nobody. Peyton Randolph informed the convention he
had received such a paper from a member prevented by sickness from
offering it in his place, and he laid it on the table for perusal. It
was read generally by the members, approved by many, but thought too
bold for the present state of things; but they printed it in pamphlet
form under the title of "A Summary view of the rights of British
America." It found its way to England, was taken up by the opposition,
interpolated a little by Mr. Burke so as to make it answer opposition
purposes, and in that form ran rapidly thro' several editions. This
information I had from Parson Hurt, who happened at the time to be in
London, whether he had gone to receive clerical orders. And I was
informed afterwards by Peyton Randolph that it had procured me the
honor of having my name inserted in a long list of proscriptions
enrolled in a bill of attainder commenced in one of the houses of
parliament, but suppressed in embryo by the hasty step of events which
warned them to be a little cautious. Montague, agent of the H. of
Burgesses in England made extracts from the bill, copied the names, and
sent them to Peyton Randolph. The names I think were about 20 which he
repeated to me, but I recollect those only of Hancock, the two Adamses,
Peyton Randolph himself, Patrick Henry, & myself. (1)
The convention met on the 1st of Aug, renewed their association,
appointed delegates to the Congress, gave them instructions very
temperately & properly expressed, both as to style &
matter;
and they repaired to Philadelphia at the time appointed. The splendid
proceedings of that Congress at their 1st session belong to general
history, are known to every one, and need not therefore be noted here.
They terminated their session on the 26th of Octob, to meet again on
the 10th May ensuing. The convention at their ensuing session of Mar,
'75, approved of the proceedings of Congress, thanked their delegates
and reappointed the same persons to represent the colony at the meeting
to be held in May: and foreseeing the probability that Peyton Randolph
their president and Speaker also of the H. of B. might be called off,
they added me, in that event to the delegation.
Mr. Randolph was
according to expectation obliged to leave the chair of Congress to
attend the Gen. Assembly summoned by Ld. Dunmore to meet on the 1st day
of June 1775. Ld. North's conciliatory propositions, as they were
called, had been received by the Governor and furnished the subject for
which this assembly was convened. Mr. Randolph accordingly attended,
and the tenor of these propositions being generally known, as having
been addressed to all the governors, he was anxious that the answer of
our assembly, likely to be the first, should harmonize with what he
knew to be the sentiments and wishes of the body he had recently left.
He feared that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind was not yet up to the mark of
the times, would undertake the answer, & therefore pressed me
to
prepare an answer. I did so, and with his aid carried it through the
house with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas and James
Mercer, and a dash of cold water on it here & there, enfeebling
it
somewhat, but finally with unanimity or a vote approaching it. This
being passed, I repaired immediately to Philadelphia, and conveyed to
Congress the first notice they had of it. It was entirely approved
there. I took my seat with them on the 21st of June. On the 24th, a
commee which had been appointed to prepare a declaration of the causes
of taking up arms, brought in their report (drawn I believe by J.
Rutledge) which not being liked they recommitted it on the 26th, and
added Mr. Dickinson and myself to the committee. On the rising of the
house, the commee having not yet met, I happened to find myself near
Govr W. Livingston, and proposed to him to draw the paper. He excused
himself and proposed that I should draw it. On my pressing him with
urgency, "we are as yet but new acquaintances, sir, said he, why are
you so earnest for my doing it?" "Because, said I, I have been informed
that you drew the Address to the people of Gr. Britain, a production
certainly of the finest pen in America." "On that, says he, perhaps sir
you may not have been correctly informed." I had received the
information in Virginia from Colo Harrison on his return from that
Congress. Lee, Livingston & Jay had been the commee for that
draught. The first, prepared by Lee, had been disapproved &
recommitted. The second was drawn by Jay, but being presented by Govr
Livingston, had led Colo Harrison into the error. The next morning,
walking in the hall of Congress, many members being assembled but the
house not yet formed, I observed Mr. Jay, speaking to R. H. Lee, and
leading him by the button of his coat, to me. "I understand, sir, said
he to me, that this gentleman informed you that Govr Livingston drew
the Address to the people of Gr Britain." I assured him at once that I
had not received that information from Mr. Lee & that not a
word
had ever passed on the subject between Mr. Lee & myself; and
after
some explanations the subject was dropt. These gentlemen had had some
sparrings in debate before, and continued ever very hostile to each
other.
I prepared a draught of the Declaration committed to us.
It was too strong for Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of
reconciliation with the mother country, and was unwilling it should be
lessened by offensive statements. He was so honest a man, & so
able
a one that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not feel his
scruples. We therefore requested him to take the paper, and put it into
a form he could approve. He did so, preparing an entire new statement,
and preserving of the former only the last 4. paragraphs & half
of
the preceding one. We approved & reported it to Congress, who
accepted it. Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr.
Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too fast for any
respectable part of our body, in permitting him to draw their second
petition to the King according to his own ideas, and passing it with
scarcely any amendment. The disgust against this humility was general;
and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only circumstance
which reconciled them to it. The vote being passed, altho' further
observn on it was out of order, he could not refrain from rising and
expressing his satisfaction and concluded by saying "there is but one
word, Mr. President, in the paper which I disapprove, & that is
the
word _Congress_," on which Ben Harrison rose and said "there is but on
word in the paper, Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the
word _Congress._"
On the 22d of July Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams, R.
H. Lee, & myself, were appointed a commee to consider and
report on
Ld. North's conciliatory resolution. The answer of the Virginia
assembly on that subject having been approved I was requested by the
commee to prepare this report, which will account for the similarity of
feature in the two instruments.
On the 15th of May, 1776, the
convention of Virginia instructed their delegates in Congress to
propose to that body to declare the colonies independent of G. Britain,
and appointed a commee to prepare a declaration of rights and plan of
government.
In Congress, Friday June 7. 1776. The delegates from
Virginia moved in obedience to instructions from their constituents
that the Congress should declare that these United colonies are
&
of right ought to be free & independent states, that they are
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all
political connection between them & the state of Great Britain
is
& ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures should be
immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a
Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together.
The
house being obliged to attend at that time to some other business, the
proposition was referred to the next day, when the members were ordered
to attend punctually at ten o'clock.
Saturday June 8. They
proceeded to take it into consideration and referred it to a committee
of the whole, into which they immediately resolved themselves, and
passed that day & Monday the 10th in debating on the subject.
It was argued by Wilson, Robert R. Livingston, E. Rutledge, Dickinson
and others
That
tho' they were friends to the measures themselves, and saw the
impossibility that we should ever again be united with Gr. Britain, yet
they were against adopting them at this time:
That the conduct
we had formerly observed was wise & proper now, of deferring to
take any capital step till the voice of the people drove us into it:
That they were our power, & without them our declarations could
not be carried into effect;
That
the people of the middle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylva, the
Jerseys & N. York) were not yet ripe for bidding adieu to
British
connection, but that they were fast ripening & in a short time
would join in the general voice of America:
That the resolution
entered into by this house on the 15th of May for suppressing the
exercise of all powers derived from the crown, had shown, by the
ferment into which it had thrown these middle colonies, that they had
not yet accommodated their minds to a separation from the mother
country:
That some of them had expressly forbidden their
delegates to consent to such a declaration, and others had given no
instructions, & consequently no powers to give such consent:
That
if the delegates of any particular colony had no power to declare such
colony independant, certain they were the others could not declare it
for them; the colonies being as yet perfectly independant of each other:
That
the assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above stairs, their
convention would sit within a few days, the convention of New York was
now sitting, & those of the Jerseys & Delaware counties
would
meet on the Monday following, & it was probable these bodies
would
take up the question of Independance & would declare to their
delegates the voice of their state:
That if such a declaration
should now be agreed to, these delegates must retire & possibly
their colonies might secede from the Union:
That such a secession would weaken us more than could be compensated by
any foreign alliance:
That
in the event of such a division, foreign powers would either refuse to
join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so much in their power
as that desperate declaration would place us, they would insist on
terms proportionably more hard and prejudicial:
That we had little reason to expect an alliance with those to whom
alone as yet we had cast our eyes:
That
France & Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising power
which
would one day certainly strip them of all their American possessions:
That
it was more likely they should form a connection with the British
court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise to
extricate themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a
partition of our territories, restoring Canada to France, & the
Floridas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery of these
colonies:
That it would not be long before we should receive
certain information of the disposition of the French court, from the
agent whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose:
That if this
disposition should be favorable, by waiting the event of the present
campaign, which we all hoped would be successful, we should have reason
to expect an alliance on better terms:
That this would in fact
work no delay of any effectual aid from such ally, as, from the advance
of the season & distance of our situation, it was impossible we
could receive any assistance during this campaign:
That it was
prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which we should form
alliance, before we declared we would form one at all events:
And
that if these were agreed on, & our Declaration of Independance
ready by the time our Ambassador should be prepared to sail, it would
be as well as to go into that Declaration at this day.
On the other side it was urged by J. Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others
That
no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right of separation
from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should ever renew our
connection; that they had only opposed its being now declared:
That
the question was not whether, by a declaration of independance, we
should make ourselves what we are not; but whether we should declare a
fact which already exists:
That as to the people or parliament
of England, we had always been independent of them, their restraints on
our trade deriving efficacy from our acquiescence only, & not
from
any rights they possessed of imposing them, & that so far our
connection had been federal only & was now dissolved by the
commencement of hostilities:
That as to the King, we had been
bound to him by allegiance, but that this bond was now dissolved by his
assent to the late act of parliament, by which he declares us out of
his protection, and by his levying war on us, a fact which had long ago
proved us out of his protection; it being a certain position in law
that allegiance & protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing
when
the other is withdrawn:
That James the IId. never declared the
people of England out of his protection yet his actions proved it
&
the parliament declared it:
No delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of declaring an
existing truth:
That
the delegates from the Delaware counties having declared their
constituents ready to join, there are only two colonies Pennsylvania
& Maryland whose delegates are absolutely tied up, and that
these
had by their instructions only reserved a right of confirming or
rejecting the measure:
That the instructions from Pennsylvania
might be accounted for from the times in which they were drawn, near a
twelvemonth ago, since which the face of affairs has totally changed:
That
within that time it had become apparent that Britain was determined to
accept nothing less than a carte-blanche, and that the King's answer to
the Lord Mayor Aldermen & common council of London, which had
come
to hand four days ago, must have satisfied every one of this point:
That the people wait for us to lead the way:
That _they_ are in favour of the measure, tho' the instructions given
by some of their _representatives_ are not:
That
the voice of the representatives is not always consonant with the voice
of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in these middle
colonies:
That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May
has proved this, which, raising the murmurs of some in the colonies of
Pennsylvania & Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the
freer part of the people, & proved them to be the majority,
even in
these colonies:
That the backwardness of these two colonies
might be ascribed partly to the influence of proprietary power
&
connections, & partly to their having not yet been attacked by
the
enemy:
That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as
there seemed no probability that the enemy would make either of these
the seat of this summer's war:
That it would be vain to wait
either weeks or months for perfect unanimity, since it was impossible
that all men should ever become of one sentiment on any question:
That
the conduct of some colonies from the beginning of this contest, had
given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to keep in the rear
of the confederacy, that the
ir particular prospect might be better, even in the worst event:
That
therefore it was necessary for those colonies who had thrown themselves
forward & hazarded all from the beginning, to come forward now
also, and put all again to their own hazard:
That the history of
the Dutch revolution, of whom three states only confederated at first
proved that a secession of some colonies would not be so dangerous as
some apprehended:
That a declaration of Independence alone could
render it consistent with European delicacy for European powers to
treat with us, or even to receive an Ambassador from us:
That
till this they would not receive our vessels into their ports, nor
acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admiralty to be
legitimate, in cases of capture of British vessels:
That though
France & Spain may be jealous of our rising power, they must
think
it will be much more formidable with the addition of Great Britain; and
will therefore see it their interest to prevent a coalition; but should
they refuse, we shall be but where we are; whereas without trying we
shall never know whether they will aid us or not:
That the
present campaign may be unsuccessful, & therefore we had better
propose an alliance while our affairs wear a hopeful aspect:
That
to await the event of this campaign will certainly work delay, because
during this summer France may assist us effectually by cutting off
those supplies of provisions from England & Ireland on which
the
enemy's armies here are to depend; or by setting in motion the great
power they have collected in the West Indies, & calling our
enemy
to the defence of the possessions they have there:
That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alliance,
till we had first determined we would enter into alliance:
That
it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our people, who
will want clothes, and will want money too for the paiment of taxes:
And
that the only misfortune is that we did not enter into alliance with
France six months sooner, as besides opening their ports for the vent
of our last year's produce, they might have marched an army into
Germany and prevented the petty princes there from selling their
unhappy subjects to subdue us.
It appearing in the course of
these debates that the colonies of N. York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina were not yet matured for falling
from the parent stem, but that they were fast advancing to that state,
it was thought most prudent to wait a while for them, and to postpone
the final decision to July 1. but that this might occasion as little
delay as possible a committee was appointed to prepare a declaration of
independence. The commee were J. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Roger Sherman,
Robert R. Livingston & myself. Committees were also appointed
at
the same time to prepare a plan of confederation for the colonies, and
to state the terms proper to be proposed for foreign alliance. The
committee for drawing the declaration of Independence desired me to do
it. It was accordingly done, and being approved by them, I reported it
to the house on Friday the 28th of June when it was read and ordered to
lie on the table. On Monday, the 1st of July the house resolved itself
into a commee of the whole & resumed the consideration of the
original motion made by the delegates of Virginia, which being again
debated through the day, was carried in the affirmative by the votes of
N. Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, N. Jersey,
Maryland, Virginia, N. Carolina, & Georgia. S. Carolina and
Pennsylvania voted against it. Delaware having but two members present,
they were divided. The delegates for New York declared they were for it
themselves & were assured their constituents were for it, but
that
their instructions having been drawn near a twelvemonth before, when
reconciliation was still the general object, they were enjoined by them
to do nothing which should impede that object. They therefore thought
themselves not justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to
withdraw from the question, which was given them. The commee rose
&
reported their resolution to the house. Mr. Edward Rutledge of S.
Carolina then requested the determination might be put off to the next
day, as he believed his colleagues, tho' they disapproved of the
resolution, would then join in it for the sake of unanimity. The
ultimate question whether the house would agree to the resolution of
the committee was accordingly postponed to the next day, when it was
again moved and S. Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the meantime
a third member had come post from the Delaware counties and turned the
vote of that colony in favour of the resolution. Members of a different
sentiment attending that morning from Pennsylvania also, their vote was
changed, so that the whole 12 colonies who were authorized to vote at
all, gave their voices for it; and within a few days, the convention of
N. York approved of it and thus supplied the void occasioned by the
withdrawing of her delegates from the vote.
Congress proceeded
the same day to consider the declaration of Independance which had been
reported & lain on the table the Friday preceding, and on
Monday
referred to a commee of the whole. The pusillanimous idea that we had
friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of
many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures on the
people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offence.
The clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa,
was struck out in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, who had
never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who on the
contrary still wished to continue it. Our northern brethren also I
believe felt a little tender under those censures; for tho' their
people have very few slaves themselves yet they had been pretty
considerable carriers of them to others. The debates having taken up
the greater parts of the 2d 3d & 4th days of July were, in the
evening of the last, closed the declaration was reported by the commee,
agreed to by the house and signed by every member present except Mr.
Dickinson. As the sentiments of men are known not only by what they
receive, but what they reject also, I will state the form of the
declaration as originally reported. The parts struck out by Congress
shall be distinguished by a black line drawn under them; &
those
inserted by them shall be placed in the margin or in a concurrent
column.
A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of America,
in General Congress Assembled.
When
in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate &
equal
station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a
decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that
they are endowed by their creator with *inherent and* [certain]
inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, & the
pursuit of happiness: that to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of
the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive
of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it,
& to institute new government, laying it's foundation on such
principles, & organizing it's powers in such form, as to them
shall
seem most likely to effect their safety & happiness. Prudence
indeed will dictate that governments long established should not be
changed for light & transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while
evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms
to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses &
usurpations *begun at a distinguished period and* pursuing invariably
the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such
government, & to provide new guards for their future security.
Such
has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; & such is
now
the necessity which constrains them to *expunge* [alter] their former
systems of government. The history of the present king of Great Britain
is a history of *unremitting* [repeated] injuries &
usurpations,
*among which appears no solitary fact to contradict the uniform tenor
of the rest but all have* [all having] in direct object the
establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this
let facts be submitted to a candid world *for the truth of which we
pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.*
He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome &
necessary for the public good.
He
has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate &
pressing
importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should
be obtained; & when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the
accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would
relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right
inestimable to them, & formidable to tyrants only.
He has
called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable,
and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole
purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He
has dissolved representative houses repeatedly *& continually*
for
opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He
has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to
be elected, whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation,
have returned to the people at large for their exercise, the state
remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from
without & convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent
the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws
for naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage
their migrations hither, & raising the conditions of new
appropriations of lands.
He has *suffered* [obstructed] the
administration of justice *totally to cease in some of these states*
[by] refusing his [assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He
has made *our* judges dependant on his will alone, for the tenure of
their offices, & the amount & paiment of their salaries.
He
has erected a multitude of new offices *by a self assumed power* and
sent hither swarms of new officers to harass our people and eat out
their substance.
He has kept among us in times of peace standing armies *and ships of
war* without the consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the military independant of, &
superior to the civil power.
He
has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our
constitutions & unacknowledged by our laws, giving his assent
to
their acts of pretended legislation for quartering large bodies of
armed troops among us; for protecting them by a mock-trial from
punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants
of these states; for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world;
for imposing taxes on us without our consent; for depriving us [ ] [in
many cases] of the benefits of trial by jury; for transporting us
beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences; for abolishing the free
system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein
an arbitrary government, and enlarging it's boundaries, so as to render
it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these *states* [colonies]; for taking away our
charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally
the forms of our governments; for suspending our own legislatures,
& declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us
in
all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here
*withdrawing his governors, and declaring us out of his allegiance
& protection*. [by declaring us out of his protection, and
waging
war against us.]
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns,
& destroyed the lives of our people.
He
is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to
compleat the works of death, desolation & tyranny already begun
with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy [ ] [scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages, & totally] unworthy the head of a
civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken
captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become
the executioners of their friends & brethren, or to fall
themselves
by their hands.
He has [excited domestic insurrection among us,
& has] endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers
the
merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, & conditions
*of
existence.*
*He has incited treasonable insurrections of our
fellow-citizens, with the allurements of forfeiture &
confiscation
of our property.*
*He has waged cruel war against human nature
itself, violating it's most sacred rights of life and liberty in the
persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating
&
carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable
death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the
opprobium of INFIDEL powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of
Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where MEN should be
bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable
commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of
distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms
among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them,
by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them: thus paying off
former crimes committed against the LIBERTIES of one people, with
crimes which he urges them to commit against the LIVES of another.*
In
every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the
most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by
repeated injuries.
A prince whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a [ ]
[free] people *who mean to be free. Future ages will scarcely believe
that the hardiness of one man adventured, within the short compass of
twelve years only, to lay a foundation so broad & so
undisguised
for tyranny over a people fostered & fixed in principles of
freedom.*
Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their
legislature to extend *a* [an unwarrantable] jurisdiction over *these
our states* [us]. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration & settlement here, *no one of which could warrant so
strange a pretension: that these were effected at the expense of our
own blood & treasure, unassisted by the wealth or the strength
of
Great Britain: that in constituting indeed our several forms of
government, we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a foundation
for perpetual league & amity with them: but that submission to
their parliament was no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if
history may be credited: and*, we [ ] [have] appealed to their native
justice and magnanimity *as well as to* [and we have conjured them by]
the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which *were
likely to* [would inevitably] interrupt our connection and
correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice
&
of consanguinity, *and when occasions have been given them, by the
regular course of their laws, of removing from their councils the
disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free election,
re-established them in power. At this very time too they are permitting
their chief magistrate to send over not only soldiers of our common
blood, but Scotch & foreign mercenaries to invade &
destroy us.
These facts have given the last stab to agonizing affection, and manly
spirit bids us to renounce forever these unfeeling brethren. We must
[We must therefore] endeavor to forget our former love for them, and
hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace
friends. We might have been a free and a great people together; but a
communication of grandeur & of freedom it seems is below their
dignity. Be it so, since they will have it. The road to happiness
&
to glory is open to us too. We will tread it apart from them, and*
acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our *eternal* separation [ ]
[and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace
friends.]!
We therefore the representatives We therefore the
representatives of the United States of of the United States of America
in General Congress America in General Congress assembled do in the
name & assembled, appealing to the by authority of the good
supreme
judge of the world people of these *states reject for the rectitude of
our & renounce all allegiance & intentions, do in the
name,
& by subjection to the kings of the authority of the good Great
Britain & all others people of these colonies, who may
hereafter
claim by, solemnly publish & declare that through or under
them: we
these united colonies are & utterly dissolve all political* of
right ought to be free & *connection which may independent
states;
that they heretofore have subsisted are absolved from all allegiance
between us & the people or to the British crown, parliament of
Great Britain: and that all political & finally we do assert
&
connection between them & the declare these colonies to be free
state of Great Britain is, & & independent states,*
& that
ought to be, totally as free & independent states, dissolved;
&
that as free & they have full power to levy independent states
they
have war, conclude peace, contract full power to levy war, alliances,
establish commerce, conclude peace, contract & to do all other
acts
& alliances, establish commerce & things which
independent to
do all other acts & things states may of right do. which
independent states may of right do.
And for the support of And
for the support of this this declaration we mutually declaration, with
a firm pledge to each other our reliance on the protection of lives,
our fortunes, & our divine providence we mutually sacred honor.
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, & our sacred
honor.
The Declaration thus signed on the 4th, on paper was engrossed on
parchment, & signed again on the 2d. of August.
Some
erroneous statements of the proceedings on the declaration of
independence having got before the public in latter times, Mr. Samuel
A. Wells asked explanations of me, which are given in my letter to him
of May 12. 19. before and now again referred to. I took notes in my
place while these things were going on, and at their close wrote them
out in form and with correctness and from 1 to 7 of the two preceding
sheets are the originals then written; as the two following are of the
earlier debates on the Confederation, which I took in like manner.
On
Friday July 12. the Committee appointed to draw the articles of
confederation reported them, and on the 22d. the house resolved
themselves into a committee to take them into consideration. On the
30th. & 31st. of that month & 1st. of the ensuing,
those
articles were debated which determined the proportion or quota of money
which each state should furnish to the common treasury, and the manner
of voting in Congress. The first of these articles was expressed in the
original draught in these words. "Art. XI. All charges of war &
all
other expenses that shall be incurred for the common defence, or
general welfare, and allowed by the United States assembled, shall be
defrayed out of a common treasury, which shall be supplied by the
several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every
age, sex & quality, except Indians not paying taxes, in each
colony, a true account of which, distinguishing the white inhabitants,
shall be triennially taken & transmitted to the Assembly of the
United States."
Mr. [Samuel] Chase moved that the quotas should
be fixed, not by the number of inhabitants of every condition, but by
that of the "white inhabitants." He admitted that taxation should be
alwais in proportion to property, that this was in theory the true
rule, but that from a variety of difficulties, it was a rule which
could never be adopted in practice. The value of the property in every
State could never be estimated justly & equally. Some other
measure
for the wealth of the State must therefore be devised, some standard
referred to which would be more simple. He considered the number of
inhabitants as a tolerably good criterion of property, and that this
might alwais be obtained. He therefore thought it the best mode which
we could adopt, with one exception only. He observed that negroes are
property, and as such cannot be distinguished from the lands or
personalities held in those States where there are few slaves, that the
surplus of profit which a Northern farmer is able to lay by, he invests
in cattle, horses, &c. whereas a Southern farmer lays out that
same
surplus in slaves. There is no more reason therefore for taxing the
Southern states on the farmer's head, & on his slave's head,
than
the Northern ones on their farmer's heads & the heads of their
cattle, that the method proposed would therefore tax the Southern
states according to their numbers & their wealth conjunctly,
while
the Northern would be taxed on numbers only: that negroes in fact
should not be considered as members of the state more than cattle
&
that they have no more interest in it.
Mr. John Adams observed
that the numbers of people were taken by this article as an index of
the wealth of the state, & not as subjects of taxation, that as
to
this matter it was of no consequence by what name you called your
people, whether by that of freemen or of slaves. That in some countries
the labouring poor were called freemen, in others they were called
slaves; but that the difference as to the state was imaginary only.
What matters it whether a landlord employing ten labourers in his farm,
gives them annually as much money as will buy them the necessaries of
life, or gives them those necessaries at short hand. The ten labourers
add as much wealth annually to the state, increase it's exports as much
in the one case as the other. Certainly 500 freemen produce no more
profits, no greater surplus for the paiment of taxes than 500 slaves.
Therefore the state in which are the labourers called freemen should be
taxed no more than that in which are those called slaves. Suppose by
any extraordinary operation of nature or of law one half the labourers
of a state could in the course of one night be transformed into slaves:
would the state be made the poorer or the less able to pay taxes? That
the condition of the laboring poor in most countries, that of the
fishermen particularly of the Northern states, is as abject as that of
slaves. It is the number of labourers which produce the surplus for
taxation, and numbers therefore indiscriminately, are the fair index of
wealth. That it is the use of the word "property" here, & it's
application to some of the people of the state, which produces the
fallacy. How does the Southern farmer procure slaves? Either by
importation or by purchase from his neighbor. If he imports a slave, he
adds one to the number of labourers in his country, and proportionably
to it's profits & abilities to pay taxes. If he buys from his
neighbor it is only a transfer of a labourer from one farm to another,
which does not change the annual produce of the state, &
therefore
should not change it's tax. That if a Northern farmer works ten
labourers on his farm, he can, it is true, invest the surplus of ten
men's labour in cattle: but so may the Southern farmer working ten
slaves. That a state of one hundred thousand freemen can maintain no
more cattle than one of one hundred thousand slaves. Therefore they
have no more of that kind of property. That a slave may indeed from the
custom of speech be more properly called the wealth of his master, than
the free labourer might be called the wealth of his employer: but as to
the state, both were equally it's wealth, and should therefore equally
add to the quota of it's tax.
Mr. [Benjamin] Harrison proposed
as a compromise, that two slaves should be counted as one freeman. He
affirmed that slaves did not do so much work as freemen, and doubted if
two effected more than one. That this was proved by the price of labor.
The hire of a labourer in the Southern colonies being from 8 to pound
12. while in the Northern it was generally pound 24.
Mr. [James]
Wilson said that if this amendment should take place the Southern
colonies would have all the benefit of slaves, whilst the Northern ones
would bear the burthen. That slaves increase the profits of a state,
which the Southern states mean to take to themselves; that they also
increase the burthen of defence, which would of course fall so much the
heavier on the Northern. That slaves occupy the places of freemen and
eat their food. Dismiss your slaves & freemen will take their
places. It is our duty to lay every discouragement on the importation
of slaves; but this amendment would give the jus trium liberorum to him
who would import slaves. That other kinds of property were pretty
equally distributed thro' all the colonies: there were as many cattle,
horses, & sheep, in the North as the South, & South as
the
North; but not so as to slaves. That experience has shown that those
colonies have been alwais able to pay most which have the most
inhabitants, whether they be black or white, and the practice of the
Southern colonies has alwais been to make every farmer pay poll taxes
upon all his labourers whether they be black or white. He acknowledges
indeed that freemen work the most; but they consume the most also. They
do not produce a greater surplus for taxation. The slave is neither fed
nor clothed so expensively as a freeman. Again white women are exempted
from labor generally, but negro women are not. In this then the
Southern states have an advantage as the article now stands. It has
sometimes been said that slavery is necessary because the commodities
they raise would be too dear for market if cultivated by freemen; but
now it is said that the labor of the slave is the dearest.
Mr. Payne urged the original resolution of Congress, to proportion the
quotas of the states to the number of souls.
Dr.
[John] Witherspoon was of opinion that the value of lands &
houses
was the best estimate of the wealth of a nation, and that it was
practicable to obtain such a valuation. This is the true barometer of
wealth. The one now proposed is imperfect in itself, and unequal
between the States. It has been objected that negroes eat the food of
freemen & therefore should be taxed. Horses also eat the food
of
freemen; therefore they also should be taxed. It has been said too that
in carrying slaves into the estimate of the taxes the state is to pay,
we do no more than those states themselves do, who alwais take slaves
into the estimate of the taxes the individual is to pay. But the cases
are not parallel. In the Southern colonies slaves pervade the whole
colony; but they do not pervade the whole continent. That as to the
original resolution of Congress to proportion the quotas according to
the souls, it was temporary only, & related to the monies
heretofore emitted: whereas we are now entering into a new compact, and
therefore stand on original ground.
Aug 1. The question being
put the amendment proposed was rejected by the votes of N. Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode island, Connecticut, N. York, N. Jersey, &
Pennsylvania, against those of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North
& South Carolina. Georgia was divided.
The other article was in these words. "Art. XVII. In determining
questions each colony shall have one vote."
July
30. 31. Aug 1. Present 41. members. Mr. Chase observed that this
article was the most likely to divide us of any one proposed in the
draught then under consideration. That the larger colonies had
threatened they would not confederate at all if their weight in
congress should not be equal to the numbers of people they added to the
confederacy; while the smaller ones declared against a union if they
did not retain an equal vote for the protection of their rights. That
it was of the utmost consequence to bring the parties together, as
should we sever from each other, either no foreign power will ally with
us at all, or the different states will form different alliances, and
thus increase the horrors of those scenes of civil war and bloodshed
which in such a state of separation & independance would render
us
a miserable people. That our importance, our interests, our peace
required that we should confederate, and that mutual sacrifices should
be made to effect a compromise of this difficult question. He was of
opinion the smaller colonies would lose their rights, if they were not
in some instances allowed an equal vote; and therefore that a
discrimination should take place among the questions which would come
before Congress. That the smaller states should be secured in all
questions concerning life or liberty & the greater ones in all
respecting property. He therefore proposed that in votes relating to
money, the voice of each colony should be proportioned to the number of
its inhabitants.
Dr. Franklin thought that the votes should be
so proportioned in all cases. He took notice that the Delaware counties
had bound up their Delegates to disagree to this article. He thought it
a very extraordinary language to be held by any state, that they would
not confederate with us unless we would let them dispose of our money.
Certainly if we vote equally we ought to pay equally; but the smaller
states will hardly purchase the privilege at this price. That had he
lived in a state where the representation, originally equal, had become
unequal by time & accident he might have submitted rather than
disturb government; but that we should be very wrong to set out in this
practice when it is in our power to establish what is right. That at
the time of the Union between England and Scotland the latter had made
the objection which the smaller states now do. But experience had
proved that no unfairness had ever been shown them. That their
advocates had prognosticated that it would again happen as in times of
old, that the whale would swallow Jonas, but he thought the prediction
reversed in event and that Jonas had swallowed the whale, for the
Scotch had in fact got possession of the government and gave laws to
the English. He reprobated the original agreement of Congress to vote
by colonies and therefore was for their voting in all cases according
to the number of taxables.
Dr. Witherspoon opposed every
alteration of the article. All men admit that a confederacy is
necessary. Should the idea get abroad that there is likely to be no
union among us, it will damp the minds of the people, diminish the
glory of our struggle, & lessen it's importance; because it
will
open to our view future prospects of war & dissension among
ourselves. If an equal vote be refused, the smaller states will become
vassals to the larger; & all experience has shown that the
vassals
& subjects of free states are the most enslaved. He instanced
the
Helots of Sparta & the provinces of Rome. He observed that
foreign
powers discovering this blemish would make it a handle for disengaging
the smaller states from so unequal a confederacy. That the colonies
should in fact be considered as individuals; and that as such, in all
disputes they should have an equal vote; that they are now collected as
individuals making a bargain with each other, & of course had a
right to vote as individuals. That in the East India company they voted
by persons, & not by their proportion of stock. That the Belgic
confederacy voted by provinces. That in questions of war the smaller
states were as much interested as the larger, & therefore
should
vote equally; and indeed that the larger states were more likely to
bring war on the confederacy in proportion as their frontier was more
extensive. He admitted that equality of representation was an excellent
principle, but then it must be of things which are coordinate; that is,
of things similar & of the same nature: that nothing relating
to
individuals could ever come before Congress; nothing but what would
respect colonies. He distinguished between an incorporating & a
federal union. The union of England was an incorporating one; yet
Scotland had suffered by that union: for that it's inhabitants were
drawn from it by the hopes of places & employments. Nor was it
an
instance of equality of representation; because while Scotland was
allowed nearly a thirteenth of representation they were to pay only one
fortieth of the land tax. He expressed his hopes that in the present
enlightened state of men's minds we might expect a lasting confederacy,
if it was founded on fair principles.
John Adams advocated the
voting in proportion to numbers. He said that we stand here as the
representatives of the people. That in some states the people are many,
in others they are few; that therefore their vote here should be
proportioned to the numbers from whom it comes. Reason, justice,
&
equity never had weight enough on the face of the earth to govern the
councils of men. It is interest alone which does it, and it is interest
alone which can be trusted. That therefore the interests within doors
should be the mathematical representatives of the interests without
doors. That the individuality of the colonies is a mere sound. Does the
individuality of a colony increase it's wealth or numbers. If it does,
pay equally. If it does not add weight in the scale of the confederacy,
it cannot add to their rights, nor weigh in argument. A. has pound 50.
B. pound 500. C. pound 1000. in partnership. Is it just they should
equally dispose of the monies of the partnership? It has been said we
are independent individuals making a bargain together. The question is
not what we are now, but what we ought to be when our bargain shall be
made. The confederacy is to make us one individual only; it is to form
us, like separate parcels of metal, into one common mass. We shall no
longer retain our separate individuality, but become a single
individual as to all questions submitted to the confederacy. Therefore
all those reasons which prove the justice & expediency of equal
representation in other assemblies, hold good here. It has been
objected that a proportional vote will endanger the smaller states. We
answer that an equal vote will endanger the larger. Virginia,
Pennsylvania, & Massachusetts are the three greater colonies.
Consider their distance, their difference of produce, of interests
& of manners, & it is apparent they can never have an
interest
or inclination to combine for the oppression of the smaller. That the
smaller will naturally divide on all questions with the larger. Rhode
isld, from it's relation, similarity & intercourse will
generally
pursue the same objects with Massachusetts; Jersey, Delaware &
Maryland, with Pennsylvania.
Dr. [Benjamin] Rush took notice
that the decay of the liberties of the Dutch republic proceeded from
three causes. 1. The perfect unanimity requisite on all occasions. 2.
Their obligation to consult their constituents. 3. Their voting by
provinces. This last destroyed the equality of representation, and the
liberties of great Britain also are sinking from the same defect. That
a part of our rights is deposited in the hands of our legislatures.
There it was admitted there should be an equality of representation.
Another part of our rights is deposited in the hands of Congress: why
is it not equally necessary there should be an equal representation
there? Were it possible to collect the whole body of the people
together, they would determine the questions submitted to them by their
majority. Why should not the same majority decide when voting here by
their representatives? The larger colonies are so providentially
divided in situation as to render every fear of their combining
visionary. Their interests are different, & their circumstances
dissimilar. It is more probable they will become rivals & leave
it
in the power of the smaller states to give preponderance to any scale
they please. The voting by the number of free inhabitants will have one
excellent effect, that of inducing the colonies to discourage slavery
& to encourage the increase of their free inhabitants.
Mr.
[Stephen] Hopkins observed there were 4 larger, 4 smaller, & 4
middle-sized colonies. That the 4 largest would contain more than half
the inhabitants of the confederated states, & therefore would
govern the others as they should please. That history affords no
instance of such a thing as equal representation. The Germanic body
votes by states. The Helvetic body does the same; & so does the
Belgic confederacy. That too little is known of the ancient
confederations to say what was their practice.
Mr. Wilson
thought that taxation should be in proportion to wealth, but that
representation should accord with the number of freemen. That
government is a collection or result of the wills of all. That if any
government could speak the will of all, it would be perfect; and that
so far as it departs from this it becomes imperfect. It has been said
that Congress is a representation of states; not of individuals. I say
that the objects of its care are all the individuals of the states. It
is strange that annexing the name of "State" to ten thousand men,
should give them an equal right with forty thousand. This must be the
effect of magic, not of reason. As to those matters which are referred
to Congress, we are not so many states, we are one large state. We lay
aside our individuality, whenever we come here. The Germanic body is a
burlesque on government; and their practice on any point is a
sufficient authority & proof that it is wrong. The greatest
imperfection in the constitution of the Belgic confederacy is their
voting by provinces. The interest of the whole is constantly sacrificed
to that of the small states. The history of the war in the reign of Q.
Anne sufficiently proves this. It is asked shall nine colonies put it
into the power of four to govern them as they please? I invert the
question, and ask shall two millions of people put it in the power of
one million to govern them as they please? It is pretended too that the
smaller colonies will be in danger from the greater. Speak in honest
language & say the minority will be in danger from the
majority.
And is there an assembly on earth where this danger may not be equally
pretended? The truth is that our proceedings will then be consentaneous
with the interests of the majority, and so they ought to be. The
probability is much greater that the larger states will disagree than
that they will combine. I defy the wit of man to invent a possible case
or to suggest any one thing on earth which shall be for the interests
of Virginia, Pennsylvania & Massachusetts, and which will not
also
be for the interest of the other states.
* * *
These
articles reported July 12. 76 were debated from day to day, &
time
to time for two years, were ratified July 9, '78, by 10 states, by N.
Jersey on the 26th. of Nov. of the same year, and by Delaware on the
23d. of Feb. following. Maryland alone held off 2 years more, acceding
to them Mar 1, 81. and thus closing the obligation.
Our
delegation had been renewed for the ensuing year commencing Aug. 11.
but the new government was now organized, a meeting of the legislature
was to be held in Oct. and I had been elected a member by my county. I
knew that our legislation under the regal government had many very
vicious points which urgently required reformation, and I thought I
could be of more use in forwarding that work. I therefore retired from
my seat in Congress on the 2d. of Sep. resigned it, and took my place
in the legislature of my state, on the 7th. of October.
On the
11th. I moved for leave to bring in a bill for the establishmt of
courts of justice, the organization of which was of importance; I drew
the bill it was approved by the commee, reported and passed after going
thro' it's due course.
On the 12th. I obtained leave to bring in
a bill declaring tenants in tail to hold their lands in fee simple. In
the earlier times of the colony when lands were to be obtained for
little or nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants,
and, desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled them
on their descendants in fee-tail. The transmission of this property
from generation to generation in the same name raised up a distinct set
of families who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of their
wealth were thus formed into a Patrician order, distinguished by the
splendor and luxury of their establishments. From this order too the
king habitually selected his Counsellors of State, the hope of which
distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests & will of
the
crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of
wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make an
opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has
wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society,
&
scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed
essential to a well ordered republic. To effect it no violence was
necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlargement
of it by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present
holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his
affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation on
the level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was strongly
opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealously attached to ancient
establishments; and who, taken all in all, was the ablest man in debate
I have ever met with. He had not indeed the poetical fancy of Mr.
Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming diction; but
he was cool, smooth and persuasive; his language flowing, chaste
&
embellished, his conceptions quick, acute and full of resource; never
vanquished; for if he lost the main battle, he returned upon you, and
regained so much of it as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous
man;oeuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advantages
which, little singly, were important altogether. You never knew when
you were clear of him, but were harassed by his perseverance until the
patience was worn down of all who had less of it than himself. Add to
this that he was one of the most virtuous & benevolent of men,
the
kindest friend, the most amiable & pleasant of companions,
which
ensured a favorable reception to whatever came from him. Finding that
the general principle of entails could not be maintained, he took his
stand on an amendment which he proposed, instead of an absolute
abolition, to permit the tenant in tail to convey in fee simple, if he
chose it: and he was within a few votes of saving so much of the old
law. But the bill passed finally for entire abolition.
In that
one of the bills for organizing our judiciary system which proposed a
court of chancery, I had provided for a trial by jury of all matters of
fact in that as well as in the courts of law. He defeated it by the
introduction of 4. words only, _"if either party chuse."_ The
consequence has been that as no suitor will say to his judge, "Sir, I
distrust you, give me a jury" juries are rarely, I might say perhaps
never seen in that court, but when called for by the Chancellor of his
own accord.
The first establishment in Virginia which became
permanent was made in 1607. I have found no mention of negroes in the
colony until about 1650. The first brought here as slaves were by a
Dutch ship; after which the English commenced the trade and continued
it until the revolutionary war. That suspended, ipso facto, their
further importation for the present, and the business of the war
pressing constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted on
finally until the year 78. when I brought in a bill to prevent their
further importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the
increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its
final eradication.
The first settlers of this colony were
Englishmen, loyal subjects to their king and church, and the grant to
Sr. Walter Raleigh contained an express Proviso that their laws "should
not be against the true Christian faith, now professed in the church of
England." As soon as the state of the colony admitted, it was divided
into parishes, in each of which was established a minister of the
Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a glebe house
and land with the other necessary appendages. To meet these expenses
all the inhabitants of the parishes were assessed, whether they were or
not, members of the established church. Towards Quakers who came here
they were most cruelly intolerant, driving them from the colony by the
severest penalties. In process of time however, other sectarisms were
introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family; and the established
clergy, secure for life in their glebes and salaries, adding to these
generally the emoluments of a classical school, found employment
enough, in their farms and schoolrooms for the rest of the week, and
devoted Sunday only to the edification of their flock, by service, and
a sermon at their parish church. Their other pastoral functions were
little attended to. Against this inactivity the zeal and industry of
sectarian preachers had an open and undisputed field; and by the time
of the revolution, a majority of the inhabitants had become dissenters
from the established church, but were still obliged to pay
contributions to support the Pastors of the minority. This unrighteous
compulsion to maintain teachers of what they deemed religious errors
was grievously felt during the regal government, and without a hope of
relief. But the first republican legislature which met in 76. was
crowded with petitions to abolish this spiritual tyranny. These brought
on the severest contests in which I have ever been engaged. Our great
opponents were Mr. Pendleton & Robert Carter Nicholas, honest
men,
but zealous churchmen. The petitions were referred to the commee of the
whole house on the state of the country; and after desperate contests
in that committee, almost daily from the 11th of Octob. to the 5th of
December, we prevailed so far only as to repeal the laws which rendered
criminal the maintenance of any religious opinions, the forbearance of
repairing to church, or the exercise of any mode of worship: and
further, to exempt dissenters from contributions to the support of the
established church; and to suspend, only until the next session levies
on the members of that church for the salaries of their own incumbents.
For although the majority of our citizens were dissenters, as has been
observed, a majority of the legislature were churchmen. Among these
however were some reasonable and liberal men, who enabled us, on some
points, to obtain feeble majorities. But our opponents carried in the
general resolutions of the commee of Nov. 19. a declaration that
religious assemblies ought to be regulated, and that provision ought to
be made for continuing the succession of the clergy, and superintending
their conduct. And in the bill now passed was inserted an express
reservation of the question Whether a general assessment should not be
established by law, on every one, to the support of the pastor of his
choice; or whether all should be left to voluntary contributions; and
on this question, debated at every session from 76 to 79 (some of our
dissenting allies, having now secured their particular object, going
over to the advocates of a general assessment) we could only obtain a
suspension from session to session until 79. when the question against
a general assessment was finally carried, and the establishment of the
Anglican church entirely put down. In justice to the two honest but
zealous opponents, who have been named I must add that altho', from
their natural temperaments, they were more disposed generally to
acquiesce in things as they are, than to risk innovations, yet whenever
the public will had once decided, none were more faithful or exact in
their obedience to it.
The seat of our government had been
originally fixed in the peninsula of Jamestown, the first settlement of
the colonists; and had been afterwards removed a few miles inland to
Williamsburg. But this was at a time when our settlements had not
extended beyond the tide water. Now they had crossed the Alleghany; and
the center of population was very far removed from what it had been.
Yet Williamsburg was still the depository of our archives, the habitual
residence of the Governor & many other of the public
functionaries,
the established place for the sessions of the legislature, and the
magazine of our military stores: and it's situation was so exposed that
it might be taken at any time in war, and, at this time particularly,
an enemy might in the night run up either of the rivers between which
it lies, land a force above, and take possession of the place, without
the possibility of saving either persons or things. I had proposed it's
removal so early as Octob. 76. but it did not prevail until the session
of May. '79.
Early in the session of May 79. I prepared, and
obtained leave to bring in a bill declaring who should be deemed
citizens, asserting the natural right of expatriation, and prescribing
the mode of exercising it. This, when I withdrew from the house on the
1st of June following, I left in the hands of George Mason and it was
passed on the 26th of that month.
In giving this account of the
laws of which I was myself the mover & draughtsman, I by no
means
mean to claim to myself the merit of obtaining their passage. I had
many occasional and strenuous coadjutors in debate, and one most
steadfast, able, and zealous; who was himself a host. This was George
Mason, a man of the first order of wisdom among those who acted on the
theatre of the revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent
in argument, learned in the lore of our former constitution, and
earnest for the republican change on democratic principles. His
elocution was neither flowing nor smooth, but his language was strong,
his manner most impressive, and strengthened by a dash of biting
cynicism when provocation made it seasonable.
Mr. Wythe, while
speaker in the two sessions of 1777. between his return from Congress
and his appointment to the Chancery, was an able and constant associate
in whatever was before a committee of the whole. His pure integrity,
judgment and reasoning powers gave him great weight. Of him see more in
some notes inclosed in my letter of August 31. 1821, to Mr. John
Saunderson.
Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776. a new
member and young; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme
modesty, prevented his venturing himself in debate before his removal
to the Council of State in Nov. 77. From thence he went to Congress,
then consisting of few members. Trained in these successive schools, he
acquired a habit of self-possession which placed at ready command the
rich resources of his luminous and discriminating mind, & of
his
extensive information, and rendered him the first of every assembly
afterwards of which he became a member. Never wandering from his
subject into vain declamation, but pursuing it closely in language
pure, classical, and copious, soothing always the feelings of his
adversaries by civilities and softness of expression, he rose to the
eminent station which he held in the great National convention of 1787.
and in that of Virginia which followed, he sustained the new
constitution in all its parts, bearing off the palm against the logic
of George Mason, and the fervid declamation of Mr. Henry. With these
consummate powers were united a pure and spotless virtue which no
calumny has ever attempted to sully. Of the powers and polish of his
pen, and of the wisdom of his administration in the highest office of
the nation, I need say nothing. They have spoken, and will forever
speak for themselves.
So far we were proceeding in the details
of reformation only; selecting points of legislation prominent in
character & principle, urgent, and indicative of the strength
of
the general pulse of reformation. When I left Congress, in 76. it was
in the persuasion that our whole code must be reviewed, adapted to our
republican form of government, and, now that we had no negatives of
Councils, Governors & Kings to restrain us from doing right,
that
it should be corrected, in all it's parts, with a single eye to reason,
& the good of those for whose government it was framed. Early
therefore in the session of 76. to which I returned, I moved and
presented a bill for the revision of the laws; which was passed on the
24th. of October, and on the 5th. of November Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe,
George Mason, Thomas L. Lee and myself were appointed a committee to
execute the work. We agreed to meet at Fredericksburg to settle the
plan of operation and to distribute the work. We met there accordingly,
on the 13th. of January 1777. The first question was whether we should
propose to abolish the whole existing system of laws, and prepare a new
and complete Institute, or preserve the general system, and only modify
it to the present state of things. Mr. Pendleton, contrary to his usual
disposition in favor of antient things, was for the former proposition,
in which he was joined by Mr. Lee. To this it was objected that to
abrogate our whole system would be a bold measure, and probably far
beyond the views of the legislature; that they had been in the practice
of revising from time to time the laws of the colony, omitting the
expired, the repealed and the obsolete, amending only those retained,
and probably meant we should now do the same, only including the
British statutes as well as our own: that to compose a new Institute
like those of Justinian and Bracton, or that of Blackstone, which was
the model proposed by Mr. Pendleton, would be an arduous undertaking,
of vast research, of great consideration & judgment; and when
reduced to a text, every word of that text, from the imperfection of
human language, and it's incompetence to express distinctly every shade
of idea, would become a subject of question & chicanery until
settled by repeated adjudications; that this would involve us for ages
in litigation, and render property uncertain until, like the statutes
of old, every word had been tried, and settled by numerous decisions,
and by new volumes of reports & commentaries; and that no one
of us
probably would undertake such a work, which, to be systematical, must
be the work of one hand. This last was the opinion of Mr. Wythe, Mr.
Mason & myself. When we proceeded to the distribution of the
work,
Mr. Mason excused himself as, being no lawyer, he felt himself
unqualified for the work, and he resigned soon after. Mr. Lee excused
himself on the same ground, and died indeed in a short time. The other
two gentlemen therefore and myself divided the work among us. The
common law and statutes to the 4. James I. (when our separate
legislature was established) were assigned to me; the British statutes
from that period to the present day to Mr. Wythe, and the Virginia laws
to Mr. Pendleton. As the law of Descents, & the criminal law
fell
of course within my portion, I wished the commee to settle the leading
principles of these, as a guide for me in framing them. And with
respect to the first, I proposed to abolish the law of primogeniture,
and to make real estate descendible in parcenary to the next of kin, as
personal property is by the statute of distribution. Mr. Pendleton
wished to preserve the right of primogeniture, but seeing at once that
that could not prevail, he proposed we should adopt the Hebrew
principle, and give a double portion to the elder son. I observed that
if the eldest son could eat twice as much, or do double work, it might
be a natural evidence of his right to a double portion; but being on a
par in his powers & wants, with his brothers and sisters, he
should
be on a par also in the partition of the patrimony, and such was the
decision of the other members.
On the subject of the Criminal
law, all were agreed that the punishment of death should be abolished,
except for treason and murder; and that, for other felonies should be
substituted hard labor in the public works, and in some cases, the Lex
talionis. How this last revolting principle came to obtain our
approbation, I do not remember. There remained indeed in our laws a
vestige of it in a single case of a slave. It was the English law in
the time of the Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the Hebrew law of
"an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," and it was the law of several
antient people. But the modern mind had left it far in the rear of it's
advances. These points however being settled, we repaired to our
respective homes for the preparation of the work.
Feb. 6. In the
execution of my part I thought it material not to vary the diction of
the antient statutes by modernizing it, nor to give rise to new
questions by new expressions. The text of these statutes had been so
fully explained and defined by numerous adjudications, as scarcely ever
now to produce a question in our courts. I thought it would be useful
also, in all new draughts, to reform the style of the later British
statutes, and of our own acts of assembly, which from their verbosity,
their endless tautologies, their involutions of case within case, and
parenthesis within parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at
certainty by _saids_ and _aforesaids_, by _ors_ and by _ands_, to make
them more plain, do really render them more perplexed and
incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to the lawyers
themselves. We were employed in this work from that time to Feb. 1779,
when we met at Williamsburg, that is to say, Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe
& myself, and meeting day by day, we examined critically our
several parts, sentence by sentence, scrutinizing and amending until we
had agreed on the whole. We then returned home, had fair copies made of
our several parts, which were reported to the General Assembly June 18.
1779. by Mr. Wythe and myself, Mr. Pendleton's residence being distant,
and he having authorized us by letter to declare his approbation. We
had in this work brought so much of the Common law as it was thought
necessary to alter, all the British statutes from Magna Charta to the
present day, and all the laws of Virginia, from the establishment of
our legislature, in the 4th. Jac. 1. to the present time, which we
thought should be retained, within the compass of 126 bills, making a
printed folio of 90 pages only. Some bills were taken out occasionally,
from time to time, and passed; but the main body of the work was not
entered on by the legislature until after the general peace, in 1785.
when by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the
endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations and delays of
lawyers and demi-lawyers, most of the bills were passed by the
legislature, with little alteration.
The bill for establishing
religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree,
been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason
&
right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the
preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that
it's protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the
preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the
holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting
the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read "a departure from the
plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion." The insertion
was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to
comprehend, within the mantle of it's protection, the Jew and the
Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and infidel of every
denomination.
Beccaria and other writers on crimes and
punishments had satisfied the reasonable world of the unrightfulness
and inefficacy of the punishment of crimes by death; and hard labor on
roads, canals and other public works, had been suggested as a proper
substitute. The Revisors had adopted these opinions; but the general
idea of our country had not yet advanced to that point. The bill
therefore for proportioning crimes and punishments was lost in the
House of Delegates by a majority of a single vote. I learnt afterwards
that the substitute of hard labor in public was tried (I believe it was
in Pennsylvania) without success. Exhibited as a public spectacle, with
shaved heads and mean clothing, working on the high roads produced in
the criminals such a prostration of character, such an abandonment of
self-respect, as, instead of reforming, plunged them into the most
desperate & hardened depravity of morals and character. --
Pursue
the subject of this law. -- I was written to in 1785 (being then in
Paris) by Directors appointed to superintend the building of a Capitol
in Richmond, to advise them as to a plan, and to add to it one of a
prison. Thinking it a favorable opportunity of introducing into the
state an example of architecture in the classic style of antiquity, and
the Maison quarree of Nismes, an antient Roman temple, being considered
as the most perfect model existing of what may be called Cubic
architecture, I applied to M. Clerissault, who had published drawings
of the Antiquities of Nismes, to have me a model of the building made
in stucco, only changing the order from Corinthian to Ionic, on account
of the difficulty of the Corinthian capitals. I yielded with reluctance
to the taste of Clerissault, in his preference of the modern capital of
Scamozzi to the more noble capital of antiquity. This was executed by
the artist whom Choiseul Gouffier had carried with him to
Constantinople, and employed while Ambassador there, in making those
beautiful models of the remains of Grecian architecture which are to be
seen at Paris. To adapt the exterior to our use, I drew a plan for the
interior, with the apartments necessary for legislative, executive
& judiciary purposes, and accommodated in their size and
distribution to the form and dimensions of the building. These were
forwarded to the Directors in 1786. and were carried into execution,
with some variations not for the better, the most important to which
however admit of future correction. With respect of the plan of a
Prison, requested at the same time, I had heard of a benevolent society
in England which had been indulged by the government in an experiment
of the effect of labor in _solitary confinement_ on some of their
criminals, which experiment had succeeded beyond expectation. The same
idea had been suggested in France, and an Architect of Lyons had
proposed a plan of a well contrived edifice on the principle of
solitary confinement. I procured a copy, and as it was too large for
our purposes, I drew one on a scale, less extensive, but susceptible of
additions as they should be wanting. This I sent to the Directors
instead of a plan of a common prison, in the hope that it would suggest
the idea of labor in solitary confinement instead of that on the public
works, which we had adopted in our Revised Code. It's principle
accordingly, but not it's exact form, was adopted by Latrobe in
carrying the plan into execution, by the erection of what is now called
the Penitentiary, built under his direction. In the meanwhile the
public opinion was ripening by time, by reflection, and by the example
of Pensylva, where labor on the highways had been tried without
approbation from 1786 to 89. & had been followed by their
Penitentiary system on the principle of confinement and labor, which
was proceeding auspiciously. In 1796. our legislature resumed the
subject and passed the law for amending the Penal laws of the
commonwealth. They adopted solitary, instead of public labor,
established a gradation in the duration of the confinement,
approximated the style of the law more to the modern usage, and instead
of the settled distinctions of murder & manslaughter, preserved
in
my bill, they introduced the new terms of murder in the 1st &
2d
degree. Whether these have produced more or fewer questions of
definition I am not sufficiently informed of our judiciary transactions
to say. I will here however insert the text of my bill, with the notes
I made in the course of my researches into the subject.
Feb. 7.
The acts of assembly concerning the College of Wm. & Mary, were
properly within Mr. Pendleton's portion of our work. But these related
chiefly to it's revenue, while it's constitution, organization and
scope of science were derived from it's charter. We thought, that on
this subject a systematical plan of general education should be
proposed, and I was requested to undertake it. I accordingly prepared
three bills for the Revisal, proposing three distinct grades of
education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children
generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a middle degree of
instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life, and such as
would be desirable for all who were in easy circumstances. And 3d. an
ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally, & in their
highest degree. The first bill proposed to lay off every county into
Hundreds or Wards, of a proper size and population for a school, in
which reading, writing, and common arithmetic should be taught; and
that the whole state should be divided into 24 districts, in each of
which should be a school for classical learning, grammar, geography,
and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic. The second bill
proposed to amend the constitution of Wm. & Mary College, to
enlarge it's sphere of science, and to make it in fact an University.
The third was for the establishment of a library. These bills were not
acted on until the same year '96. and then only so much of the first as
provided for elementary schools. The College of Wm. & Mary was
an
establishment purely of the Church of England, the Visitors were
required to be all of that Church; the Professors to subscribe it's 39
Articles, it's Students to learn it's Catechism, and one of its
fundamental objects was declared to be to raise up Ministers for that
church. The religious jealousies therefore of all the dissenters took
alarm lest this might give an ascendancy to the Anglican sect and
refused acting on that bill. Its local eccentricity too and unhealthy
autumnal climate lessened the general inclination towards it. And in
the Elementary bill they inserted a provision which completely defeated
it, for they left it to the court of each county to determine for
itself when this act should be carried into execution, within their
county. One provision of the bill was that the expenses of these
schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in
proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth the
education of the poor; and the justices, being generally of the more
wealthy class, were unwilling to incur that burthen, and I believe it
was not suffered to commence in a single county. I shall recur again to
this subject towards the close of my story, if I should have life and
resolution enough to reach that term; for I am already tired of talking
about myself.
The bill on the subject of slaves was a mere
digest of the existing laws respecting them, without any intimation of
a plan for a future & general emancipation. It was thought
better
that this should be kept back, and attempted only by way of amendment
whenever the bill should be brought on. The principles of the amendment
however were agreed on, that is to say, the freedom of all born after a
certain day, and deportation at a proper age. But it was found that the
public mind would not yet bear the proposition, nor will it bear it
even at this day. Yet the day is not distant when it must bear and
adopt it, or worse will follow. Nothing is more certainly written in
the book of fate than that these people are to be free. Nor is it less
certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same
government. Nature, habit, opinion has drawn indelible lines of
distinction between them. It is still in our power to direct the
process of emancipation and deportation peaceably and in such slow
degree as that the evil will wear off insensibly, and their place be
pari passu filled up by free white laborers. If on the contrary it is
left to force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held
up. We should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation or
deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short of our case.
I
considered 4 of these bills, passed or reported, as forming a system by
which every fibre would be eradicated of antient or future aristocracy;
and a foundation laid for a government truly republican. The repeal of
the laws of entail would prevent the accumulation and perpetuation of
wealth in select families, and preserve the soil of the country from
being daily more & more absorbed in Mortmain. The abolition of
primogeniture, and equal partition of inheritances removed the feudal
and unnatural distinctions which made one member of every family rich,
and all the rest poor, substituting equal partition, the best of all
Agrarian laws. The restoration of the rights of conscience relieved the
people from taxation for the support of a religion not theirs; for the
establishment was truly of the religion of the rich, the dissenting
sects being entirely composed of the less wealthy people; and these, by
the bill for a general education, would be qualified to understand
their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their
parts in self-government: and all this would be effected without the
violation of a single natural right of any one individual citizen. To
these too might be added, as a further security, the introduction of
the trial by jury, into the Chancery courts, which have already
ingulfed and continue to ingulf, so great a proportion of the
jurisdiction over our property.
On the 1st of June 1779. I was
appointed Governor of the Commonwealth and retired from the
legislature. Being elected also one of the Visitors of Wm. &
Mary
college, a self-electing body, I effected, during my residence in
Williamsburg that year, a change in the organization of that
institution by abolishing the Grammar school, and the two
professorships of Divinity & Oriental languages, and
substituting a
professorship of Law & Police, one of Anatomy Medicine and
Chemistry, and one of Modern languages; and the charter confining us to
six professorships, we added the law of Nature & Nations,
& the
Fine Arts to the duties of the Moral professor, and Natural history to
those of the professor of Mathematics and Natural philosophy.
Being
now, as it were, identified with the Commonwealth itself, to write my
own history during the two years of my administration, would be to
write the public history of that portion of the revolution within this
state. This has been done by others, and particularly by Mr. Girardin,
who wrote his Continuation of Burke's history of Virginia while at
Milton, in this neighborhood, had free access to all my papers while
composing it, and has given as faithful an account as I could myself.
For this portion therefore of my own life, I refer altogether to his
history. From a belief that under the pressure of the invasion under
which we were then laboring the public would have more confidence in a
Military chief, and that the Military commander, being invested with
the Civil power also, both might be wielded with more energy
promptitude and effect for the defence of the state, I resigned the
administration at the end of my 2d. year, and General Nelson was
appointed to succeed me.
Soon after my leaving Congress in Sep.
'76, to wit on the last day of that month, I had been appointed, with
Dr. Franklin, to go to France, as a Commissioner to negotiate treaties
of alliance and commerce with that government. Silas Deane, then in
France, acting as agent (2)
for procuring military stores, was joined with us in commission. But
such was the state of my family that I could not leave it, nor could I
expose it to the dangers of the sea, and of capture by the British
ships, then covering the ocean. I saw too that the laboring oar was
really at home, where much was to be done of the most permanent
interest in new modelling our governments, and much to defend our fanes
and fire-sides from the desolations of an invading enemy pressing on
our country in every point. I declined therefore and Dr. Lee was
appointed in my place. On the 15th. of June 1781. I had been appointed
with Mr. Adams, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, and Mr. Laurens a Minister
plenipotentiary for negotiating peace, then expected to be effected
thro' the mediation of the Empress of Russia. The same reasons obliged
me still to decline; and the negotiation was in fact never entered on.
But, in the autumn of the next year 1782 Congress receiving assurances
that a general peace would be concluded in the winter and spring, they
renewed my appointment on the 13th. of Nov. of that year. I had two
months before that lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose
affections, unabated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years in
unchequered happiness. With the public interests, the state of my mind
concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed; and I accepted
the appointment, and left Monticello on the 19th. of Dec. 1782. for
Philadelphia, where I arrived on the 27th. The Minister of France,
Luzerne, offered me a passage in the Romulus frigate, which I
accepting. But she was then lying a few miles below Baltimore blocked
up in the ice. I remained therefore a month in Philadelphia, looking
over the papers in the office of State in order to possess myself of
the general state of our foreign relations, and then went to Baltimore
to await the liberation of the frigate from the ice. After waiting
there nearly a month, we received information that a Provisional treaty
of peace had been signed by our Commissioners on the 3d. of Sept. 1782.
to become absolute on the conclusion of peace between France and Great
Britain. Considering my proceeding to Europe as now of no utility to
the public, I returned immediately to Philadelphia to take the orders
of Congress, and was excused by them from further proceeding. I
therefore returned home, where I arrived on the 15th. of May, 1783.
On
the 6th. of the following month I was appointed by the legislature a
delegate to Congress, the appointment to take place on the 1st. of Nov.
ensuing, when that of the existing delegation would expire. I
accordingly left home on the 16th. of Oct. arrived at Trenton, where
Congress was sitting, on the 3d. of Nov. and took my seat on the 4th.,
on which day Congress adjourned to meet at Annapolis on the 26th.
Congress
had now become a very small body, and the members very remiss in their
attendance on it's duties insomuch that a majority of the states,
necessary by the Confederation to constitute a house even for minor
business did not assemble until the 13th. of December.
They as
early as Jan. 7. 1782. had turned their attention to the monies current
in the several states, and had directed the Financier, Robert Morris,
to report to them a table of rates at which the foreign coins should be
received at the treasury. That officer, or rather his assistant,
Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15th in an able and elaborate
statement of the denominations of money current in the several states,
and of the comparative value of the foreign coins chiefly in
circulation with us. He went into the consideration of the necessity of
establishing a standard of value with us, and of the adoption of a
money-Unit. He proposed for the Unit such a fraction of pure silver as
would be a common measure of the penny of every state, without leaving
a fraction. This common divisor he found to be 1 -- 1440 of a dollar,
or 1 -- 1600 of the crown sterling. The value of a dollar was therefore
to be expressed by 1440 units, and of a crown by 1600. Each Unit
containing a quarter of a grain of fine silver. Congress turning again
their attention to this subject the following year, the financier, by a
letter of Apr. 30, 1783. further explained and urged the Unit he had
proposed; but nothing more was done on it until the ensuing year, when
it was again taken up, and referred to a commee of which I was a
member. The general views of the financier were sound, and the
principle was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit. But it
was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation either
by the head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread 1 -- 20 of a
dollar would be 72. units.
A pound of butter 1 -- 5 of a dollar 288. units.
A
horse or bullock of 80. D value would require a notation of 6. figures,
to wit 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of 80. millions, would
require 12. figures, to wit 115,200,000,000 units. Such a system of
money-arithmetic would be entirely unmanageable for the common purposes
of society. I proposed therefore, instead of this, to adopt the Dollar
as our Unit of account and payment, and that it's divisions and
sub-divisions should be in the decimal ratio. I wrote some Notes on the
subject, which I submitted to the consideration of the financier. I
received his answer and adherence to his general system, only agreeing
to take for his Unit 100. of those he first proposed, so that a Dollar
should be 14 40 -- 100 and a crown 16. units. I replied to this and
printed my notes and reply on a flying sheet, which I put into the
hands of the members of Congress for consideration, and the Committee
agreed to report on my principle. This was adopted the ensuing year and
is the system which now prevails. I insert here the Notes and Reply, as
shewing the different views on which the adoption of our money system
hung. The division into dimes, cents & mills is now so well
understood, that it would be easy of introduction into the kindred
branches of weights & measures. I use, when I travel, an
Odometer
of Clarke's invention which divides the mile into cents, and I find
every one comprehend a distance readily when stated to them in miles
& cents; so they would in feet and cents, pounds &
cents,
&c.
The remissness of Congress, and their permanent session,
began to be a subject of uneasiness and even some of the legislatures
had recommended to them intermissions, and periodical sessions. As the
Confederation had made no provision for a visible head of the
government during vacations of Congress, and such a one was necessary
to superintend the executive business, to receive and communicate with
foreign ministers & nations, and to assemble Congress on sudden
and
extraordinary emergencies, I proposed early in April the appointment of
a commee to be called the Committee of the states, to consist of a
member from each state, who should remain in session during the recess
of Congress: that the functions of Congress should be divided into
Executive and Legislative, the latter to be reserved, and the former,
by a general resolution to be delegated to that Committee. This
proposition was afterwards agreed to; a Committee appointed, who
entered on duty on the subsequent adjourn-ment of Congress, quarrelled
very soon, split into two parties, abandoned their post, and left the
government without any visible head until the next meeting in Congress.
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