Volume II Part 53 (1/2)

In our first Confederation, the principle of rotation was established in the office of President of Congress, who could serve but one year in three, and in that of a member of Congress, who could serve but three years in six.

I believe all the countries in Europe determine their standard of money, in gold as well as silver. Thus, the laws of England direct that a pound Troy of gold, of twenty-two carats fine, shall be cut into forty-four and a half guineas, each of which shall be worth twenty-one and a half s.h.i.+llings, that is, into 956 3/4 s.h.i.+llings. This establishes the s.h.i.+lling at 5.518 grains of pure gold. They direct that a pound of silver, consisting of 11 1/10 ounces of pure silver, and 9/10 of an ounce alloy, shall be cut into sixty-two s.h.i.+llings. This establishes the s.h.i.+lling at 85.93 grains of pure silver, and, consequently, the proportion of gold to silver as 85.93 to 5.518, or as 15.57 to 1. If this be the true proportion between the value of gold and silver at the general market of Europe, then the value of the s.h.i.+lling, depending on two standards, is the same, whether a payment be made in gold or in silver. But if the proportion at the general market of Europe be as fifteen to one, then the Englishman who owes a pound weight of gold at Amsterdam, if he sends the pound of gold to pay it, sends 1043.72 s.h.i.+llings; if he sends fifteen pounds of silver, he sends only 1030.5 s.h.i.+llings; if he pays half in gold and half in silver, he pays only 1037.11 s.h.i.+llings. And this medium between the two standards of gold and silver, we must consider as furnis.h.i.+ng the true medium value of the s.h.i.+lling. If the parliament should now order the pound of gold (of one-twelfth alloy as before) to be cut into a thousand s.h.i.+llings instead of nine hundred and fifty-six and three fourths, leaving the silver as it is, the medium or true value of the s.h.i.+lling would suffer a change of half the difference; and in the case before stated, to pay a debt of a pound weight of gold, at Amsterdam, if he sent the pound weight of gold, he would send 1090.9 s.h.i.+llings; if he sent fifteen pounds of silver, he would send 1030.5 s.h.i.+llings; if half in gold and half in silver, he would send 1060.7 s.h.i.+llings; which shows, that this parliamentary operation would reduce the value of the s.h.i.+lling in the proportion of 1060.7 to 1037.11.

Now this is exactly the effect of the late change in the quant.i.ty of gold contained in your louis. Your _marc d'argent fin_ is cut into 53.45 livres (fifty-three livres and nine sous), the _marc de l'or fin_ was cut, heretofore, by law, into 784.6 livres (seven hundred and eighty-four livres and twelve sous); gold was to silver, then, as 14.63 to 1. And if this was different from the proportion at the markets of Europe, the true value of your livre stood half way between the two standards. By the ordinance of October the 30th, 1785, the marc of pure gold has been cut into 828.6 livres. If your standard had been in gold alone, this would have reduced the value of the livre, in the proportion of 828.6 to 784.6. But as you had a standard of silver as well as gold, the true standard is the medium between the two; consequently, the value of the livre is reduced only one half the difference, that is, as 806.6 to 784.6, which is very nearly three per cent. Commerce, however, has made a difference of four per cent., the average value of the pound sterling, formerly twenty-four livres, being now twenty-five livres.

Perhaps some other circ.u.mstance has occasioned an addition of one per cent, to the change of your standard.

I fear I have tired you by these details. I did not mean to be so lengthy when I began. I beg you to consider them as an appeal to your judgment, which I value, and from which I will expect a correction, if they are wrong.

I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and attachment, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXCVI.--TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE, May 6,1789

TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

Paris, May 6,1789.

My Dear Friend,

As it becomes more and more possible that the _n.o.blesse_ will go wrong, I become uneasy for you. Your principles are decidedly with the _Tiers-Etat_, and your instructions against them. A complaisance to the latter on some occasions, and an adherence to the former on others, may give an appearance of tr.i.m.m.i.n.g between the two parties, which may lose you both. You will, in the end, go over wholly to the _Tiers-Etat_, because it will be impossible for you to live in a constant sacrifice of your own sentiments to the prejudices of the _n.o.blesse_. But you would be received by the _Tiers-Etat_, at any future day, coldly, and without confidence. This appears to me the moment to take at once that honest and manly stand with them, which your own principles dictate. This will win their hearts for ever, be approved by the world, which marks and honors you as the man of the people, and will be an eternal consolation to yourself. The _n.o.blesse_, and especially the _n.o.blesse of Auvergne_, will always prefer men who will do their dirty work for them. You are not made for that. They will therefore soon drop you, and the people, in that case, will perhaps not take you up. Suppose a scission should take place. The Priests and n.o.bles will secede, the nation will remain in place, and, with the King, will do its own business. If violence should be attempted, where will you be? You cannot then take side with the people in opposition to your own vote, that very vote which will have helped to produce the scission. Still less can you array yourself against the people. That is impossible. Your instructions are indeed a difficulty. But to state this at its worst, it is only a single difficulty, which a single effort surmounts. Your instructions can never embarra.s.s you a second time, whereas an acquiescence under them will re-produce greater difficulties every day, and without end. Besides, a thousand circ.u.mstances offer as many justifications of your departure from your instructions. Will it be impossible to persuade all parties, that (as for good legislation two Houses are necessary) the placing the privileged cla.s.ses together in one House, and the unprivileged in another, would be better for both than a scission? I own I think it would. People can never agree without some sacrifices; and it appears but a moderate sacrifice in each party, to meet on this middle ground.

The attempt to bring this about might satisfy your instructions, and a failure in it would justify your siding with the people, even to those who think instructions are laws of conduct. Forgive me, my dear friend, if my anxiety for you makes me talk of things I know nothing about.

You must not consider this as advice. I know you and myself too well to presume to offer advice. Receive it merely as the expression of my uneasiness, and the effusion of that sincere friends.h.i.+p, with which I am, my dear Sir, yours affectionately,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXCVII.--TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, May 8, 1789

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

Paris, May 8, 1789.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of January the 26th, to March the 27th, is duly received, and I thank you for the interesting papers it contained. The answer of Don Ulloa, however, on the subject of the ca.n.a.l through the American isthmus, was not among them, though mentioned to be so. If you have omitted it through accident, I shall thank you for it at some future occasion, as I wish much to understand that subject thoroughly. Our American information comes down to the 16th of March. There had not yet been members enough a.s.sembled of the new Congress, to open the tickets.

They expected to do it in a day or two. In the mean time, it was said from all the States, that their vote had been unanimous for General Was.h.i.+ngton, and a good majority in favor of Mr. Adams, who is certainly, therefore, Vice-President. The new government would be supported by very cordial and very general dispositions in its favor from the people. I have not yet seen a list of the new Congress. This delay in the meeting of the new government has delayed the determination on my pet.i.tion for leave of absence. However, I expect to receive it every day, and am in readiness to sail the instant I receive it, so that this is probably the last letter I shall write you hence, till my return. While there, I shall avail government of the useful information I have received from you, and shall not fail to profit of any good occasion which may occur, to show the difference between your real situation, and what it ought to be. I consider Paris and Madrid as the two only points, at which Europe and America should touch closely, and that a connection at these points should be fostered.

We have had in this city a very considerable riot, in which about one hundred people have been probably killed. It was the most unprovoked, and is therefore, justly, the most unpitied catastrophe of that kind I ever knew. Nor did the wretches know what they wanted, except to do mischief. It seems to have had no particular connection with the great national question now in agitation. The want of bread is very seriously dreaded through the whole kingdom. Between twenty and thirty s.h.i.+p-loads of wheat and flour has already arrived from the United States, and there will be about the same quant.i.ty of rice sent from Charleston to this country directly, of which about half has arrived. I presume that, between wheat and rice, one hundred s.h.i.+p-loads may be counted on in the whole from us. Paris consumes about a s.h.i.+p-load a day, (say two hundred and fifty tons.) The total supply of the West Indies, for this year, rests with us, and there is almost a famine in Canada and Nova Scotia.

The States General were opened the day before yesterday. Viewing it as an opera, it was imposing; as a scene of business, the King's speech was exactly what it should have been, and very well delivered; not a word of the Chancellor's was heard by any body, so that, as yet, I have never heard a single guess at what it was about. Mr. Necker's was as good as such a number of details would permit it to be. The picture of their resources was consoling, and generally plausible. I could have wished him to have dwelt more on those great const.i.tutional reformations, which his _Rapport au Roy_ had prepared us to expect. But they observe, that these points are proper for the speech of the Chancellor. We are in hopes, therefore, they were in that speech, which, like the Revelations of St. John, were no revelations at all. The _n.o.blesse_, on coming together, show that they are not as much reformed in their principles as we had hoped they would be. In fact, there is real danger of their totally refusing to vote by persons. Some found hopes on the lower clergy, which const.i.tute four-fifths of the deputies of that order. If they do not turn the balance in favor of the _Tiers-Etat_, there is real danger of a scission. But I shall not consider even that event as rendering things desperate. If the King will do business with the _Tiers-Etat_, which const.i.tutes the nation, it may be well done without Priests or n.o.bles. From the best information I can obtain, the King of England's madness has terminated in an imbecility, which may very possibly be of long continuance. He is going with his Queen to Germany.

England chained to rest, the other parts of Europe may recover or retain tranquillity.