Th: Jefferson.
LETTER—FROM THE PRESIDENT, April 4, 1791
Thomas Jefferson presents his respects to the Vice-President of the United States, and has the honor to enclose him the copy of a letter from the President, just now received.
April 8, 1791.
[The annexed is the letter referred to.]
Mount Vernon, April 4, 1791. Gentlemen,
As the public service may require that communications should be made to me, during my absence from the seat of government, by the most direct conveyances, and as, in the event of any very extraordinary occurrence, it will be necessary to know at what time I may be found in any particular place, I have to inform you, that unless the progress of my journey to Savannah is retarded by unforeseen interruptions, it will be regulated (including days of halt) in the following manner. I shall be,
On the 8th of April, at Fredericksburg,
“11th” Richmond,
“14th” Petersburg,
“16th” Halifax,
“18th” Tarborough,
“20th” Newbern, ‘
“24th” Wilmington,
“29th” Georgetown, South Carolina,
On the 2nd of May, at Charleston, halting five days,
“11th” Savannah, halting two days.
Thence, leaving the line of the mail, I shall proceed to Augusta, and according to the information which I may receive there, my return, by an upper road, will be regulated. The route of my return is at present uncertain, but in all probability it will be through Columbia, Camden, Charlotte, Salisbury, Salem, Guilford, Hillsborough, Harrisburg, Williamsburg to Taylor’s Ferry on the Roanoke, and thence to Fredericksburg by the nearest and best road.
After thus explaining to you, as far as I am able at present, the direction and probable progress of my journey, I have to express my wish, if any serious and important case should arise during my absence (of which the probability is but too strong), that the Secretaries for the departments of State, Treasury, and War, may hold consultations thereon, to determine whether they are of such a nature as to require my personal attendance at the seat of government, and if they should be so considered, I will return immediately from any place at which the information may reach me; or should they determine that measures relevant to the case may be legally and properly pursued, without the immediate agency of the President, I will approve and ratify the measures which may be conformed to such determination.
Presuming that the Vice-President will have left the seat of government for Boston, I have not requested his opinion to be taken on the supposed emergency. Should it be otherwise, I wish him also to be consulted.
I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
G. Washington.
Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Knox, Esquires, Secretaries of the United States for the departments of State, Treasury, and War.
LETTER LVIII.—TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS, April 11, 1791
TO COLONEL HUMPHREYS.
Philadelphia, April 11, 1791.
Dear Sir,
I wrote you March the 15th, with postscripts of the 18th and 19th. Since that, yours of January the 3rd, No. 10, January the 15th, No. 11, from Madrid, February the 6th, No. 12, and February the 12th, No. 13, from Lisbon, have been received. They covered a letter from Mr. Carmichael, the only one we have from him of later date than May, 1789. You know that my letter to him, of which you were the bearer, took notice of the intermission of his correspondence, and the one enclosed to him in my letter to you of March the 15th, being written when this intermission was felt still stronger, as having continued so much longer, conveyed stronger marks of dissatisfaction. Though his letter, now received, convinces us he has been active in procuring intelligence, yet it does not appear that he has been equally assiduous in procuring means of conveyance, which was the more incumbent on him, in proportion as the government was more jealous and watchful. Still, however, I wish him to receive the letter now enclosed for him, herein, as it softens what had been harder said, and shows a disposition rather to look forward than backward. I hope you will receive it in time to forward with the other. It contains important matter, pressing on him, as I wish to do on you and have done on Mr. Short, to engage your respective courts in a co-operation in our navigation act. Procure us all the information possible, as to the strength, riches, resources, lights, and dispositions of Brazil. The jealousy of the court of Lisbon on this subject, will, of course, inspire you with due caution in making and communicating these inquiries.
The acts of the three sessions of Congress, and Fenno’s papers from April, 1790, were sent you with my last. You will now receive the continuation of Fenno’s paper. I send for Mr. Carmichael, also, laws and newspapers, in hopes you may find some means of conveying them to him. I must sometimes avail myself of your channel to write to him, till we shall have a Consul at Cadiz.
I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER LIX.—TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, April 11,1791
TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
Philadelphia, April 11,1791.
Sir,
I wrote you on the 12th of March, and again on the 17th of the same month; since which, I have received your favor of January the 24th, wherein you refer to copies of two letters, also to a paper, No. 1, supposed to be enclosed in that letter; but there was nothing enclosed. You speak particularly of several other letters formerly forwarded, but not a single one was ever received of later date than May the 6th, 1789; and this of January the 24th is all we possess from you since that date. I enclose you a list of letters addressed to you on various subjects, and to which answers were, and are, naturally expected; and send you again copies of the papers in the case of the Dover Cutter, which has been the subject of so many of those letters, and is the subject of the constant solicitation of the parties here. A final decision on that application, therefore, is earnestly desired. When you consider the repeated references of matters to you from hence, and the total suppression of whatever you have written in answer, you will not be surprised if it had excited a great degree of uneasiness. We had inquired whether private conveyances did not occur, from time to time, from Madrid to Cadiz, where we have vessels almost constantly, and we were assured that such conveyances were frequent. On the whole, Sir, you will be sensible, that under the jealous government with which you reside, the conveyance of intelligence requires as much management as the obtaining it; and I am in hopes, that in future you will be on your guard against those infidelities in that line, under which you and we have so much suffered.
The President is absent on a journey through the southern States, from which he will not return till the end of June; consequently, I could not sooner notify him of your desire to return; but even then, I will take the liberty of saying nothing to him on the subject till I hear further from you. The suppression of your correspondence has, in a considerable degree, withdrawn you from the public sight. I sincerely wish that before your return, you could do something to attract their attention and favor, and render your return pleasing to yourself and profitable to them, by introducing you to new proofs of their confidence. My two last letters to you furnish occasions; that of a co-operation against the British navigation act, and the arrangement of our affairs on the Mississippi. The former, if it can be effected, will form a remarkable and memorable epoch in the history and freedom of the ocean. Mr. Short will press it at Paris, and Colonel Humphreys at Lisbon. The latter will show most at first; and as to it, be so good as to observe always, that the right of navigating the Mississippi is considered as so palpable, that the recovery of it will produce no other