in charge for Mr. Carmichael, the contents of all which are known to you. Be so good as to multiply, as much as possible, your conferences with him, in order to possess him fully of the special matters sketched out in those papers, and of the state of our affairs in general. Your stay there will be as long as its objects may require, only taking care to return to Lisbon by the time you may reasonably expect that our answers to your letters to be written from Lisbon, may reach that place. This cannot be earlier than the first or second week of January. These answers will convey to you the President's further pleasure. Through the whole of this business, it will be best that you avoid all suspicion of being on any public business. This need be known only to the Chevalier Pinto and Mr. Carmichael. The former need not know of your journey to Madrid, or, if it be necessary, he may be made to understand that it is a journey of curiosity, to fill up the interval between writing your letters and receiving the answers. To every other person, it will be best that you appear as a private traveller. The President of the United States allows you from this date, at the rate of two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars a-year, for your services and expenses, and, moreover, what you may incur for the postage of letters, until he shall otherwise order. TH. JEFFERSON. DEAR SIR, TO GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. New York, August 12, 1790. Your letter of May the 29th to the President of the United States, has been duly received. You have placed their proposition of exchanging a minister on proper ground. It must certainly come from them, and come in unequivocal form. With those who respect their own dignity so much, ours must not be counted at nought. On their own proposal, formally, to exchange a minister, we sent them one. They have taken no notice of that, and talk of agreeing to exchange one now, as if the idea were new. Besides, what they are saying to you, they are talking to us through Quebec; but so informally, that they may disavow it when they please. It would only oblige them to make the fortune of the poor Major, whom they would pretend to sacrifice. Through him, they talk of a minister, a treaty of commerce and alliance. If the object of the latter be honourable, it is useless; if dishonourable, inadmissible. These tamperings prove they view a war as very possible; and some symptoms indicate designs against the Spanish possessions adjoining us. The consequences of their acquiring all the country on our frontier from the St. Croix to the St. Mary's, are too obvious to you, to need development. You will readily see the dangers which would then environ us. We wish you, therefore, to intimate to them, that we cannot be indifferent to enterprises of this kind; that we should contemplate a change of neighbours with extreme uneasiness; and that a due balance on our borders is not less desirable to us, than a balance of power in Europe has always appeared to them. We wish to be neutral, and we will be so, if they will execute the treaty fairly, and attempt no conquests adjoining us. The first condition is just; the second imposes no hardship on them. They cannot complain that the other dominions of Spain would be so narrow as not to leave them room enough for conquest. If the war takes place, we would really wish to be quieted on these two points, offering in return an honourable neutrality. More than this, they are not to expect. It will be proper that these ideas be conveyed in delicate and friendly terms; but that they be conveyed, if the war takes place: for it is in that case alone, and not till it be begun, that we would wish our dispositions to be known. But in no case need they think of our accepting any equivalent for the posts. I have the honour to be, with great respect and esteem, Dear Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servant, TH. JEFFERSON. SIR, TO GOVERNOR HANCOCK. New York, August 24, 1790. The representatives of the United States have been pleased to refer to me the representation from the general court of Massachusetts, on the subject of the whale and cod fisheries, which had been transmitted by your Excellency, with an instruction to examine the matter thereof, and report my opinion thereupon to the next session of Congress. To prepare such a report as may convey to them the information necessary to lead to an adequate remedy, it is indispensable that I obtain a statement of the fisheries, comprehending such a period before and since the war, as may shew the extent to which they were and are carried on. With such a statement under their view, Congress may be able, by comparing the circumstances which existed when the fisheries flourished, with those which exist at this moment of their decline, to discover the cause of that decline, and provide either a remedy for it, or something which may countervail its effect. This information can be obtained no where but in the State over which your Excellency presides, and under no other auspices so likely to produce it. May I, therefore, take the liberty of soliciting your Excellency to charge with the collecting and furnishing me this information, some person or persons who may be competent to the object. Taking a point of commencement at a proper interval before the year of greatest prosperity, there should be stated, in a table, year by year, under different columns, as follows: 1. The number of vessels fitted out each year for the cod fishery. 2. Their tonnage. 3. The number of seamen employed. 4. The quantity of fish taken; 1. of superior quality; 2. of inferior. 5. The quantity of each kind exported; 1. to Europe, and to what countries there; 2. to other, and what parts of America. 6. The average prices at the markets, 1. of Europe; 2. of America. With respect to the whale fishery, after the three first articles, the following should be substituted. 4. Whether to the northern or southern fishery. 5. The quantity of oil taken; 1. of the spermaceti whale; 2. of the other kinds. 6. To what market each kind was sent. 7. The average prices of each. As the ports from which the equipments were made could not be stated in the same table conveniently, they might form a separate one. It would be very material that I should receive this information by the first of November, as I might be able to bestow a more undisturbed attention to the subject before than after the meeting of Congress, and it would be better to present it to them at the beginning, than towards the close of a session. The peculiar degree of interest with which this subject must affect the State of Massachusetts, the impossibility of obtaining necessary information from any other quarter, and the slender means I should have of acquiring it from thence, without the aid of your Excellency, will, I hope, be a sufficient apology for the trouble I take the liberty of giving you ; and I am happy in every occasion of repeating assurances of the respect and attachment with which I have the honour to be, Your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant, TH. JEFFERSON. TO SYLVANUS BOURNE, CONSUL AT HISPANIOLA. SIR, I inclose you herein sundry papers, containing a representation from Messrs. Updike and Earle, of Providence, who complain that their sloop Nancy was seized in the island of Hispaniola, and, though without foundation, as her acquittal proved, yet they were subjected to the payment of very heavy expenses. It is to be observed, that in no country does government pay the costs of a defendant in any prosecution, and that often, though the party be acquitted, there may have been colourable cause for the prosecution. However this may have been in the present case, should the parties think proper to endeavour, by their own agent, to obtain a reimbursement from the government or from individuals of Hispaniola, I take the liberty of recommending their cause to your patronage, so far as evidence and law shall be in their favour. If they address the government, you will support their demands on the ground of right and amity; if they institute process against individuals, counterpoise, by the patronage and weight of your public character, any weight of character which may be opposed to their obtaining of justice. I am, Sir, Your most obedient and most humble servant, TH. JEFFERSON. Circular to the Consuls and Vice Consuls of the United States. New York, August 26, 1790. SIR, I expected ere this, to have been able to send you an act of Congress, prescribing some special duties and regulations for the exercise of the consular offices of the United States; but Congress not having been able to mature the act sufficiently, it lies over to their next session. In the mean while, I beg leave to draw your attention to some matters of information, which it is interesting to receive. I must beg the favour of you to communicate to me every six months, a report of the vessels of the United States which enter at the ports of your district, specifying the name and burthen of each vessel, of what description she is, (to wit, ship, snow, brig, &c.), the names of the master and owners, and number of seamen, the port of the United States from which she cleared, places touched at, her cargo outward and inward, and the owners thereof, the port to which she is bound, and times of arrival and departure; the whole arranged in a table under different columns, and the reports closing on the last days of June and December. We wish you to use your endeavours that no vessel enter as an American in the ports of your district, which shall not be truly such, and that none be sold under that name, which are not really of the United States. That you give to me, from time to time, information of all military preparations, and other indications of war, which may take place in your ports; and when a war shall appear imminent, that you notify thereof the merchants and vessels of the United States within your district, that they may be duly on their guard and, in general, that you communicate to me such political and commercial intelligence, as you may think interesting to the United States. The consuls and vice consuls of the United States are free to wear the uniform of their navy, if they choose to do so. This is a deep blue coat, with red facings, lining, and cuffs, the cuffs slashed, and a standing collar; a red waistcoat (laced or not, at the election of the wearer); and blue breeches; yellow buttons, with a foul anchor; and black cockades, and smallswords. Be pleased to observe, that the vice consul of one district is not at all subordinate to the consul of another. They are equally independent of each other. The ground of distinction between these two officers is this. Our government thinks, that to whatever there may be, either of honour or profit, resulting from the consular office, native citizens are first entitled, where such of proper character will undertake the duties; but where none such offer, a vice consul is appointed of any other nation. Should a proper native come forward at any future time, he will be named consul; but this nomination will not revoke the commission of vice consul: it will only suspend his functions during the continu |