Page images
PDF
EPUB

formidable, for they controlled New England and contested New York. To them Jefferson turned: "Let us unite with one heart and one mind," he entreated; "let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists."

A revolution had taken place; but the new President seemed anxious to prove that there had been no revolution at all. A new experiment in government was to be tried, and the philosopher at its head began by pledging himself to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors. Americans ended by taking him at his word, and by assuming that there was no break of continuity between his ideas and those of President Washington.

LETTER FROM JEFFERSON TO SAMUEL ADAMS.

Washington, Mar. 29, 1801.

I addressed a letter to you, my very dear and antient friend, on the 4th of March: not indeed to you by name, but through the medium of some of my fellow citizens whom occasion called on me to address. In meditating the matter of that address, I often asked myself, is this exactly in the spirit of the patriarch of liberty, Samuel Adams? Is it as he would express it? Will he approve of it? I have felt a great deal for our country in the times we have seen. But individually for no one so much as yourself. When I have been told that you were avoided, insulted, frowned on, I could but ejaculate, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' I confess I felt an indignation for you, which for myself I have been able, under every trial, to keep entirely passive. However, the storm is over, and we are in port. The ship was not rigged for the service she was put on. We will show the smoothness of her motions on her republican tack. I hope we shall once more see harmony restored among our citizens, & an entire oblivion of past feuds. Some of the leaders who have most committed themselves cannot come into this. But I hope the great body of our fellow citizens will do it. I will sacrifice everything but principle to procure it. A few examples of justice on officers who have perverted their functions to the oppression of their fellow citizens must, in justice to those citizens, be made. But opinion, & the just maintenance of it, shall never be a crime in my view: nor bring injury on the individual. Those whose misconduct in office ought to have produced their re

moval even by my predecessor, must not be protected by the delicacy due only to honest men. How much I lament that time has deprived me of your aid. It would have been a day of glory which should have called you to the first office of the administration. But give us your counsel, my friend, and give us your blessing; and be assured that there exists not in the heart of man a more faithful esteem than mine to you, & that I shall ever bear you the most affectionate veneration and respect.

[ocr errors]

The letter from Jefferson to Samuel Adams immediately preceding, written just after his inauguration, is of interest as an expression of the peculiar esteem and reverence which he felt for the Father of the American Revolution." It is also of interest as an illustration of Jefferson's revelation of his feelings in his letters so much more truly than in his messages and addresses. The importance of this fact is well emphasized by Henry Adams, from whose just and acute characterization of Jefferson extracts are given above. Jefferson's writings are mostly letters,— there are few essays or systematic works,— and few letters of the period are more pregnant, varied, or informing. An edition of Jefferson's writings in nine volumes, edited by H. A. Washington, was published in 1853 by the authority of the government. The publication of a completer and more critical edition, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, was begun in 1892.

The completest biography of Jefferson is that by Randall, in three volumes, published in 1858. The important biography by Tucker appeared twenty years earlier; and the "Memoirs, Correspondence, and Miscellanies of Thomas Jefferson," by Thomas J. Randolph, earlier still. The best popular life is that by James Parton. The volume on Jefferson in the " American Statesmen" series is by John T. Morse, Jr. The life, by James Schouler, in the "Makers of America" series, is an admirable little book. A valuable supplement to all is "The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson," by his great-grand-daughter, Sarah N. Randolph.

For the period of Jefferson's Presidency we are peculiarly fortunate. To this are devoted the first four of the nine volumes of Henry Adams's History of the United States, the history of Jefferson's and Madison's administrations. There is no better work relating to any period of American history. In wealth of knowledge, in thoroughness and accuracy, in sympathetic appreciation of the time and its men, in grasp and warmth and literary charm, this stands in the front rank of American histories; and to it the student is referred for the most adequate introduction to the time of Jefferson's inauguration and administration.

PUBLISHED BY

THE DIRECTORS OF THE OLD SOUTH WORK, Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Being an Abstract of Documents in the Offices of the Departments of State and of the Treasury.

The object of the following pages is to consolidate the information respecting the present state of Louisiana, furnished to the Executive by several individuals among the best informed upon that subject.

Of the province of Louisiana no general map, sufficiently correct to be depended upon, has been published, nor has any been yet procured from a private source. It is indeed probable that surveys have never been made on so extensive a scale as to afford the means of laying down the various regions of a country which, in some of its parts, appears to have been but imperfectly explored.

Boundaries. The precise boundaries of Louisiana, westwardly of the Mississippi, though very extensive, are at present involved in some obscurity. Data are equally wanting to assign with precision its northern extent. From the source of the Mississippi, it is bounded eastwardly by the middle of the channel of that river to the thirty-first degree of latitude: thence it is asserted upon very strong grounds that according to its limits, when formerly possessed by France, it stretches to the east, as far, at least, as the river Perdigo, which runs into the bay of Mexico, eastward of the river Mobille.

It may be consistent with the view of these notes to remark that Louisiana, including the Mobille settlements, was discovered and peopled by the French, whose monarchs made several

grants of its trade, in particular to Mr. Crosat in 1712, and some years afterwards, with his acquiescence, to the wellknown company projected by Mr. Law. This company was relinquished in the year 1731. By a secret convention on the 3d November, 1762, the French government ceded so much of the province as lies beyond the Mississippi, as well as the island of New-Orleans, to Spain, and by the treaty of peace which followed in 1763 the whole territory of France and Spain eastward of the middle of the Mississippi to the Iberville, thence through the middle of that river, and the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Spain having conquered the Floridas from Great Britain during our Revolutionary War, they were confirmed to her by the treaty of peace of 1783. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, of the 1st of October, 1800, his Catholic Majesty promises and engages on his part to cede back to the French Republic, six months after the full and entire execution of the conditions and stipulations therein contained, relative to the Duke of Parma, "the colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it actually has in the hands of Spain, that it had when France possessed it, and such as it ought to be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other states." This treaty was confirmed and enforced by that of Madrid of the 21st March, 1801. From France it passed to us by the treaty of the 30th of April last, with a reference to the above clause, as descriptive of the limits ceded.

Divisions of the Province. The province as held by Spain, including a part of West Florida, is laid off into the following principal divisions: Mobille, from Balise to the city, NewOrleans and the country on both sides of Lake Ponchartrain, first and second German coasts, Catahanose, Fourche, Venezuela, Iberville, Galvez-Town, Baton-Rouge, Pointe Coupee, Atacapas, Opelousas, Ouachita, Avoyelles, Rapide, Natchitoches, Arkansas, and the Illinois.

In the Illinois there are commandants, at New-Madrid, St. Genevieve, New Bourbon, St. Charles and St. Andrews, all subordinate to the commandant general.

Baton-Rouge having been made a government, subsequently to the treaty of limits, etc., with Spain, the posts of Manchac and Thompson's Creek, or Feliciana, were added to it.

Chapitoulas has sometimes been regarded as a separate command, but is now included within the jurisdiction of the

city. The lower part of the river has likewise had occasionally a separate commandant.

Many of the present establishments are separated from each other by immense and trackless deserts, having no communication with each other by land, except now and then a solitary instance of its being attempted by hunters, who have to swim rivers, expose themselves to the inclemency of the weather, and carry their provisions on their backs for a time, proportioned to the length of their journey. This is particularly the case on the west of the Mississippi, where the communication is kept up only by water, between the capital and the distant settlements, three months being required to convey intelligence from the one to the other by the Mississippi. The usual distance accomplished by a boat in ascending is five leagues per day.

The rapidity of the current in the spring season especially, when the waters of all the rivers are high, facilitates the descent, so that the same voyage by water, which requires three or four months to perform from the capital, may be made to it in from twelve to sixteen days. The principal settlements in Louisiana are on the Mississippi, which begins to be cultivated about twenty leagues from the sea, where the plantations are yet thin, and owned by the poorest people. Ascending, you see them improve on each side, till you reach the city, which is situated on the east bank, on a bend of the river, 35 leagues from the sea,

Chapitoulas, First and Second German Coasts.— Catahanose. Fourche and Iberville.- The best and most approved are above the city, and comprehend what is there known by the Paroisse de Chapitoulas, Premier and Second Cote des Allemands, and extends 16 leagues.

Above this begins the parish of Catahanose, or first Acadian settlement, extending eight leagues on the river. Adjoining it and still ascending is the second Acadian settlement or parish of the Fourche, which extends about six leagues. The parish of Iberville then commences, and is bounded on the east side by the river of the same name, which, though dry a great part of the year, yet, when the Mississippi is raised, it communicates with the lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain, and through them with the sea, and thus forms what is called the island of New-Orleans. Except on the point just below the Iberville the country from New-Orleans is settled the whole way along

1

« PreviousContinue »