The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
LAFAYETTE, MARQUIS DE
I was pleased to see the vote of Congress, of September the i6th, on
the subject of the Mississippi, as I had before seen, with great
uneasiness, the pursuits of other principles, which I could never
reconcile to my own ideas of probity or wisdom, and from which, and my
knowledge of the character of our western settlers, I saw that the
loss of that country was a necessary consequence. I wish this return
to true policy, may be in time to prevent evil. There has been a
little foundation for the reports and fears relative to the Marquis de
La Fayette. He has, from the beginning, taken openly part with those
who demand a constitution; and there was a moment that we apprehended
the Bastile; but they ventured on nothing more, than to take from him
a temporary service, on which he had been ordered; and this, more to
save appearances for their own authority, than anything else; for at
the very time they pretended that they had put him into disgrace, they
were constantly conferring and communicating with him. Since this, he
has stood on safe ground, and is viewed as among the foremost of the
patriots. Everybody here is trying their hand at forming declarations
of rights. As something of that kind is going on with you also, I send
you two specimens from hence. The one is by our friend of whom I have
just spoken. You will see that it contains the essential principles of
ours, accommodated as much as could be, to the actual state of things
here. The other is from a very sensible man,. a pure theorist, of the
sect called the economists, of which Turgot was considered as the
head. The former is adapted to the existing abuses, the latter goes to
those possible, as well as to those existing.
to James Madison, 12 January 1789
|