It would be a happiness also, if the subject as it relates to Gen! Jackson could have an issue satisfactory to his feelings & to the scruples of his friends & admirers. Mr. Adams has given all its lustre to the proof that the conduct of the General is invulnerable to complaints from abroad; and the question between him & his Country ought to be judged under the persuasion that if he has erred it was in the zeal of his patriotism, and under a recollection of the great services he has rendered.

You have seen the agreeable result at Richmond to the Report of the University Commissioners. I do not know what steps have been taken for carrying the law into execution.

I have heard nothing from or of Mr. Jefferson since the visit of Dr Eustis & myself to Monticello. I mentioned to you the state of his health at that time & our hopes that it would be soon entirely restored. It is to be wished that he may witness & guide the launching of the Institution which he put on the stocks, and the materials for which were supplied from his Stores.

TO JAMES MONROE.1

MONTPELLIER, February 18, 1819. DEAR SIR, I have received your favor of the 13th. I beg that you will not think of the pecuniary subject until it be in every respect perfectly convenient to you.

The real sense of the nation with respect to the 1 From Madison's Works (Cong. Ed.)

Revolutionary struggle in South America cannot, I should suppose, be mistaken. Good wishes for its success, and every lawful manifestation of them, will be approved by all, whatever may be the consequences. The nation will equally disapprove any measures unnecessarily involving it in the danger of a war, which might even do less good to the Spanish patriots than harm to the United States, or any underhand measures bringing a just stain on the national character. Those who are most disposed to censure the tardiness of the Executive in acknowledging the Independence of Buenos Ayres, which alone has the appearance of having reached maturity, should recollect that it was never declared until July, 1806, and that it has been rendered uncertain whether the declaration would preclude a modified re-establishment of a dependent State.

The account of Mr. Rush's conversation must be founded at least in some egregious mistake. No one who is acquainted with his good sense, his selfcommand, his official habits, and his personal dispositions, can easily believe that he would commit either the Executive or himself in the manner stated, and still less that he would have withheld what he had done from you. Besides, what considerate citizen could desire that the Government should purchase Florida from such an adventurer as McGregor, whose conquest, if a real one, could give no title that would he alienable, before it should

1 He had a plan to take Amelia Island and then the Floridas. See Am. State Papers, For. Offs., iv., p. 603.

be consummated by a termination of the contest between the parties? The purchase of such a title from such a quarter would have exposed the United States to the utmost odium as to the mode of gaining the possession, without any greater security for keeping it than would attend a direct seizure on the plea of an obstinate refusal to pay an acknowledged debt.

TO RICHARD PETERS.

MAD. MSS.

Feby 22 1819

D SIR I perceive that I am indebted to you for the copy of an Agricultural Almanack and Memorial brought me by a late mail; for which I offer my thanks. Accept them also for the copy of Mr. Rawle's Address which you have been so kind as to send me.1

I am particularly pleased with your scheme of a "Pattern farm." There is no form in which Agricultural instruction can be so successfully conveyed. Nor is there any situation so favorable for the establishment of them as the neighbourhood of a large commercial City. The vessels going thence to every part of the Globe can obtain from our Consuls or from mercantile correspondents, specimens of every article vegetable & animal, which deserve experiment; and from such a position, the fruits of successful experiments can be conveniently diffused by water as well as by land. The only

1 An Address before the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, Philadelphia, 1819.

objection likely to be started is the expence. But I do not see that even this extends much if at all beyond the outfit. A small proportion only of the experiments would be a dead loss; Whilst many would yield lucrative samples for distributive sale.

The subject of Mr. Rawle's Address is an important one, and he has handled it with the Ability of which he enjoys the reputation. My own ideas run much in the same channel with his. Our kind reception of emigrants is very proper, but it is dictated more by benevolent than by interested considerations, tho' some of them seem to be very far from regarding the obligations as lying on their side. I think he has justly graduated also the several classes of emigrants. The Cultivators of the soil are of a character and in so minute a proportion to our Agricultural population, that they give no foreign tint whatever to its complexion. When they come among us too, it is with such a deep feeling of its being for good & all, that their adopted Country soon takes the place Of a native home. These remarks belong in a considerable degree to the Mechanical class. The mercantile class, has different features. Their proportional number, their capital or their credit, and their intelligence often, give them pretensions, and even an influence among the native class which you can better appreciate perhaps than I can. They are also less permanently tied to their new Country by the nature of their property & pursuits than either of the other classes a translation of them to another being more easy. And even

after naturalization, the rights involved in their native allegiance, facilitate violations of the duties of their assumed one. According to the general laws of Europe, no emigrant ceases to be a subject. With this double aspect, I believe it cannot be doubted that naturalized Citizens among us have found it more easy than native ones to practise certain frauds. I have been led to think it worthy of consideration whether our law of naturalization might not be so varied as to communicate the rights of Citizens by degrees, and in that way, preclude or abridge the abuses committed by naturalized merchants particularly Ship owners. The restrictions we be felt it is true by meritorious individuals, of whom I could name some & you doubtless more, but this always happens in precautionary regulations for the general good. But I forget that I am only saying what Mr. Rawle has much better told you, or what, if just, will not have escaped your own reflections.

I wish you health & every other happiness.

TO ROBERT WALSH.

MAD. MSS.

MONTPELLIER, Mar. 2, 1819

DR SIR I recd some days ago your letter of Feb 15, in which you intimate your intention to vindicate our Country against misrepresentations propagated abroad, and your desire of information. on the subject of Negro slavery, of moral character, of religion, and of education in Virginia, as affected by the Revolution, and our public Institutions.