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the clause prohibiting, in those States, after 1800, slavery or involuntary servitude. This clause killed the plan for the time being, but the matter was taken up again in 1787, and a bill was passed following Jefferson's original draft.

It was at this session of Congress that the subject of coinage and of the money unit came up before the Committee on Finance, of which Jefferson was a member. He considered the unit proposed by Mr. Morris, the financier (the fourteen hundred and fortieth part of a dollar) as "too minute for ordinary use, and too laborious for computation, either by the head or in figures," and suggested a modification that was adopted by Congress. He also proposed four coins in the decimal ratioviz., the gold piece of ten dollars, the silver dollar, the silver tenth of a dollar, and the copper hundredth of a dollar.*

JEFFERSON IN FRANCE.

In May, 1784, Congress for the fourth time appointed Jefferson to a foreign post. The chief duty assigned him was to negotiate treaties of commerce with foreign nations, and John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were his colleagues. He reached Paris, his official residence, on the 6th of August, accompanied by his eldest daughter, Martha. He placed her at a fashionable convent school and entered upon his duties. In the strict fulfilment of their mission, Jefferson and his colleagues had at first but poor results to show. In France the Farmers General, into whose hands monopolies granted by the crown had put absolute control of all imports, had too strong a grip to be broken. American products, especially tobacco, came exclusively under their control. What is more, Jefferson derived no substantial benefit from the additional powers conferred on him when, in 1785, he formally succeeded Franklin as Minister Plenipotentiary to the court of France. Adams had some months previously been sent to the court of England and Jefferson was left in France as the sole representative of his coun

*See Money, page 309.

try. In all matters which did not concern the immemorial privileges of monopolies, his intercourse with the French Government was cordial and successful. He had many claims to recognition which would have been lacking in any other American of the day, with the sole exception of Franklin. He was known personally to many French officers, and had entertained at Monticello Frenchmen of eminent attainments in civil life. His State papers had had wide circulation; and the publication of his "Notes on Virginia," soon after his arrival in Paris, confirmed the popular opinion of him as a man of power, and a happy and forceful writer. His manners were frank, graceful, and genial. Above all, he was known to be thoroughly in accord with those sentiments of liberty and of national rights at that time so popular among even the nobility of France.

But, however much these advantages served him, he still had to confront manifold prejudices in all that concerned commerce. He had to meet formal complaints presented by the French ministers against the conduct of certain individual States of the American Confederation touching the treaty with France. It was broadly intimated that in consequence of the separate action of certain States, arrangements with them, as a whole, could not be depended upon. A vicious system of over-trading in Europe, pursued by too many Americans after the Peace of 1783, brought results which completely blocked anything like a secure and advantageous treaty of commerce. Even in France much doubt of America's credit prevailed. In England, Adams was subjected to repeated humiliation on this score, for the whole American people were there indiscriminately branded as cheats and swindlers. Jefferson, on the single occasion of his presentation at the English court, fancied that he himself was the object of this feeling. He felt that "it was impossible for anything to be more ungracious than the royal notice of Mr. Adams and himself." In a letter of January, 1786, he concisely sketched the causes of America's unsavory reputation. "Two circumstances are particularly objected to us; the non-payment of our debts, and the want of energy in our government. These discourage a connection with us." And he wrote his old friend,

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Gov. Page (May, 1786): "I consider the extravagance which has seized them (my countrymen) as a more baneful evil than Toryism was during the war. It is the more so, as the example is set by the best and most amiable characters among us. These things have been more deeply impressed on my mind by what I have seen and heard in England. That nation hates us, their ministers hate us, and their King, more than all other Our overtures of commercial arrangements have been treated with a derision which shows their firm persuasion, that we shall never unite to suppress their commerce or even impede it."

men.

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In France, Jefferson finally secured, by the most indefatigable exertions, some important advantages to American commerce. The new regulations, called the "Ordinance of Bernis," suppressed many duties on American products, abolished certain others for specific periods, and in general made concessions such as were granted to no other country besides America. The moral effects of the treaty were, to Jefferson, more important than the material results secured. He wrote Jay concerning it, in October, 1786: "It furnished a proof of the disposition of the King and his ministers to produce a more intimate intercourse between the two nations. Indeed, I must say that as far as I am able to see, the friendship of the people of this country toward us is cordial and general, and that it is a kind of security for the friendship of ministers who cannot, in any country, be uninfluenced by the voice of the people."

Jefferson's attention was drawn to a matter which afterwards became a problem of national importance. This related to the course to be pursued toward the Barbary powers. Every seafaring country of Europe had long submitted to the capture and confiscation of vessels flying their flag, and the holding of the crews for ransom. An American vessel was now, for the first time, subjected to this treatment. Adams and Jefferson, after consulting together, took opposite sides of the question. Jefferson took strong ground for forcibly putting a stop to such outrages; and in his request for instructions from Congress urged. this course. But the negotiations were long drawn out, and

nothing was decided upon before Jefferson returned to America. In a letter to Jay, of August, 1785, he argues for a naval force, "that being the only weapon by which we can reach an enemy." To the re-establishment of a navy* he saw objections; but in view of the aptitude of the American nation for seafaring and "their determination to continue as carriers on the water," these objections were more than offset by the advantages accruing. Though removed from the immediate scene, his interest in the affairs of his native State was in no wise abated. He arranged for procuring a statue of General Washington. He consulted architects and furnished plans for a State-house in Richmond. Several letters passed between him and General Washington on the subject of improving the navigation of the Potomac and of running a canal through the Dismal Swamp. He followed the rise and growth of the desire on the part of the people of Kentucky to separate from Virginia, and satisfied himself that "the separation was expedient whenever the people of Kentucky should have agreed among themselves."

In national affairs, Jefferson, through his correspondence, kept himself thoroughly familiar with each step in the formation and adoption of the Constitution.† His attitude on the subject of the Constitution was afterwards much misrepresented by his political opponents. The charge that he had opposed its adoption had no foundation. Though jealous for the State and for the integrity of its powers, no man appreciated better than he the urgent need of a general government of greater power and more compact form than the slipshod Congress of Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary days.

Jefferson did not confine his stay to Paris. In the second year of his residence abroad he crossed the channel and spent nearly two months in England, chiefly in the rural districts. In the hope that the waters of Aix in southern France would build up his health, which had been depleted by the breaking of his right wrist, he journeyed to that watering place. His route carried him up the Seine and down the Saône and the Rhone,

*See Navy, page 316.

†See Constitution, page 167.

and the journey consumed the better part of the three spring months of 1787. It was at this time that he crossed the boundaries of Italy and went as far as Genoa. In the next year he went, by engagement, to meet Adams at Amsterdam, and when their business was dispatched, proceeded up the Rhine as far as Strassburg. Everywhere he noted the people, their condition, habits, and daily occupations; and no economic question dependent upon soil, climate, or products escaped his eager inquiry. While in Italy he found an excellent species of rice. When he attempted to get a small quantity of this for introduction into America, he found its exportation was forbidden by law. But his love for science did not allow him to be baffled. He purchased a sack and bribed a muleteer to smuggle it over the borders.

The extremely practical character of his travels is shown in a letter to General Lafayette: "In the great cities I go to see what travelers think alone worthy of being seen; but I make a job of it, and generally gulp it down in a day. On the other hand, I am never satiated with rambling through the fields and farms, examining the culture and cultivators with a degree of curiosity which makes some take me for a fool and others to be much wiser than I am. * I think you have not made this journey. It will be a great comfort to you to know from your own inspection the condition of all the provinces of your own country. This is perhaps the only moment of your life in which you can acquire that knowledge. And to do it most effectually you must be absolutely incognito. will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this investigation, and a sublime one hereafter when you shall be able to apply your knowledge to the softening of their beds or the throwing a morsel of meat into their kettle of vegetables."

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You

His correspondence is full of the freest expressions of opinion on all he saw and learned in Europe. The range of subjects treated, the number of letters, and the length of most of them, are little short of marvelous, and bear testimony to the system and to the unwearying energy with which he worked. Το different persons he sent new astronomical discoveries and cal

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