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Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
Sir,—Your letter of August 20th has truly surprised me. In this it is
said that, for certain services performed by Mr. James Lyon and Mr.
Samuel Morse, formerly editors of the Savannah Republican, I
promised them the sum of one thousand dollars. This, Sir, is totally
unfounded. I never promised to any printer on earth the sum of one
thousand dollars, nor any other sum, for certain services performed,
or for any services which that expression would imply. I have had no
accounts with printers but for their newspapers, for which I have
paid always the ordinary price and no more. I have occasionally
joined in moderate contributions to printers, as I have done to other
descriptions of persons, distressed or persecuted, not by promise,
but the actual payment of what I contributed. When Mr. Morse went
to Savannah, he called on me and told me he meant to publish a
paper there, for which I subscribed, and paid him the year in
advance. I continued to take it from his successors, Everett &
McLean, and Everett & Evans, and paid for it at different epochs up
to December 31, 1808, when I withdrew my subscription. You say
McLean informed you "he had some expectation of getting the
money, as he had received a letter from me on the subject." If such
a letter exists under my name, it is a forgery. I never wrote but a
single letter to him, that was of the 28th of January, 1810, and was
on the subject of the last payment made for his newspaper, and on
no other subject; and I have two receipts of his, (the last dated
March 9, 1809,) of payments for his paper, both stating to be in full
of all demands, and a letter of the 17th of April, 1810, in reply to
mine, manifestly showing he had no demand against me of any
other nature. The promise is said to have been made to Morse &
Lyon. Were Mr. Morse living, I should appeal to him with confidence,
as I believe him to have been a very honest man. Mr. Lyon I suppose
to be living, and will, I am sure, acquit me of any such transaction
as that alleged. The truth, then, being that I never made the
promise suggested, nor any one of a like nature to any printer or
other person whatever, every principle of justice and of self-respect
requires that I should not listen to any such demand.
 TO MR. JAMES LYON.

Monticello, September 5, 1811.

Sir,—I enclose you the copy of a letter I have received from a James
L. Edwards, of Boston. You will perceive at once its swindling object.
It appeals to two dead men, and one, (yourself,) whom he supposes
I cannot get at. I have written him an answer which may perhaps
prevent his persevering in the attempt, for the whole face of his
letter betrays a consciousness of its guilt. But perhaps he may
expect that I would sacrifice a sum of money rather than be
disturbed with encountering a bold falsehood. In this he is mistaken;
and to prepare to meet him, should he repeat his demand, and
considering that he has presumed to implicate your name in this
attempt, I take the liberty of requesting a letter from you bearing
testimony to the truth of my never having made to you, or within
your knowledge or information, any such promise to yourself, your
partner Morse, or any other. My confidence in your character leaves
me without a doubt of your honest aid in repelling this base and
bold attempt to fix on me practices to which no honors or powers in
this world would ever have induced me to stoop. I have solicited
none, intrigued for none. Those which my country has thought
proper to confide to me have been of their own mere motion,
unasked by me. Such practices as this letter-writer imputes to me,
would have proved me unworthy of their confidence.
It is long since I have known anything of your situation or pursuits. I
hope they have been successful, and tender you my best wishes that
they may continue so, and for your own health and happiness.

TO DOCTOR PATTERSON.

Monticello, September 11, 1811.

Dear Sir,—The enclosed work came to me without a scrip of a pen
other than what you see in the title-page—"A Monsieur le President
de la Société." From this I conclude it intended for the Philosophical
Society, and for them I now enclose it to you. You will find the notes
really of value. They embody and ascertain to us all the scraps of
new discoveries which we have learned in detached articles from
less authentic publications. M. Goudin has generally expressed his
measures according to the old as well as the new standard, which is
a convenience to me, as I do not make a point of retaining the last
in my memory. I confess, indeed, I do not like the new system of
French measures, because not the best, and adapted to a standard
accessible to themselves exclusively, and to be obtained by other
nations only from them. For, on examining the map of the earth, you
will find no meridian on it but the one passing through their country,
offering the extent of land on both sides of the 45th degree, and
terminating at both ends in a portion of the ocean which the
conditions of the problem for an universal standard of measures
require. Were all nations to agree therefore to adopt this standard,
they must go to Paris to ask it; and they might as well long ago have
all agreed to adopt the French foot, the standard of which they could
equally have obtained from Paris. Whereas the pendulum is equally
fixed by the laws of nature, is in possession of every nation, may be
verified everywhere and by every person, and at an expense within
every one's means. I am not therefore without a hope that the other
nations of the world will still concur, some day, in making the
pendulum the basis of a common system of measures, weights and
coins, which applied to the present metrical systems of France and
of other countries, will render them all intelligible to one another.
England and this country may give it a beginning, notwithstanding
the war they are entering into. The republic of letters is unaffected
by the wars of geographical divisions of the earth. France, by her
power and science, now bears down everything. But that power has
its measure in time by the life of one man. The day cannot be
distant in the history of human revolutions, when the indignation of
mankind will burst forth, and an insurrection of the universe against
the political tyranny of France will overwhelm all her arrogations.
Whatever is most opposite to them will be most popular, and what is
reasonable therefore in itself, cannot fail to be adopted the sooner
from that motive. But why leave this adoption to the tardy will of
governments who are always, in their stock of information, a century
or two behind the intelligent part of mankind, and who have
interests against touching ancient institutions? Why should not the
college of the literary societies of the world adopt the second
pendulum as the unit of measure on the authorities of reason,
convenience and common consent? And why should not our society
open the proposition by a circular letter to the other learned
institutions of the earth? If men of science, in their publications,
would express measures always in multiples and decimals of the
pendulum, annexing their value in municipal measures as botanists
add the popular to the botanical names of plants, they would soon
become familiar to all men of instruction, and prepare the way for
legal adoptions. At any rate, it would render the writers of every
nation intelligible to the readers of every other, when expressing the
measures of things. The French, I believe, have given up their
Decada Calendar, but it does not appear that they retire from the
centesimal division of the quadrant. On the contrary, M. Borda has
calculated according to that division, new trigonometrical tables not
yet, I believe, printed. In the excellent tables of Callet, lately
published by Didot, in stereotype, he has given a table of
Logarithmic lines and tangents for the hundred degrees of the
quadrant, abridged from Borda's manuscript. But he has given
others for the sexagesimal division, which being for every 10´´
through the whole table, are more convenient than Hutton's,
Scherwin's, or any of their predecessors. It cannot be denied that
the centesimal division would facilitate our arithmetic, and that it
might have been preferable had it been originally adopted, as a
numeration by eighths would have been more convenient than by
tens. But the advantages would not now compensate the
embarrassments of a change.
I extremely regret the not being provided with a time-piece equal to
the observations of the approaching eclipse of the sun. Can you tell
me what would be the cost in Philadelphia of a clock, the time-
keeping part of which should be perfect? And what the difference of
cost between a wooden and gridiron pendulum? To be of course
without a striking apparatus, as it would be wanted for astronomical
purposes only. Accept assurances of affectionate esteem and
respect.

TO CLEMENT CAINE, ESQ.

Monticello, September 16, 1811.

Sir,—Your favor of April 2d was not received till the 23d of June last,
with the volume accompanying it, for which be pleased to accept my
thanks. I have read it with great satisfaction, and received from it
information, the more acceptable as coming from a source which
could be relied on. The retort on European censors, of their own
practices on the liberties of man, the inculcation on the master of
the moral duties which he owes to the slave, in return for the
benefits of his service, that is to say, of food, clothing, care in
sickness, and maintenance under age and disability, so as to make
him in fact as comfortable and more secure than the laboring man in
most parts of the world; and the idea suggested of substituting free
whites in all household occupations and manual arts, thus lessening
the call for the other kind of labor, while it would increase the public
security, give great merit to the work, and will, I have no doubt,
produce wholesome impressions. The habitual violation of the equal
rights of the colonist by the dominant (for I will not call them the
mother) countries of Europe, the invariable sacrifice of their highest
interests to the minor advantages of any individual trade or calling at
home, are as immoral in principle as the continuance of them is
unwise in practice, after the lessons they have received. What, in
short, is the whole system of Europe towards America but an
atrocious and insulting tyranny? One hemisphere of the earth,
separated from the other by wide seas on both sides, having a
different system of interests flowing from different climates, different
soils, different productions, different modes of existence, and its own
local relations and duties is made subservient to all the petty
interests of the other, to their laws, their regulations, their passions
and wars, and interdicted from social intercourse, from the
interchange of mutual duties and comforts with their neighbors,
enjoined on all men by the laws of nature. Happily these abuses of
human rights are drawing to a close on both our continents, and are
not likely to survive the present mad contest of the lions and tigers
of the other. Nor does it seem certain that the insular colonies will
not soon have to take care of themselves, and to enter into the
general system of independence and free intercourse with their
neighboring and natural friends. The acknowledged depreciation of
the paper circulation of England, with the known laws of its rapid
progression to bankruptcy, will leave that nation shortly without
revenue, and without the means of supporting the naval power
necessary to maintain dominion over the rights and interests of
different nations. The intention too, which they now formally avow,
of taking possession of the ocean as their exclusive domain, and of
suffering no commerce on it but through their ports, makes it the
interest of all mankind to contribute their efforts to bring such
usurpations to an end. We have hitherto been able to avoid
professed war, and to continue to our industry a more salutary
direction. But the determination to take all our vessels bound to any
other than her ports, amounting to all the war she can make (for we
fear no invasion), it would be folly in us to let that war be all on one
side only, and to make no effort towards indemnification and
retaliation by reprisal. That a contest thus forced on us by a nation a
thousand leagues from us both, should place your country and mine
in relations of hostility, who have not a single motive or interest but
of mutual friendship and interchange of comforts, shows the
monstrous character of the system under which we live. But
however, in the event of war, greedy individuals on both sides,
availing themselves of its laws, may commit depredations on each
other, I trust that our quiet inhabitants, conscious that no cause
exists but for neighborly good will, and the furtherance of common
interests, will feel only those brotherly affections which nature has
ordained to be those of our situation.
A letter of thanks for a good book has thus run away from its subject
into fields of speculation into which discretion perhaps should have
forbidden me to enter, and for which an apology is due. I trust that
the reflections I hazard will be considered as no more than what
they really are, those of a private individual, withdrawn from the
councils of his country, uncommunicating with them, and responsible
alone for any errors of fact or opinion expressed; as the reveries, in
short, of an old man, who, looking beyond the present day, looks
into times not his own, and as evidences of confidence in the liberal
mind of the person to whom they are so freely addressed. Permit
me, however, to add to them my best wishes for his personal
happiness, and assurances of the highest consideration and respect.

TO MR. EPPES.

Monticello, September 29, 1811.

Dear Sir,—The enclosed letter came under cover to me without any

indication from what quarter it came.
Our latest arrival brings information of the death of the king of
England. Its coming from Ireland and not direct from England would
make it little worthy of notice, were not the event so probable. On
the 26th of July the English papers say he was expected hourly to
expire. This vessel sailed from Ireland the 4th of August, and says
an express brought notice the day before to the government that he
died on the 1st; but whether on that day or not, we may be certain
he is dead, and entertain, therefore, a hope that a change of
ministers will produce that revocation of the orders of council for
which they stand so committed. In this event we may still remain at
peace, and that probably concluded between the other powers. I am
so far, in that case, from believing that our reputation will be
tarnished by our not having mixed in the mad contests of the rest of
the world that, setting aside the ravings of pepper-pot politicians, of
whom there are enough in every age and country, I believe it will
place us high in the scale of wisdom, to have preserved our country
tranquil and prosperous during a contest which prostrated the honor,
power, independence, laws and property of every country on the
other side of the Atlantic. Which of them have better preserved their
honor? Has Spain, has Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Prussia,
Austria, the other German powers, Sweden, Denmark, or even
Russia? And would we accept of the infamy of France or England in
exchange for our honest reputation, or of the result of their
enormities, despotism to the one, and bankruptcy and prostration to
the other, in exchange for the prosperity, the freedom and
independence which we have preserved safely through the wreck?
The bottom of my page warns me it is time to present my homage
to Mrs. Eppes, and to yourself and Francis my affectionate adieux.

TO MR. PAINE TODD.

Monticello, October 10, 1811.

Dear Sir,—According to promise I send you our observations of the

solar eclipse of September 17th. We had, you know, a perfect
observation of the passage of the sun over the meridian, and the
eclipse began so soon after as to leave little room for error from the
time-piece. Her rate of going, however, was ascertained by ten days'
subsequent observation and comparison with the sun, and the
times, as I now give them to you, are corrected by these. I have no
confidence in the times of the first and ultimate contacts, because
you know we were not early enough on the watch, deceived by our
time-piece which was too slow. The impression on the sun was too
sensible when we first observed it, to be considered as the moment
of commencement, and the largeness of our conjectural correction
(18´´) shows that that part of the observation should be considered
as nothing. The last contact was well enough observed, but it is on
the forming and breaking of the annulus that I rely with entire
confidence. I am certain there was not an error of an instant of time
in either. I would be governed, therefore, solely by them, and not
suffer their result to be affected by the others. I have not yet
entered on the calculation of our longitude from them. They will
enable you to do it as a college exercise. Affectionately yours.

First contact, 0h. 13´ 54

´´

Annulus 1h. 53´ 0´´ central time central

formed, of annulus, time of
1h. 56´ 12½ the two
´ contacts,
Annulus 1h. 59´ 25
1h. 51´
broken, ´´
28´

Ultimate 3h. 29´ 2´´

contact,

Latitude of 38° 8´
Monticello,

TO DOCTOR ROBERT PATTERSON.

Monticello, November 10, 1811.

Dear Sir,—Your favor of September 23d came to hand in due time,

and I thank you for the nautical almanac it covered for the year
1813. I learn with pleasure that the Philosophical Society has
concluded to take into consideration the subject of a fixed standard
of measures, weights and coins, and you ask my ideas on it;
insulated as my situation is, I am sure I can offer nothing but what
will occur to the committee engaged on it, with the advantage on
their part of correction by an interchange of sentiments and
observations among themselves. I will, however, hazard some
general ideas because you desire it, and if a single one be useful,
the labor will not be lost.
The subject to be referred to as a standard, whether it be matter or
motion, should be fixed by nature, invariable and accessible to all
nations, independently of others, and with a convenience not
disproportioned to its utility. What subject in nature fulfils best these
conditions? What system shall we propose on this, embracing
measures, weights and coins? and in what form shall we present it
to the world? These are the questions before the committee.
Some other subjects have, at different times, been proposed as
standards, but two only have divided the opinions of men: first, a
direct admeasurement of a line on the earth's surface, or second, a
measure derived from its motion on its axis. To measure directly
such a portion of the earth as would furnish an element of measure,
which might be found again with certainty in all future times, would
be too far beyond the competence of our means to be taken into
consideration. I am free, at the same time, to say that if these were
within our power in the most ample degree, this element would not
meet my preference. The admeasurement would of course be of a
portion of some great circle of the earth. If of the equator, the
countries over which that passes, their character and remoteness,
render the undertaking arduous, and we may say impracticable for
most nations. If of some meridian, the varying measures of its
degrees from the equator to the pole, require a mean to be sought,
of which some aliquot part may furnish what is desired. For this
purpose the 45th degree has been recurred to, and such a length of
line on both sides of it terminating at each end in the ocean, as may
furnish a satisfactory law for a deduction of the unmeasured part of
the quadrant. The portion resorted to by the French philosophers,
(and there is no other on the globe under circumstances equally
satisfactory,) is the meridian passing through their country and a
portion of Spain, from Dunkirk to Barcelona. The objections to such
an admeasurement as an element of measure, are the labor, the
time, the number of highly-qualified agents, and the great expense
required. All this, too, is to be repeated whenever any accident shall
have destroyed the standard derived from it, or impaired its
dimensions. This portion of that particular meridian is accessible of
right to no one nation on earth. France, indeed, availing herself of a
moment of peculiar relation between Spain and herself, has
executed such an admeasurement. But how would it be at this
moment, as to either France or Spain? and how is it at all times as to
other nations, in point either of right or of practice? Must these go
through the same operation, or take their measures from the
standard prepared by France? Neither case bears that character of
independence which the problem requires, and which neither the
equality nor convenience of nations can dispense with. How would it
now be, were England the deposit of a standard for the world? At
war with all the world, the standard would be inaccessible to all
other nations. Against this, too, are the inaccuracies of
admeasurements over hills and valleys, mountains and waters,
inaccuracies often unobserved by the agent himself, and always
unknown to the world. The various results of the different measures
heretofore attempted, sufficiently prove the inadequacy of human
means to make such an admeasurement with the exactness
requisite.
Let us now see under what circumstances the pendulum offers itself
as an element of measure. The motion of the earth on its axis from
noon to noon of a mean solar day, has been divided from time
immemorial, and by very general consent, into 86,400 portions of
time called seconds. The length of a pendulum vibrating in one of
these portions, is determined by the laws of nature, is invariable
under the same parallel, and accessible independently to all men.
Like a degree of the meridian, indeed, it varies in its length from the
equator to the pole, and like it, too, requires to be reduced to a
mean. In seeking a mean in the first case, the 45th degree occurs
with unrivalled preferences. It is the mid-way of the celestial ark
from the equator to the pole. It is a mean between the two extreme
degrees of the terrestrial ark, or between any two equi-distant from
it, and it is also a mean value of all its degrees. In like manner, when
seeking a mean for the pendulum, the same 45th degree offers itself
on the same grounds, its increments being governed by the same
laws which determine those of the different degrees of the meridian.
In a pendulum loaded with a Bob, some difficulty occurs in finding
the centre of oscillation; and consequently the distance between that
and the point of suspension. To lessen this, it has been proposed to
substitute for the pendulum, a cylindrical rod of small diameter, in
which the displacement of the centre of oscillation would be
lessened. It has also been proposed to prolong the suspending wire
of the pendulum below the Bob, until their centres of oscillation shall
coincide. But these propositions not appearing to have received
general approbation, we recur to the pendulum, suspended and
charged as has been usual. And the rather as the laws which
determine the centre of oscillation leave no room for error in finding
it, other than that minimum in practice to which all operations are
subject in their execution. The other sources of inaccuracy in the
length of the pendulum need not be mentioned, because easily
guarded against. But the great and decisive superiority of the
pendulum, as a standard of measure, is in its accessibility to all men,
at all times and in all places. To obtain the second pendulum for 45°
it is not necessary to go actually to that latitude. Having ascertained
its length in our own parallel, both theory and observation give us a
law for ascertaining the difference between that and the pendulum
of any other. To make a new measure therefore, or verify an old one,
nothing is necessary in any place but a well-regulated time-piece, or
a good meridian, and such a knowledge of the subject as is common
in all civilized nations.
Those indeed who have preferred the other element, do justice to
the certainty, as well as superior facilities of the pendulum, by
proposing to recur to one of the length of their standard, and to
ascertain its number of vibrations in a day. These being once known,
if any accident impair their standard it is to be recovered by means
of a pendulum which shall make the requisite number of vibrations
in a day. And among the several commissions established by the
Academy of Sciences for the execution of the several branches of
their work on measures and weights, that respecting the pendulum
was assigned to Messrs. Borda, Coulomb & Cassini, the result of
whose labors, however, I have not learned.
Let our unit of measures then be a pendulum of such length as in
the latitude of 45°, in the level of the ocean, and in a given
temperature, shall perform its vibrations, in small and equal arcs, in
one second of mean time.
What ratio shall we adopt for the parts and multiples of this unit?
The decimal without a doubt. Our arithmetic being founded in a
decimal numeration, the same numeration in a system of measures,
weights and coins, tallies at once with that. On this question, I
believe, there has been no difference of opinion.
In measures of length, then, the pendulum is our unit. It is a little
more than our yard, and less than the ell. Its tenth or dime, will not
be quite 4 inches. Its hundredth, or cent, not quite .4 of an inch; its
thousandth, or mill, not quite .04 of an inch, and so on. The traveller
will count his road by a longer measure. 1,000 units, or a kiliad, will
not be quite two-thirds of our present mile, and more nearly a
thousand paces than that.
For measures of surface, the square unit, equal to about ten square
feet, or one-ninth more than a square yard, will be generally
convenient. But for those of lands a larger measure will be wanted.
A kiliad would be not quite a rood, or quarter of an acre; a myriad
not quite 2½ acres.
For measures of capacity, wet and dry,
The cubic Unit = .1 would be about .35 cubic feet, .28
bushels dry, or ⅞ of a ton liquid.
 Dime = .1 would be about 3.5 cubic feet, 2.8
bushels, or about ⅞ of a barrel liquid.
Cent = .01 about 50 cubic inches, or ⅞ of a
quart.
Mill = .001 = .5 of a cubic inch, or ⅔ of a gill.
To incorporate into the same system our weights and coins, we must
recur to some natural substance, to be found everywhere, and of a
composition sufficiently uniform. Water has been considered as the
most eligible substance, and rain-water more nearly uniform than
any other kind found in nature. That circumstance renders it
preferable to distilled water, and its variations in weight may be
called insensible.
The cubic unit of this = .1 would weigh about 2,165 lbs. or a ton
between the long and short.
The Dime = .1 a little more than 2. kentals.
Cent = .01 a little more than 20 lb.
Mill = .001 a little more than 2 lb.
Decimmil = .0001 about 3½ oz. avoirdupois.
Centimmil = .00001 a little more than 6 dwt.
Millionth = .000001 about 15 grains.
Decimmillionth = .0000001 about 1½ grains.
Centimmillionth = .00000001 about .14 of a grain.
Billionth = .000000001 about .014 of a grain.
With respect to our coins, the pure silver in a dollar being fixed by
law at 347¼ grains, and all debts and contracts being bottomed on
that value, we can only state the pure silver in the dollar, which
would be very nearly 23 millionths.
I have used loose and round numbers (the exact unit being yet
undetermined) merely to give a general idea of the measures and
weights proposed, when compared with those we now use. And in
the names of the subdivisions I have followed the metrology of the
ordinance of Congress of 1786, which for their series below unit
adopted the Roman numerals. For that above unit the Grecian is
convenient, and has been adopted in the new French system.
We come now to our last question, in what form shall we offer this
metrical system to the world? In some one which shall be altogether
unassuming; which shall not have the appearance of taking the lead
among our sister institutions in making a general proposition. So
jealous is the spirit of equality in the republic of letters, that the
smallest excitement of that would mar our views, however salutary
for all. We are in habits of correspondence with some of these
institutions, and identity of character and of object, authorize our
entering into correspondence with all. Let us then mature our
system as far as can be done at present, by ascertaining the length
of the second pendulum of 45° by forming two tables, one of which
shall give the equivalent of every different denomination of
measures, weights and coins in these States, in the unit of that
pendulum, its decimals and multiples; and the other stating the
equivalent of all the decimal parts and multiples of that pendulum, in
the several denominations of measures, weights and coins of our
existing system. This done, we might communicate to one or more
of these institutions in every civilized country a copy of those tables,
stating as our motive, the difficulty we had experienced, and often
the impossibility of ascertaining the value of the measures, weights
and coins of other countries, expressed in any standard which we
possess; that desirous of being relieved from this, and of obtaining
information which could be relied on for the purposes of science, as
well as of business, we had concluded to ask it from the learned
societies of other nations, who are especially qualified to give it with
the requisite accuracy; that in making this request we had thought it
our duty first to do ourselves, and to offer to others, what we meant
to ask from them, by stating the value of our own measures,
weights and coins, in some unit of measure already possessed, or
easily obtainable, by all nations; that the pendulum vibrating
seconds of mean time, presents itself as such an unit; its length
being determined by the laws of nature, and easily ascertainable at
all times and places; that we have thought that of 45° would be the
most unexceptionable, as being a mean of all other parallels, and
open to actual trial in both hemispheres. In this, therefore, as an
unit, and in its parts and multiples in the decimal ratio, we have
expressed, in the tables communicated, the value of all the
measures, weights and coins used in the United States, and we ask
in return from their body a table of the weights, measures and coins
in use within their country, expressed in the parts and multiples of
the same unit. Having requested the same favor from the learned
societies of other nations, our object is, with their assistance, to
place within the reach of our fellow citizens at large a perfect
knowledge of the measures, weights and coins of the countries with
which they have commercial or friendly intercourse; and should the
societies of other countries interchange their respective tables, the
learned will be in possession of an uniform language in measures,
weights and coins, which may with time become useful to other
descriptions of their citizens, and even to their governments. This,
however, will rest with their pleasure, not presuming, in the present
proposition, to extend our views beyond the limits of our own
nation. I offer this sketch merely as the outline of the kind of
communication which I should hope would excite no jealousy or
repugnance.
Peculiar circumstances, however, would require letters of a more
special character to the Institute of France, and the Royal Society of
England. The magnificent work which France has executed in the
admeasurement of so large a portion of the meridian, has a claim to
great respect in our reference to it. We should only ask a
communication of their metrical system, expressed in equivalent
values of the second pendulum of 45° as ascertained by Messrs.
Borda, Coulomb and Cassini, adding, perhaps, the request of an
actual rod of the length of that pendulum.
With England, our explanations will be much more delicate. They are
the older country, the mother country, more advanced in the arts
and sciences, possessing more wealth and leisure for their
improvement, and animated by a pride more than laudable.[1] It is
their measures, too, which we undertake to ascertain and
communicate to themselves. The subject should therefore be
opened to them with infinite tenderness and respect, and in some
way which might give them due place in its agency. The parallel of
45° being within our latitude and not within theirs, the actual
experiments under that would be of course assignable to us. But as
a corrective, I would propose that they should ascertain the length
of the pendulum vibrating seconds in the city of London, or at the
observatory of Greenwich, while we should do the same in an
equidistant parallel to the south of 45°, suppose in 38° 29´. We
might ask of them, too, as they are in possession of the standards of
Guildhall, of which we can have but an unauthentic account, to
make the actual application of those standards to the pendulum
when ascertained. The operation we should undertake under the
45th parallel, (about Passamaquoddy,) would give us a happy
occasion, too, of engaging our sister society of Boston in our views,
by referring to them the execution of that part of the work. For that
of 38° 29´ we should be at a loss. It crosses the tide waters of the
Potomac, about Dumfries, and I do not know what our resources
there would be unless we borrow them from Washington, where
there are competent persons.
Although I have not mentioned Philadelphia in these operations, I by
no means propose to relinquish the benefit of observations to be
made there. Her science and perfection in the arts would be a
valuable corrective to the less perfect state of them in the other
places of observation. Indeed, it is to be wished that Philadelphia
could be made the point of observation south of 45°, and that the
Royal Society would undertake the counterpoint on the north, which
would be somewhere between the Lizard and Falmouth. The actual
pendulums from both of our points of observation, and not merely
the measures of them, should be delivered to the Philosophical
Society, to be measured under their eye and direction.
As this is really a work of common and equal interest to England and
the United States, perhaps it would be still more respectful to make
our proposition to her Royal Society in the outset, and to agree with
them on a partition of the work. In this case, any commencement of
actual experiments on our part should be provisional only, and
preparatory to the ultimate results. We might, in the meantime,
provisionally also, form a table adapted to the length of the
pendulum of 45°, according to the most approved estimates,
including those of the French commissioners. This would serve to
introduce the subject to the foreign societies, in the way before
proposed, reserving to ourselves the charge of communicating to
them a more perfect one, when that shall have been completed.
We may even go a step further, and make a general table of the
measures, weights and coins of all nations, taking their value
hypothetically for the present, from the tables in the commercial
dictionary of the encyclopedia methodique, which are very extensive,
and have the appearance of being made with great labor and
exactness. To these I expect we must in the end recur, as a
supplement for the measures which we may fail to obtain from other
countries directly. Their reference is to the foot or inch of Paris, as a
standard, which we may convert into parts of the second pendulum
of 45°.
I have thus, my dear sir, committed to writing my general ideas on
this subject, the more freely as they are intended merely as
suggestions for consideration. It is not probable they offer anything
which would not have occurred to the committee itself. My apology
on offering them must be found in your request. My confidence in
the committee, of which I take for granted you are one, is too entire
to have intruded a single idea but on that ground.
Be assured of my affectionate and high esteem and respect.
 TO DOCTOR ROBERT PATTERSON.

Monticello, November 10, 1811.

Dear Sir,—I write this letter separate, because you may perhaps
think something in the other of the same date, worth communicating
to the committee.
I accept, willingly, Mr. Voigt's offer to make me a time-piece, and
with the kind of pendulum he proposes. I wish it to be as good as
hands can make it, in everything useful, but no unnecessary labor to
be spent on mere ornament. A plain but neat mahogany case will be
preferred.
I have a curiosity to try the length of the pendulum vibrating
seconds here, and would wish Mr. Voigt to prepare one which could
be substituted for that of the clock occasionally, without requiring
anything more than unhanging the one and hanging the other in its
place. The bob should be spherical, of lead, and its radius, I
presume, about one inch. As I should not have the convenience of a
room of uniform temperature, the suspending rod should be such as
not to be affected by heat or cold, nor yet so heavy as to effect too
sensibly the centre of oscillation. Would not a rod of wood not larger
than a large wire, answer this double view? I remember Mr.
Rittenhouse told me he had made experiments on some occasion,
on the expansibility of wood lengthwise by heat, which satisfied him
it was as good as the gridiron for a suspender of the bob. By the
experiments on the strength of wood and iron in supporting weights
appended to them, iron has been found but about six times as
strong as wood, while its specific gravity is eight times as great.
Consequently, a rod of it of equal strength, will weigh but three-
fourths of one of iron, and disturb the centre of oscillation less in
proportion. A rod of wood of white oak, e. g. not larger than a seine
twine, would probably support a spherical bob of lead of one inch
radius. It might be worked down to that size I suppose, by the
cabinet-makers, who are in the practice of preparing smaller threads
of wood for inlaying. The difficulty would be in making it fast to the
bob at one end, and scapement at the other, so as to regulate the
length with ease and accuracy. This Mr. Voigt's ingenuity can supply,
and in all things I would submit the whole matter to your direction to
him, and be thankful to you to give it. Yours affectionately.

TO MR. H. A. S. DEARBORNE.

Monticello, November 15, 1811.

Sir,—Your favor of October 14 was duly received, and with it Mr.

Bowditch's observations on the comet, for which I pray you to
accept my thanks, and be so good as to present them to Mr.
Bowditch also. I am much pleased to find that we have so able a
person engaged in observing the path of this great phenomenon;
and hope that from his observations and those of others of our
philosophical citizens, on its orbit, we shall have ascertained, on this
side of the Atlantic, whether it be one of those which have
heretofore visited us. On the other side of the water they have great
advantages in their well-established observatories, the magnificent
instruments provided for them, and the leisure and information of
their scientific men. The acquirements of Mr. Bowditch in solitude
and unaided by these advantages, do him great honor.
With respect to the eclipse of September 17. I know of no
observations made in this State but my own, although I had no
doubt that others had observed it. I used myself an equatorial
telescope, and was aided by a friend who happened to be with me,
and observed through an achromatic telescope of Dollard's. Two
others attended the time-pieces. I had a perfect observation of the
passage of the sun over the meridian, and the eclipse commencing
but a few minutes after, left little room for error in our time. This
little was corrected by the known rate of going of the clock. But we
as good as lost the first appulse by a want of sufficiently early
attention to be at our places, and composed. I have no confidence,
therefore, by several seconds, in the time noted. The last oscillation
of the two luminaries was better observed. Yet even there was a
certain term of uncertainty as to the precise moment at which the
indenture on the limb of the sun entirely vanished. It is therefore the
forming of the annulus, and its breaking, which alone possess my
entire and complete confidence. I am certain there was not an error
of an instant of time in the observation of either of them. Their
result therefore should not be suffered to be affected by either of
the others. The four observations were as follows:

The 1st. 0h. 13´ 54

appulse, ´´

Annulus 1h. 53´ 0´´ central time central

formed, of annulus time of
1h. 56´ 12½ the two
´´ contacts
Annulus 1h. 59´ 25
1h. 51´
broken, ´´
28´´

Last oscillation, 3h. 29´ 2´´

Latitude of 38° 8´
Monticello,
I have thus given you, Sir, my observations, with a candid statement
of their imperfections. If they can be of any use to Mr. Bowditch, it
will be more than was in view when they were made; and should I
hear of any other observations made in this State, I shall not fail to
procure and send him a copy of them. Be so good as to present me
affectionately to your much-esteemed father, and to accept the
tender of my respect.
 TO MELATIAH NASH.

Monticello, November 15, 1811.

Sir,—I duly received your letter of October 24 on the publication of

an Ephemeris. I have long thought it desirable that something of
that kind should be published in the United States, holding a middle
station between the nautical and the common popular almanacs. It
would certainly be acceptable to a numerous and respectable
description of our fellow citizens, who, without undertaking the
higher astronomical operations, for which the former is calculated,
yet occasionally wish for information beyond the scope of the
common almanacs. What you propose to insert in your Ephemeris is
very well so far. But I think you might give it more of the character
desired by the addition of some other articles, which would not
enlarge it more than a leaf or two. For instance, the equation of time
is essential to the regulation of our clocks and watches, and would
only add a narrow column to your 2d page. The sun's declination is
often desirable, and would add but another narrow column to the
same page. This last would be the more useful as an element for
obtaining the rising and setting of the sun, in every part of the
United States; for your Ephemeris will, I suppose, give it only for a
particular parallel, as of New York, which would in a great measure
restrain its circulation to that parallel. But the sun's declination would
enable every one to calculate sunrise for himself, with scarcely more
trouble than taking it from an Almanac. If you would add at the end
of the work a formula for that calculation, as, for example, that for
Delalande, § 1026, a little altered. Thus, to the Logarithmic tangent
of the latitude (a constant number) add the Log. tangent of the
sun's declination; taking 10 from the Index, the remainder is the line
of an arch which, turned into time and added to 6 hours, gives
sunrise for the winter half and sunset for the summer half of the
year, to which may be added 3 lines only from the table of
refractions, § 1028, or, to save even this trouble, and give the
calculation ready made for every parallel, print a table of semi-
diurnal arches, ranging the latitudes from 35° to 45° in a line at top
and the degrees of declination in a vertical line on the left, and
stating, in the line of the declination, the semi-diurnal arch for each
degree of latitude, so that every one knowing the latitude of his
place and the declination of the day, would find his sunrise or his
sunset where their horizontal and vertical lines meet. This table is to
be found in many astronomical books, as, for instance, in Wakeley's
Mariner's Compass Rectified, and more accurately in the
Connoissance des tems, for 1788. It would not occupy more than
two pages at the end of the work, and would render it an almanac
for every part of the United States.
To give novelty, and increase the appetite for continuing to buy your
Ephemeris annually, you might every year select some one or two
useful tables which many would wish to possess and preserve.
These are to be found in the requisite tables, the Connoissance des
tems for different years, and many in Pike's arithmetic.
I have given these hints because you requested my opinion. They
may extend the plan of your Ephemeris beyond your view, which will
be sufficient reason for not regarding them. In any event I shall
willingly become a subscriber to it, if you should have any place of
deposit for them in Virginia where the price can be paid. Accept the
tender of my respects.

TO DOCTOR BENJAMIN RUSH.

Poplar Forest, December 5, 1811.

Dear Sir,—While at Monticello I am so much engrossed by business

or society, that I can only write on matters of strong urgency. Here I
have leisure, as I have everywhere the disposition to think of my
friends. I recur, therefore, to the subject of your kind letters relating
to Mr. Adams and myself, which a late occurrence has again
presented to me. I communicated to you the correspondence which
had parted Mrs. Adams and myself, in proof that I could not give
friendship in exchange for such sentiments as she had recently taken
up towards myself, and avowed and maintained in her letters to me.
Nothing but a total renunciation of these could admit a
reconciliation, and that could be cordial only in proportion as the
return to ancient opinions was believed sincere. In these jaundiced
sentiments of hers I had associated Mr. Adams, knowing the weight
which her opinions had with him, and notwithstanding she declared
in her letters that they were not communicated to him. A late
incident has satisfied me that I wronged him as well as her, in not
yielding entire confidence to this assurance on her part. Two of the
Mr. * * * * *, my neighbors and friends, took a tour to the
northward during the last summer. In Boston they fell into company
with Mr. Adams, and by his invitation passed a day with him at
Braintree. He spoke out to them everything which came uppermost,
and as it occurred to his mind, without any reserve; and seemed
most disposed to dwell on those things which happened during his
own administration. He spoke of his masters, as he called his Heads
of departments, as acting above his control, and often against his
opinions. Among many other topics, he adverted to the unprincipled
licentiousness of the press against myself, adding, "I always loved
Jefferson, and still love him."
This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive
towards him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our
lives. Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin's character of him,
I knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, but
sometimes incorrect and precipitate in his judgments; and it is
known to those who have ever heard me speak of Mr. Adams, that I
have ever done him justice myself, and defended him when assailed
by others, with the single exception as to political opinions. But with
a man possessing so many other estimable qualities, why should we
be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion in politics, in religion,
in philosophy, or anything else. His opinions are as honestly formed
as my own. Our different views of the same subject are the result of
a difference in our organization and experience. I never withdrew
from the society of any man on this account, although many have
done it from me; much less should I do it from one with whom I had
gone through, with hand and heart, so many trying scenes. I wish,
therefore, but for an apposite occasion to express to Mr. Adams my
unchanged affections for him. There is an awkwardness which hangs
over the resuming a correspondence so long discontinued, unless
something could arise which should call for a letter. Time and chance
may perhaps generate such an occasion, of which I shall not be
wanting in promptitude to avail myself. From this fusion of mutual
affections, Mrs. Adams is of course separated. It will only be
necessary that I never name her. In your letters to Mr. Adams, you
can, perhaps, suggest my continued cordiality towards him, and
knowing this, should an occasion of writing first present itself to him,
he will perhaps avail himself of it, as I certainly will, should it first
occur to me. No ground for jealousy now existing, he will certainly
give fair play to the natural warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open
the way in some letter to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in
habits of the greatest intimacy with him.
I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you were
so kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary
affections, which have ceased in expression only, but not in their
existence. God ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health.

TO DOCTOR CRAWFORD.

Monticello, January 2, 1812.

Sir,—Your favor of December 17th, has been duly received, and with
it the pamphlet on the cause, seat and cure of diseases, for which
be pleased to accept my thanks. The commencement which you
propose by the natural history of the diseases of the human body, is
a very interesting one, and will certainly be the best foundation for
whatever relates to their cure. While surgery is seated in the temple
of the exact sciences, medicine has scarcely entered its threshold.
Her theories have passed in such rapid succession as to prove the
insufficiency of all, and their fatal errors are recorded in the
necrology of man. For some forms of disease, well known and well
defined, she has found substances which will restore order to the
human system, and it is to be hoped that observation and
experience will add to their number. But a great mass of diseases
remain undistinguished and unknown, exposed to the random shot
of the theory of the day. If on this chaos you can throw such a beam
of light as your celebrated brother has done on the sources of
animal heat, you will, like him, render great service to mankind.
The fate of England, I think with you, is nearly decided, and the
present form of her existence is drawing to a close. The ground, the
houses, the men will remain; but in what new form they will revive
and stand among nations, is beyond the reach of human foresight.
We hope it may be one of which the predatory principle may not be
the essential characteristic. If her transformation shall replace her
under the laws of moral order, it is for the general interest that she
should still be a sensible and independent weight in the scale of
nations, and be able to contribute, when a favorable moment
presents itself, to reduce under the same order, her great rival in
flagitiousness. We especially ought to pray that the powers of
Europe may be so poised and counterpoised among themselves, that
their own safety may require the presence of all their force at home,
leaving the other quarters of the globe in undisturbed tranquillity.
When our strength will permit us to give the law of our hemisphere,
it should be that the meridian of the mid-Atlantic should be the line
of demarkation between war and peace, on this side of which no act
of hostility should be committed, and the lion and the lamb lie down
in peace together.
I am particularly thankful for the kind expressions of your letter
towards myself, and tender you in return my best wishes and the
assurances of my great respect and esteem.
 TO MR. THOMAS PULLY.

Monticello, January 8, 1812.

Sir,—I have duly received your favor of December 22d, informing

me that the society of artists of the United States had made me an
honorary member of their society. I am very justly sensible of the
honor they have done me, and I pray you to return them my thanks
for this mark of their distinction. I fear that I can be but a very
useless associate. Time, which withers the fancy, as the other
faculties of the mind and body, presses on me with a heavy hand,
and distance intercepts all personal intercourse. I can offer,
therefore, but my zealous good wishes for the success of the
institution, and that, embellishing with taste a country already
overflowing with the useful productions, it may be able to give an
innocent and pleasing direction to accumulations of wealth, which
would otherwise be employed in the nourishment of coarse and
vicious habits. With these I tender to the society and to yourself the
assurances of my high respect and consideration.

TO COLONEL MONROE.

Monticello, January 11, 1812.

Dear Sir,—I thank you for your letter of the 6th. It is a proof of your
friendship, and of the sincere interest you take in whatever concerns
me. Of this I have never had a moment's doubt, and have ever
valued it as a precious treasure. The question indeed whether I
knew or approved of General Wilkinson's endeavors to prevent the
restoration of the right of deposit at New Orleans, could never
require a second of time to answer. But it requires some time for the
mind to recover from the astonishment excited by the boldness of
the suggestion. Indeed, it is with difficulty I can believe he has really
made such an appeal; and the rather as the expression in your letter
is that you have "casually heard it," without stating the degree of
reliance which you have in the source of information. I think his
understanding is above an expedient so momentary and so finally
overwhelming. Were Dearborne and myself dead, it might find credit
with some. But the world at large, even then, would weigh for
themselves the dilemma, whether it was more probable that, in the
situation I then was, clothed with the confidence and power of my
country, I should descend to so unmeaning an act of treason, or that
he, in the wreck now threatening him, should wildly lay hold of any
plank. They would weigh his motives and views against those of
Dearborne and myself, the tenor of his life against that of ours, his
Spanish mysteries against my open cherishment of the Western
interests; and, living as we are, and ready to purge ourselves by any
ordeal, they must now weigh, in addition, our testimony against his.
All this makes me believe he will never seek this refuge. I have ever
and carefully restrained myself from the expression of any opinion
respecting General Wilkinson, except in the case of Burr's conspiracy,
wherein, after he had got over his first agitations, we believed his
decision firm, and his conduct zealous for the defeat of the
conspiracy, and although injudicious, yet meriting, from sound
intentions, the support of the nation. As to the rest of his life, I have
left it to his friends and his enemies, to whom it furnishes matter
enough for disputation. I classed myself with neither, and least of all
in this time of his distresses, should I be disposed to add to their
pressure. I hope, therefore, he has not been so imprudent as to
write our names in the pannel of his witnesses.
Accept the assurances of my constant affections.

TO JOHN ADAMS.

Monticello, January 21, 1812.

Dear Sir,—I thank you before hand (for they are not yet arrived) for
the specimens of homespun you have been so kind as to forward me
by post. I doubt not their excellence, knowing how far you are
advanced in these things in your quarter. Here we do little in the fine
way, but in coarse and middling goods a great deal. Every family in
the country is a manufactory within itself, and is very generally able
to make within itself all the stouter and middling stuffs for its own
clothing and household use. We consider a sheep for every person in
the family as sufficient to clothe it, in addition to the cotton, hemp
and flax which we raise ourselves. For fine stuff we shall depend on
your northern manufactories. Of these, that is to say, of company
establishments, we have none. We use little machinery. The spinning
jenny, and loom with the flying shuttle, can be managed in a family;
but nothing more complicated. The economy and thriftiness resulting
from our household manufactures are such that they will never again
be laid aside; and nothing more salutary for us has ever happened
than the British obstructions to our demands for their manufactures.
Restore free intercourse when they will, their commerce with us will
have totally changed its form, and the articles we shall in future
want from them will not exceed their own consumption of our
produce.
A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It
carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and
dangers, we were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for
what is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring
always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead, threatening to
overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew
not how we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and made
a happy port. Still we did not expect to be without rubs and
difficulties; and we have had them. First, the detention of the
western posts, then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our commerce
with France, and the British enforcement of the outlawry. In your
day, French depredations; in mine, English, and the Berlin and Milan
decrees; now, the English orders of council, and the piracies they
authorize. When these shall be over, it will be the impressment of
our seamen or something else; and so we have gone on, and so we
shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond example in the history of
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