MONTPELLIER, Nov 25,
1820.
I have received, my
dear friend, your kind letter of July 22, inclosing your printed opinion on the
Election project. It was very slow in reaching me.
I am very glad to
find, by your letter, that you retain, undiminished, the warm feelings of
friendship so long reciprocal between us; and, by your “opinion,” that you are
equally constant to the cause of liberty, so dear to us both. I hope your
struggles in it will finally prevail, in the full extent required by the wishes
and adapted to the exigencies of your Country.
We feel here all the
pleasure you express at the progress of reformation on your Continent.
Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the
political firmament to permit it to reign any where as it has heretofore done
almost every where. To the events in Spain and Naples has succeeded already an
auspicious epoch in Portugal. Free States seem, indeed, to be propagated in
Europe as rapidly as new States are on this side of the Atlantic. Nor will it
be easy for their births, or their growths, if safe from dangers within, to be
strangled by external foes; who are not now sufficiently united among
themselves, are controuled by the aspiring sentiments of their people, are
without money of their own, and are no longer able to draw on the foreign fund
which has hitherto supplied their belligerent necessities.
Here, we are, on the
whole, doing well, and giving an example of a free system, which, I trust, will
be more of a pilot to a good port than a beacon-warning from a bad one. We
have, it is true, occasional fevers, but they are of the transient kind, flying
off through the surface, without preying on the vitals. A Government like ours
has so many safety-valves, giving vent to overheated passions, that it carries
within itself a relief against the infirmities from which the best of human
Institutions cannot be exempt. The subject which ruffles the surface of public
affairs most, at present, is furnished by the transmission of the "Territory"
of Missouri from a state of nonage to a maturity for self-Government, and for a
membership in the Union. Among the questions involved in it, the one most
immediately interesting to humanity is the question whether a toleration or
prohibition of slavery Westward of the Mississippi would most extend its evils.
The humane part of the argument against the prohibition turns on the position,
that whilst the importation of slaves from abroad is precluded, a diffusion of
those in the Country tends at once to meliorate their actual condition, and to
facilitate their eventual emancipation. Unfortunately, the subject, which was
settled at the last session of Congress by a mutual concession of the parties,
is reproduced on the arena by a clause in the Constitution of Missouri,
distinguishing between free persons of colour and white persons, and providing
that the Legislature of the new State shall exclude from it the former. What
will be the issue of the revived discussion is yet to be seen. The case opens
the wider field, as the Constitutions and laws of the different States are much
at variance in the civic character given to free persons of colour; those of
most of the States, not excepting such as have abolished slavery, imposing
various disqualifications, which degrade them from the rank and rights of white
persons. All these perplexities develope more and more the dreadful
fruitfulness of the original sin of the African trade.
I will not trouble
you with a full picture of our economics. The cessation of neutral gains, the
fiscal derangements incident to our late war, the inundation of foreign
merchandizes since, and the spurious remedies attempted by the local
authorities, give to it some disagreeable features. And they are made the more
so by a remarkable downfall in the prices of two of our great staples,
breadstuffs and tobacco, carrying privations to every man's door, and a severe
pressure to such as labour under debts for the discharge of which they relied
on crops and prices, which have failed. Time, however, will prove a sure
physician for these maladies. Adopting the remark of a British Senator, applied
with less justice to his Country, at the commencement of the Revolutionary
contest, we may say that, “Although ours may have a sickly countenance, we trust
she has a strong Constitution.”
I see that the
bickerings between our Governments on the point of tonnage has not yet been
terminated. The difficulty, I should flatter myself, cannot but yield to the
spirit of amity and the principles of reciprocity entertained by the parties.
You would not,
believe me, be more happy to see me at Lagrange than I should be to see you at
Montpelier, where you would find as zealous a farmer, though not so well
cultivated a farm as Lagrange presents. As an interview can hardly be expected
to take place at both, I may infer, from a comparison of our ages, a better
chance of your crossing the Atlantic than of mine. You have also a greater
inducement in the greater number of friends, whose gratifications would at
least equal your own. But if we are not likely to see one another, we can do
what is the next best, communicate by letter what we would most wish to express
in person; and, particularly, can repeat those sentiments of affection and
esteem which, whether expressed or not, will ever be most sincerely felt by
your old and steadfast friend.
SOURCE: Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, Volume 3: 1816-1828, p. 189-91
