LETTER CLXXVIII.—­TO JAMES MADISON, January 12, 1789

TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, January 12, 1789.

Dear Sir,

My last to you was of the 18th of November; since which, I have received yours of the 21st of September, and October the 8th, with the pamphlet on the Mohicon language, for which, receive my thanks.  I endeavor to collect all the vocabularies I can of the American Indians, as of those of Asia, persuaded, that if they ever had a common parentage, it will appear in their languages.

I was pleased to see the vote of Congress, of September the 16th, on the subject of the Mississippi, as I had before seen, with great uneasiness, the pursuit 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 any thing 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.  Every body 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.

With respect to Doctor Spence, supposed to have been taken by the Algerines, I think the report extremely improbable.  O’Bryan, one of our captives there, has constantly written to me, and given me information on every subject he thought interesting.  He could not have failed to know if such a capture had been made, though before his time, nor to inform me of it.  I am under perpetual anxiety for our captives there.  The money, indeed, is not yet ready at Amsterdam; but when it shall be, there are no orders from the board of treasury to the bankers, to furnish what may be necessary for the redemption of the captives:  and it is so long since Congress approved the loan, that the orders of the treasury for the application of the money would have come, if they had intended to send any.  I wrote to them early on the subject, and pointedly.  I mentioned it to Mr. Jay also, merely that he might suggest it to them.  The payments to the foreign officers will await the same formality.