I have duly received your letters up to the first of this month and am grateful for your kindness towards me your extracts from Heineccius and your remarks1 About three years ago I read this author. I cannot find him in this City our public library is very badly selected in my opinion although it has the effect of all public libraries 25 that is to make individuals careless of collecting books.2 The great Doctrine is that “All men are born free and equal” that is to say in a State of Nature they may be. and this is the distinction you have made but how any man of reflection can hold up the idea as it relates to a state of Society is wonderful It is certainly not true that they are born free and equal If it is said they are equally born or that they ought to be born free there may be some plausibility in the pretence

The purity of Mr Madison’s intentions is a theme much discanted upon. I should however hardly advise to place so much reliance. He cannot wish to injure the Goverment are words which fall from many lips But I think we should do very wrong to fall asleep and trust the Child to such a nurse. What will these Democratic Societies which are establishing in the different States come to Are they not too faithful imitations of the Jacobins? Or are they not in fact branches of that Club Is there no power in our Government to check such associations And if not will not their influence be dangerous and perhaps fatal to the Federal Government? I am fearful that the antifederal party in Congress are gaining too much ground.

It is a question upon which I have never yet been able to satisfy my mind fully Whether Receiving a minister from France at the time Mr Genet was received was a measure of policy or a measure we were obliged to adopt to support our good faith The Government of France if I recollect right had been decreed to be Revolutionary which in my acceptation of the word means that the six seven or dozen men who could from time to time get uppermost were to govern. We are then to day to receive the Ambassador of Pethion tomorrow of Brissot the next day of Robertspier &c &ca It is said by many who question the policy of the measure that this Country would never have suffered the minister to be rejected that it would have created a fatal fermentation There may be truth in this but I fear we shall be led into more difficulties by the reception than we could have been by refusal. Suppose that monarchy were again to be established in France would not the Court call for the repayment of that part of the debt we have paid to the Soi disant republic? And if we refused would it not be a very plausible pretence to go to war with us? I am aware of the distinction which is made between personal treaties and real treaties but surely we had a good pretext to refuse what by France was demanded Vattel B 2d Chap 12 Sec 197 “The ally remains the Ally of the State notwithstanding the Change which has happened in it. However when this change renders the 26 alliance useless dangerous or dissagreeable it may renounce it: For it may say upon a good foundation that it would not have entered into an alliance with that nation had it been under the present form of Government.[”]3 In our present situation we should explain our treaties with different nations so as to make them appear consistent if possible We should not conceive that we owe all to one Nation without examining if we have no duties to discharge toward others we certainly have and we could not perform what is required by the French without breaking our treaties with other nations are we than to suffer an explanation which would involve us in war with most of the great Nations of Europe?

I have looked over the Constitutions of the different States I find nothing relative to the right of emigration except in the fifteenth article of the Pensylvania Bill of rights towit That all men have a natural inherent right to emigrate from one State to another that will receive them, or to form a new State in vacant Countries or in such Countries as they can purchase, whenever they think that thereby they may promote their own happiness.4 This article appears to me to have been made in contradistinction to the doctrine advanced by some writers of Respectability That a man can never relinquish his allegiance to the Country where he was born Sir William Blackstone and Lord Hale appear to me to carry this idea rather too far Yet we are not to suppose that expatriation is a thing of so little moment or that upon the most trifling occasions or upon every momentary impulse we can justifiably divest ourselves of all duty to our Country much less to infringe the Supreme Laws of the Land with impunity. The line should be drawn some where so as neither wholly to preclude our Citizens from emigrating nor permit chichaning pretences to screen them from the arm of the Laws when they commit such acts as endanger the peace and wellfare of the Community. The President by his proclamation declared to the People of the United States the situation of their Country the duties they owed to the respective Powers engaged in the War enjoined a strict neutrality and forbid them to be aiding and abetting &ca This was not a law made for the occasion but a statement that such engagement did exist between the United States and several of the European nations engaged in the war Treaties are Laws of the highest authority Everry Citizen who acts contrary to them becomes liable to punishment and should receive it. I can hardly suppose that 27 observations of this nature have not been made to the juries who have acquitted several offenders I should rather impute it to the obstinacy of prejudice, but many things go wrong.

You will perceive by the latter part of my letter that I have received your favor of the 13th inst For which accept the sincere thanks of your Affectionate son

As the genuine Equality of human Nature is the true Principle of all our Rights and Duties to one another: and the false Notions of Equality the source of much folly and Wickedness: and the undefined and indeterminate Ideas of it, the Cause of much Nonsense and confusion, it is of great Importance to assertain, what it does mean, and what it does not mean.

It really means little more than that We are all of the same Species: made by the same God: possessed of Minds and Bodies alike in Essence: having all the same Reason, Passions, Affections and appetites. All Men are Men and not Beasts: Men and not Birds: Men and not Fishes. The Infant in the Womb is a Man, and not a Lyon. The Idiot even is a Man and not an Eagle— The Dwarf himself is a Man and not a Whale. The blind are Men, and not Insects, the deaf are Men and not reptiles, the dumb are Men and not Trees. All these are Men and not Angells: Men and not Vegetables &c. The difficulty of inventing a deffinition of Man has been seen by all Learned Men and there is Scarcely a Satisfactory one to be found to this day. A deffinition which shall comprehend those Particulars 28 which constitute the Equality in question and no more, and no less, is not easily hit upon.

The Equality of Nature is a moral Equality only: an Equality of Rights and Obligations; nothing more.

The Physical Inequalities among Men in a State of Nature are infinite.

I recollect not, my Charles, whether you even accompanied me to the Hospital of the Enfans-trouvees at Paris. There have I seen in one room fifty Children every one of whom was under three days old, all lying neatly dressed and lodged in seperate beds or Cradles in Rows.1 In this little Congregation, you might observe all the Inequalities of Health, Strength, Beauty, Joy, sorrow, Gaiety, Horror and despair that you can discern in a populous City.— In every School and every Colledge you may see the Same Difference.

The Physical Inequalities, in a State of Nature, are so obvious so determinate and so unalterable, that no Man is absurd enough to deny them. These Inequalities are rights. The healthy Infant has as clear a natural right to his healthy Constitution, as the Sickly one has to his infirm Constitution. The Strong Child has as Sound a natural Right to his Strength, as the Weak one to his frailty. The active Babe has the Same natural Right to his Activity, as the Sluggish one to his Sloth. The mental vigour of one is as undoubtedly his right as the imbeility of the other. The handsome Infant has the Same right to its beauty as the Ugly one to its deformity. A pleasant temper is as natural to one, as a sour disposition to the other.

These Physical Inequalities, lay the foundation for Inequalities of Wealth Power Influence and Importance, throughout human Life. Laws and Government have neither the Power nor the Right to change them.

In what Sense, Charles, can a Child, in a State of Nature be Said to be born equal to its Mother— Its Body is not equal— Its Mind is not equal. It is in the Power of the Mother. She has the Power of Life and death over it. she has Authority too over it, she has Wisdom, Power and Goodness, which give her a natural Authority to govern it.

The Truth is not difficult to be understood by any Man, who sincerely Searches for it in this Instance. The natural Equality is moral only and not Physical: and in no Way affects the Question concerning forms of Government any farther than to determine that to be the best which but Secures the Equality of Rights, not that which 29 attempts to destroy Physical Inequalities or any of their Consequences in society, upon Property Reputation or Power.

Society may institute and establish any Inequalities except of Rights, which it judges necessary to Secure the Laws. Government of no kind can be instituted without great Inequalities. Not even the Simplest democracy. for the Moment the assembly meets, a few will Start forth more Eloquent more Wise, and more brave than the rest and acquire a superiour Influence Reputation & Power. Hereditary Monarchies and Hereditary Senates, may be instituted by any Nation which knows them to be essential to the preservation of their equal Rights; and even these Kings and Nobles are still upon a moral Level with their meanest subjects.

I throw out these broken hints, Charles only to put you upon thinking and reading. I am your anxious Father