Beschreibung:

JEFFERSON, Thomas. Autograph letter signed ("Th:Jefferson") as Secretary of State, TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE (1757-1834), Philadelphia, 16 June 1792. 2 pages, 4to, 9 3/16 x 7 in.), integral blank . In particularly fine, crisp condition. "EXTERMINATING THE MONSTER ARISTOCRACY": JEFFERSON BLUNTLY SPELLS OUT HIS ANTIPATHY TO THE NEW ENGLAND FEDERALISTS, WHO THINK "OUR NEW CONSTITUTION, NOT AS A GOOD & SUFFICIENT THING"; FORTUNATELY, THOUGH, "...OUR PEOPLE ARE FIRM AND CONSTANT IN THEIR REPUBLICAN PURITY" A most revealing letter discussing the course of France's revolution and Lafayette's role, methods to deal with the recent revolt of Negro slaves in Haiti and the perceived threat of the Federalists to the new American Constitution. Jefferson had served as Minister to France during the early phases of the Revolution, witnessed the storming of the Bastille and aided Lafayette in drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (presented to the National Assembly by the Marquis in June 1789, adopted six weeks later). Events had moved swiftly since Jefferson's return to the U.S. in November 1789 to become Secretary of State in Washington's administration: in June 1791 King Louis XVI attempted to flee, was detained and forced to endorse France's new Constitution and the government of the Legislative Assembly (see lot 27). Lafayette was named commander of the new National Guard and led an army into the field against the invading armies of Prussia and Austria. Jefferson is unusually outspoken in confessing his growing unease over New England Federalism, especially certain "stock-jobbers and King-jobbers," a quasi-monarchial faction, Jefferson believed, who intended ultimately to pervert or overthrow the most basic principles of the American experiment in government. The Secretary of State opens in an unexpectedly jocular tone: "Behold you then, dear friend, at the head of a great army, establishing the liberties of your country against a foreign enemy, May heaven favor your cause, and make you the channel thro' which it may pour its favors. While you are exterminating the monster aristocracy, and pulling out the teeth and fangs of its associate monarchy, a contrary tendency has been discovered in some here. A sect has shown itself among us, who declare they espoused our new constitution, not as a good and sufficient thing itself, but only as a step to an English constitution [i.e., a constitutional monarchy], the only thing good and sufficient in itself, in their eye. It is happy for us that these are preachers without followers, and that our people are firm and constant in their republican purity. You will wonder to be told that it is from the Eastward chiefly that these champions for a king, lords and commons come. They get some important associates from New York, and are puffed off by a tribe of Agioteurs [agitators] which have been hatched in a bed of corruption made up after the model of their beloved England. Too many of these stock jobbers and King-jobbers have come into our legislature, or rather too many of our legislators have become stock-jobbers and king-jobbers. However the voice of the people is beginning to make itself heard, and will probably cleanse their seats at the ensuing election." As Jefferson hints, he and his supporters in the newborn Democratic-Republican Party had already launched efforts to oppose and defeat Federalist candidates in the coming Congressional elections, to which he alludes. Commenting on continuing unrest on the Northwest frontier and the skulduggery of Engish agents there, he observes that "The machinations of our old enemies are such as to keep us still at bay with our Indian neighbors." The Secretary of State then delicately inquires about the policies of France's new rulers towards French colonial possessions, especially in light of the recent revolt of the free blacks and negro slaves in St. Dominique (Haiti), and offers advice on the management of the colony's large