On July 13, 1802, Jefferson wrote to Rufus King a long letter on this subject, reading in part: “
The course of things in the neighboring islands of the W. Indies appears to have given a considerable impulse to the minds
of the slaves in different parts of the U. S. a great disposition to insurgency has manifested itself among them; which in
one instance in the state of Virginia, broke out into actual insurrection. this was easily suppressed; but many of those concerned
(between 20. & 30. I believe) fell victims to the law. so extensive an execution could not but excite sensibility in the public
mind, and beget a regret that the laws had not provided, for such cases, some alternative combining more mildness with equal
efficacy. The legislature of the state, at a subsequent meeting, took the subject into consideration, and have communicated
to me, through the Governor of the state, their wish that some place could be provided, out of the limits of the U. S. to
which slaves guilty of insurgency might be transported; and they have particularly looked to Africa as offering the most desirable
receptacle. we might for this purpose enter into negociations with the natives on some part of the coast to obtain a settlement,
and by establishing an African company combine with it commercial operations which might not only reimburse expenses but procure
profit also. but there being already such an establishment on that coast by the English Sierre Leone company, made for the
express purpose of colonizing civilized blacks to that country, it would seem better by incorporating our emigrants with theirs
to make one strong, rather than two weak, colonies . . .
”
[3240]
20. [PAINE,
Thomas.]
Maritime Compact; or an Association of Nations for the protection of the rights and commerce of Nations that may be neutral
in time of war, adressed
[
sic
--
Ed.
] to the neutral Nations, by a neutral.
Without name of place or printer,
1 October 1800.
This is a separate issue, with caption title, of part III of Paine’s
Compact Maritime
. See the next entry.
This part is paged [1]-4, and is complete in itself; it is dated 1 October, 1800, the date of Paine’s letter from Paris to Jefferson, in which he enclosed the manuscript of the separate pamphlet published as
Compact Maritime. This is probably the English edition of Paine’s “
Piece N
o. 3
” referred to in his letter to Jefferson quoted in the note to the next entry, q.v.
[3241]
21. PAINE,
Thomas.
Compact Maritime, under the following heads: I. Dissertation on the law of Nations. II. On the Jacobinism of the English at
sea. III. Compact Maritime for the protection of neutral commerce, and securing the liberty of the seas. IV. Observations
on some passages in the discourse of the Judge of the English Admiralty. By Thomas Paine.
City of Washington: printed by
Samuel Harrison Smith,
1801.
8vo. 12 leaves.
Not in Sabin.
Not in Lowndes.
The separate pieces which form this pamphlet were sent to Jefferson in manuscript by Paine on October 1, 1800, and were immediately
published by the former.
Paine wrote from Paris on that date: “. . . This brings me to speak of the manuscripts I send you.
"The piece N
o. 1, without any title, was written in consequence of a question put to me by Bonaparte. As he supposed I knew England and
English Politics he sent a person to me to ask, that in case of negociating a Peace with Austria, whether it would be proper
to include England. This was when Count St. Julian was at Paris, on the part of the Emperor negociating the preliminaries--which
as I have before said the Emperor refused to sign on the pretence of admitting England.
