Your letter dated the 7th should probably have been of the 14th, as I
received it only by that day's post. I return you Monroe's letter, which
is of an awful complexion; and I do not wonder the communications it
contains made some impression on him. To a person placed in Europe,
surrounded by the immense resources of the nations there, and the
greater wickedness of their courts, even the limits which nature imposes
on their enterprises are scarcely sensible. It is impossible that France
and England should combine for any purpose; their mutual distrust and
deadly hatred of each other admit no co-operation. It is impossible that
England should be willing to see France re-possess Louisiana, or get
footing on our continent, and that France should willingly see the
United States re-annexed to the British dominions. That the Bourbons
should be replaced on their throne and agree to any terms of
restitution, is possible: but that they and England joined, could
recover us to British dominion, is impossible. If these things are
not so, then human reason is of no aid in conjecturing the conduct of
nations. Still, however, it is our unquestionable interest and duty to
conduct ourselves with such sincere friendship and impartiality towards
both nations, as that each may see unequivocally, what is unquestionably
true, that we may be very possibly driven into her scale by unjust
conduct in the other. I am so much impressed with the expediency of
putting a termination to the right of France to patronize the rights of
Louisiana, which will cease with their complete adoption as citizens of
the United States, that I hope to see that take place on the meeting
of Congress. I enclose you a paragraph from a newspaper respecting St.
Domingo, which gives me uneasiness. Still I conceive the British insults
in our harbor as more threatening. We cannot be respected by France as a
neutral nation, nor by the world or ourselves as an independent one,
if we do not take effectual measures to support, at every risk, our