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Censure from a gentleman who has long maintained an unexampled ascendency over public opinion, can not be entirely disregarded. The offence consists in the reference to the letter written by him to Mr. Mazzei, which was published in Florence, and republished in Paris by the editor of the Moniteur, then the official paper of the Directory. In this letter, Mr.
I take this, the first safe opportunity, of enclosing to you the bills of lading for your books, and two others for your namesake of Williamsburg, and for the attorney, which I will pray you to forward. I thank you for the communication of the remonstrance against the assessment. Mazzei, who is now in Holland, promised me to have it published in the Leyden gazette. It will do us great honor.
In the same letter he endeavours to convey the opinion that the harsh and injurious strictures made to Mazzei were not intended for General Washington, and that this distinguished individual never applied them to himself. The evidence in support of this proposition is not derived from the person whose opinion Mr. Jefferson undertakes to state.
Jefferson's opinion of the treaty is well known from his rhetorical letter to Rutledge, which, in two or three lines, contains the adjectives, unnecessary, impolitic, dangerous, dishonorable, disadvantageous, humiliating, disgraceful, improper, monarchical, impeachable. The Mazzei letter, written not long after the ratification, displays the same bitter feeling.
At least, that is the inference which may be drawn from a letter by an old notary of Florence, Lapo Mazzei, wherein he takes occasion to say, in inviting a friend to supper, that it will be entirely convenient to have him come, inasmuch as he has taken the precaution, in order not to trouble the house servants, to send to the bakery to be roasted a fat pullet and a loin of mutton!
Over the flame on the altar hovers an angry American eagle, gazed upon by the all-seeing eye. The eagle has just snatched from the hand of Mr. Jefferson a scroll, on which is written Constitution and Independence, U. S. A., that he was about to commit to the flames. From his other hand is falling another scroll, inscribed, To Mazzei. Jefferson's Memoirs and Correspondence, iii., 333.
The letter of Don Gomez has been delivered at the hotel of the Portuguese ambassador, who is, however, in the country. I am with much respect, Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, Th: Jefferson. LETTER XCV. TO PETER CARR Advice to a young man, Aug. 19, 1785 Paris, August 19, 1785. Dear Peter, I received, by Mr. Mazzei, your letter of April the 20th.
Jefferson's was purchased for the experiment, but the scheme failed. Mazzei went to Europe as an agent of some kind for the state of Virginia, leaving his family in America, and did not return. His wife died, and Mazzei wrote to Mr. Jefferson for legal evidence of her death, and other important information.
Our story, therefore, now passes hurriedly by the year 1797, which saw the entrance of John Adams into the presidency, the return of Monroe from France in great anger at the men who had recalled him, the publication of Jefferson's letter to Mazzei, everywhere an increasing bitterness and even violence in partisan feeling.
Mazzei, an Italian who had passed some time in the United States, was published in Florence, and republished in the Moniteur, with some severe strictures on the conduct of the United States, and a remark "that the French government had testified its resentment by breaking off communication with an ungrateful and faithless ally until she shall return to a more just and benevolent conduct.
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