The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson
By Subject
FOREIGN RELATIONS / BRAZIL
My journey into this part of the country [France] has procured me
information which I will take the liberty of communicating to
Congress. In October last I received a letter dated Montpelier,
October the 2d, 1786, announcing to me that the writer was a
foreigner, who had a matter of very great consequence to communicate
to me, and desired I would indicate the channel through which it might
pass safely. I did so.
I received soon after a letter in the following words, omitting only
the formal parts. "I am a native of Brazil. You are not ignorant
of the frightful slavery under which my country groans. This
continually becomes more insupportable since the epoch of your
glorious independence, for the cruel Portuguese omit nothing which can
render our condition more wretched, from an apprehension that we may
follow your example. The conviction, that these usurpers against the
laws of nature and humanity only meditate new oppressions, has decided
us to follow the guiding light which you have held out to us, to break
our chains, to revive our almost expiring liberty, which is nearly
overwhelmed by that force, which is the sole foundation of the
authority that Europeans exercise over American. But it is necessary
that some power should extend assistance to the Brazilians, since
Spain would certainly unite herself with Portugal; and in spite of our
advantages for defence, we could not make it effectual, or, at least,
it would be imprudent to hazard the attempt without some assurance of
success. In this state of affairs, Sir, we can with propriety look
only to the United States, not only because we are following her
example, but, moreover, because nature, in making us inhabitants of
the same continent, has in some sort united us in the bonds of a
common patriotism. On our part, we are prepared to furnish the
necessary supplies of money, and at all times to acknowledge the debt
of gratitude due to our benefactors.
."
The Noblesse are scarcely known as such. They will, in no
manner, be distinguished from the people. The men of letters are those
most desirous of a revolution. The people are not much under the
influence of their priests, most of them read and write, possess arms,
and are in the habit of using them for hunting. The slaves will take
the side of their masters. In short, as to the question of revolution,
there is but one mind in that country. But there appears no person
capable of conducting a revolution, or willing to venture himself at
its head, without the aid of some powerful nation, as the people of
their own might fail them. There is no printing press in Brazil. They
consider the North American revolution as a precedent for theirs. They
look to the United States as most likely to give them honest support,
and, from a variety of considerations, have the strongest prejudices
in our favor. This informant is a native and inhabitant of Rio
Janeiro, the present metropolis. . .
I took care to impress on him, through the whole of our conversation,
that I had neither instructions nor authority to say a word to anybody
on this subject, and that I could only give him my own ideas, as a
single individual; which were, that we were not in a condition at
present to meddle nationally in any war; that we wished particularly
to cultivate the friendship of Portugal, with whom we have an
advantageous commerce. That yet a successful revolution in Brazil
could not be uninteresting to us. That prospects of lucre might,
possibly draw numbers of individuals to their aid, and purer motives
our officers, among whom are many excellent. That our citizens being
free to leave their own country individually, without the consent of
their governments, are equally free to go to any other.
to John Jay, 4 May 1787
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