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Subject Area: Political Theory
Topic: The American Revolution and Constitution

ADVERTISEMENT 1 - Thomas Jefferson, The Works, vol. 3 (Notes on Virginia I, Correspondence 1780-1782) [1905]

Edition used:

The Works of Thomas Jefferson, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904-5). Vol. 3.

Part of: The Works of Thomas Jefferson, 12 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


ADVERTISEMENT1

Monticello Dec 15 1782.

The Subscriber having occasion to be absent from the State for some time, has confided the care of his affairs to Francis Eppes, Esq., of Chesterfield, and Col. Nicholas Lewis, of Albermarle, to whom, therefore, he begs leave to refer all persons having business with him.

Thomas Jefferson.

NOTES ON VIRGINIA
1782

The wide reputation and high value that have been accorded to the Notes on Virginia for over one hundred years make any attempt to praise it at this day little less than a work of supererogation. Its frequent republication is alone testimony sufficient to prove its unusual merit. Aside from its intrinsic value, it is of interest, as Jefferson’s most serious piece of book-making, and the one on which the larger part of his philosophical reputation was based during his lifetime. It was, also at the time of its production, a notable contribution to American scientific writing, and has been, perhaps, the most frequently reprinted book ever written in the United States south of Mason and Dixon’s line.

In 1781, the French ministry directed their American agent to gather certain information concerning the several States then forming the American union, for the use of the home government. The secretary of the French legation, Marbois, in pursuance of this instruction, drew up a series of questions, which were sent to leading men in the different States, who were presumed to be best competent to supply the needed answers. These questions produced from several of the States replies more or less adequate, a number of which have been since printed. On the recommendation of Joseph Jones, then a member of the Continental Congress, a set of queries was sent to Jefferson, then still governor of Virginia, who wrote to M. Barbé de Marbois, the secretary of the legation:

Richmond Mar. 4th, 1781.

“Sir,—I have been honoured with your letter of Feb. 5. Mr. Jones did put into my hands a paper containing sundry inquiries into the present state of Virginia which he informed me was from yourself, some of which I meant to do myself the honour of answering. Hitherto it has been in my power to collect a few materials only, which my present occupations disable me from completing. I mean however shortly to be in a condition which will leave me quite at leisure to take them up, when it shall be one of my first undertakings to give you as full information as I shall be able to do on such of the subjects as are within the sphere of my acquaintance. On some of them however I trust Mr. Jones will engage abler hands. Those in particular which relate to the commerce of the state—a subject with which I am totally unacquainted, and which is probably the most important in your plan.”

In the leisure that ensued after his resignation of office, and a physical injury received from a fall from his horse, he undertook this work. Instead of treating the questions in the superficial way that most of the other respondents deemed sufficient, he prepared an elaborate and careful reply. In his Autobiography (i, 94), he states:

“I had always made it a practice whenever an opportunity occurred of obtaining any information of our country, which might be of use to me in any station public or private, to commit it to writing. These memoranda were on loose papers, bundled up without order, and difficult of recurrence when I had occasion for a particular one. I thought this a good occasion to embody their substance, which I did in the order of Mr. Marbois’ queries, so as to answer his wish and to arrange them for my own use.”

Jefferson retained a copy of these Notes, and submitted them to several friends for correction and suggestion. In the following winter (1782–3), he “somewhat corrected and enlarged” them. He was asked for copies by his friends, and seems to have yielded in some cases, for he wrote Chastellux:

Ampthill, Nov. 26, 1782.

* * * “This will give me full leisure to communicate to you my answers to the queries of Monsr de Marbois.” * * *

As these demands multiplied, however, they grew beyond his power to gratify, and he decided to print an edition for private distribution. When he went to attend the continental congress in the winter of 1783–4, he made inquiries preparatory to this, but failed to carry out his purpose, for reasons recorded in a letter to Charles Thomson:

Philadel, May 21, 1784.

* * * “My matter in the printing way is dropped. Aitken had formerly told me that he would print it for £4 a sheet. He now asks £5 10s, which raises the price from £48 to £66; but what was a more effectual and insuparable bar was that he could not complete it under three weeks, a time I could not wait for it. Dunlap happened to be out of town, so I relinquished the plan. Perhaps I may have a few copies struck off in Paris if there be an English Printer. If I do you shall assuredly have one. I shall take the liberty of adding some of your notes—those which were mendatory merely will have their effect on the body of the work.”

Jefferson carried the MS therefore with him to France when he was sent as commissioner. Its condition at that time is described in a letter to Hogendorp, written some months after:

Paris, Oct. 13 1785.

* * * “The condition in which you first saw them [the Notes] would prove to you how hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I could find a moment for turning to them from other occupations.”

Jefferson reached Paris August 6, 1784, and seems to have at once placed the MS of his Notes in the hands of a printer, for he records on Sept. 13, in his note book:

“Pd. M. La Marche in part for sheets 1176 f.” and under Oct. 15 enters in the same:

“Pd. M. La Marche balance for sheets 69 f.”

This edition of the Notes was anonymous. Two hundred copies were printed. Jefferson wrote to Carmichael, of this edition:

Paris Dec 26, 1786

* * * “My Notes on Virginia having been hastily written, need abundance of corrections. Two or three of these are so material that I am reprinting a few leaves to substitute for the old. As soon as these shall be ready, I will beg your acceptance of a copy. I shall be proud to be permitted to send a copy also to the Count de Campomanes, as a tribute to his science & his virtues.”

As here indicated, the author distributed a few copies, as presents to friends, each one bearing a presentation note in Jefferson’s writing, requesting that it should be considered as a private communication. Two of these inscriptions, are here reproduced as types, in facsimile. Another was as follows:

“Th. Jefferson begs the Marquis de LaFayette’s acceptance of a copy of these Notes. The circumstances under which they were written, and the talents of the writer, will account for their errors and defects. The original was sent to Mr de Marbois in December 1781.

“The desire of a friend to possess some of the details they contained occasioned him to revise them in the subsequent winter. The vices however of their original composition were such as to forbid material amendment. He now has a few copies printed with a design of offering them to some of his friends, and to some estimable characters beyond that line. A copy is presented to the Marquis de LaFayette whose services to the American Union in general, and to that member of it particularly which is the subject of these Notes and in that precise point of time too to which they relate, entitle him to this offering.

“To these considerations the writer hopes he may be permitted to add his own personal friendship and esteem for the Marquis. Unwilling to expose these sheets to the public eye the writer begs the favor of the Marquis to put them into the hands of no person on whose care and fidelity he cannot rely to guard them against publication.”

Jefferson’s reasons for not publishing the work, and for taking such pains to guard it from being printed, are given in a letter to Chastellux:

Paris June 7. 1785.

“Dear Sir,—I have been honoured with the receipt of your letter of the 2d instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerely for the partiality with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my country. As I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own observation and have admitted none on the report of others which were not supported by evidence sufficient to command my own assent, I am not afraid that you should make any

lf0054-03_figure_003

Written by the Author on the Fly-Leaves of Two Presentation Copies of the Original French Edition of Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia.

extracts you please for the Journal de Physique which come within their plan of publication. The strictures on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia are not of that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to have made public, at least till I know whether their publication would do most harm or good. It is possible that in my own country these strictures might produce an irritation which would indispose the people towards the two great objects I have in view, that is the emancipation of their slaves & the settlement of their constitution on a firmer & more permanent basis. If I learn from thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have printed & reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man at the College. It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations. The other copy delivered at your hotel was for Mons de Buffon. I meant to ask the favour of you to have it sent to him, as I was ignorant how to do it. I have one also for Mons Daubenton; but being utterly unknown to him I cannot take the liberty of presenting it till I can do it through some common acquaintance.”

He also wrote to Charles Thomson:

Paris June 21, 1785.

* * * “In literature nothing new: For I do not consider as having added anything to that field by my own Notes of which I have had a few copies printed. I will send you a copy by the first safe conveyance. Having troubled Mr. Otto with one for Colo Monroe, I could not charge him with one for you. Pray ask the favor of Colo Monroe in page 5, line 17, to strike out the words ‘above the mouth of the Appamattox,’ which makes nonsense of the passage, and I forgot to correct it before I had enclosed & sent off the copy to him. I am desirous of preventing the reprinting this, should any book merchant think it worth it, till I hear from my friends whether the terms in which I have spoken of slavery and of the constitution of our State will not, by producing an irritation, retard that reformation which I wish instead of promoting it.”

He further wrote to Francis Hopkinson:

Paris July 6, 1786

* * * “Having slipped the opportunity of sending copies of my Notes for yourself, & Mr. Rittenhouse when Dr. Franklin’s baggage went, I am doubtful whether he can take them with him. If he can you shall receive them by him. if not, then by the first good opportunity. I am obliged to pray that they may not be permitted to get into the hands of the public till I know whether they will promote or retard certain reformations in my own country. I have written to Mr. Madison to inform me on that head.”

As soon as this publication was known, Jefferson was beseiged for copies of the book. A type of these requests is shown in a letter of his old law teacher, George Wythe, who wrote him:

Jan 10, 1786

“Before i opened the pacquet, observing it to contain books, i hoped to see the copy of one, with a cursory reading of which i had then lately been delighted. You will know the book i mean when i tell you that he who indulged me with the reading of it informed me, that the author had not yet resolved to publish it.”

In spite of these solicitations, Jefferson was chary of giving out copies till he should have the opinions of his Virginia friends concerning the parts likely to cause irritation. Madison wrote him:

Richmond Nov. 15th, 1785.

* * * “On my return to Orange, I found the copy of your notes brought along . . . by Mr. Doradour. I have looked them over carefully myself, and consulted several judicious friends in confidence. We are all sensible that the freedom of your strictures on some particular measures and opinions will displease their respective abettors. But we equally concur in thinking that this consideration ought not to be weighed against the utility of your plan. We think both the facts and remarks which you have assembled too valuable not to be made known, at least to those for whom you destine them, and speak of them to one another in terms which I must not repeat to you. Mr. Wythe suggested that it might be better to put the number you may allot to the University into the library, rather than to distribute them among the students. In the latter case, the stock will be immediately exhausted. In the former, the discretion of the professors will make it serve the students as they successively come in. Perhaps too, an indiscriminate gift might offend some narrow-minded parents.”

On the strength of this opinion, Jefferson began a more general distribution. He replied to Madison:

Paris Feb. 8, 1786.

* * * “I thank you for your information as to my Notes. The copies I have remaining shall be sent over to be given to some of my friends and to select subjects in the college. I have been unfortunate here with this trifle. I gave out a few copies only, & to confidential persons writing in every copy a restraint against it’s publication. Among others I gave a copy to a Mr. Williamos, he died. I immediately took every precaution I could to recover this copy. But by some means or other, a book seller got hold of it. He employed a hireling translator and was about publishing it in the most injurious form possible. An Abbé Morellet a man of letters here to whom I had given a copy, got notice of this. He had translated some passages for a particular purpose: and he compounded with the book seller to translate & give him the whole, on his declining the first publication. I found it necessary to confirm this, and it will be published in French, still mutillated however in it’s freest parts. I am now at a loss what to do as to England. Everything good or bad, is thought worth publishing there and I apprehend a translation back from the French, and a publication there. I rather believe it will be most eligible to let the original come out in that country: but am not yet decided.”

To Hopkinson he wrote:

Paris, Sept 25, 1785

* * * “I have sometimes thought of sending a copy of my Notes to the Philosophical Society, as a tribute due to them, but this would seem as if I considered them as worth something, which I am conscious they are not. I will not ask you for your advice on this occasion, because it is one of those on which no man is authorized to ask a sincere opinion. I shall therefore refer it to further thoughts.”

He also wrote to Wythe:

Paris, August 13, 1786.

* * * “I availed myself of the first opportunity which occurred, by a gentleman going to England, of sending to Mr. Joddrel a copy of the Notes on our country, with a line informing him that it was you who had emboldened me to take that liberty. Madison, no doubt, informed you of the reason why I had sent only a single copy to Virginia. Being assured by him that they will not do the harm I had apprehended, but on the contrary may do some good, I propose to send thither the copies remaining on hand, which were fewer than I had intended. But of the numerous corrections they need, there are one or two so essential that I must have them made, by printing a few new leaves, & substituting them for the old. This will be done while they are engraving a map which I have constructed of the country from Albemarle sound to Lake Erie, & which will be inserted in the book. A bad French translation which is getting out here, will probably oblige me to publish the original more freely which it neither deserved nor was ever intended. Your wishes which are law to me, will justify my destining a copy for you, otherwise I should as soon have thought of sending you a hornbook; for there is no truth there that is not familiar to you, and its errors I should hardly have proposed to treat you with.”

The threatened translation touched upon in the above letters to Madison and Wythe was treated more at large in a letter to C. W. F. Dumas:

Paris, February 2, 1786

* * * “I thank you for what you say of the notes on Virginia. It is much more than they deserve. Though the various matters they touch on would have been beyond the information of any one person whatever to have treated fully and infinitely beyond mine, yet had I at the time of writing them, had anything more in view than the satisfying a single individual, they should have been more attended to both in form and matter. Poor as they are, they have been thought worthy of a surreptitious translation here, with the appearance of which very soon I have been threatened. This has induced me to yield to a friendly proposition from the Abbé Morellet, to translate and publish them himself, submitting the sheets previously to my inspection. As a translation by so able a hand will lessen the faults of the original, instead of their being multiplied by a hireling translator, I shall add to it a map and such other advantages as may prevent the mortification of my seeing it appear in the injurious form threatened. I shall with great pleasure send a copy of the original to you by the first opportunity, praying your acceptance of it.”

To Dr. Edward Bancroft he also wrote:

Paris Feb 26, 1786.

* * * “By the death of Mr. Williamos a copy of my Notes on Virginia got into the hands of a bookseller, who was about publishing a very abominable translation of them when the Abbé Morellet heard of it, & diverted him from it by undertaking to translate it for him. They will thus appear in French in spite of my precautions. The Abbé engaged me to make a map, which I wish to have engraved in London. It is on a single sheet 23 inches square, and very closely written. It comprehends from Albemarle sound to L. Erie, and from Philadelphia to the mouth of the great Kanhaway, containing Virginia & Pennsylvania, a great part of Maryland & a part of North Carolina. It is taken from Mitchell, Hutchins, & Fry, & Jefferson. I wish the favor of you to make two propositions for me & to inform me of the result. 1. To know from one of the best engravers how much he will ask for the plate & engraving, and in how short a time after he receives the original can he furnish the plate done in the best manner, for the time is material as the work is in the press. 2. To know of Faden or any other map merchant for how much he will undertake to furnish me 1800 copies, on my sending the map to him, & in what time can he furnish them. On this alternative I am to have nothing to do with the engraver or any person but the undertaker. I am of opinion he may furnish them to me for nothing; and fully indemnify himself by the sale of the maps. Tho’ it is on a scale of only an inch to 20 miles it is as particular as the four sheet maps from which it is taken, and I answer for the exactness of the reduction. I have supplied some new places. Tho’ the first object which induced me to undertake it was to make a map for my book, I soon extended my view to the making as good a map of those countries as my materials would admit; and I have no doubt but that in the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland & Virginia 600 copies can be sold for a dollar apiece. I shall finish it in about a fortnight, except the divisions in the counties of Virginia, which I cannot do at all till I can get Henry’s map of Virginia. This I must trouble you to procure for me & send immediately by the Diligence, and also give me information on the premises as soon as possible. You will perceive that time will press. I hope the circumstances of this affair will plead my pardon for the trouble I am giving you. The expense of procuring & sending the map shall be replaced, and an infinitude of thanks attend you Sir your most obedt humble servt.

“P. S. I do not propose that my name shall appear on the map, because it will belong to it’s original authors, & because I do not wish to place myself at the bar of the public.”

Morellet’s preface to this edition states:

“AVERTISSEMENT

“L’Ouvrage qu’on donne ici au Public a été imprimé en 1782, sous le titre de Notes on Virginia, & n’est en effet qu’un recueil de Notes, ou Observations détachées, servant de réponse aux Questions d’un ami de l’Auteur, Européen qui cherchoit à connoitre cette partie des États-Unis; mais on ne craint pas d’annoncer que sous un titre si modeste; le Lecteur trouvera des connoissances approfondies & des idées étendues.

“L’Ouvrage n’ayant d’autre plan que celui qu’a donné l’ordre des Questions, qui n’est pas toujours le plus naturel qu’on pût suivre, le Traducteur a pris la liberté, avec l’agrément de l’Auteur, de transposer quelques morceaux. Voici les principales de ces transpositions, qui sont en petit nombre.

“1°. On a fait de la septieme Section, de l’original, qui traite du Climat, la deuxieme de la traduction.

“2°. La neuvieme & la dixieme Section de l’original, qui traitent des forces militaires de terre & de mer, ont été renvoyées à la fin de l’Ouvrage, à la suite du paragraphe où l’on traite du Revenu public & de la Dépense nationale.

“3°. On a rapporté au paragraphe où l’Auteur avoit traité des Esclaves noirs, l’Exposition du projet plein d’humanité qu’il propose pour leur affranchissement & qui étoit placé au paragraphe intitulé: Projet de Révision de notre Legislation.

“Les autres changemens sont trop peu considérables pour qu’il soit nécessaire d’en faire ici mention. On doit dire seulement qu’il n’y a rien d’omis de l’original.

“L’Auteur ayant fait une addition à quelques idées qu’il expose sur la Théorie de la terre, dans les pages 72, 73, &c. & cette addition étant parvenue trop tard au Traducteur, on l’a placée à la fin de l’Ouvrage, & le Lecteur est prié d’y recourir.

“Les observations de M. Charles Thomson, Secrétaire de Congrès, qui se trouvent à la fin de l’original anglois, sous le titre d’Appendix, depuis la page 367, jusqu’à étant toutes relatives à celles de M. J. dont elles sont communément des développemens ou des preuves, nous avons cru devoir les placer dans le corps meme de l’Ouvrage, aux endroits auxquels elles appartiennent. Nous les avons distinguées, en les enfermant entre les deux marques.

“Nous avons aussi fait entrer dans le texte les notes de l’Auteur lui-même, parce qu’elles nous ont paru y tenir assez pour pouvoir former avec l’Ouvrage un discours suivi; ce que devroient toujours être des notes, si en suivant cette regale, on n’étoit pas dispensé d’en faire.

“La traduction françoise se trouve enrichie d’une carte, rédigée par l’Auteur lui-même avec l’exactitude qu’il fait mettre à tout ce qu’il fait. On ose dire que cette carte, la plus correcte & la plus riche de toutes celles qu’on a eues de la Virginie jusqu’à présent, donne seule un grand prix à l’ouvrage que nous présentons au Public.

“On n’a point réduit dans chaque endroit les mesures angloises aux nôtres. Ou dira seulement que le pied anglois (foot) est d’environ 11 pouces 4 lignes & demie du pied françois. La verge (yard) est de trois pieds anglois, & répond par consequent a environ 34 pouces 1 ligne & demie. L’estimation n’a pas besoin ici d’une plus grande précision.

“Dans la traduction des noms propres des lieux, des villes, des rivieres, &c. dont la plupart sont de la langue des naturels du pays, on a suivi la maniere dont les Anglois les écrivent, sans égard aux altérations que les Geographes & les Auteurs françois leur font souvent subir. On a cru que les possesseurs de ces contrées avoient seuls le droit d’en fixer la nomenclature.

“Quant aux noms propres anglois, on s’est bien gardé de les supprimer en les traduisant, parce qu’ils deviennent souvent méconnoissables dans la traduction on les a conservés, en mettant à côté & en parenthèse la traduction françoise. Ainsi on a dit, la chaîne des montagnes appellees Laurel-Ridge (montagnes du Laurier), & non pas, la chaîne de montagnes, appellés montagnes du Laurier.”

This publication in French, made the issue of an English edition almost inevitable. Madison told Jefferson:

Orange, May 12th, 1786.

* * * “Your notes having got into print in France, will inevitably be translated back and published in that form, not only in England but in America, unless you give out the original. I think, therefore, that you owe it not only to yourself, but to the place you occupy, and the subjects you have handled, to take this precaution. To say nothing of the injury which will certainly result to the diction from a translation first into French and then back into English, the ideas themselves may possibly be so perverted as to lose their propriety.”

To protect himself against this possibility, Jefferson entered into negotiations for an edition in English. He wrote to John Stockdale, the great English publisher:

Paris, Feb. 1, 1787.

“Sir,—You have two or three times proposed to me the printing my Notes on Virginia. I never did intend to have made them public, because they are little interesting to the rest of the world, but as a translation of them is coming out, I have concluded to let the original appear also. I have therefore corrected a copy & made some additions. I have moreover had a map engraved which is worth more than the book. If you chuse to print the work I will send you the corrected copy, and when it shall be nearly printed I will send the plate of the map. I would not chuse that it should be put under a patent, nor that there should be a tittle altered, added, nor omitted. It would be necessary to have a small half sheet map engraved of the country of Virginia as when first discovered. This map is only to be found in Smith’s history of Virginia, a thin folio, now very rare. I was not able to find that work here, but surely it can be found in London.

An exact copy of the map is all that would be wanting. I leave this place about the 11th or 12th. Be so good as to let me know whether you chuse to print the work under the conditions before named. If I receive your answer in the affirmative before I set out, I will send you immediately the copy. It is an octavo of 390 pages. The American Atlas is come safe to hand.

P. S. it is not necessary to observe that as I have been to the expense of engraving a large map, I should expect to be paid for those you should have occasion for, a shilling a piece.”

Paris. Feb. 27. 1787.

“Sir,—By the Diligence of tomorrow I will send you a corrected copy of my Notes which I will pray you to print precisely as they are, without additions, alterations, preface, or anything else but what is there. They will require a very accurate corrector of the press, because they are filled with tables, which will become absolutely useless if they are not printed with a perfect accuracy. I beg you therefore to have the most particular attention paid to the correcting of the press. With respect to the plate of the map, it is impossible to send it at the same time. It was engraved in London, and on examination I found a prodigious number of orthographical errors. Being determined that it shall not go out with a single error, an engraver is now closely employed in correcting them. He promises to have it finished the next week, say by the 10th of March; but I suppose you must expect he will not be punctual to a day. the map will be worth more than the book, because it is very particular, made on the best materials which exist, and is of a very convenient size, bringing the States of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware & Pennsylvania into a single sheet. It will make the book sell. I think it would be worth your while to print 400 copies of the book for America, sending 200 to Richmond in Virginia, & 200 to Philadelphia, if you have no correspondents there, you might send those for Richmond to Mr. James Buchanan merchant there, & those for Philadelphia to Aitken bookseller there. These are men on whose punctuality you may depend. But they should be restrained from selling but for ready money: so that you may always find in their hands either the money or the books. I set out on my journey tomorrow: but Mr. Short, my Secretary, remains here, and will hasten & forward the plate to you by the Diligence. Be so good as to send by the next Diligence a copy of Mr. Adams’ book on the American Constitutions printed by Dilly, in boards, it being for a bookseller here.”

In the preparation of this edition, Jefferson wrote to the Abbé Morellet:

Paris July 2, 1787.

“I am sorry, my dear Sir, that your interest should be affected by the ill behavior of Barrois but when you consider the facts you will be sensible that I could not have indulged his indolence further without increasing the injury to a more punctual workman. Stockdale of London had asked leave to print my Notes. I agreed to it, & promised he should have the plate of the map as soon as it should be corrected, and the copies struck off for you & myself. He thereupon printed his edition completely in three weeks. The printer, who was to strike off 250 maps for me kept the plate but 5 days. It was then delivered to Barrois with notice that it could not be left longer with him than should suffice to strike off his number. Repeated applications for it by Mr. Short & my servant were only answered by repeated promises, and times of delivery fixed, no one of which was performed. When I returned he had been possessed of the plate upwards of two months. I was astonished and confounded to be told it had not been sent to Stockdale & that his edition had been lying dead on his hands three months. I sent to Barrois the very day of my return to let him know that justice to Stockdale did not permit me to defer sending him the plate any longer, yet I would wait 5 days, at the end of which he must deliver me the plate whether his maps were done or not. I received no answer, but waited 10 days. I then sent for the plate. The answer was he was not at home. I sent again the next day. Answer he was not at home. I sent the third day. Not at home. I then ordered the messenger to go back & wait till he should come home. This produced an answer of two lines qu’il alloit soigner son ouvrier! I wrote him word in return to deliver the plate instantly. This I think was on a Saturday or Sunday. He told the messenger he would let me have it the Thursday following. I took patience, & sent on the Friday, but telling the messenger if he refused to deliver it, to inform him I would be plagued no more with sending messages, but would apply to the police. He then delivered it & I sent it off immediately to London. He had kept it three months, of which three weeks was after my return. I think Sir you will be satisfied that justice to Stockdale, justice to myself who had passed my word for sending on the plate, and sensibly to the shuffling conduct of Barrois, permitted me to act no otherwise. But no matter. Let his ill behavior make no odds between you & me. It will affect your interest, & that suffices to determine me to order back the plate as soon as Stockdale has done with it. He will not require more days than Barrois months, so that it will be here before you can want it. But it must never go into Barrois hands again nor of any person depending on him or under his orders. The workman who struck off the 250. for me seems to have been diligent enough. Either he or any other workman you please of that description, shall have it to strike what number you wish. I forgot to observe in it’s proper place, that when I was in the midst of my difficulties I did myself the honor of calling on you, as well to have that of asking after your health on my return, as of asking your assistance to obtain the plate. Unluckily you were gone to Versailles so I was obliged to proceed as well as I could. It is no excuse for Barrois to say he could not get his Imprimeur to proceed. He should have applied to another. But as to you it shall be set to rights in the manner I have before stated. Accept my regret that you were in the hands of so undeserving a workman, & one who placed me under the necessity of interrupting a work which interested you. Be assured at the same time of the sincerity of those sentiments of esteem & respect with which I have the honor to be Dear Sir your most obedient & most humble servant.”

Another letter to Stockdale, acknowledged the receipt of copies of this edition:

Paris Aug. 14. 1787.

“Sir, * * * I thank you for the dozen copies of the Notes on Virginia. The remaining 34 shall be sold so as to pay the 3d sterl. a vol. their transportation costs, the commission for selling & your 5/4 upon the whole they must be sold at about 7£ 15/—Unless you are very sure of your information of the printing the Notes on Virginia in America, I doubt it. I never sent but six copies to America, and they were in such hands as I am sure would not permit them to be published. I have letters from Philadelphia as late as the 6th of June, & certainly no such publication was then suspected by my friends on the contrary Mr. Hopkinson, one of those to whom I had given a copy, & who is concerned in compiling the Columbian magazine, tells me he hopes I will not object to his publishing a few extracts from it particularly the passages in which M. de Buffon’s work is controverted. So that unless you are very certain on that point, I shall disbelieve it.”

The preface to this English edition was as follows:

“ADVERTISEMENT

“The following Notes were written in Virginia in the year 1781, and somewhat corrected and enlarged in the winter of 1782, in answer to Queries proposed to the author, by a Foreigner of Distinction, then residing among us. The subjects are all treated imperfectly; some scarcely touched on. To apologize for this by developing the circumstances of the time and place of their composition, would be to open wounds which have already bled enough. To these circumstances some of their imperfections may with truth be ascribed; the great mass to the want of information and want of talents in the writer. He had a few copies printed, which he gave among his friends: and a translation of them has been lately published in France, but with such alterations as the laws of the press in that country rendered necessary. They are now offered to the public in their original form and language.

“Feb. 27, 1787.”

From the publication of this revision, no further changes were made in the published text during Jefferson’s lifetime. He wrote to J. Lithgow:

Washington, January 4, 1805.

* * * “Mr. Duane informed me that he meant to publish a new edition of the Notes on Virginia, and I had in contemplation some particular alterations which would require little time to make. My occupations by no means permit me at this time to revise the text, and make those changes in it which I should now do.” * * *

He later wrote to John Melish:

Monticello, December 10, 1814.

* * * “You propose to me the preparation of a new edition of the Notes on Virginia. I formerly entertained the idea, and from time to time noted some new matter, which I thought I would arrange at leisure for a posthumous edition. But I now begin to see that it is impracticable for me. Nearly forty years of additional experience in the affairs of mankind would lead me into dilatations ending I know not where. That experience indeed has not altered a single principle. But it has furnished matter of abundant development. Every moment too, which I have to spare from my daily exercise and affairs is engrossed by a correspondence, the results of the extensive relations which my course of life has necessarily occasioned. And now the act of writing itself is becoming slow, laborious and irksome. I consider, therefore, the idea of preparing a new copy of that work as no more to be entertained. The work itself indeed is nothing more than the measure of a shadow, never stationary, but lengthening as the sun advances, and to be taken anew from hour to hour. It must remain, therefore, for some other hand to sketch its appearance at another epoch, to furnish another element for calculating the course and motion of this member of our federal system.”

The revised copy of the Notes here mentioned passed into the hands of his literary executor, from whom it passed to J. W. Randolph & Co., who printed an edition from it in 1853. To this they added the following note:

“PREFACE OF THE PUBLISHER

“Thomas Jefferson left at his death a printed copy of his Notes on Virginia, containing many manuscript notes, several plates and a map, intended apparently for a new edition of the work. As an edition had then been recently published it was deemed best to delay any further publication until the book should become scarce. It is now nearly out of print, and a general desire is expressed for another edition. With a view of gratifying this wish, Mr. Jefferson’s executor, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, has transferred to the publisher the materials prepared by the author for the new edition.

“In making this preparation the author used a copy of the first edition, and thus inadvertently repeated an error in the narrative preceding Logan’s speech which had been corrected in a later edition. An historical statement making the correction, deduced by the author from certain documents, and the documents themselves, will be found in Appendix No. IV. They are taken from a re-print of the work in 1825.

“The manuscript notes of the present edition are numerous and interesting. Many are in foreign languages, and disclose the extensive erudition of the author. Professor Schele De Vere, the accomplished and learned incumbent of the chair of Modern Languages of the University of Virginia, has been kind enough to translate the French, Spanish and Italian notes. These translations will be found in Appendix No. IV.

“The circumstances under which the Notes on Virginia were written, are stated by the author in this preface. It may be well to add, that the foreigner of distinction to whom they were addressed was Mons. Barbe De Marbois, the Secretary of the French Legation in the United States, and that they were written while the author was confined to his room by an injury received from the falling of his horse.

“The beauty of style, the accuracy of information, and the scientific research displayed in the Notes have made them a permanent part of our national literature. The publisher therefore conceives that in publishing a new edition of this admirable work, he is renewing a valuable contribution to that literature, and rendering a just tribute to the illustrious author.

September 13, 1853.”

The original edition of the Notes was printed with the title here reproduced in facsimile. It was a small octavo, of 391 pages, plus the title and folding leaf. The last twenty-five pages were an “Appendix” of notes contributed by Charles Thomson. After Jefferson had distributed some copies he printed a “Draught of a Fundamental Constitution for the Commonwealth of Virginia” (pp. 14), and “Notes on the Establishment of a Money Mint and a Coinage for the United States” (pp. 14) in uniform style, and added them as appendices to the copies he still had. Still later he printed, on its passage by the Virginia legislature, “An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom” (pp. 4), which he made a third appendix to the copies still remaining in his hands. In addition to these appendices, he cancelled in 1786 pages 52–4 of the original edition, in which he had propounded the suggestion, to explain the occurrence of sea shells in high mountains on other grounds than that of an universal deluge (in which he had no faith), that “besides the usual process for generating shells by the elaboration of earth and water in animal vessels, may not nature have provided an equivalent operation, by passing the same materials through the pores of calcareous earths and stones?” In lieu of these, he had printed new pages, omitting this theory, and substituted these leaves in the copies still remaining in his hands; but they must have been few, for copies with these new sheets are very uncommon.

The French translation of Morellet was somewhat revised, and had an “Avertissement” of the translator. It omitted Thomson’s notes, and the three appendices already mentioned. It had, however, a map drawn by Jefferson, which the latter considered far more valuable than the Notes themselves. The title of this edition was:

Observations / sur / La Virginie, / Par M. J***. / Traduites de L’Anglois. / A Paris, / Chez Barrois, l’aîné, Librarie, rue du / Hurepoix, près le pont Saint-Michel. / 1786. / 8vo pp. (4), viij, 390, (2), (4), map and folding leaf.

The first published edition in English was, as already recorded, by Stockdale, in London. This had an introductory note and included the three appendices that Jefferson had printed since the appearance of the original edition, as also the new matter which had replaced the cancelled leaves. The typographical changes were very numerous, chiefly in the spelling of geographical names, of the substitution of spelled for numeral figures, and in the correction of some few minor errors. It also contained the map that had appeared in the French edition. It was the first edition to give the name of the author, the title being:

Notes / on the / State of Virginia. / written by / Thomas Jefferson. / illustrated with / A Map, including the States of Virginia, Mary- / land, Delaware and Pennsylvania. / London: / Printed for John Stockdale, opposite / Burlington-House, Piccadilly./ M.DCC.LXXXVII. / 8vo. pp. (4), 382, map and folding leaf.

This edition was at once reprinted verbatim, in America (a pirated edition apparently), but without the map. The title was.

Notes / on the / State / of / Virginia. / Written by/ Thomas Jefferson. / Philadelphia: / Printed and sold by Prichard and Hall, in Market / Street, between Front and Second Streets. / M.DCC.LXXXVIII. / 8vo. pp. (4), 344, folding leaf.

A German translation was issued in 1789 with the title of:

Beschriebung von Virginien . . . Leipzig, 1789.

A second American reprint of the Stockdale edition was made with Jefferson’s consent in 1794. The title was:

Notes on the State of Virginia: Second American edition. Philadelphia: Matthew Carey. 1794, 8vo. pp. 4, 336, map and folding leaf.

In 1797–8 Jefferson prepared an additional appendix, which he printed separately, two years later, with the title of:

An / Appendix / to the / Notes on Virginia / Relative to the Murder of Logans Family. / By Thomas Jefferson. / Philadelphia: Printed by Samuel H. Smith. / M.DCCC. / 8vo. pp. 51.

This appendix was included in the next edition of the Notes, which bore the title:

Jefferson’s / Notes, / on the / State of Virginia; / with the / Appendixes—Complete. / Baltimore: Printed by W. Pechin, corner of Water & Gay streets. / 1800. / 8vo. pp. 194, 53.

All editions subsequent to this, except the last, are reprints of the text of 1787, together with this appendix relating to Logan. More or less full bibliographical titles are given in the Historical Magazine, 1, 52; Sabin’s Dictionary of Books relating to America; and H. B. Tompkins’ Bibliotheca Jeffersoniana. Only a check list of imprints therefore is here given.

With “Dissertation.” Baltimore: W. Pechin. 1800.

Third American Edition. New York: M. L. & W. A. Davids. 1801.

Fourth American Edition. New York: T. B. Janson & Co., 1801.

Newark; Pennington & Gould. 1801.

Philadelphia: R. T. Rawle. 1801.

Eighth American Edition. Boston: D. Carlisle. 1801.

Ninth American Edition. Boston: H. E. Sprague. 1801.

Trenton: Wilson & Blackwell. 1803.

Trenton: Wilson & Blackwell, for M. Carey. 1803.

New York: 1804.

Philadelphia: M. Carey. 1812.

Trenton: 1812.

Philadelphia: Hogan & Thompson. 1815.

Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea. 1825.

Boston: Wells & Lilly. 1829.

Boston: Lilly & Wait. 1832.

It is proper to state that the text of the Notes, as printed in Washington’s edition of Jefferson’s Writings, is that of 1787, but the editor chose to modify one paragraph to suit his personal views.

Although Jefferson never revised the Notes further than to amend the text for the edition printed in 1787, and the “Logan appendix,” he left a copy of the 1787 with MS revisions. From this an edition was printed in 1853 which besides embodying Jefferson’s corrections, included a preface by the publisher, an “Extract from a Letter of Judge Gibson,” and translations of the notes in foreign tongues. It also contains four plates and a woodcut not in any other edition. It is therefore the best edition, and one of the most difficult to procure. Its title is:

Notes / on the / State of Virginia, / by / Thomas Jefferson: / illustrated with / a Map, including the States of Virginia, Maryland / Delaware and Pennsylvania. / A New Edition, / Prepared by the Author, / Containing Notes and Plates never before published. / J. W. Randolph, / 121 Main Street, Richmond, Va. / 1853. / 8vo. pp. (10), 275, map, folding topographical analysis, and four plates.

The Notes stirred up considerable controversy. Jefferson’s theory of shell formation was somewhat ridiculed in the French press of the day, and later the same theory was brought forward by certain of his political opponents in America in an endeavor to make him absurd. His statements concerning Logan were sharply criticised for personal and political reasons. His argument against the universal deluge and his plea for religious toleration were used extensively as a political argument against him. These latter produced several pamphlets pro and con, concerning his religious opinions, of which the following by Clement Clarke Moore, is the only one entirely based on the Notes:

Observations / upon certain passages in / Mr. Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia, / which appear to have a tendency to / subvert Religion, / and Establish / A False Philosophy. / New-York. / 1804. / 8vo. pp. 32.

In the New York State Library at Albany are the proof sheets of the first edition of the Notes with Jefferson’s corrections. These are fully described in the Historical Magazine, (xiii, 96), by E. B. O’Callaghan. Only a single one is of a character to deserve notice in this reprint. In 1874, Jefferson’s copy of the edition of 1787 with his autograph corrections was sold at auction in New York for $160, passing to the library of E. G. Asay of Chicago.

For more concerning the Notes see the Historical Magazine, xiii, 96; Sparks’s Writings of Franklin, x, 317; Jefferson’s Autobiography, 1, 94: and the Monthly Review, lxxviii, 377, 450.

The present text conforms to that of the original edition printed in 1784, the original page numbers being given in brackets. This text has been compared, however, with the editions of 1787 and 1853, and all variation, other than typographical or verbal are indicated in footnotes. The first appendix, consisting of Charles Thomson’s notes, has been broken up, and each note placed with the part of the text to which it relates, as more convenient for reference. The “Notes on a Money Unit,” the “Fundamental Constitution,” and the “Bill for Religious Freedom,” are omitted, as not strictly forming part of the Notes, and more appropriately printed elsewhere. The appendix relating to Logan is compressed, by the exclusion of the confirmatory documents, and is placed as a footnote to the original account. The map is a reproduction of Jefferson’s original map, first published in the edition of 1786. The plate illustrating the “Logan matter” is reproduced from the “Appendix” of 1800. The “Eye draught of Madison’s cave” is reproduced from the first edition. The other four plates are taken from the edition of 1853. The present text therefore embodies practically all that is germane and valuable in every previous edition.

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[1 ]From Haye’s Virginia Gazette, Saturday, Dec. 28, 1782. See Autobiography, i., 80.