“ to begin by assuring you that I am not the author of that work, and of my own consciousness that it is far beyond my qualifications. in truth I consider it as the most profound and logical work which has been presented to the present generation. on the subject of government particularly there is a purity and soundness of principle which renders it precious, to our country particularly, where I trust it will become the elementary work for the youth of our academics and Colleges. the paradoxes of Montesquieu have been too long uncorrected. I will not fail to send you a copy of the work if possible to get it thro’ the perils of the sea . . . ”

On February 28, 1815, Jefferson sent to Dupont de Nemours his own copy of the work: “ This letter will be delivered to you by m( ^~ r) . Ticknor . . . by him I send you a copy of the Review of Montesquieu, from my own shelf, the impression being, I believe, exhausted by the late President of the College of Williamsburg having adopted it as the elementary book there. I am persuading the author to permit me to give his name to the public, and to permit the original to be printed in Paris. altho’ your presses, I observe, are put under the leading strings of your government, yet this is such a work as would have been licensed at any period, early or late, of the reign of Louis XVI. surely the present government will not expect to repress the progress of the public mind farther back than that . . . ”

On July 10, 1812, Jefferson introduced the book to Thomas Cooper: “ . . . have you read the Review of Montesquieu, printed by Duane? I hope it will become the elementary book of the youth at all our Colleges. such a reduction of Montesquieu to his true value had been long wanting in Political study . . . ”

On November 8, 1813, Thomas Cooper asked Jefferson: “. . . Pray, is it a secret who wrote the Commentary on Montesquieu? He [i.e. Dr. Erick Bollman] ascribes it to you, but I have always understood it to be the work of a Frenchman, and written in French. I do not agree with it in toto, but it is a valuable work . . .”

Jefferson replied on January 16, 1814: “ You ask if it is a secret who wrote the Commentary on Montesquieu? it must be a secret during the author’s life. I may only say at present that it was written by a Frenchman, that the original MS. in French is now in my possession, that it was translated and edited by Gen ^l. Duane, and that I should rejoice to see it printed in it’s original tongue, if any one would undertake it. no book can suffer more by translation, because of the severe correctness of the original in the choice of it’s terms. I have taken measures for securing the author his justly earned fame, whenever his death or other circumstances may render it safe for him. like you, I do not agree with him in every thing, and have had some correspondence with him on particular points. but on the whole, it is a most valuable work; one which I think will form an epoch in the science of government, and which I wish to see in the hands of every American student, as the elementary and fundamental institute of that important branch of human science . . . ”

To the polygraph copy of this letter in the papers in the Library of Congress, Jefferson has added a footnote: the original has since been published in France, with the name of it’s author, M. de Tutt Tracy. [An anonymous edition was published in Liége in 1817, reprinted with the author’s name in 1819.]

Jefferson wrote again to Cooper on this subject on August 25, 1814: “ . . . Since the change of government in France, I am in hopes the author of the Review of Montesquieu will consent to be named, and perhaps may publish there his original work: not that their press is free; but that the present government will be restrained by public opinion, whereas the late military despotism respected that of the army only . . . ”

Jefferson continued to send copies and to recommend this work to his friends and correspondents over a number of years.

On January 12, 1813, he wrote to Samuel R. Demaree: “ . . . you ask if I know of any new publication of value expected. I know of none now expected, but the Review of Montesquieu by a person who does not give his name, lately published by Duane, is the most val- ”