“ uable political work which has been published since Montesquieu’s day. he has reduced that writer of riddles & paradoxes & great apostle of Monarchy, to his true level. it should be the Manual of every republican & the aristocrat or monocrat whom this does not cure, may be pronounced incurable. it will be the school book of our colleges. it is but a thin 8 ^vo. ”

In a letter to Joseph C. Cabell dated from Monticello January 5, 1815, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . have you seen the Review of Montesquieu by an anonymous author? the ablest work of the age. it was translated and published by Duane about 3. years ago. in giving the most correct analysis of the principles of political association which has yet been offered, he states, in the branch of political economy particularly, altho’ much in brief, some of the soundest and most profound views we have ever had on those subjects . . . ”

In 1816 Lafayette requested more copies which Jefferson sent through Albert Gallatin, with a letter written on May 18: “ I have just recieved a request from M. de la Fayette to send him two copies of the Review of Montesquieu, published in Philadelphia about 4. or 5. years ago, and have written to Dufief to forward them under cover to you, wherever you may be, which he will know better than I can. I pray you to be the bearer of them, with the letter for him now inclosed; and, if you have never read the work, that you will amuse yourself with it on the passage. altho’ in some points it will not obtain our concurrence either in principle or practice, yet, on the whole, you have never seen so profound and so correct an exposition of the true principles of government. a work of equal distinction on the science of political economy is now in the press at Washington, profound, solid and brief . . . ”

On January 11, 1817, in a letter to John Adams, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . Tracy’s Commentaries on Montesquieu have never been published in the original. Duane printed a translation from the original MS. a few years ago. it sold I believe readily, and whether a copy can now be had, I doubt. if it can, you will recieve it from my bookseller in Philadelphia, to whom I now write for that purpose . . . ”

On April 4, 1819, Jefferson recommended the book to Isaac H. Tiffany with whom he was in correspondence: “ . . . If by the word government, you mean a classification of it’s forms I must refer you, for the soundest which has ever been given, to Tracy’s Review of Montesquieu, the ablest political work which the last century of years has given us. it was translated from the original MS., and published by Duane a few years ago; and is since published in the original French at Paris . . . ”

The copy of this work which Jefferson sold to Congress in 1815 is unfortunately no longer in the Library of Congress, which has however in its collections the copy which Jefferson presented to W. C. Rives. This copy is annotated by Rives, with occasional reference to Jefferson.

Antoine Louis Claude, Comte Destutt de Tracy, 1754-1836. The statements in Jefferson’s preface were merely for concealment of his identity; Destutt de Tracy was never in America. As stated above an anonymous edition in French was published in Liége in 1817, and one with his name in 1819. The author died in 1836. For an account of this book see Gilbert Chinard, Jefferson et les Idéologues. Other works by Destutt de Tracy appear in this catalogue.