“ felt a more than common desire to give it an attentive perusal . . .”
Jefferson replied from Washington on May 3: “
Your favor of Mar. 23. was put into my hand just as I was setting out on a short visit to Monticello, from which place I am
returned only three days ago. this I hope will apologize for the tardiness of my acknoleging the reciept of it, together with
my thanks for the book it covered. I should be glad to see a new & better edition of it, and that it should be made without
any retouches by the author. as it is, it contains sound & excellent principles, from which however it’s author has lamentably
swerved in his doctrine & conduct in public life. so that the earliest & not the latest editions of this book, will, I am
persuaded, be longest approved, should the author revise them . . .
”
In recommending this book, with others, to William Green Montfort, in a letter dated from Philadelphia, February 27, 1798,
Jefferson wrote: “
. . . the little book of Chipman’s is a very excellent elementary book indeed. the author is now one of the Senators from
Vermont . . .
”
This, with Priestley’s
First Principles of Government
, q.v., and others, was one of the books which would furnish Alexander I of Russia with “
the principles of our constitution and their practical development in the several parts of that instrument.” [Letter from Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, November 29, 1802.]
Nathaniel Chipman, 1752-1843, jurist, was a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, and a Hamiltonian Federalist in politics.
[2361]
J. 36
La Cretelle sur les peines infamantes.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 99. no. 102, as above.
LACRETELLE,
Pierre Louis
.
Discours sur le préjugé des peines infamantes, couronnés à l’Académie de Metz. Lettre sur la réparation qui seroit dûe aux
accusés jugés innocens. Dissertation sur le Ministère public. Réflexions sur la réforme de la justice criminelle. Par M. Lacretelle, avocat au Parlement.
A
Paris: chez
Cuchet, Libraire, rue & hôtel Serpente [de l’imprimerie de
Cl. Simon],
m. dcc. lxxxiv
. Avec approbation & privilège du Roi. [1784]
HV8671 .L2
First Edition. 8vo. 210 leaves, printer’s imprint at the end.
French calf, gilt back, marbled end papers, r.e., red silk bookmark. Not initialled by Jefferson. With the Library of Congress
1815 bookplate.
This was probably the book referred to by William Duane in a letter to Jefferson, written in Washington, November 27, 1802:
“. . . Lacretelle’s book I have not here but have written for it by mail to Philadelphia, and requested it to be sent by some
private hand . . .”
Entered on the undated manuscript catalogue with the price,
3.0.
Pierre Louis Lacretelle, 1751-1824, French lawyer, politician and publicist, the friend of Condorcet, d’Alembert, Buffon, Turgot, Malesherbes, and
others, achieved fame through this book.
[2362]
J. 37
Warville des loix criminelles.
2. v.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 107. no. 103, as above.
BRISSOT
de WARVILLE, Jean Pierre.
Théorie des Loix Criminelles. Par J. P. Brissot de Warville . . . Tome premier [-second]. A
Berlin,
m. dcc. lxxxi
. [1781.]
HV8661 .B8
