This volume of pamphlets was apparently not delivered to Congress in 1815. It is not checked as having been received in the working copy of the 1815 Library of Congress Catalogue, and is on the list of books missing from the Congressional Library made at a later date. It is possible however that the contents have been transferred to some of the rebound volumes included under Jefferson’s general heading.

J. 2. 1815 Catalogue, page 102. no. 284, Political American, 1791-1802, 8vo.

Seven tracts bound together in one volume, 8vo., half calf, labels on the back lettered Political / Pamphlets. / Vol. 98. / With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate. The tracts numbered serially in ink on the titles or first leaves.

A list of the contents in ink on the fly-leaf is not by Jefferson.

JA36 .P8 vol. 98

A Charge delivered by the Hon. James Wilson, Esq. one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, to the Grand Jury, impannelled for the Circuit Court of the United States, holden for the middle-circuit at the Capitol, in the city of Richmond, and district of Virginia, on Monday, the 23d day of May, 1791. Richmond: printed by Augustine Davis, m,dcc,xci . [1791.]

First Edition. 8vo. 16 leaves including the last blank.

Sabin 104626. Evans 24006. Adams 10.

James Wilson, 1742-1798, jurist and Congressman, was born in Scotland and emigrated to New York in 1765.

This copy lacks the title, all but the last leaf of the preliminary matter, and eight leaves at the end of Mirabeau’s text. It is without the letters of George Washington and Turgot and the Observations of Dr. Price.

James Ogilvie, 1760-1820, Scottish scholar, emigrated to Virginia in 1779, and established an academy at Milton, where he became acquainted with Jefferson and eventually tutor to his grandchildren. Later he returned to Aberdeen, Scotland, where he is said to have died by his own hand. Jefferson had much correspondence with him.

The name Col. Thomas Bell--of Char[ lottes] vi[ lle] [partly cut away] written in ink on the title-page.

Sent to Jefferson by Philip Norborne Nicholas, who wrote from Richmond, Virginia, on October 8, 1799: “Inclosed is a little posthumous work work [sic] of my brother Colo. Geo. Nicholas. It contains some very severe strictures on the measures of the last session of Congress. This pamphlet is characterized by that freedom of inquiry and independence of spirit which is conspicuous in all the writings of the author. Harper if not calous must feel some of the cutting truths which it contains . . .”

Jefferson wrote to Nicholas on November 2, but the letterpress copy in the Library of Congress is illegible.

This is the second of two pamphlets by Nicholas on the Kentucky resolutions against the Alien and Sedition Laws. The chief letter is dated June 10, 1799, so that Jefferson’s efforts to distribute one of Nicholas’s pamphlets on this subject must have referred to the earlier one, published in 1798.

On February 11, 1799, he wrote to Monroe: “ . . . under two other covers you will recieve a copy of the French originals of Gerry’s communicñs for your self and a doz. of G. N’s pamphlets on the laws of the last session. I wish you to give these to the most influential characters among our country-men, who are only misled, are candid enough to be open to conviction, & who may have most effect on their neighbors. it would be useless to give them to persons already sound. do not let my name be connected with the business . . . ”

On February 13, he wrote similarly to Archibald Stuart: “ . . . under separate cover, you will recieve some pamphlets written by George Nicholas on the acts of the last session. these I would wish you to distribute, not to sound men who have no occasion for them, but to such as have been misled, are candid & will be open to the conviction of truth, and are of influence among their neighbors. it is the sick who need medicine & not the well. do not let my name appear in the matter . . . ”

George Nicholas, 1754-1799, Virginia politician, was the brother of Wilson Cary Nicholas. He was born in Williamsburg and made his political debut in the House of Delegates by moving an investigation into the conduct of Jefferson during Arnold’s invasion. He later retracted the charges and became one of Jefferson’s leading supporters. In 1790 he removed to Kentucky and became the first Attorney General of that State. In 1798 he took a leading part in framing and advocating Jefferson’s anti-federalist resolutions of that year. He died whilst this pamphlet was in the press.

Robert Goodloe Harper, 1765-1828, was admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1786. A federalist and opposed to Jefferson, he was an advocate of the Alien and Sedition Laws.

On the title-page Jefferson has written the name of the author: De Witt Clinton.

Sent to Jefferson by the author on May 16, 1807, when he wrote from New York: “In looking over some old Pamphlets I came across a pamphlet which I transmit by this mail. It was written by me in reply to a furious priest of the name of Linn, during a season of leisure in the country. As I presume you have not seen it, the perusal of it may fill up a vacant hour . . .”

Jefferson replied from Washington on May 24: “ Th: Jefferson presents his compliments to m( ^~ r) Clinton & his thanks for the pamphlet sent him. he recollects the having read it at the time with a due sense of his obligation to the author whose name was surmised tho’ not absolutely known, and a conviction that he had made the most of his matter. the ground of defence might have been solidly aided by the assurance (which is the absolute fact) that the whole story fathered on Mazzei was an unfounded falsehood. D ^r. Linn, as aware of that, takes care to quote it from a dead man, who is made to quote from one residing in the remotest part of Europe. equally false was D ^r. Linn’s other story about Bishop Madison’s lawn sleeves, as the bishop can testify, for certainly Th: J. never saw him in lawn sleeves. had the Doctor ventured to name time, place & person for his third lie, (the government without religion) it is probable he might have been convicted on that also. but these are slanders & slanderers whom Th: J. has thought it best to leave to the scourge of public opinion. he salutes m ( ^~ r) Clinton with esteem & respect.”

For Dr. Linn’s pamphlet see no. 3226.

De Witt Clinton, 1769-1828, statesman and scholar, Mayor and later Governor of New York. Other works by him appear in this catalogue.

Anthony Aufrer(e¸), 1756-1833, English antiquary. His first edition of this translation was published in London in 1798. Evans lists fourteen American editions for this year.

For a note on Ogilvie and another pamphlet by him see no. 3195 in this volume.

The fourteen pamphlets originally bound together in one volume have disappeared and cannot be traced. They are not in the 1864 catalogue, and possibly may have disappeared in the fire of 1851.

In cases of prolific authors, it has not been possible to determine which particular pamphlet was included in this volume.

Mentions Jefferson and the Notes on the State of Virginia .

Thomas Waters Griffith, merchant of Baltimore, was for a time American consul at Le Havre.

No pamphlet by Wilson Cary Nicholas was published during the years 1798 or 1799.

[It cannot be stated positively which of Gallatin’s speeches made in the years 1798,9 was included in this collection. In that his name is followed by that of A. Addison, it seems probable that the pamphlets referred to are Gallatin’s speech on the Foreign Intercourse bill, and Addison’s Observations on that speech. These two pamphlets are therefore inserted here.]

The Speech of Albert Gallatin, delivered in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the first of March, 1798, upon the Foreign Intercourse Bill. Second edition. With an Appendix. Philadelphia: printed by Richard Folwell, 1798.

AC901 .D8 Duane 59

8vo. 24 leaves.

Sabin 26396. Evans 33777.

The first edition, without the Appendix, appeared in the same year. The above entry is taken from the copy of the second edition in the Duane pamphlets in the Library of Congress.

For a note on George Logan see no. 3156.

It cannot be determined which of the pamphlets by Tench Coxe was in this volume. For Jefferson’s collection of pamphlets by Coxe, see nos. 3624-31.

William Nelson, 1760-1815, professor at the College of William and Mary. This pamphlet is ascribed to him in view of the fact that on the title-page of the copy in the University of Virginia, Joseph C. Cabell, to whom it belonged, has written “By William Nelson esq.”, and on the title-page of the copy in the Library of Congress (a Duane pamphlet) is written “Judge Nelson”. The pamphlet is entered anonymously in all the bibliographies.

It has not been possible to identify this pamphlet.

Mentions Jefferson on page 9 in a speech by “Genius”:

Their councils shall my FRANKLIN guide, great sage,

Who first dare check the lightning of the skies;

My ADAMS and my JEFFERSON with him;

By these great aids shall wrest the sceptre from

A tyrant hand . . .

Alexander Martin, 1740-1807, Governor of North Carolina and United States Senator. This tract is included as being apparently the only one published by Martin in either 1798 or 1799. Two issues were printed, of which the other has Thomas Condie’s name in the imprint.

John Cosens Ogden addressed several letters to Jefferson from Litchfield prison. On March 5, 1799, he wrote to him from that address a letter which mentioned: “. . . To-morrow my design is to open the aristocracy and spiritual tyranny to view, in another pamphlet. They are well assured, that I shall industriously endeavor to make a revolution in opinions in this state, which violate the constitution & laws & disturb the public tranquility . . .”

Relates to the X Y Z affair. Jefferson is mentioned on page 54 in the comments on Article 14 of the treaty of amity and commerce, in the instructions to the Envoys Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Republic. On page 8 is a reference to Major Mountflorence, one of whose original letters is in Jefferson’s collection, see no. 2563.

The copy in the Library of Congress, in the Duane collection of pamphlets, has By W ^m Duane written in ink on the title-page, apparently by Duane himself.

Rebound in half red morocco. Presentation copy from the author, who has written on the first page: To M ^r. Jefferson. from the Author .

This is probably the pamphlet referred to by Barlow in his letter to Jefferson dated from Paris, September 15, 1801, in which he introduced Robert Fulton and his submarine to Jefferson’s notice, and of which the postscript reads: “I take the liberty to send you by M ^r. Skipwith a little pamphlet I published last year on a subject which I thot useful.”

This pamphlet is not mentioned in the list in the 1849 catalogue, and may have been in a different volume of tracts.

This collection of pamphlets is no longer in the Library of Congress; the pamphlets are not listed in the Library of Congress Catalogue of 1864, and may have disappeared at the time of the fire of 1851.

This pamphlet cannot be definitely identified. A Richmond imprint is called for in the 1849 catalogue, and Nicholas published his “An Address from Wilson C. Nicholas, a Representative in Congress from Virginia, to his Constituents. Together with a Speech delivered by him on the Bill to Interdict Commercial Intercourse with France, England, &c.”, at the Enquirer Office, Richmond, in 1809.

This pamphlet is much beyond the date of the others in the collection and is on the Embargo. No pamphlet was published by Nicholas in 1799 or 1800.

The 1849 catalogue calls for a tract printed in Charleston, this edition of Pinckney’s Three Letters has therefore been included here. That Jefferson had a copy of the earlier edition, printed at the Aurora-Office in Philadelphia, is clear from his letter to Pinckney written from Monticello on October 29, 1799: “ Your favor of Sep. 12 came to hand on the 3 ^d. inst. I have delayed acknoledging it in hopes of recieving the longer one you mentioned to have written, but that has not yet reached me. I was both pleased and edified by the piece on Robbins’s case. it ought to be a very serious case to the judge. I think no one circumstance since the establishment of our government has affected the popular mind more. I learn that in Pennsylvania it had a great effect. I have no doubt the piece you inclosed will run through all the republican papers, and carry the question home to every man’s mind . . . ”

Charles Pinckney, 1757-1824, Governor of South Carolina, was at first a Federalist in politics, but later became a Jeffersonian Republican. In 1801 he was appointed by Jefferson minister to Spain. Pinckney married the daughter of Henry Laurens, q.v.

Jefferson’s copies were sent to him by the author, to whom Jefferson wrote on January 18, 1800: “ I have to thank you for the pamphlets you were so kind as to send me. you will know what I thought of them by my having before sent a dozen sets to Virginia to distribute among my friends. yet I thank you not the less for these which I value the more as they came from yourself. the stock of them which Campbell had was I believe exhausted the first or second day of advertising them. the papers of Political arithmetic both in your’s & m ( ^~ r) Cooper’s pamphlets are the most precious gifts that can be made to us; for we are becoming navigation-mad, & commerce-mad, and navy-mad, which is worst of all. how desireable is it that you could produce that subject for us. from the Porcupines of our country you will receive no thanks; but the great mass of our nation will edify & thank you . . . ”

Priestley wrote from Northumberland on January 30: “I am flattered by your thinking so favourably of my pamphlets, which were only calculated to give some satisfaction to my suspicious neighbors. Chancellor Livingston informs me that he has got an edition of them printed at Albany, for the information of the people in the back country, where, he says, it is most wanted. Indeed, it seems extraordinary, that in such a country as this, where there is no court to dazzle men’s eyes, maxims as plain as that 2 and 2 make 4 should not be understood, and acted upon . . .”

On April 10, 1801, Priestley wrote to Jefferson: “. . . Your resentment of the treatment I have met with in this country is truly generous, but I must have been but little impressed with the principles of the religion you so justly commend, if they had not enabled me to bear much more than I have yet suffered. Do not suppose that, after the much worse treatment to which I was for many years exposed in England (of which the pamphlet I take the liberty to inclose will give you some idea) I was much affected by this. My Letters to the Inhabitants of Northumberland were not occasioned by any such thing, tho it served me as a pretence for writing them, but the threatenings of M ^r. Pickering, whose purpose to send me out of the country M ^r. Adams (as I conclude from a circuitous attempt that he made to prevent it) would not, in the circumstances in which he then was, have been able directly to oppose. My publication was of service to me in that and other respects, and I hope, in some measure, to the common cause . . .”

For Cooper’s Political Arithmetic see no. 2804 and for other works by Priestley see the Index.

This tract is included here as being the only one published by Cooper in 1799. An Account of the trial of Thomas Cooper was published in 1800, and is in another collection of tracts, see no. 3224.

The New England Illuminati was the name given in 1798 to certain New England clergymen who were accustomed to meet from 1790 to 1800 to discuss politics and in particular the French revolution. The name rose from the fear that the European cult founded by Adam Weisshaupt and known as the Illuminati had penetrated into the United States. See also the pamphlet by John Wood, no. 3280.

John Cosens Ogden wrote several letters to Jefferson and to John Adams during 1799. On February 7 he wrote to Jefferson from Litchfield, Connecticut, and on February 20 he wrote to Adams (the original in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress) from Litchfield prison.

John Ward Fenno was the son of John Fenno whose Gazette [q.v.] he continued to publish after the death of his father in September 1798 until 1800, when he sold the paper.

Contains a number of letters from Talleyrand to Elbridge Gerry with some of the replies of the latter, and other matters.

The 1815 Library of Congress Catalogue called for 2 volumes; a note in the contemporary working copy states that the 1st volume is missing.

A number of these pamphlets are concerned with the 1800 election.

The number 1 in ink on the first page; initialled by Jefferson at sig[.] T.

This number contains A Defence of the Publications on which the action of Rush was grounded, including a summary of the charges against the defendant:

1. With calling Doctor Rush a vain boaster.

2. With calling him a quack.

3. With calling him Sangrado.

4. With saying that he slew his patients.

Jefferson is introduced into the argument. On page 145: Permit me to put a case to you, Gentlemen. Suppose Jefferson were to propose to you a new alliance with France: should you listen to it with the same patience as you would to a similar proposition from Mr. Adams? And would you not be justified in declaring, that you believed you should not have said so much about it, if Jefferson had not been the proposer? Should you not, if this your declaration were brought forward as a proof of your malice against Jefferson, spurn at the promoters of the charge and the wretched spies they had employed? Were you free men, nay, were you vassals, were you slaves, were you any thing but Philadelphians, you certainly would . . .

Several references to Jefferson occur. On page 13: They have told us, and too many Americans have believed it, That in the event of the election of Mr. Jefferson, we should have a war with England. But I will undertake not only to shew that we shall have no war with England, but also, that America has nothing to fear, under a wise administration, from any foreign nation whatever.

On page 46: They have been told; that, under the administration of Jefferson, the National debt would be extinguished, in order to excite the fears of those who live upon the interest; and, some silly republicans, have been weak enough to believe this villainous insinuation; though not one federalist who propagated it, ever entertained such a belief, for a moment. But to throw out Jefferson, and keep themselves in power, they will go any lengths . . . If the price of stock, should fall during the administration of Mr. Jefferson, it will be, because a new field will then be opened for the employment of capital: monied men will find it more profitable to employ their riches in adorning the face of the country, and in establishing useful arts, than lending it to the nation at six per cent.

William Cobbett established the Rush-Light on February 15, 1800, after his loss of the libel suit brought against him by Dr. Benjamin Rush for his ridicule of Rush’s methods of dealing with the yellow fever. This is the only number which includes the word “Republican” in the title.

For this attack on the administration of John Adams, Cooper was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of $400, which, after his death, was refunded to his heirs.

This Appendix contains a number of letters and depositions of which most of the originals (or in the case of Jefferson’s letters, autograph letterpress copies) are in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress. It is addressed by Jefferson to Governor Henry of Maryland, in a letter dated December 31st, 1797.

On December 11, 1797, Luther Martin of Baltimore wrote to Jefferson: “My first address to you was placed by me in the hands of a friend in Philadelphia, to be delivered to you immediately after the then Session of Congress should Terminate.

"Your Departure before that Period prevented your receiving it as soon as I wished, and obliged me to transmit by the Mail to you in Virginia the printed Copy.

"I take it for granted you received that copy,--and also that you have seen in the publick Papers my letter to M ^r. Fennell and that to yourself of which I sent you the Copy;--And taking these facts for granted, I now again pay my respects to you.

"You, Sir, are the avowed Author of the Notes upon Virginia.--That work is published with your Name;--And in it you have calumniated a family with which I am connected;--the Individuals of which I respect and esteem, and to one of whom my Children owe their Birth.--A Family, Sir, which, tho’ it hath not furnished America with Philosophers, Writers of Notes upon Virginia, Ambassadors to France, Secretaries of State, or Vice Presidents of the Union, yet dares place its name in Competition with that of Jefferson.--That work was also published by you when M ^r. Michael Cresap had been dead more than seven years, and when Col ^o Cresap borne down by the hand of Time, blind and deaf was sinking into his Grave.--

"I have in the most publick manner called on you to designate the Individual to whom you meant to apply the Calumny, and the Authority on which you published it.--The Propriety of my so doing no person can question.--I have waited sufficiently long for your Answer;--but that you have not thought proper to give me.--You have preserved obstinate, stubborn Silence.--Was I much more your Enemy than I am, I could not have wished you to have acted differently.--It is precisely the part the least honorable to your head or to your heart.

"One of two things only with propriety could you have done;--either justified your Publication;--or acknowledged your Error.

"That the first was not in your power I know.--And for the last I did not believe you to possess sufficient Candor.--

"For your Silence the Publick expects a reason.--It already condemns you. Come forward when you will;--Assign any reason you choose, I pledge myself to [improve?] its futility.--One thing I will frankly acknowledge;--avail yourself of it as you please. I might, and had I very highly esteemed you, it is probable I should, have entered on a discussion of this Subject in a manner less offensive; But even you, Sir must admit that I have shewn as much attention to your feelings, as you thought decent to shew to the feelings of the Cresaps; and I am sure you cannot be so lost to every sentiment of Justice but that you must join with the publick Voice in acknowledging that from me you are not entitled to more.

"That I should address this Letter to you immediately on your Arrival at Congress may by some be thought extraordinary or perhaps censurable; but finding on a former occasion I appreciated your Publick Services beyond even your own Ideas, I have now changed my Conduct, and as I formerly waited for Congress to rise, I have now not only waited for Congress to meet, but also for you to meet the Congress; and during the session I mean to take the Liberty, Sir, of keeping up a Correspondence with you through the medium of the publick Papers, until I effect the object I have undertaken, that of effacing from the name of Cresap the stain you have attempted to fix thereon. Whether in so doing I shall sully your own the world will determine.--You have refused to inform me which of the Cresaps you intended to transmit to posterity as the infamous Murderer of the family of that all-accomplished orator, your Mingo Chief--You have thereby rendered my Undertaking more complex.--However as I well know, of that family there were but two persons, to either of whom your charge could be meant to be applied; To the Vindication of those two, shall my future Letters be confined;--The one Colonel Thomas Cresap, who, tho’ when the British invaded Virginia he was more than one hundred years of age, I am confident had he been Governor of that State would not have fled from the Seat of his Government at least without an attempt to defend it.--The other M ^r Michael Cresap, his youngest Son, whose Life, had Heaven spared it to his family and to his Country, would I am well satisfied have prevented me the necessity of this Investigation, for, Sir, in that case I sacredly beleive neither the Story nor the Speech of Logan would in their present form have graced the pages of the Notes on Virginia.”

On December 24, Governor John Henry of Maryland, wrote (apparently to Henry Tazewell): “In M ^r. Jeffersons Notes on Virginia it is stated (I have not the Book by me) that the Family of Logan were murdered by one of the Cresaps. M ^r. Martin the Attorney General of Maryland married into that family. He has heretofore and also within the last two weeks addressed a letter or letters to M ^r. Jefferson upon this subject. He has likewise stated to me in a conversation which I had with him at my own request, that he now has in his possession documents which will show that the passage in the Notes is incorrect.

"As the feelings of M ^r. Martin & his friends have been wounded by this part of the Notes, I am anxious that there should be an understanding upon this subject and their minds made easy.

"I can see no good reason why M ^r. Jefferson should not give some speedy assurance directly to M ^r. Martin or to some of his friends that the correction shall take place.

"Altho in the Great Concerns of our Country we have differed as to the course which it was best to pursue, yet there has never been a time when I had not the highest respect & esteem for the character of M ^r. Jefferson and of late having resided under the same roof with him, and been an eye witness of his deportment both public & private; I am free to declare that his virtues have endeared him to me.

"To lessen the number of his Enemies & assuage the accrimony of those which he now has, are objects which I have much at heart.

"I have the disposition to say much upon this subject, but a future occasion may be embraced with more propriety.

"I however now from a strong & sincere desire to quiet the mind of my friend M ^r. Martin, as well as for other considerations, entreat you to press upon the mind of Mr. Jefferson the propriety of not adding unnecessarily to the Number of his Enemies--they are already numerous & bitter enough God knows.

"Whatever he does upon the subject matter of this letter, I know will be strongly marked with that sincerity candour & simplicity which has so eminently distinguished his character.

"I will thank you for any communication respecting our public affairs.”

This letter, without address, is in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress, endorsed by Jefferson: Henry Gov ^r of Maryland. 97. Dec.

Jefferson wrote to Governor Henry in a letter dated from Philadelphia December 31, 1797, which is printed as the Introduction to this Appendix.

“ M ^r. Tazewell has communicated to me the enquiries you have been so kind as to make relative to a passage in the Notes on Virginia, which has lately excited some newspaper publications. I feel with great sensibility the interest you take in this business and with pleasure go into explanations with one whose objects I know to be truth & justice alone. had m ( ^~ r) Martin thought proper to suggest to me that doubts might be entertained of the transaction respecting Logan, as stated in the Notes on Virginia, & to enquire on what grounds that statement was founded, I should have felt myself obliged by the enquiry, have informed him candidly of the grounds, & cordially have cooperated in every means of investigating the fact, & correcting whatsoever in it should be found to have been erroneous. but he chose to step at once into the newspapers, & in his publications there, & the letters he wrote to me, adopted a style which forbade the respect of an answer. sensible however that no act of his could absolve me from the justice due to others, as soon as I found that the story of Logan could be doubted, I determined to enquire into it as accurately as the testimony remaining after a lapse of twenty odd years would permit, & that the result should be made known either in the first new edition which should be printed of the Notes on Virginia, or by publishing an Appendix. I thought that so far as that work had contributed to impeach the memory of Cresap, by handing on an erroneous charge, it was proper it should be made the vehicle of retribution. not that I was at all the author of the injury. I had only concurred with thousands & thousands of others in believing a transaction on authority which merited respect. for the story of Logan is only repeated in the Notes on Virginia precisely as it had been current more than a dozen years before they were published. when L ^d. Dunmore returned from his expedition against the Indians in 1774. he & his officers brought the speech of Logan, & related the circumstances of it. these were so affecting, & the speech itself so fine a morsel of eloquence that it became the theme of every conversation, in Williamsburg particularly, & generally indeed wheresoever any of the officers resided or resorted. I learned it in Williams-

" I have gone, my dear Sir, into this lengthy detail to satisfy a mind, in the candour and rectitude of which I have the highest confidence. so far as you may incline to use the communication for rectifying the judgments of those who are willing to see things truly as they are, you are free to use it. but I pray that no confidence which you may repose in any one may induce you to let it go out of your hands so as to get into a newspaper. against a contest in that field I am entirely decided. I feel extraordinary gratification indeed in addressing this letter to you, with whom shades of difference in political sentiment have not prevented the interchange of good opinion, nor cut off the friendly offices of society & good correspondence. this political tolerance is the more valued by me who consider social harmony as the first of human felicities, & the happiest moments those which are given to the effusions of the heart. accept them sincerely, I pray you from one who has the honor to be, with sentiments of high respect and attachment, Dear Sir . . . ”

Six months before Martin’s letter to Jefferson, on June 4, 1797, in a letter to Peregrine Fitzhugh, Jefferson had written: “ . . . you have perhaps seen an attack made by a m( ^~ r) Luther Martin on the facts stated in the Notes on Virginia relative to Logan, his speech, the fate of his family, and the share Col ^o. Cresap had in their extermination. I do not desire to enter the field in the newspapers with m ( ^~ r) Martin but if any injury has been done Col ^o. Cresap in the statement I have given it shall certainly be corrected whenever another edition of that work shall be published. I have given it as I have recieved it. I think you told me Cresap had lived in your neighborhood hence I have imagined you could in the ordinary course of conversations in the societies there find the real truth of the whole transaction & the genuine character and conduct of Cresap. if you will be so good as to keep this subject in your mind, to avail yourself of the opportunities of enquiry & evidence which may occur, and communicate the result to me you will singularly oblige me. ”

On January 2, 1798, Jefferson wrote to John Page: “ You have probably seen or heard of some very abusive letters addressed to me in the publick papers by a m( ^~ r) Martin of Baltimore on the subject of Logan’s speech cited in the Notes on Virginia. I do not mean to notice m( ^~ r) Martin or go into the newspapers on the subject. but I am still anxious to enquire into the foundation of that story, & if I find anything wrong in it, it shall be corrected, & what is right supported either in some new edition of that work or in an Appendix to it. you and I were so much together about the year 1774. that I take for granted that whatsoever I heard you heard also and therefore that your memory can assist mine in recollecting the substance of the story, how it came to us, and who could now be applied to to give information relative to it. you were more in L ^d. Dunmore’s & Foy’s company than I was, & probably heard more of it from that family than I did. I must pray you to rub up your recollection & communicate to me as fully as you can what you can recall to your mind relative to it. and if you can procure me the evidence, or the recollections of any other person on it it will much oblige me . . . ”

On the same day he wrote to Mann Page: “ I do not know whether you have seen some very furious abuse of me in the Baltimore papers by a m( ^~ r) Luther Martin, on account of Logan’s speech published in the Notes on Virginia. he supposes both the speech & story made by me to support an argument against Buffon; I mean not to enter into a newspaper contest with m ( ^~ r) Martin. but I wish to collect as well as the lapse of time will permit the evidence on which we received that story. it was brought to us as I remember by L ^d. Dunmore & his officers on their return from the expedition of 1774. I am sure it was from them I got it. as you were very much in the same circle of society in W ^ms.burg with myself, I am in hopes your memory will be able to help out mine, and recall some facts which have escaped me. I ask it as a great favor of you to endeavor to recollect & to communicate to me all the circumstances you possibly can relative to this matter, particularly the authority on which we received it, & the names of any persons who you think can give me information. I mean to fix the fact with all possible care & truth, and either to establish or correct the former statement in an Appendix to the Notes on Virginia, or in the first republication of the work . . . ”