dette Nationale de l’Angleterre, de la France, & des Etats-Unis; en six Lettres addressées à Monsieur le Marquis de la Fayette.
Traduit sur le manuscrit
Anglais du Colonel Swan, ancien membre de la législation de la République de Massachuset . . . A
Paris: A l’Imprimerie de
L. Potier de Lille,
1790, Et chez les Marchands de Nouveautés.
HF3098 .S96
First Edition. 8vo. 164 leaves, including the half-title and the last blank, one folded table.
Sabin 94005.
Faÿ, page 27.
Original tree calf. Initialled by Jefferson at sig. I and T. With the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
Jefferson saw this book in manuscript and wrote from Paris on March 23, 1789, a letter to Swan, at the time in Havre, commenting on and criticising certain passages. This letter is in the Jefferson Papers in
the Library of Congress, but is partly illegible.
James Swan, 1754-1830, a Scot by birth, emigrated to New England in 1765. He joined the Sons of Liberty and took part in the Boston
Tea Party. In 1778 he became a member of the Massachusetts legislature. Swan was a financier, and left the United States for
France in 1787 where in 1795 he gained control of the United States debt to France. In 1808 he was sent to a debtor’s prison
in Paris where he remained until his death in 1830. He had some correspondence with Jefferson who requested information from
him on whale fishing, etc.
[3608]
J. 46
Claviere et Warville de la France et des etats unis.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 95. no. 352, as above.
CLAVIERE,
Étienne, et
Brissot de Warville, Jacques Pierre.
De la France et des États-Unis, ou de l’Importance de la Révolution de l’Amérique pour le bonheur de la France, des Rapports
de ce Royaume & des États-Unis, des avantages réciproques qu’ils peuvent retirer de leurs liaisons de Commerce, & enfin de
la situation actuelle des États-Unis. Par Étienne Claviere; et J. P. Brissot de Warville . . .
Londres,
1787.
HF3098 .B82
First Edition. 8vo. 208 leaves; the dedication
au Congrès Américain, et aux Amis des Etats-Unis, dans les Deux Mondes, dated from Paris, 20 Mars 1787.
Quérard I, 520.
Sabin 13516.
Faÿ, page 23.
Contemporary calf, silk bookmark, not initialled by Jefferson; with the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate.
The title is entered by Jefferson in his undated manuscript catalogue.
Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by Brissot de Warville, who sent him also the sheets before the book was published.
On August 16, 1786, Jefferson, then in Paris, wrote to Brissot de Warville in the same city: “
I have read with very great satisfaction the sheets of your work on the commerce of France & the United States which you were
so good as to put into my hands. I think you treat the subject, as far as these sheets go, in an excellent manner. were I
to select any particular passages as giving me particular satisfaction, it would be those wherein you prove to the United
States that they will be more virtuous, more free, & more happy, emploied in agriculture, than as carriers or manufacturers.
it is a truth, and a precious one for them, if they could be persuaded of it. I am also particularly pleased with your introduction.
you have properly observed that we can no longer be called Anglo-Americans. that appellation now describes only the inhabitants
of Novas Scotia,
[
sic
--
Ed.
]
Canada, &c. I had applied that of Federo-Americans to our citizens, as it would not be so decent for us to assume to ourselves
the flattering appellation of Free-Americans. there are two passages in this work on which I am able to give you information.
the first is on page 62. ‘ils auront le coton quand ils voudront se livrer à ce genre de culture’, and the note ‘l’on voit
dans la baie de Massachusets &c. the four Southernmost states make a great deal of cotton. their poor are almost entirely
clothed in it in winter & summer. in winter they wear shirts of it, & outer clothing of cotton & wool mixed. in Summer their
shirts are linnen but the outer clothing cotton. the dress of the women is almost entirely of cotton manufactured by themselves,
except the richer class, and even
”
