“ many of these wear a good deal of homespun cotton. it is as well manufactured as the calicoes of Europe. those 4. states furnish a great deal of cotton to the states North of them, who cannot make it, as being too cold.--there is no neighborhood in any part of the United States without a water-grist-mill for grinding the corn of the neighborhood. Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, abound with large manufacturing mills for the exportation of flour. there are abundance of saw-mills in all the states. furnaces and forges of iron, I believe in every state, I know they are in the nine Northernmost. there are many mills for plating & slitting iron. and I think there are many distilleries of rum from Norfolk in Virginia to Portsmouth in New Hampshire. I mention these circumstances because your note seems to imply that these things are only in the particular states you mention.

" The second passage is page 101. & 102. where you speak of the ‘ravages causés par l’abus des eaux de vie’ which seems, by the note in page 101. to be taken on the authority of Smith. nothing can be less true than what that author says on this subject; and we may say in general that there are as many falshoods as facts in his work. I think drunkenness is much more common in all the America States than in France, but it is less common there than in England. you may form an idea from this of the state of it in America. Smith saw everything thro’ the medium of strong prejudice. besides this he does not hesitate to write palpable lies, which he was conscious were such.--when you proceed to form your table of American exports, & imports, I make no doubt you will consult the American traveller, the estimates in which are nearer the truth than those of L. Sheffield & Deane, as far as my knowlege of the facts enables me to judge.--I must beg your pardon for having so long detained those sheets. I did not finish my American dispatches till the night before last, & was obliged yesterday to go to Versailles . . . ”

Almost a year later, on July 6, 1787, Jefferson mentioned in a letter to Claviere: “ . . . Mr. Warville was so good as to give me a copy of the book written by himself & M. Claviere on France & the United states but I have not yet had time to read it. the talents & information of those gentlemen leave me without doubt that it is well written . . . ”

On May 1, 1788, Jefferson wrote letters of introduction for Brissot de Warville to Charles Thomson (the Secretary of Congress) and to James Madison, mentioning this book. To the former he wrote: “ The bearer hereof is M ^r. Warville who is already probably known to you by his writings, & particularly that on France and the United states. he is moreover a person of great worth, politically & morally speaking, and his acquaintance will give you great satisfaction. permit me therefore to introduce him to the honour of your acquaintance, & to ask for him those attentions & civilities which you are ever ready to shew to worth & talents . . . ”

To Madison he wrote: “ The bearer hereof, Monsieur de Warville, is already known to you by his writings, some of which I have heretofore sent you, & particularly his work sur la France et les etats unis. I am happy to be able to present him to you in person, assured that you will find him in all his dispositions equally estimable as for his genius. I need only to ask your acquaintance for him. that will dispose you to shew him all the civilities & attentions which may render his time agreeable in America, & put him into the way of obtaining any information he may want . . . ”

Two days later, on May 3, 1788, Jefferson wrote again to Madison. Jefferson retained the following note, which was a key to the coded passages of his letter to Madison, in his files in Paris. [Mr. Frederick Aandahl, former Associate Editor of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Princeton.] : “ Warville’s business in America. I suspect him agent--company--speculation of lands. perhaps you might connect him usefully--yourself & Monro. ”

Other works by both Claviere and Brissot de Warville appear in this catalogue.

For the original edition of the letter to Jefferson from Alexandre Charles de Calonne, reprinted in this work as a “Pièce relative” see no. 2303.