A copy was ordered by Jefferson in a letter dated from Paris July 1, 1787 to John Stockdale of London. The order included the names of the publishers, G. & T. Wilkie.

The last part of this work, from page 58 to the end, is addressed to Jefferson. On page 58 the author writes: . . . But I must confess I am inclined to believe the Marquis de Chastellux’s character of Mr. Jefferson. The very inclination is respect. There is an uniformity throughout, that appears to me to be natural; and the Author in this delineation has at least the merit of consistency. I have no positive testimony to contradict what is asserted of his talents and virtues, and I respect mankind too much to be sollicitous in my search of a negative; to him therefore, and to men of similar description, these concluding animadversions are addressed . . .

The following pages deal to a great extent with “Mr. Jefferson’s real reasons for wishing to prevent emigrations to America”.

John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806, was born in Northamptonshire, England, but fought in Canada, and became the first governor of Upper Canada. “Simcoe’s authorship of this pamphlet is revealed in one of his letters to D. W. Smith in the Smith ms. papers in the [Toronto] Library.”

For the work by the Marquis de Chastellux see no. 4021.

Jonathan Boucher, 1738-1804, the English divine to whom this pamphlet was formerly attributed, spent a number of years in America, but, an uncompromising Royalist, returned to England in 1775.

Manasseh Cutler, 1742-1823, Congregational clergyman, was educated at Yale College. In March 1786 he joined with other Massachusetts citizens to form the Ohio Company to promote a settlement in the Western territory, and in 1787 was appointed one of the three Directors who were instructed to apply to Congress for the purchase of the lands. He was successful in persuading Congress to pass the Ordinance under which the Northwest Territory was settled, and which he had helped to draft. Thomson’s note regarding this pamphlet reads: “Excessively rare. This pamphlet was reprinted in Nahum Ward’s ‘ Brief Sketch of the State of Ohio ,’ Glasgow, 1822, and London, 1823; and a French translation was issued in Paris in 1789. It is mentioned in Caleb Emerson’s article on Ohio in the 53rd volume of the N. A. Rev. p. 358, in Morse’s Geography, and by Wm. F. Poole in the N. A. Rev. vol. 122, page 261. It has the prediction that the western rivers will be navigable chiefly by steamboats.

“Doubts have been expressed as to Dr. Manasseh Cutler being the author of this rare tract. In this connection I will say that among the papers of Dr. Cutler may be seen the original receipt of Dabney and Cushing of Salem, for money paid them for printing in 1787 a pamphlet on the Western Territory. Ludewig says ‘with map,’ but I have never seen a copy with the map, and could never ascertain what map it explained.”

A second edition was published in the following year.