“

"Deux jours après avoir reçu l’exemplaire, que vous avez eu la bonté de m’adresser on m’a aporté de Paris un paquet à l’adresse de M. de Buffon qui avoit été remis chez moi. comme j’ai cru reconnoitre le forme du paquet et l’ecriture de l’adresse, j’ai imaginé, monsieur, que c’etoit un exemplaire de votre ouvrage que, vous me chargiez de luis faire passer . . .”

To this Jefferson, who had interlineally transcribed the letter in an effort to read it, replied on June 7: “ I have been honoured with the receipt of your letter of the 2 ^d. instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerely, for the partiality with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my country. as I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own observation, and have admitted none on the report of others which were not supported by evidence sufficient to command my own assent, I am not afraid that you should make any extracts you please for the Journal de physique which come within their plan of publication. the strictures on slavery and on the constitution of Virginia are not of that kind, and they are the parts which I do not wish to have made public, at least till I know whether their publication would do most harm or good. it is possible that in my own country these strictures might produce an irritation which would indispose the people towards the two great objects I have in view, that is the emancipation of their slaves & the settlement of their constitution on a firmer & more permanent basis. if I learn from thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have printed & reserved just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man at the College. it is to them I look, to the rising generation, and not to the one now in power, for these great reformations.--the other copy delivered at your hotel was for Mons ^r. de Buffon. I meant to ask the favour of you to have it sent to him, as I was ignorant how to do it. I have one also for Mons ^r. Daubenton, but being utterly unknown to him I cannot take the liberty of presenting it till I can do it through some common acquaintance . . . ”

On June 17, in a letter dated from Paris to James Monroe, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . I send you by m( ^~ r) Otto a copy of my book. be so good as to apologize to m( ^~ r) Thomson for my not sending him one by this conveiance. I could not burthen m( ^~ r) Otto with more on so long a road as that from here to l’Orient. I will send him one by a m( ^~ r) Williamos who will go ere long. I have taken measures to prevent it’s publication. my reason is that I fear the terms in which I speak of slavery and of our constitution may produce an irritation which will revolt the minds of our countrymen against reformation in these two articles, and thus do more harm than good. I have asked of m ( ^~ r) Madison to sound this matter as far as he can, and if he thinks it will not produce that effect, I have then copies enough printed to give one to each of the young men at the college, and to my friends in the country . . . ”

Three days later, on June 21, Jefferson wrote from Paris to Charles Thomson in New York: “ . . . In literature nothing new: for I do not consider as having added any thing to that feild my own Notes of which I have had a few copies printed. I will send you a copy by the first safe conveyance. having troubled m ( ^~ r) Otto with one for Col ^o. Monro, I could not charge him with one for you. pray ask the favor of Col ^o. Monroe in page 5. line 17. to strike out the words ‘above the mouth of Appamattox,’ which makes nonsense of the passage, and I forgot to correct it before I had enclosed & sent off the copy to him.

" I am desirous of preventing the reprinting this, should any book merchant think it worth it, till I hear from my friends whether the terms in which I have spoken of slavery and of the constitution of our state will not, by producing an irritation, retard that reformation which I wish instead of promoting it . . . ”

On July 2, Richard Price acknowledged from Newington Green the receipt of his copy: “. . . Accept my best thanks for the account of Virginia which you were so good as to send me by M ^r Adams. This has been, indeed, a most acceptable present to me, and you may depend on my performing the condition upon which you have honoured me with it. I have read it with singular pleasure and a warm admiration of your sentiments and character. How happy would the united states be were all of them under the direction of such wisdom and liberality as yours? . . .”