38
Tracts on weights & measures.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 114, no. 20, as above.
1849 Catalogue, page 683, no. 27, Pamphlets on Weights on Measures, viz:--Jefferson’s (Thomas) Notes on the Establishment
of a Money Unit; Annapolis, 1784.--Report of the Treasury Board on a Mint; Annapolis, 1786--Rotheram, (J.) on the Proposed
Plan for an Universal Standard of Weights and Measures; Edinburgh, 1791.--Boardley on Monies, Coins, Weights, and Measures,
Proposed for the United States; Philadelphia, 1789.--Leslie’s Proposed Standard of Measures, &c.; Philadelphia, 1790, MS.--Jefferson’s
(Thomas) Report on Weights, Measures, and Coins; New-York, 1790.--Proposition faite à l’Assemblée Nationale, sur les Poids
et Mesures, par M. l’Evéque d’Autun; Paris, 1790.--Rapport lu à l’Académie des Sciences sur le Choix d’une Unité de Mesure;
Paris, 19 mars, 1791; with a Letter from M. de Condorcet to T. Jefferson on the Subject, in MS.--Paine’s (Thomas) Thoughts
on Establishing a Mint; MS.--Principes sur les Mesures, par M. Bonne; Paris, 1790.--Morris, G.: Letter to T. Jefferson on
Weights, Measures, &c.; Paris, 1791, MS.--Keith’s (G. S.) Tracts on Weights, Measures, and Coins; London, 1791.--Mémoire de
l’Académie des Sciences, présenté à la Convention Nationale, Paris, 1792.--Dimension Proper for an Unit of Measures Pointed
Out, &c.; Philadelphia, 1796.--Fauchet (J.) Letter to the Secretary of State of the United States, with Decrees of the National
Assembly of France, Establishing a New System of Weights and Measures, 8vo; Philadelphia, 1795.
Fifteen tracts originally bound together for Jefferson in one volume, 8vo. The tracts are no longer in the Library of Congress;
the titles are taken from the 1849 catalogue as above.
1. [JEFFERSON,
Thomas.]
Notes on the Establishment of a Money Unit, and of a Coinage for the United States. Without name of place or printer, n.d. [
1785.]
F230 .J40
8vo. 8 leaves, the last a blank, caption title, no title-page; dated at the end, Annapolis, May 9, 1784.
Evans 18541.
Johnston, page 11.
Verner, page 6, note b.
The original holograph draft of these Notes is in the Jefferson Papers in the Library of Congress, written on 12 pages, 4to. It was used by him as an
appendix to his autobiography, written in 1821:
Congress . . . as early as Jan. 7, 1782. had turned their attention to the monies current in the several states, and had directed
the Financier, Robert Morris, to report to them a table of rates at which the foreign coins should be received at the treasury.
that officer, or rather his assistant, Gouverneur Morris, answered them on the 15
th. in an able and elaborate statement of the denominations of money current in the several states, and of the comparative value
of the foreign coins chiefly in circulation with us . . . the general views of the financier were sound, and the principle
was ingenious on which he proposed to found his Unit. but it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation
either by the head or in figures . . . I proposed therefore, instead of this, to adopt the Dollar as our Unit of account and
payment, and that it’s divisions and subdivisions should be in the decimal ratio. I wrote some Notes on the subject, which
I submitted to the consideration of the financier. I recieved his answer and adherence to his general system, only agreeing
to take for his Unit 100. of those he first proposed, so that a Dollar should be 14.40/100 and a crown 16. units. I replied
to this and printed my notes and reply on a flying sheet which I put into the hands of the members of Congress for consideration,
and the Committee agreed to report on my principle. this was adopted the ensuing year and is the system which now prevails.
I insert here the Notes and Reply, as shewing the different views on which the adoption of our money system hung. the division
into dismes, cents & mills is now so well understood, that it would be easy of introduction into the kindred branches of weights
& measures. I use, when I travel, an Odometer of Clarke’s invention which divides the miles into cents, and I find
