“ employed in creating and preserving an independent nation. That you may long live and enjoy the reward of your labors in the grateful remembrance of your contemporaries, and in possessing the blessings, which you have communicated to others is the sincere wish of Sir, your most respectful & very obed ^t. servant.”

Jefferson replied from Washington on January 24: “ Th: Jefferson presents his salutations to m( ^~ r) Story & his thanks for the books sent him. one of them will be kept as a mark of his esteem, that kind of reading being out of the line of his present occupations: the other will be read with pleasure in moments of leisure. he prays him to accept the assurances of his esteem & respect. ”

There is no indication in this correspondence which edition was sent to Jefferson. The first edition was published without date, but probably soon after October 18, 1802, the date of the Proem. Sending a copy to Jefferson in January 1804, it seems probable that the author would send the later edition, to which the Fugitive Pieces had been added. This book is properly checked as having been received in the working copy of the Library of Congress Catalogue of 1815, but the entry is omitted from all subsequent catalogues, nor does it appear in the manuscript list of missing books.

For the Selection of Pleading mentioned in the correspondence, see no. 2156.

Joseph Story, 1779-1845, was by profession a lawyer, and the author of a number of law books. This is his only volume of poems to be published and was written in 1799.

Jefferson was a subscriber to this book to whom it is dedicated. The dedication reads: To Thomas Jefferson, Esq. Late President of the United States of America. This volume is inscribed as a little mark of the high Respect entertained for his Character by the Authoress.

On March 20, 1814, Jefferson wrote to Samuel Pleasants at Richmond: “ . . . I subscribed for a doz. copies of miss Lomax’s poems. be so good as to send me a single copy; and to keep the rest for sale for her benefit, drawing at the same time the price of the 12. for her use from m ( ^~ r) Gibson . . .”

Pleasants sent his bill on March 26: “ 12 copies Miss Lomax’s poems @ 50 cts. 6.00 ”

Judith Lomax, 1774-1828, was the eldest daughter of Jefferson’s friend Thomas Lomax of Port Tobago, Virginia; she herself corresponded with Jefferson on the subject of sending him seeds and plants.

One of the poems (page 49) is headed: “Written at Monticello, Albemarle county, and composed while viewing the Clouds gathering and rolling about the Mountain.” It describes how Monticello is reminiscent of the poems of Ossian:

These forms fantastic, bring along,

To Fancy’s mental eye,

Those times when Ossian, “Son of Song,”

Awaked the tender sigh.

The last verse reads:

Here Virtue, Taste and Science dwell--

This is their fav’rite seat;

They mark the spot they love so well,

And guard their sweet retreat.

The following two poems are addressed to Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Randolph, the former while still at Monticello, the second after the author’s return home. Other poems are addressed to members of the Page family with whom the Lomax family was connected.