“

"To every nation, savage, or civilized, it must be deemed important, but to the Body Politic whose Very existence exclusively depends upon the purity of theyse political principles, it must be doubly important.

"In short the lassitude of the citizens of both modern, as well as antient republics in not guarding with indefatiguable assiduity, the palladiums of thir [ sic -- Ed. ] respective governments, was the radical cause of their premature anihilation.

"Though a poor man in a pecuniary point of view, I do not by any means solicit the least assistance in that respect. If you will be so kinde as to give your signature, in order to facilitate the publication; it will be considered as a special favour & will be received With unfeigned gratitude. I simply particularize my sentiments in this letter without using that formality & fulsome adulation necessary in addressing an imperial despot. May heaven bless & prosper you and as you have been may you ever Continue to be a patern to a World of despots and the means of not only keeping the glowing taper of republicanism from being extinguished but fanning it to a flame which will illuminate the benighted minds of the enslaved the wretched the degraded Sons of europe Asia and Africa. While I feel an implacible disgust & sovreign contempt for the villians who rob thir fellow Creatures of all that is Sacred to them I feel an ardent affection for such Characters as Who by actions as well as words prove friends to the liberties of the people and the greatest favour I can wish you is that you may have an equal share in the affections of every individual in america & the World as you have in mine & that the Supreme being may crown you with never fading laurels in paradise where I hope to have the inefible pleasure of congratulating you after we drop the Curtain of mortality[.] thus prays with sentiments of respect & veneration your most ob: hu: st

"PS if you will be so kind as to favour me with your signature you will please to forward it here--as soon as Convenient direct for me No 163 south Water s ^t.. Philad ^a If you should feel disinclined to give your signature your order for few Copies will be thankfully received & punctually attended too”

Jefferson did not reply directly to Branagan, but wrote on May 11 to Dr. George Logan at Stenton, Pennsylvania: “ I received last night a letter from m( ^~ r) Thomas Brannagan 163 S. Water street Philadelphia, asking my subscription to the work announced in the inclosed paper. The cause in which he embarks is so holy, the sentiments he expresses in his letter so friendly that it is highly painful to me to hesitate on a compliance which appears so small. but that is not it’s time character, and it would be injurious, even to his views, for me to commit myself on paper by answering his letter. I have most carefully avoided every public act or manifestation on that subject. should an occasion ever occur in which I can interpose with decisive effect, I shall certainly know & do my duty with promptitude and zeal. but in the mean time it would only be disarming myself of influence to be taking small means. The subscription to a book on this subject is one of those little irritating measures which, without advancing it’s end at all, would, by lessening the confidence & good will of a description of friends composing a large body, only lessen my powers of doing them good in the other great relations in which I stand to the publick. yet I cannot be easy in not answering m ( ^~ r) Brannagan’s letter unless he can be made sensible that it is better I should not answer it; & I do not know how to effect this, unless you would have the goodness, the first time you go to Philadelphia, to see him and to enter into an explanation with him . . . ”

Dr. Logan replied on June 10; [punct. sic-- Ed.] “. . . Agreeably to your desire I waited on M ^r. Brannagan & delivered your message to him. he is perfectly satisfied with your reasons for not answering his Letter: he appears to be a modest inoffensive poor Man . . .”

On November 17, Branagan sent Jefferson a copy of the book: “I take the liberty to send you a Copy of Avenia, and I am truly sorry, for your sake, that it is so ”