“ inaccurate: but such as it is I send to you, well convinced that you will be naturally inclined to make allowances for local imperfection. I was was [sic] really astonished at your condescention in answering my letter to you, Per D ^r Logan my gratitude for the same I can scarce find words sufficiently sonerous to express any. They like adulation I despise. Yet I would refer You to my “notes Explanatory & missaleneous” page 331 for my statement respecting yourselfe[.] all I can at present say is to ardently wish and pray for your real happiness Spiritual & Temporall & refer you to a sentiment of Christ full of matter to Wit What doth it profit a man to gain The Whole World and loose his own Soul. I never expect to see you in this world but will undoubtedly See you in the resurrection & I hope to see you there happy etternally happy Adieu my dear Sir and that you may act officially and spiritually as you would wish you had done when you come to die is The sincere wish & prayr of your humbel ob Servant with veneration admiration esteem & Respect”

The reference to Jefferson on page 331, mentioned by Branagan in his letter reads as follows: There is no ruler, no matter what his title is, for they are nothing but nick names at the best, earns more than 25,000 dollars annually, which is the salary of our president, who I conceive to be a more useful, ingenuous, disinterested and better informed ruler than any other in the world.*

The asterisked footnote reads: While I feel the most implacable indignation and disgust at the despot, who robs his country and fellow men of their dearest rights and natural privileges, I can scarcely avoid almost idolizing the patriot, who, regardless of the solicitations of ambition, who, deaf to the calls in interested motives, who, dead to the fascinating love of popularity, and the excitements of power and opportunity to aggrandize himself, walks in the paths of political rectitude and republican consistency, and who, with a philosophical patience, scarcely to be equalled and never exceeded, in ancient or modern times, treats with silent contempt the accumulated calumnies of the votaries of aristocracy and despotism; indeed, I do not know which to admire most, the political or the philosophical rectitude of Mr. Jefferson; with respect to the first, I would compare him to a Cincinnatus, and to the second, to the lion, looking back with sovereign contempt on the baying [ sic -- Ed. ] of the stupid ass mentioned in the fable.

Thomas Branagan, was born in 1774, according to his Compendious Memoirs prefixed to The Penitential Tyrant , q.v. no. 4517, [ i.e. “4516”-- Ed.] in Dublin, Ireland. In order to see the world, he went to sea and his adventures in various countries are described in these Memoirs. He returned to Dublin in 1798, and in the following year shipped for Philadelphia. In his travels he had seen a great deal of the evils of slavery, and wrote a number of articles and poems as a contribution towards its extinction. Avenia is concerned with slavery in the West Indies.

For a note on Thomas Branagan, see no. 4515.

This work is preceded by an Introduction, dated from Philadelphia, 1805, and an account of the author headed Compendious Memoirs, &c.