“ Connecticut where their ancestors were when they landed on these shores . . . your torpedoes will be to cities what vaccination has been to mankind. it extinguishes their greatest danger. but there will still be navies, not for the destruction of cities, but for the plunder of commerce on the high seas . . . ”

Fulton had been in correspondence with Jefferson on the subject of torpedoes for several years before the publication of his book.

On July 28, 1807, he sent him from New York a full account of his experiments, illustrated with six drawings in pen and ink.

To this Jefferson replied on August 16: “ . . . I consider your Torpedoes as very valuable means of the defence of harbours, & have no doubt that we should adopt them to a considerable degree. not that I go the whole length (as I believe you do) of considering them as solely to be relied on. neither a nation, nor those entrusted with it’s affairs could be justifiable, however sanguine their expectations, in trusting solely to an engine not yet sufficiently tried under all the circumstances which may occur, & against which we know not as yet what means of parying may be devised. if indeed the mode of attaching them to the cable of a ship be the only one proposed modes of prevention cannot be difficult. but I have ever looked to the submarine boat as most to be depended on for attaching them, & tho’ I see no mention of it in your letter, or your publications, I am in hopes it is not abandoned as impracticable . . . ”

Fulton wrote fully to Jefferson concerning all his experiments with the torpedo and invited him to be present at the tests in New York harbour.

On April 16, 1810, at the close of a long letter to Fulton on other matters Jefferson wrote: “ . . . I sincerely wish the torpedo may go the whole length you expect of putting down navies. I wish it too much not to become an easy convert & to give it all my prayers & interest . . . ”

Three years later on March 8, 1813, a letter written to Fulton from Monticello contained the passage: “ . . . I hope your torpedos will equally triumph over doubting friends & presumptuous enemies . . .”

On April 7, 1813, in a letter to Jefferson on other matters, Fulton mentioned: “. . . I am not Idle as to Torpedoes, but secrecy is necessary.”

On July 8, 1813, Fulton wrote to Jefferson: “On the fourth inst. I sent you a letter containing drawings details and observations on my experiments on firing cannon under water, and the consequence of such a mode of conducting maritime war . . .”

Jefferson replied on July 21: “ Immediately on the reciept of your favor of July 8, I forwarded it to the President, and had no hesitation in expressing my own wish that it should be tried. in fact as we cannot meet the British with an equality of Physical force, we must supply it by other devices, in which I know nobody equal to yourself, and so likely to point out to us a mode of salvation. accordingly I hope this honor is reserved for you, and that either by subaqueous guns, torpedoes, or diving boats, you will accomplish it by the aid of government . . . I confess I have more hopes of the mode of destruction by the submarine boat, than any other. no law of nature opposes it, and in that case nothing is to be dispaired of by human invention, nor particularly by yours . . . ”

Robert Fulton, 1765-1815, engineer, was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was originally brought to the notice of Jefferson in 1801--the year he succeeded in blowing up with a torpedo a small vessel in Brest harbor--by Joel Barlow, who on September 15, wrote from Paris to Jefferson: “A countryman of ours, Robert Fulton of Philadelphia, has invented a new mode of submarine navigation, which he is bringing to perfection. He hopes very soon to demonstrate the practicability of destroying military navies altogether, and with them the whole system of naval tyranny & civilized piracy, which seems worse than the barbarian, as it works its mischief on a larger scale and really threatens the existence of society . . .”