“ afterwards, while I was secretary of state, the President recieved from him lengthy details & proportions on the same subject. how far it may offer benefit here superior to the methods of the country founded in the actual circumstances of the country as to the combined costs of labour & materials, and the circumstances of durability comfort & appearance, must be the result of calculation . . . ”

The “lengthy details & proportions”, referred to above, were sent by Cointeraux to George Washington in 1792, and were concerned with the desire of the former to settle in the United States. On November 18, 1792, Washington sent the papers to Jefferson for report and were summed up [ sic -- Ed. ] by him thus: “ Cointeraux’ proposition to come over with his family of 7. persons to shew us how to build houses with mud walls & incombustible roofs & cielings, if we would pay their passage & give them a shop. ”

Jefferson’s answer to Washington was of the same date, November 18, and contained a précis of the letter, including the fact that Cointeraux was fifty-one years of age. It ended by stating that the petition did not seem “ entitled to any particular answer.”

Previous to this, in 1789, Cointeraux had sent to Jefferson a printed prospectus of his Attelier .

In 1808 Cointeraux sent Jefferson two pamphlets on Pisé building for the Philosophical Society. They were forwarded to Jefferson by Thomas T. Hewson, one of the secretaries on October 10, 1808. Jefferson returned them on October 29, mentioning that: “ at the moment of my recieving them I knew that m( ^~ r) Fulton was building a wall of Pisé in the former manner, & therefore sent them to him . . .”

Jefferson made a précis of Cointeraux’s new method, now in the Jefferson papers in the Library of Congress, 1 ¼ pages manuscript, headed: Pisé walls. Cointeraux’s new method of 1808.

François Cointeraux, French architect of Lyons, where Pisé building had been practised for centuries. He was professor of rural architecture at Périne de Chaillot. See also no. 773.

The dedication reads:

To Thomas Jefferson, Esq.

President of the United States.

Sir,

It having been the leading principle of the greatest statesmen that have benefited mankind, to regard with peculiar respect the welfare and advancement of Agriculture; and from the attention and interest which you have hitherto manifested in its prosperity, by your own valuable improvement in the plough, I feel a confidence in presenting you with a testimony of my attachment to rural life, and an attempt at some improvements in it. With these impressions, I dedicate this small volume to you, as a tribute of the respect and esteem of

your humble servant, S. W. Johnson.

Sonman’s Hill, near New-Brunswick, N. J.

Jefferson’s copy was sent to him by the author, to whom he wrote on March 13, 1807:

Th: Jefferson returns his thanks to mr Johnson for his book on Pisé building which he was so kind as to send him, and which he doubts not will be useful to the public as well in that article as the others which it embraces. these as well as the other subjects will be sufficiently worthy of mr Johnson's attention, & furnish sufficient useful matter for any future additions he may chuse to make. without foreseeing that it will be in the power of Th: J. to contribute any useful information to mr Johnson's stock, he will always be ready to do it when the leisure of retirement shall give him the means.