To James Madison from Lewis A. Tarascon, 3 July 1824
From Lewis A. Tarascon
Shippingport Ky. july 3d. 1824.
Respectable sir!
Permit me to submit, to your judgement An address of mine to the people at large in the view of the prosperity and the permanency of our union.1
The subject is a Novelty for Many Citizens, who Never had the opportunity of thinking of it—and as the work intended would require time, it seems to me that they could not be Brought too soon to their Reflexions.
If you Approve of the measure, I wish that you would induce the Editors of your News-papers to publish it, in order Every Member of our American family may Reflect on it, form his opinion and Express it.
As to your own, sir, its private Communication to me, I should Consider as a great favour in view of light for public good. I have the honor to be with the greatest Esteem and Respect Sir Your Mo. obd. Ser.
L. A. Tarascon2
RC (DLC). Docketed by JM.
1. The enclosure was Lewis A. Tarascon, To the People of the United States, on the Propriety of Establishing a Wagon Road, from the River Missouri to the River Columbia, of the Pacific Ocean ([Louisville, Ky.?], [1824]; 18145).
2. Lewis (Louis) Anastasius Tarascon (1759-post-1839), was a French-born merchant who immigrated to Philadelphia in 1794 and established a mercantile house there importing silks. Between 1801 and 1805, Tarascon, in connection with his brother, John, and James Berthoud, built seagoing ships in Pittsburgh, and thereafter moved their operations to Shippingport, Kentucky, where they continued to engage in shipbuilding and other enterprises (Newman F. McGirr, “Tarascon of Shippingport at the Falls of the Ohio,” West Virginia History 7 [1946]: 89–100). For Tarascon’s plan for a western road, see David Lavender, Westward Vision: The Story of the Oregon Trail (1963; reprint, Lincoln, Neb., 1985), 325–27.