To James Madison from John Sinclair, 1 November 1815
From John Sinclair
32 Sackville Street London
1st: November 1815
Sir,
Having had the honor of corresponding with your illustrious predecessors, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, when they presided over the councils of America, I am happy in this opportunity of commencing a literary correspondence with the present respectable President of the United States; and of communicating to him the plan of a work, which perhaps may be of some use to the inhabitants of a country, whom I have always viewed with sentiments of paternal regard.
My agricultural enquiries being now compleated, I have resolved to publish an abstract of the information which Europe possesses regarding death and longevity;1 and I am extremely anxious to have that work well known in America. A plan for that purpose is to be carried into effect by Mr. James Cuningham of Maryland, which I hope you will be pleased to patronize.
Permit me to take this opportunity of requesting your acceptance of a paper in French, which explains the statistical circumstances of Scotland; together, with an engraving of Francis, Duke of Bedford, my particular friend, who was one of the most celebrated agriculturists of which this country has to boast. I have the honor to be with respect, Sir, your faithful and obedient Servant
John Sinclair
(N.B.) I also inclose a sketch of the Chapter of the Customs and habits which influence health, which will explain the manner in which the work I am now engaged in, is drawn up.2
Tr (owned by Mrs. George B. Cutts, Wellesley, Mass., 1982). For enclosures, see n. 2.
1. The transcriber, Mary E. E. Cutts, probably should have written “health” rather than “death.” In 1816, British politician and author John Sinclair (1754–1835) published in London the third edition of his Code of Health and Longevity; or, A General View of the Rules and Principles Calculated for the Preservation of Health, and the Attainment of Long Life. The edition was a one-volume abridgement of his four-volume work of similar title, first published in Edinburgh in 1807. Sinclair, who served as president of the British board of agriculture, 1793–98 and 1806–13, also compiled the three-part History of the Public Revenue of the British Empire (London, 1785–90); the twenty-one-volume Statistical Account of Scotland: Drawn up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes (Edinburgh, 1791–99); and The Code of Agriculture; Including Observations on Gardens, Orchards, Woods, and Plantations (London, 1817), as well as numerous shorter works on politics, finance, and agriculture ( 1:392 n. 4). An American edition of The Code of Agriculture was published in Hartford in 1818 ( 45720).
2. Sinclair evidently enclosed a twenty-three-page pamphlet consisting of part 2, chapter 5 of The Code of Health and Longevity, prefaced by a request for comments from “those respectable characters, to whom copies of this paper shall be transmitted.” A copy of the prospectus sent by Sinclair to Thomas Jefferson on 1 Nov. 1815 may be found in Special Collections, University of Virginia Library (Looney et al., Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, 9:143, 144n.).