To Thomas Jefferson from William Short, 15 April 1798
From William Short
Jefferson. April. 15—by Ml.—my letter concise—have little time,—the bearer goes to morrow—had thoughts for some time to go with him on acct. of his safe conduct—my health—wish it to be better established for so long a voyage—press the 9. M. dollars—to employ my disponible cash in a productive fund—Indian camp to be tenanted out if practicable—send him the prospectus of the stereotype—
FC (DLC: Short Papers); entirely in Short’s hand; part of an epistolary record of his letters to TJ and others from 26 Dec. 1797 to 9 Oct. 1798; recorded in SJL as received from Paris 22 June 1798. Enclosure: “Prospectus” of the Didots and Herhan (see Short to TJ, 27 Feb. 1798), announcing that they have joined together to produce editions under a new patent for the stereotype process that allows them to offer, in addition to printed books, sets of plates ready for printing, each set capable of producing at least 150,000 copies with replacement plates of individual pages available on demand, the partners expecting to produce about 100 volumes a year beginning with Virgil (DLC: TJ Papers, 236:42347–8; in French, undated, consisting of four printed pages; at head of text: “Éditions Stéréotypes”; bearing stamp of the French Republic; endorsed by TJ: “Printing”).
Ml.: John Marshall; see Short to TJ, 6 Aug. 1798.
On 3 Apr. TJ sent an order to the comptroller of the U.S. authorizing John Barnes to collect all dividends payable 1 Apr. on Short’s U.S. bonds (RC in MoSW; at foot of text: “John Steele esq. comptroller of the US.”; endorsed by Steele).