To James Madison from Gilbert J. Hunt, 1 May 1821
From Gilbert J. Hunt
New York May 1, 1821
Respected Sir,
I have the honor of inclosing you the prospectus of another work,1 similar to the last I sent you.2 By returning the Prospectus with your Signature you will confer a particular obligation on a friend and native inhabitant of this Republic. The book, handsomely bound, will be forwarded on to you, as soon as finished. The other work was particularly patronized by Mr. Jefferson. Yours most respectfully
RC (DLC). Addressed by Hunt to JM at Washington, and franked. Postmarked 14 May at New York. Docketed on cover by JM.
1. The enclosed prospectus was Proposals for Publishing by Subscription, the History of America, from Its Discovery by Christopher Columbus to the Year 1812: To Be Comprised in One Volume. Written in the Ancient Historical Style, by G. J. Hunt … ([New York?; 1821]; Shoemaker 5660). JM’s copy is in the Madison Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.
2. Not found.
3. Gilbert J. Hunt was the author of The Late War, between the United States and Great Britain, from June 1812, to February 1815, Written in the Ancient Historical Style (1816), and he chose to tell the story in chapter and verse, as if he were writing a book of the Bible.
4. G. & R. Waite was a printing and bookselling establishment at 64 Maiden Lane in New York City (Rita Susswein Gottesman, comp., The Arts and Crafts in New York … 1800–1804, Collections of the New-York Historical Society (1949), The John Watts De-Peyster Publication Fund Series, 82:314–16 [New York, 1965]).