To Thomas Jefferson from Léonard Honoré Gay de Vernon, 16 December 1802
From Léonard Honoré Gay de Vernon
paris Ce 26 frimaire an 11
[i.e. 17 Dec. 1802]
Monsieur le président
L’hommage que nous avons l’honneur de vous offrir est l’expression de notre cœur. vous êtes cher à tous les amis de l’humanité, et en vous faisant leurs légeres offrandes, ils s’acquittent bien foiblement de la réconnaissance qu’ils vous doivent.
nous nous trouverions très heureux, monsieur le président, Si notre établissement nous fournissait l’occasion de vous faire connaître combien nous sommes touchés de la maniere dont vous gouvernes les états unis de l’amerique, et quelle vénération vous nous inspirés.
Soyez Sur, monsieur le président, que si quelque citoien des etats unis était au nombre de nos élêves; nous nous rappellerions avec le plus grand intérêt qu’il est le Sujet de la loy que vous faites si paternellement et si glorieusement éxécuter, et que nous luy prodiguerions tous les soins qui dependraient de nous.
Agrées monsieur le président, l’assurance de mes profonds respects et de ma haute considération
gayvernon ainé
administrateur de l’établissement
Editors’ Translation
26 Frimaire Year 11 [17 Dec. 1802]
Mister President,
The tribute we have the honor of paying you is the expression of our hearts. You are dear to all friends of humanity, and these modest offerings are but meager repayment of the gratitude you deserve.
We would be very happy, Mister President, if our school allowed us to demonstrate how much we are touched by the way you govern the United States of America, and the veneration you inspire in us.
You can be sure, Mister President, that if a citizen of the United States were among our students, we would be keenly mindful that he is a subject of the law you oversee in such a paternal and glorious way, and we would bestow upon him all the attention in our power.
Accept, Mister President, the assurance of my deep respect and high esteem.
Gayvernon the Elder
Director of the School
RC (DLC); English date supplied; at foot of text: “rue de Seves n. 959”; endorsed by TJ as received 18 Mch. 1803 and so recorded in SJL.
Léonard Honoré Gay de Vernon (1748–1822) became a Catholic priest as a young man. In 1791, under the “civil constitution” of the previous year that governed religious affairs, he was elected bishop of the department of Haute-Vienne, with his episcopal see at Limoges. He became a legislative deputy, then a member of the Convention, and in 1793 renounced his priesthood in accordance with his republican political views. He served on the Council of Five Hundred, was secretary of the revolutionary consulate for the Roman Republic, and held administrative posts in France, but resigned after the Brumaire coup that brought Bonaparte to power in 1799. Gay de Vernon then established a boarding school on the Rue de Sèvres in Paris. He signed as ainé in the letter printed above to distinguish himself from his younger brother, Simon François Gay de Vernon, an army officer who, in 1802, taught at the École Polytechnique (, 15:905–6; , 16:89–91; John H. Stewart, A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution [New York, 1951], 170).