To Thomas Jefferson from Samuel Latham Mitchill, 4 December 1803
From Samuel Latham Mitchill
Stelle’s hotel, Decr. 4, 1803.
I beg leave to offer to the President, for his amusement, the inclosed Speculations on a Geographical name for the country which enjoys so much political happiness under his administration. The project has been noticed in a number of the Newspapers of the States. The Song was written for a Company of Militia, who have assumed the name of “Fredonian” volunteers. Now that Louisiana is about to be annexed to “Fredonia,” there will be a good Opportunity for the “Fredes” to extend their proper national Name over the territory occupied by the “Fredish” People. I am with great Respect, yours very sincerely
Saml L Mitchill
It may be derived from φρην virtus sapientia & δος the imperative of the verb διδωμι.
RC (DLC); addressed: “Thomas Jefferson. President of the U.S.”; endorsed by TJ as received 4 Dec. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosure: see below.
Mitchill had been an ardent advocate for the creation of a new name for the country. Believing the term “United States” was too political, he proposed “Fredon,” or for rhetorical or poetical purposes, “Fredonia.” He coined other descriptive derivatives for common use. Despite pitching the idea to giants of lexicography and geography Noah Webster and Jedidiah Morse to no avail, he continued his naming campaign. Mitchill was the likely author of an unsigned essay, “Generic Names for the Country and People of the United States of America,” appearing in several newspapers beginning in April and widely reprinted throughout the summer. An undated one-sheet broadside by the same title, probably printed in New York, may have been what Mitchill enclosed in his letter to TJ (, No. 4267). In a December issue of his journal, the Medical Repository, Mitchill again promoted adoption of the terminology (“New National Distinctions,” Medical Repository, 6 [1803], 449-50; New York Morning Chronicle, 28 April 1803; National Intelligencer, 22 June 1803; Hudson, N.Y., Balance, and Columbian Repository, 19 July 1803; Joseph Jones, “Hail, Fredonia!” American Speech, 9 [1934], 12-17; Alan David Aberbach, In Search of an American Identity: Samuel Latham Mitchill, Jeffersonian Nationalist [New York, 1988], 154-6).
song: “The Blessings of Fredon,” 16 verses written for the Fourth of July, sung to the tune “Yankee Doodle” (New York American Citizen, 4 July 1803; see also Mitchill to Catharine Mitchill, 19 Nov. 1803, in NNMus).
In June 1803, Captain Benjamin Egbert of New York established an infantry company called the Fredonian volunteers (New York Chronicle Express, 20 June 1803).
may be derived: Mitchill connected the proposed name to Greek terms (and noted the Latin equivalent of one of them) to indicate that the nation of Fredon imperatively bestowed life-power and wisdom.