To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Smith Barton, 28 May 1804
From Benjamin Smith Barton
Philadelphia, May 28th, 1804.
Dear Sir,
This will be handed to you by Mr. F. A. Humboldt. I am persuaded that I need not offer any apology for introducing to your knowledge and attentions, the explorer of South America, and one of the most intelligent and active philosophers of our times. We all regret that his stay among us is to be so short.
With sentiments of the highest respect, I remain, Dear Sir, Your obedient and affectionate friend, &c.
Benjamin Smith Barton.
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Mr. Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 3 June and so recorded in SJL.
his stay among us: Alexander von Humboldt, along with his colleagues Aimé Bonpland and Carlos Montufar, arrived in Philadelphia on 23 May. They were feted by members of the American Philosophical Society, including Charles Willson Peale, who eagerly agreed to escort the explorers to Washington. They departed Philadelphia on 29 May. The society elected Humboldt a member at a meeting in July (Philadelphia United States Gazette, 25 May; Douglas Botting, Humboldt and the Cosmos [New York, 1973], 167-71; Charles Coleman Sellers, Charles Willson Peale, 2 vols. [Philadelphia, 1947], 2:182; , Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 359).