To Thomas Jefferson from La Lande, 11 May 1788
From La Lande
College Royal, Paris, 11 May 1788. Requests TJ to forward enclosed letter to an American astronomer and, when he writes to Benjamin Franklin, to present his respects; “Les ministres ont ordinairement la Complaisance de favoriser la Correspondance qui interesse les Sciences.”
RC (MHi); endorsed. Enclosure not identified; if the letter was directed to a particular astronomer in America, it was evidently not the Rev. James Madison or David Rittenhouse, the two persons whom TJ would probably have thought of first if the communication were intended for an undesignated astronomer (see TJ to Madison, 19 July 1788; Rittenhouse to TJ, 8 Nov. 1788).