To Thomas Jefferson from Edward Savage, 10 March 1803
From Edward Savage
New York March 10—1803
Sir
your favour of the 4th. is Just Come to hand. the miscarriage of Several Papers appears very Extraordinary, I am very Shure of Enclosing to you a Discription of the mountain Ram, and one of my proposals for Publishing by Subscription a print Representing the Declaration of Independence.
I put up at the Same time a packet containing thirty Proposals and twenty three Recipts fill’d up and Signed, Except a Blank for the Subscribers Name, it was Directed to Mr Foster—which he Sayes he never Recd neither Could he find them in the office in Washington. I Beg’d of Mr Foster when he Receved them to give them to the Doorkeepers of Congress Supposing Some of the Gentlemen would be pleased to Encourage the work.
I now take the Liberty to Enclose to you Sir the Discription of the Mountain Ram and one of my Proposals, I am very sorry that you have had So much trouble in Consequence of not Receving the papers at first
I am Sir with Great Esteeme your very Humble Sevt.
Edward Savage
Mr Foster as he pass’d throw this City inform’d me, that you had not Recd your Proposal,1
RC (DLC); at foot of text: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 18 Mch. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures not found, but see below.
miscarriage of several papers: see Savage to TJ of 7 Feb.
A description of the My-Attic or mountain ram, provided by Duncan McGillivray of Canada to Savage, first appeared in the New York Daily Advertiser on 4 Dec. 1802. It became the basis for Savage’s drawings of the animal for his museum and for an “Account of the Wild North-American Sheep,” which Samuel Latham Mitchill published in New York in 1803 in the sixth volume of his Medical Repository.
mr foster: possibly one of the Federalist brothers, Dwight Foster of Massachusetts or Theodore Foster of Rhode Island, both of whom left their Senate seats at the beginning of March, and, like Savage, hailed from Worcester County, Massachusetts ().
1. Postscript in left margin perpendicular to text.