To Thomas Jefferson from John Vaughan, 21 November 1803
From John Vaughan
Philad: Nov. 21. 1803
Dear Sir
Capt Merewether Lewis having been chosen a Member of our Society, I take the liberty of enclosing to you his Certificate of Election, & the letter advising of his Election, as the only Certain channel, by which the information can be Conveyed to him.
Our friend D Priestley has been very Ill, D Wistar saw him previous to the Serious attack & found him much Broken—since D W. left him, he was incapable of Swallowing any food; the last intelligence however States, that he was much relieved, the most alarming symptoms having disappeare’d.
Our Volume which could not be commenced on acct. of the fever, is now in the press—The Communications from M Dunbar which came thro’ your hands are in part printed & the whole will be—Your late Valuable Communication to Congress of the Political &c State of Louisiana is highly interesting—It is possible that in Collecting the materials from which it was digested, That many important circumstances relative to the Natural History, Climate &c may have come to hand, should this be the Case, & no other disposition of them be intended, our Society would recieve them with the highest Interest.
D Priestley notwithstanding his feeble State of body still retains a Vigorous mind, he has made a Communication to the Society, in reply to D Darwin on Equivocal Generation, & is now dictating a reply to Mr Linns last pamphlet on the Socratic dispute, in which he has forgotten to treat the Dr. P. with Courteousness & indeed treats him with great harshness—
The Socy. now receives regularly the Philos. Journals of France & England, & One from Germany—By this means our professors and men of Science will know early, what has been Done in Europe, & can direct their attention more readily to discoveries, or to the perfectioning of Discoveries already announced. Knowing the attention you ever pay to the attempts to make Science progress in this Country—I make no Apology for troubling you—
Mr Poyntell & Mr Bradford, are on the point of embarking in a scheme to print on a Very large Scale—All the Greek & Latin Classicks, it is intended to supersede the future importation of them from Europe—They have been led to the plan, from the very great & increased Demand for these Works latterly—It is proposed to invest not less than 100,000. Ds. in the Scheme
I remain with the Greatest respect Dear sir Your friend & servt
Jn Vaughan
We have just reced. Michaux—Am: flor: Bor: in 2 Elegant 4to Vol with 51. Plates
RC (DLC); addressed: “Thomas Jefferson President of the United States”; endorsed by TJ as received 24 Nov. and so recorded in SJL. Enclosures not found.
The American Philosophical society elected Meriwether Lewis to membership on 21 Oct. (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 343).
our volume: in the spring of 1802, the appointed a committee to assemble papers for a sixth volume of the society’s Transactions. That summer, Vaughan thought that the work would soon be ready for typesetting. Yellow fever intervened, forcing the cancellation of the society’s meetings in the fall. The society granted the committee more time, and in the spring of 1803 agreed to a publication plan offered by Jane Aitken (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 324, 326-7, 337; Vol. 38:115-16; Vol. 40:515-16n).
The volume would include five papers on various subjects that TJ received from William dunbar in 1800 and 1801 and an abstract of information from Martin Duralde that Dunbar sent to TJ early in 1803 (, Transactions, 6 [1809], 1-23, 25, 40-58; Vol. 32:35-7, 54-5, 262, 311, 448-9; Vol. 35:121-4; Vol. 39:269-70).
Joseph Priestley conducted experiments with algae to refute theories expressed in a posthumously published work by Erasmus darwin, The Temple of Nature. On 18 Nov., the received Priestley’s paper, “Observations and Experiments relating to equivocal, or spontaneous, Generation” (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 344; , Transactions, 6 [1809], 119-29; F. W. Gibbs, Joseph Priestley: Adventurer in Science and Champion of Truth [London, 1965], 245-6).
reply to mr linns last pamphlet: in September, John Blair Linn responded to Priestley’s Letter to the Reverend John Blair Linn with A Letter to Joseph Priestley, L.L.D. F.R.S. In Answer to his Letter, in Defence of his Pamphlet, Entitled Socrates and Jesus Compared (Philadelphia, 1803; , No. 4528; see Priestley to TJ, 25 June). On 12 Dec., Priestley sent TJ a copy of his rejoinder, A Second Letter to the Revd. John Blair Linn.
William poyntell sold the inventory of his stationery and fancy-goods store in Philadelphia to Samuel F. bradford and established what he called the Classic Press to reprint works in Latin and Greek that he hoped to sell in wholesale lots at rates below the prices of imported books (Gazette of the United States, 2 Apr. 1802; Port Folio, 3 Dec. 1803; Library; or, Philadelphia Literary Reporter, 1 Dec. 1804; Horace L. Hotchkiss, Jr., “Wallpaper from the Shop of William Poyntell,” Winterthur Portfolio, 4 [1968], 25-33).
The American Philosophical Society paid $15 for the work by André michaux, Flora Boreali-Americana: Sistens Caracteres Plantarum Quas in America Septentrionali, recently published in Paris (, Proceedings, 22, pt. 3 [1884], 345).