To Thomas Jefferson from Enoch Edwards, 7 May 1793
From Enoch Edwards
Philadelphia May 7th. 1793
Sir
I will be exceedingly obliged if you will excuse my asking one Letter from you to Some Gentleman in France, whether it be to Mr. Morris our Minister there, or some private Gentleman—I submit that to you. Doctor Rush at the Time He asked the one you have been so kind as to write, did not know that I certainly meant to visit France. The Agriculture of this Country as well as England I intend to see as far as Circumstances will admit—these Objects next to my Health are among the first I have in view.
Your Sources of Information on Subjects of this as well as other Kinds are I expect so abundantly numerous—that an Offer on my Part to do any thing that might either be useful or agreeable to You while abroad, can only appear Complimentary—should I however be mistaken you will gratify me not a little, by chearfully commanding my Services.
That I may unfeignedly wish my Country well, I shall very sincerely wish for your Health and Happiness—and for the Establishment of those political Sentiments, which I believe have a Residence in your Heart. I am Sir with Respect & Gratitude Your obedt: Sert.
Eno: Edwards
P:S: I go down to Chester on thursday by Land.
RC (DLC); dateline between signature and postscript; beneath signature: “Honl. Thomas Jefferson Esqr.”; endorsed by TJ as received 7 May 1793 and so recorded in SJL, with both endorsement and SJL erroneously identifying the writer as George Edwards.
Dr. Enoch Edwards (1751–1802) of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, was Benjamin Rush’s first medical student. An army surgeon in the Revolution, Edwards was a member of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the United States Constitution in 1787 and the state constitutional convention in 1789–90, and served as associate justice of the court of common pleas from 1791 until his death. He went to Europe partly in order to act as an agent in the sale of Pennsylvania land belonging to the speculator John Nicholson (William Henry Egle, “The Federal Constitution of 1787: Sketches of the Members of the Pennsylvania Convention,” , xi [1887], 74–5; George W. Corner, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush [Princeton, 1948], 311–12; James S. Biddle, ed., Autobiography of Charles Biddle, Vice-President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, 1745–1821 [Philadelphia, 1883], 309–11). The letter TJ had been so kind as to write was his letter to Thomas Pinckney of 3 May 1793.