To Thomas Jefferson from Henry Guest, 28 December 1804
From Henry Guest
Brunswick East Jersy 28 December 1804
Go Little Essay but go With Care
Nor Meet ill timed our Presedants Ear
He by the God of Man is taught
Gives his time to Studious thought
Whois Government here is nearly Divine
Which Shall to Futre Ages Shine
and Rival Woundrous Alfred thine
Sir—
I took the Liberty in June 1801 To Send for your Inspetion—A Small Pamphlet that I thought Containd Assential hints on Several Subjects that Might be Made Usefull in Our Country—And Your notice that it Came Duly to hand—For Which Condesention Be pleased to Except My Most Sincear thanks—Since Which I have not heard Whither they Were Worthy Your Attention or not—
Sir
I have A Number of Matters to relate to You As A Philosepher that has past under My Agency—And Several that I Apprehend Would be Usefull to Our Country—But I well Know that You are pressed With Your Duty in Governmental Affairs—Besids I moste—Sensible feele the Distance in the Sphere of Life that Without your Leve to trouble You Even With one Line and give Me Leve to Assure that this is Wrote With Reluctance—But Sir As I have passed My Eleventh Climatric and Cannot Expect Much Longer to Continue on the Mortal Side of time hope to have Your pardon, for Any Obstruction in Your time
I am Sir All that the Most Ingenuous Pen Can Say Yours
Henry Guest
RC (MHi); at foot of text: “His Excelancy The Presedent of the United Stats of America”; endorsed by TJ as received 31 Dec. and so recorded in SJL.
Henry Guest (1727-1815) was a New Jersey tanner and prominent New Brunswick citizen who supplied shoes to the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Guest advocated the use of leather for roofing and as a substitute for copper sheathing on ships. His correspondence with John Adams between 1799 and 1811 described several other ideas for the betterment of the country, including a military instrument that would “strike 30 deadly strokes in a minute & remain charged” and a system for preventing decay in peach trees (Henry Guest, Observations on Sheathing Vessels; Seasoning Timber; the Proper Time to Fall Timber; the Nature and What Force It Is That Causes the Sap to Rise; with a Number of Other Valuable Observations [n.p., 1805]; , Rev. War Ser., 20:208-9; City of New Brunswick, History: Buccleuch Mansion, Henry Guest House [New Brunswick, N.J., 1980], n.p.; Guest to John Adams, 2 Feb. 1799, 28 Jan. 1811, in MHi: Adams Papers).
Essay: Guest’s tribute to TJ was derived from a verse by the poet Martial (William Melmoth, trans., The Letters of Pliny the Consul: With Occasional Remarks, 2 vols. [Boston, 1809], 1:168).
Alfred: Alfred the Great.
No June 1801 letter from Guest or response to one by TJ is recorded in SJL or has been found.
Eleventh Climatric: that is, 77. Several ancient authors regarded every seventh year as a significant, or climacteric, year ().