From Thomas Jefferson to William Short, 2 December 1802
To William Short
Dec. 2. 1802.
Th: Jefferson to mr Short.
I recieved last night the inclosed letter, which tho’ not signed I know to be from John Bartram. you will percieve by it that he has prepared the plants seeds &c which I ordered for M. de Liancourt at your request. I write to Bartram to day to deliver them to you and that you will pay him for them. while in Philadelphia you will readily get a hack to carry you to his gardens, about a mile on this side of Gray’s gardens & 4 miles from the city. they are well worth seeing, and he is the only correspondent who can compleatly answer the wishes & orders of an European botanist. while at Monticello you shewed me a list from Madame de Tessé a part of which I could execute by sending the articles in quantity, but the season was then too early. can you leave me a copy of it, and I will select such articles as I can execute. I shall be happy in every opportunity of serving Madame de Tessé which my occupations will permit. Accept assurances of my affectionate esteem & wishes for a pleasant journey.
RC (DLC: Short Papers); partially addressed “William,” remainder of address not found. Enclosure: John Bartram, Jr., to TJ, 26 Nov., not found (see TJ to Bartram, 2 Dec.).
The horticultural items that TJ ordered from John bartram, Jr., at Short’s request were for a French agricultural society, probably the Société d’Agriculture du Departement de la Siene (, 49; Vol. 36:423; Vol. 37:179, 290).
gray’s gardens: a public pleasure garden or “Vauxhall” on the English model, located on the Schuylkill River at the Lower Ferry. Visitors could stroll through landscaped grounds and enjoy refreshments. The spot was along the route of travelers arriving in Philadelphia from the south or departing in that direction. The gardens were also the site of Independence Day celebrations (Harold Donaldson Eberlein and Cortlandt Van Dyke Hubbard, “The American ‘Vauxhall’ of the Federal Era,” , 68 [1944], 162–5; , 1:765; 2:826, 874).
As she mentioned in a letter to TJ in May, madame de tessé had asked Short to obtain some plants for her garden (Vol. 37:480–1).