Thomas Jefferson Papers
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https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0398

Thomas Jefferson to Nicolas G. Dufief, [18] September 1813

To Nicolas G. Dufief

Monticello Sep. 6. [for 18]1 13.

Dear Sir

Your favor of the 6th has been recieved & I thank you for having forwarded the book to mr Adams as desired. in the Aurora of Sep. 7. I see a book advertised as under publication at N. York under the title of ‘the American brewer & malster’ which, as teaching the method of malting Indian corn I should be very glad to get. could you procure it for me if published or when published. I would also thank you for 2. copies, if to be had, of the little French work Du bonheur et de la morale. it was published in Paris in petit format, without the author’s name. it is the best general treatise on Morals, either antient or modern, which I have ever seen, & deserves well a good translation into our language. I think it would be a work of great sale.

I salute you with esteem & respect.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (DLC: TJ Papers, 199:35448); misdated; at foot of text: “M. Dufief”; endorsed by TJ as a letter of 18 Sept. 1813 and so recorded in SJL.

Although it was advertised in the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser, 7 Sept. 1813, the american brewer & malster was not published until years later, as Joseph Coppinger’s The American Practical Brewer and Tanner (New York, 1815). “Malster” is a variant spelling of maltster (OED description begins James A. H. Murray, J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner, and others, eds., The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d ed., 1989, 20 vols. description ends ). The work du bonheur et de la morale published in petit format was Jean Zacharie Paradis de Raymondis’s Traité élémentaire de Morale et du Bonheur (Paris, 1795; Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, 1952–59, 5 vols. description ends no. 1249).

1Initially using the date of the letter to which he was responding, TJ wrote “6.” He left it uncanceled, which suggests that he sent the letter before catching this mistake, but on the PoC he interlined “for 18.”

Index Entries

  • Adams, John; and J. Priestley’s writings search
  • Aurora (Philadelphia newspaper); advertisements in search
  • books; on brewing search
  • books; on morals search
  • books; on religion search
  • books; sent by N. G. Dufief search
  • brewing; books on search
  • Coppinger, Joseph; The American Practical Brewer and Tanner search
  • corn; Indian search
  • Dufief, Nicolas Gouin; bookseller search
  • Dufief, Nicolas Gouin; letters to search
  • Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; orders books search
  • newspapers; Philadelphia Aurora search
  • Paradis de Raymondis, Jean Zacharie; Traité élémentaire de Morale et du Bonheur search
  • Philadelphia; Aurora search
  • Philadelphia; newspapers in search
  • Priestley, Joseph; The Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy, compared with those of Revelation search
  • The American Practical Brewer and Tanner (J. Coppinger) search
  • The Doctrines of Heathen Philosophy, compared with those of Revelation (J. Priestley) search
  • Traité élémentaire de Morale et du Bonheur (J. Z. Paradis de Raymondis) search