1To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Brockden Brown, 25 December [1799] (Jefferson Papers)
After some hesitation, a stranger to the person, though not to the character of Thomas Jefferson, ventures to intreat his acceptance of the volume by which this is accompanied. He is unacquainted with the degree in which your time & attention is engrossed by your public office: he knows not in what way your studious hours are distributed, & whether mere works of imagination & invention are not...