To James Madison from John Cotton Smith, 23 November 1816
From John Cotton Smith
State of Connecticut November 23. 1816.
Sir
I take the liberty of recommending to your notice the Reverend Mr. Gallaudet,1 principal, and Mr. Clerc his Assistant, in the “Asylum for the instruction of deaf and dumb persons” lately established in this state. I am persuaded they will receive from the First Magistrate of our country, that favourable regard, to which their distinguished exertions in the cause of humanity so eminently entitle them. With the highest respect and consideration I have the honour to be Sir your obedient and Most humble servant
John Cotton Smith
RC (DLC: Gallaudet Papers).
1. Smith introduced Yale graduate Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet who had traveled to Europe in 1815–16 to study methods for teaching deaf and mute students. While in France, he met Louis Laurent Marie Clerc of the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris and invited him to return with him to America where they established the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, in Hartford in 1816. Gallaudet University, established in Washington, D.C., in 1864, was named in his memory (Heman Humphrey, The Life and Labors of the Rev. T. H. Gallaudet [New York, 1857], 70–78).