Alrichs & Dixon to Thomas Jefferson, 18 March 1813
From Alrichs & Dixon
Wilmington 18th 3 Mo 1813
Highly Esteemd Friend
we have to acknowledge thy1 favour 11th current—; in our reply to thine, of 3rd Inst; (which we hope thou hast receivd;) we stated, what we supposd must be the cause of thy Carder not performing to satisfaction; and the way, we hoped, to remedy it.—we regret, exceeding, that thou has found so much dificulty; with thy machine;—we had tried it before we sent it on; and fully believed it would answer well—
the reduceing, and simplifying: of the Cotton Machinery; so as to introduce it into common domestic use; has been a subject, of much, and earnest, solicitude with us, we had a hope: that if they: could be so made; as to be used in private families; they might become so general, as to counteract; in this country: the groth of those large Manufacturing Establishments; which: we see are: in Europe: so distructive to all that ought, to be: Valuable to man—
If thy Machine should still not answer on trial of our last direction, we would be obliged if thou would write us perticularly how it is feed &c, we think it must and will perform well, and will most cheerfully do what is reasonable in our power toward makeing it
Alrichs & Dixon
RC (DLC); in Alrichs’s hand; endorsed by TJ as received 24 Mar. 1813 and so recorded in SJL.
The earlier letter to TJ from Alrichs & Dixon was dated 10 Mar. 1813, not the 3rd inst.
1. Manuscript: “thy thy.”