On 1 Sept. 1821 Jefferson’s much younger friend, the Harvard University professor George Ticknor, wrote to enlist the former president’s help in recruiting universities and learned societies to petition the United States Congress to abolish tariffs on books. Jefferson quickly agreed and sought support from acquaintances affiliated with the University of North Carolina, South Carolina College (later the University of South Carolina), Transylvania University, and the University of Georgia. He drafted this petition in the latter half of October 1821 while at Poplar Forest and sent it to James Madison for review. The petition and its covering letter to Virginia’s congressmen, both dated 30 Nov., were readily approved by the University of Virginia Board of Visitors at its November meeting and sent on 5 Dec. 1821 by Jefferson to Virginia representative Hugh Nelson.

On 10 Dec. 1821 Nelson presented the petition to the United States House of Representatives, which referred it to the Ways and Means Committee. Ticknor’s memorial on behalf of “divers colleges and literary and scientific societies” was submitted to the House on 27 Dec. 1821 and likewise referred to the Ways and Means Committee. Petitions were also referred to this committee from Samuel L. Mitchill on behalf of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York and from the American Philosophical Society, both of which requested that books received from abroad as donations to learned societies should be exempted from tariffs. The Ways and Means Committee reported a bill on 12 Mar. 1822 that, among other provisions, exempted books in foreign languages from import taxes, as well as books, maps, charts, instruments, and engravings sent to philosophical or literary institutions as donations or exchanges. Although the bill was committed to a committee of the whole House the following day, the House formally discharged the legislation from consideration on 8 Apr.

Of the universities that Jefferson attempted to enlist in this effort, only Transylvania University joined the cause, with a petition from its Board of Trustees submitted to the Senate on 27 Dec. 1821 and referred to its Committee on Finance, which declared on 8 Jan. 1822 that it was inexpedient to end tariffs on books. The Senate also received a copy of the memorial of the American Philosophical Society on 15 Jan. 1822. Even after receiving the Committee on Finance’s report, the Senate continued to consider Transylvania University’s petition through February 1822, and on 2 Apr. 1822 President James Monroe communicated a report from Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford, as requested by the Senate, which gave the yield of tariffs on books imported into the United States in the years 1817–21. Despite the efforts organized by Ticknor and the discussion of tariffs in both houses of Congress, no laws altering the tariffs on books were passed in the 1821–22 legislative session (Ticknor to TJ, 1 Sept., 8 Dec. 1821; TJ to Ticknor, 28 Sept. 1821; TJ to Hutchins G. Burton, Thomas Cooper, and Samuel Brown, 28 Sept. 1821; TJ to John Clark, 12 Oct. 1821; TJ to Madison, 30 Oct. 1821; Minutes of University of Virginia Board of Visitors, 29–30 Nov. 1821; John T. Kirkland to TJ, 1 Dec. 1821, and enclosure; TJ to Nelson, 5 Dec. 1821; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States description ends , 15:32, 69, 92, 145, 310–1, 339, 433–4 [18 Dec. 1821, 15 Jan., 4 Mar. 1822]; Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. (All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. Citations given below are to the edition mounted on the Library of Congress Digital Collections website and give the date of the debate as well as page numbers.) description ends , 17th Cong., 1st sess., 1272–4 [12 Mar. 1822]; JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States description ends , esp. 11:41, 58, 69 [27 Dec. 1821, 8, 15 Jan. 1822]; Anonymous to TJ, [19 Jan. 1822], and enclosure).