Armstrong planned to raise merino sheep he had received from Napoleon at la bergerie (“the sheepfold”), the Hudson River home that he began to build in the spring of 1812 (C. Edward Skeen, John Armstrong, Jr., 1758–1843 [1981], 120, 169, 209–11, 245n).

In his recently published batture pamphlet, TJ noted that “The only copy of this Charter I have ever met with is in Joutel’s Journal of la Sale’s last voyage. An application was made by the government of the United States, through their minister at Paris, to the government of France, for permission to have the original of this charter sought for in their Archives, and an authentic copy obtained. The application was unsuccessful.” After receiving the above letter, TJ added the following two sentences by hand to at least one printed copy of his treatise: “since this publication, Genl Armstrong, our late Minister at Paris, has sent me a printed copy of Crozat’s charter in French which he says he ‘obtained directly, & in person from the Depot of laws in Paris, but which he had no means of comparing with the original.’ this printed copy with Genl Armstrong’s letter, I have deposited in the office of the Secretary of State at Washington, for public use” (TJ’s manuscript correction on p. 24 of one of the copies of Jefferson, Proceedings description begins Thomas Jefferson, The Proceedings of the Government of the United States, in maintaining The Public Right to the Beach of the Missisipi, Adjacent to New-Orleans, against the Intrusion of Edward Livingston. prepared for the use of counsel, by Thomas Jefferson, New York, 1812; Sowerby, nos. 3501, 3508; Poor, Jefferson’s Library, 10 (no. 604) description ends , in the collections at DLC).