To Thomas Jefferson from Walter Saltonstall, 7 January 1804
From Walter Saltonstall
Philadelphia Jan 7th 1804
Sr
May Your Excellency pardon the intrusion of a foreigner, and deign to peruse the following, is the petition of respectful Sir
Your very obedient servant
Walter Saltonstall
During Mr Burges Allisons privation I taught in his academy and since through good wishes he has accommodated me with some volumes in folio such as a Spanish dictionary and Universal penman for my use as a Teacher; and I with pleasure seeing by your wisdom Sir an additional territory ceded to those States inhabited by people of other tongues I take the liberty to offer my self as an english teacher to be sent among whom, in what part, or on what commission at any period your excellency may think convenient. At this time I educate some youths the Sons of merchants and physicians (here in latin, french, bookeeping and arithmetic and drawing of globes &c) from whom I can have testimonials of unwearied attention to my students and consequently of universal success, & in communicating the art of writing all hands in use I have been happy to accomplish in a little time. I have been here from England since 6 years and am between 40 and 50 & in health and activity and when the contending nations are again in peace have thoughts at some future period to return via France, and with the politics of those states to this time as a stranger I have been a neuter. The mathematical sciences I dont profess with spaniard here since 3 years I have read and studied so as to write their language intelligibly to them, and to construe their writings in turn.
Coll Kirkbride a few weeks past closed his eyes reluctantly without seeing my countryman and neighbour Fd Payne who this summer I oft saw at his house.
From the house of John Taylor Esqr No 60 South 5th Street where an address to me W Saltonstall will find me
De cette Nation,
Pour sa felicité;
De la Sagesse soyez vous inspiré.
De la patience, et de la philosóphie.
RC (MoSHi: Jefferson Papers); addressed: “To his Excellency Thomas Jefferson Esqr President of the United States City of Washington”; franked and postmarked; endorsed by TJ as received 13 Jan. and so recorded in SJL.
Walter Saltonstall appears to have recently moved from Bordentown, New Jersey, where Burgess (sometimes spelled Burgiss) Allison operated an academy at different times during the 1790s and 1800s. The town was also the home of Joseph kirkbride, who before his death in November 1803 had been a close friend of Thomas Paine. In a Philadelphia directory for 1804, the profession of john taylor of 60 S. Fifth Street was listed as “gentleman” (Philadelphia Gazette & Universal Daily Advertiser, 16 May 1795; Trenton True American, 24 Nov. 1801; John Keane, Tom Paine: A Political Life [London, 1995], 162-4, 493; James Robinson, The Philadelphia Directory for 1804 [Philadelphia, 1804], 233).
pendant votre administration: that is, “For the well-being of this nation you are leading, may you be inspired by wisdom, patience and philosophy.”