Thomas Jefferson Papers

To Thomas Jefferson from Caspar Wistar, 22 March 1804

From Caspar Wistar

Philada. March 22d. 1804

Dear Sir,

I have the pleasure of informing you that I have received from Mr Livingston at Paris, the Natural History of Fishes, by the Celebrated La Cepede, which the Author delivered to him to be presented to you—it composes six Quarto Volumes—I ought not to trouble you with the enquiry how to send it, but as I know of none but the circuitous rout by Sea—I believe it will be best to wait for your advice—

Have you met with a work of the Ci devant Count de Segur (who I believe was the French Minister at Berlin when you were in France) entitled A History of the principal events of the reign of Frederic William 2d. It has been much commended by several very intelligent Gentlemen here—

The Bill before Congress, for removing to Baltimore, has taken us by surprize, & the fact is scarcely credited altho there is no room for doubt—

With the greatest respect I beg leave to subscribe myself your grateful & affectionate friend

C Wistar Junr

RC (DLC); at foot of text: “His Excellency Thos. Jefferson”; endorsed by TJ as received 26 Mch. and so recorded in SJL.

Louis Philippe, Comte de Ségur (segur), served as the French minister to Russia from 1784 to 1789 and as a special envoy to Prussia from 1791 to 1792 (Tulard, Dictionnaire Napoléon description begins Jean Tulard, Dictionnaire Napoléon, Paris, 1987 description ends , 1556; Vol. 22:470; Vol. 23:70-1, 107). An English translation of his three-volume history of contemporary Europe, entitled History of the Principal Events of the Reign of Frederic William II. King of Prussia, was published in London in 1801 (Sowerby, description begins E. Millicent Sowerby, comp., Catalogue of the Library of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, D.C., 1952-59, 5 vols. description ends No. 267).

bill before congress: on 17 Mch., Senator Robert Wright of Maryland introduced a bill for the temporary removal of the seat of government to the city of Baltimore. Read a second time on 19 Mch., the bill provoked a spirited debate in the Senate. Wright explained that he did not intend that the bill should pass, but rather that it should act as “a spur to the inhabitants of Washington to effect a more complete accommodation of Congress.” Other senators condemned the proposal as unconstitutional and liable to undermine confidence in the national government. A motion to postpone further consideration of the bill until the first Monday in May was defeated by a vote of 24 to 3, and an ensuing motion to pass it to a third reading lost by a vote of 19 to 9 (JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820-21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:380, 382-3; 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. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 13:282-8; National Intelligencer, 21 Mch. 1804; Everett Somerville Brown, ed., William Plumer’s Memorandum of Proceedings in the United States Senate, 1803-1807 [London, 1923], 178, 180). TJ’s papers contain a transcript from the Senate journals of the 19 Mch. votes on the bill (DLC: TJ Papers, 139:24048; in an unidentified hand, attested and signed by Samuel A. Otis).

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