Louis Adrien Gruchet to Thomas Jefferson, 4 May 1820
From Louis Adrien Gruchet
Philadelphie Le 4 Mai 1820.
Monsieur
J’ai L’honneur de vous adresser deux Lettres ecrites par un de mes meilleurs amis & qui peut être vous feront plaisir a lire.
Si Le Contenu de ces Lettres Vous Est agréable, daignez, Monsieur, dans Votre retraite honnorer d’un mot de réponse, un ancien Officier français que des revers innouis ont conduit dans la terre hospitaliére & qui considère l’amérique du Nord Comme Sa Nouvelle patrie.
| Gruchet |
| South. 2. Street No 241. |
Editors’ Translation
Philadelphia 4 May 1820.
Sir
I have the honor to send you two letters written by one of my best friends, which it may give you some pleasure to read.
If you enjoy the contents of these letters, please deign, Sir, in your retirement, to honor with a note of reply a former French officer led by incredible setbacks to this hospitable land, and who considers North America his new homeland.
| Gruchet |
| South. 2. Street No 241. |
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as a letter from “Buchet” received 11 May 1820 and so recorded (with subsequent notation: “or Gruchet. see May 20. 21”) in SJL. Translation by Dr. Genevieve Moene.
Louis Adrien Gruchet (1786–1822), soldier, was born in Besançon, France, enlisted in the French army in 1802, and resigned in 1814 to serve under Joachim Murat, king of Naples. He was a major by 1815. Following the restoration of Louis XVIII, Gruchet left Europe, arriving in Philadelphia in July 1817. He was among the French immigrants who invested in the Vine and Olive Colony, which received a congressional land grant in present-day Alabama, but he soon sold his 320-acre tract sight unseen and attempted to go to Cuba. In 1821 Gruchet wrote to TJ proposing to establish a French school near Monticello, but the latter discouraged the idea. Gruchet died in New Orleans (Rafe Blaufarb, Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815–1835 [2005], 177, 206; Frédéric Masson, Napoléon et sa Famille [1897–1919], 12:172–3; Walter Bruyère-Ostells, La Grande Armée de la Liberté [2009], 28; DNA: RG 36, PLVP; DNA: RG 29, CS, Pa., Philadelphia, 1820; Philadelphia Franklin Gazette, 13 May 1820; Gruchet to TJ, 4 Aug., 9 Sept. 1821; TJ to Gruchet, 14 Aug. 1821; Washington Daily National Intelligencer, 31 May 1823).
The enclosed deux lettres were most likely pamphlets by Marie Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, marquis d’Orvault. His Lettre Intéressante adressée à son excellence, le comte Bathurst, ministre des colonies Britanniques (Philadelphia, 1819) requested permission to visit Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena, while his Lettre Intéressante adressee à S. A. R. le Prince Régent d’Angleterre (Philadelphia, 1819) called for Napoleon’s release from his exile there.
On 4 Oct. 1819 Gruchet sent James Monroe a similar letter and enclosures (NN: Monroe Papers).
Index Entries
- French language; letters in, from; L. A. Gruchet search
- Gruchet, Louis Adrien; identified search
- Gruchet, Louis Adrien; letter from search
- Gruchet, Louis Adrien; sends works to TJ search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Books & Library; works sent to search
- Lettre Intéressante adressee à S. A. R. le Prince Régent d’Angleterre (d’Orvault) search
- Lettre Intéressante adressée à son excellence, le comte Bathurst, ministre des colonies Britanniques (d’Orvault) search
- Monroe, James; works sent to search
- Napoleon I, emperor of France; exiled to Saint Helena search
- Napoleon I, emperor of France; works on search
- Orvault, Marie Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, marquis d’; Lettre Intéressante adressee à S. A. R. le Prince Régent d’Angleterre search
- Orvault, Marie Armand de Guerry de Maubreuil, marquis d’; Lettre Intéressante adressée à son excellence, le comte Bathurst, ministre des colonies Britanniques search
- Saint Helena (island); Napoleon’s exile on search