From Thomas Jefferson to Cyrus Griffin, 1 May 1788
To Cyrus Griffin
Paris May 1. 1788.
Sir
The bearer hereof, Monsieur de la Vallée is recommended to me as a gentleman, of worth, wealth, and high connection. Meaning to visit our country I take the liberty of asking leave to introduce him to the notice and civilities of your Excellency, and to assure you that your attentions will be highly gratifying to him and to his respectable connections in this country. I avail myself with pleasure of the same occasion of renewing assurances of those sentiments of high respect & esteem with which I have the honour to be Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble servant,
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC); at foot of text: “His Excellency Cyrus Griffin President of Congress.”
Monsieur De La Vallee is not to be confused with Gilles de Lavallée, a French textile manufacturer whom TJ had recommended to friends in America in 1785 (see note to Lavallée to TJ, 14 Aug. 1785); he was Chastel de la Vallée, whom Thomas Lee Shippen introduced to his father as “the brother of a lady who is dear to my best most lovely and most amiable friend Madame de Foucault. He will have delivered to my sister a letter of introduction and I beg you to be civil to him for my sake” (T. L. Shippen to William Shippen, Paris, 6 May 1788; DLC: Shippen Family Papers).